Page 27 of Tangled With the Wrong Guy
‘Was that the first time you got together with Zara?’ she asked.
‘Did I say it was Zara?’
‘Inspired guess.’
‘Well, yes. It was. And she was scared to death about what her brother would do. He’s an effing psycho, obsessed with family honour.’
But Zara couldn’t have beenthatafraid of her brother if she’d got it on with Joel when Rohan was close by. Zara was definitely pulling the strings, Chloe decided.
‘She begged him not to hurt me; told him we’d been secretly dating, that we were in love,’ he said, ‘and I went along with it. I didn’t especially want to spend Christmas in hospital.’
‘I see. How incredibly noble of you.’
‘Well – I was actually okay with that. I did like her, and I didn’t want her to get into serious trouble. See, her family had other plans for her.’
I was right!
‘We persuaded Rohan we’d just got carried away, and I promised to treat her with more respect.’
‘So the pressure was on?’ Though presumably Zara had encouraged him to put aside that respect long enough for thedeal-sealing part of her plan – the getting pregnant part – to be actioned.Men just can’t help themselves.
‘I was on the back foot from the start of it. But like I said before, it’s complicated.’
Zara was one clever girl.I hate you, Zara.
Could Joel not see he’d been played? That the stationery room incident had been Step One of a cunning plan?
She sensed his unwillingness to move on to the next part of the story – the getting her pregnant part – probably because he knew she’d probe him about the whole gay side of things, too. And if he was still in denial about that, he’d be unlikely to reveal any other complicated sexual information to her.
Chloe stared hard at him, willing him to talk some more, but he’d shut down. He looked so dejected, as if what he was about to do with his life had only just hit home.
She didn’t want him to be sad during their last minutes in the cemetery, so she attempted to lighten things up again. ‘What’syourfavourite movie, then?’
He smiled, and his shoulders de-hunched. ‘If we’re talking feel-good, you can’t go pastThe Sound of Music, am-I-right?’
Hm.He probably loved musical theatre too.
‘You are indeed correct,’ said Chloe. ‘I was thinking earlier, when we were hiding behind the graves, it was–
‘– like the bit when the Nazis are searching for the family in the abbey.’
They smiled goofily at each other.
‘Watch it together one day?’ said Chloe.
‘It’s a date.’
‘Dressed as nuns?’
‘No. And also …SavingPrivate Ryan,’ he said. ‘Gets me every time.’
‘Me too. I was in bits by the end of that. I have a love-hate relationship with war movies.’
‘My father was in the army,’ he said. ‘He’s a retired colonel.’
‘Oh? Were you one of those kids who moved around a lot?’
‘Nah. He mostly sat at a desk. When he went away, we stayed behind.’
