Page 104 of Duke It Out
Jamie gives a snort.
“My apologies,” says Rory, remembering himself and glancing over at the reporter’s camera. “But this is something I feel very passionately about. It’s something new, something better, I hope. And I want everyone to be a part of it.”
His eyes meet mine. He hands off the mic and starts striding towards me as if there’s nobody else in the world, closing the distance between us in moments.
“I meant what I said in the coffee shop,” he says roughly. “But perhaps I didn’t make myself clear.”
I realise I’m still holding the bag of cardamom buns, and I look down at them for a moment and then turn as I hear a commotion by the candy floss stall. Someone in a silk scarf and oversized sunglasses emerges as if she’s the main event everyone’s been waiting for.
“Finally,” says Annabel, holding her arms out wide as she approaches us. “You two have beenexhausting.”
Rory stares at her. “What the?—”
Annabel sweeps over, hooking the arm Gregor as she passes. His expression is half-horrified, half delighted. She’s beaming like she’s on the red carpet at the Met Gala and not an impromptu village funfair.
“I knew it,” she declares, gesturing between us, the smell of candyfloss wiped out by wafts of Chanel. “Knew you two would work it out. Edie, you have always had such talent andabsolutely no self-belief. And Janey tells me the book is going great guns.”
“Book?” Rory looks from her to me with a confused expression on his face.
“And you, darling,” Annabel pokes him in the chest with a long red fingernail. “The most tremendous sense of duty but no love for this place. None. And who can blame you.”
Gregor’s still standing there pinned in place by her arm looped through his and a stunned expression on his face.
“And now look at you.” She beams. “I’m like a bloody fairy godmother.”
Janey appears at her elbow, eyebrows raised. She folds her arms. “You are not taking credit for this,” she says, laughing. Annabel links arms with her as well.
“Of course I am, sweetie. I brought Edie here, didn’t I?”
Gregor snorts. “Coincidence.”
Annabel’s mouth lifts in a Sphinx-like half smile and her brows lift a fraction of an inch. “Or was it…?” She looks from Gregor to Janey. “You two next, I think.”
And she strides off, towing them with her. Their protests echo behind them.
“We are not?—”
“I have no idea whit you’re on aboot!”
“Hush now,” Annabel says, steering them towards the drinks tent. Janey throws me an eyeroll over her shoulder but she’s laughing, and Gregor’s ears are definitely pinker than normal.
Rory leans in towards me. “Did you know she was coming?”
“I had a voicemail the other day saying she was heading north to reclaim her narrative. You know Annabel, that could have meant anything.”
He smiles and laces his fingers in mine. “Come with me?”
I glance around. Kate’s talking to Jamie, who’s holding a helium balloon in one hand and a hot dog in the other. Even Morag looks happy, probably because she’s got the day off and she’s sitting down being fed—oh, and of course she’s right in the middle of all the village gossip.
“Did everyone know about this except me?”
Rory grins. “I have to admit I didn’t think Morag had it in her to keep her mouth shut, but the payoff seems to have been worth it. This will give her something to talk about for months.”
“The funfair?”
He looks at me for a moment, that half-smile I’ve tried not to love playing on his lips.
“No,” he says, and his hand tangles in my hair, his thumb tipping my chin up as he bends to kiss me. “This,” he says, his mouth almost on mine, and I give the briefest nod before he kisses me.
