Page 49 of A Spot of Tea
“What does you touching me have to do with Eliza?”
A smile crept onto his face. He’d been wrong after all.
Was she playing hard to get? Or was she that focused on finding the robber?
Cora sighed and rolled her eyes. “Don’t play dumb.”
“Are you saying…she likes me?”
“I didn’t say that!” she snapped. “You and Eliza clearly have athinggoing on, and I’d never do that to my best friend.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So…she has a crush on me.”
“Are you really that dense? Do you not have eyes?”
A laugh sputtered out of him. “I don’t normally stick around long enough to have women interested in me, to be honest.”
“Just the one you almost got killed.”
He winced. Cora was sharper than he’d given her credit for. “Actually, yeah. She was the last one.”
“The last one you ever loved?”
“The only one I ever loved.”
Cora put the back of her hand to her forehead. “Oh, how could you ever love again after that?”
And she was more annoying than he’d realized. “It’s just – you don’t understand.”
“Yes, I do.” She laughed. “I see right through you.” She raised a hand and flicked him in the ear.
“Ow!” He recoiled. “What did I say about hitting the pilot?”
“You’re not a Steve. Not at all. You believe in soulmates and ill-advised proposals.”
“One could argue Steve’s proposal was ill-advised. For Mackenzie.”
Cora made a face. “True.”
Joey didn’t like talking about this as much as he’d thought he would. Time to change the subject.
“What about you? Who was your one true love?”
“One?” She shook her head. “Where do I begin?”
It worked like a charm. Cora talked about herself for the rest of the flight while Joey got to sit and listen.
Still, his listening was impaired. His mind kept drifting to what Cora had said about Eliza.
Technically, she’d never outright said Eliza was interested in him. She told him to use his eyes.
What did he see when he looked at Eliza? Someone who had no interest in spending time with him. Someone who had put their search on hold.
Eliza didn’t like him. She couldn’t. Even if she did, it wouldn’t matter. The contract Joey had signed with Russell was only for a few weeks. He had the option to renew, but why should he? He’d made enough money to go lay on the beach in Bali, or dive into the thermal baths in Budapest, or get an apartment with a view of the Seine.
Joey had a great love once, yes. That had been all it was – a one-time thing. It taught him a lot, mainly that he wasn’t the type to love. He was the type to go out and take the world for all it was worth. He was happy with that. Comfortable with it.
They approached San Juan Island from above. He tried to drown out Cora’s babbling and focus on the plane’s gauges instead of the fact that when he pictured Eliza’s smile, his heart jumped.
