“Don’t worry yourself over it. You wouldn’t be the first. And I’m sure you won’t be the last.” After a large gulp from his drink, James rested his glass on a passing tray and picked up another.
And even though he had reassured her that she shouldn’t care about how she felt, she felt she needed to reassure him that that wasn’t how she felt. Or something like that.
“James,” she said his name gently, and when his ocean blue eyes met hers, she spoke more sincerely than she intended. “I’m not ashamed of you. I’m sure you are a good man. But I’m a lady, and I have a reputation to maintain. So does Sally. That’s why I couldn’t let her dance with you.”
“Well, we agree on one thing. Sally can’t dance with me. Jacob will be heartbroken. He’s smitten.”
Agreement. That’s what Joan liked to hear. “Perfect. We are in agreement then. We must show Sally that falling for Jacob is in her best interest. Or, at the very least, that falling for you is in her worst interest.”
“Ouch!” James’s hand gripped the fabric around his chest. “You wound me.”
“I doubt it. I’m sure you’ve heard worse.”
“True. So true,” he mumbled. James scanned the room and switched his drink to his other hand. He took a step back and leaned against a pillar to further obscure him from view. “What’s the plan? Shall we stage a rescue? Plot a scandal?”
“Why would we stage a rescue?”
“Don’t all women dream of being rescued by a strong, handsome man?”
Joan, in all her elegance, harrumphed at that. “I think not.”
“You’ve never dreamed of swooning and falling into the arms of a man you found attractive?”
Well, she wasn’t sayingthat…and sure, Sally had just expressed something eerily similar, but really…to think that all women did was wait around to be rescued…well, that was just…silly.
“Let’s discuss Sally, shall we?”
James laughed at her reply, counting it as a win of sorts. And really, it was.
“Sally needs some…encouragement. Jacob is a gentleman and a worthy eligible bachelor. If we can just shift her attention to him enough, I’m sure she’ll fall for him.”
“Yes. Proximity is the number one reason a couple falls in love in the first place.”
“It is?”
“Well, you can’t very well fall in love with a man you’ve never met or spoken to, can you?”
“I suppose not…though I’m sure somewhere some woman has.”
“Some woman somewhere is not most women everywhere. Let’s scheme according to the most likely rather than the exception, shall we?”
“Agreed.” Joan sipped her lemonade in thought. “Perhaps he can call on her tomorrow with flowers.”
“That’s average at best.”
“It’s the safe, predictable approach.”
“And where does safety get you?” he asked mockingly.
“It’s got me this far.”
James stared openly. In fact, he took that moment to stare at almost every inch of her. Down to her slippered feet, which he couldn’t see but she felt as though he could, and all the way up to the crown of her head. His perusal unnerved her.
“What are you looking at?”
“You.”
“Yes, but what are you looking for?”
