The House at the Bottom of the Hill by Jennie Jones Read Free Book Online Page B

you didn’t know. But I don’t care about that.’
    ‘You have to care if you want to become part of the community.’
    ‘Perhaps I don’t want that.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Nothing.’
    Great. Now she’d turned sullen. He tried again. ‘Well, you’ve got some friends. There’s Lucy. There’s me.’ He smiled. ‘And there’s Sammy—and Ethan.’
    She looked up and blinked rapidly, putting her hand up to cover her eyes from the sunshine streaming over her, giving her a warm, charismatic glamour. The lady was a cocktail of fascination. No, wait—he wasn’t sure she was a lady yet.
    ‘Sammy and Ethan Granger,’ he said. ‘Happiest married couple I’ve ever known.’
    She skimmed her gaze along the grassy bank then tilted her face to Dan. ‘Do you know Ethan well?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘He seems friendly—like a big, handsome giant.’
    Jesus, she was really after Ethan! He could hardly believe it of her. ‘Like your men big and brawny, do you?’
    ‘I like men I can respect.’
    ‘He’s married. He’s in love with Sammy. He won’t be looking your way.’
    ‘Are you suggesting …?’ She yanked at the sleeves of her sweatshirt, tightening the knot at her waist. ‘How dare you!’
    Dan jogged on the spot.
    ‘You know nothing about me,’ she continued. ‘And how about you? Do you have a little fancy piece around town you’re hiding away?’
    ‘So you’re denying it?’
    ‘I’m getting a little sick and tired of the people in this town.’
    Dan stopped jogging. Twice she’d made a disparaging remark about not caring about the town or what its people thought of her. If the B&B meant so little to her, why was she here, doing it up?
    ‘So quit,’ he said. ‘Sell up. Leave.’
    She lifted her gaze to his. Her body had gone so still he wasn’t sure if she was even breathing. His throat thickened. He hadn’t meant to pounce on her like that. What was wrong with him?
    He turned from her to glare at the scenery and to give the compassion he felt for her time to settle inside him. Red stirred up feelings of protection he’d never thought he’d have reason to call on, and getting offside with her wasn’t going to help anyone. It certainly wouldn’t get his seven ensuite bedrooms built easily.
    He turned back and found her looking at him, eyes veiled in something looking too much like worry, the corners of her full mouth turned down. Damn it. Her all-too-perfect sweetheart-shaped face and the deep vulnerability he read in her eyes were going to be the death of him.
    ‘I apologise,’ he said quietly. ‘I had no right to make assumptions about you.’ But she’d gone into some kind of shock when she met Ethan yesterday. What else was a guy supposed to think other than that sparky little Red had been knocked off balance by Ethan’s good looks—or whatever a woman went for in a guy? And what was it with all the off-hand quips about not caring what anybody thought about her? It was as though she had no intention of joining the town’s fold.
    He stepped towards her. ‘Can we please start again? Shake?’ He thrust his hand out and gave her his boyish grin, although for the first time ever, it was hard to produce, because he now had the impression her arrival in Swallow’s Fall had a lot to do with Ethan and little to do with wanting to run a B&B.
    She lifted her arm, paused, then slid her hand into his.
    The slightness of her fingers and the softness of her skin surprised him. He pressed her hand gently. ‘Friends?’ he asked.
    She gripped his hand, squeezed hard.
    A pull of amusement bit through the tension in his chest. She was going to be a tough adversary. A pretty one though, and he kind of liked that a lot.
    ‘Acquaintances,’ she said, and pulled her hand free.

Four
    T ed Tillman banged the gavel so hard on its indented wooden plinth four hands shot forwards to settle the cups and saucers on the trestle table.
    ‘Order, please. Take your seats.’ His voice boomed with command