Page 57 of Welcome to Pennycress Inn

‘Please don’t go.’ Jackson stood up and placed his own mug on the coffee table to his right.

‘I need to.’ She pointed to the door, backing away as he approached her. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have let the ‘l’ word slip? How could she stay now after she’d made such a huge idiot of herself? ‘I really need to. I’m so sorry.’

Taking her hand in his, Jackson rubbed his thumb along the back of her hand. ‘Did you mean what you said?’

Could this get any worse? ‘Of course not. We’ve only just started seeing each other. Like I said, I’m drunk. I’ve had too much wine. There, you can feed back to Darren that the local wines he’s sampling are too strong…’ Her voice quietened, the excuses tailing off. All she could focus on was the gentle caressing of Jackson’s thumb against the back of her hand and his eyes, dark blue and brooding, meeting hers.

‘I love you too.’ His voice was soft, suddenly unsure and lacking in confidence. His statement almost a question.

She blinked, her throat dry. ‘You do?’

‘It is early, too early, to be feeling like this about one another if we’d only just met, but we’ve known each other so long and I think we both felt something beforehand, so…’ He shrugged.

Tucking her hair behind her ear, she looked down at the floor. Had he actually said it? Had he really told her he loved her too? She needed to get home, back to the inn, and make sense of it all. Suddenly she needed to be alone. She needed to think. Looking back up at him, she smiled. ‘I’m still going to go now.’

‘You are?’ Dropping her hand, confusion swept across his face.

‘Yes, but not because we’ve told each other how we feel, just because so much has happened in the past few hours and I need to make sense of it all.’

‘Right. Okay.’ Jackson nodded.

She searched his face – his forehead was creased with confusion – and felt a pang of regret that she’d spoilt the moment. She hadn’t meant to hurt him, to make him second-guess himself, second-guess her intentions. She literally just needed to take some time for herself. Taking both his hands in hers, she leaned forward, their lips millimetres apart. ‘I can’t believe you feel the same way.’

Jackson relaxed, his grin returning. ‘I’ll walk you to your door.’

26

‘Home sweet home.’ Laura pulled the car up next to the path in front of her parents’ house, the reality of what they were about to do suddenly resurfacing. Throughout the journey, they’d spoken about anything but pretending to just be friends in front of her family. She’d so desperately wanted to avoid thinking about how they were about to deceive her parents and her siblings that she’d waffled on about whatever she could think of, and she’d sensed Jackson felt the same. Now that they were here though, now that the house was right in front of them, neither of them could ignore it any longer.

‘This is going to be fun.’ Jackson turned in the passenger seat to face her. ‘A whole afternoon of pretending to be nothing but friends.’

‘Ha, yes. Especially after last night’s conversation.’ Laura could feel her cheeks heat at the memory. She’d hardly slept at all after going back to the inn from Jackson’s house. His words had just kept going round and round in her head, all jumbled up with the night at the pub. She still couldn’t believe that he felt the same way towards her as she did towards him.

‘Exactly.’ Jackson groaned and covered his face with his hands. ‘How are we going to survive?’

‘Umm, well, we could go down the route you suggested and pretend to be mad at each other.’ Laura prised his hands from his face and met his eyes.

‘Oh, we could, but I’m not sure how much of a performance I can put on. I’m still trying to come to terms with the fact that you told me you loved me.’ He grinned, his dimple showing.

She raised her eyebrows at him. ‘Oi, you said the same to me.’

‘I did, and I meant it. It still feels surreal though, doesn’t it?’

‘Oh yes, it certainly does. Honestly, if you hadn’t told me again this morning how you felt, I may just have notched up last night’s conversation to me being slightly tipsy and confusing things.’ She laughed. Slightly tipsy was probably an understatement. After not drinking for months, she’d forgotten how quickly wine got her drunk. Still, at least she seemed to have avoided the dreaded hangover, apart from the slight headache tugging at her temples anyway. That’s what living with her parents and avoiding the local pubs in case she ran into Harry had done to her. And she still blamed the wine for the fact she’d been so open with Jackson last night; she certainly couldn’t think of a single situation when she’d told her very new boyfriend that she’d loved them so soon. But the gamble had paid off. Thankfully.

‘Okay, let’s do this.’ Jackson straightened his back and held his hand out towards her. ‘Thank you for the lift, my friend and neighbour, Laura Price. It was very kind of you.’

Giggling, she took his hand before pulling him towards her and wrapping her arms around him. She could feel his shoulders move beneath her arms as he chuckled.

‘Let’s just enjoy one moment before we go in.’ Leaning back, Jackson cupped her cheeks with his hands and leaned in.

Meeting his lips, she closed her eyes. This was really happening. She and Jackson were really together after all these years of knowing one another, being friends but also both feeling there was a deeper connection between them. A connection which they’d both tried so very hard to suppress, but which now they’d shared, they wouldn’t be able to bury again.

Pulling away, Jackson ran the pad of his thumb across her lips. ‘I really do love you.’

‘Quick!’ Jerking back, Laura nudged Jackson as the twins came running out of the house and down the garden path towards the car. ‘Poker faces on.’

Jackson nodded seriously. ‘Poker faces on.’

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