Page 72 of Home Grown Talent

Jen blurted, “I’d love a selfie.”

Owen stared at her. “What?”

“I’m such a fan,” she gushed.

“You’re a fan of Weekend Wellness?” he asked doubtfully.

Jen frowned as though puzzled; then her expression cleared. “God, no,” she laughed. “I’m a fan of Mason Nash. Been following him on Instagram forever. He’s so funny and cute and—well, beautiful, obviously.”

Owen stared at her, taken aback.

“You and Mason are adorable,” she added quickly, as though worried she’d offended him. “I totally ship you. Like, massively.”

“Oh.” Owen felt his ears burning, remembering that shot of him ogling Mason’s arse. “Right. Um, thanks.”

Jen lifted her phone and shook it. “So… selfie time?”

Owen made a pained expression. “I—”

But Jen was already moving towards him, swiping at the screen as she went. “You don’t mind, do you?” she said, her tone clearly indicating that she neither expected nor required an answer.

And then she was right beside him, one arm sliding around his waist, her head canting onto his shoulder in a too-intimate pose that made him feel trapped and uncomfortable.

Gaze fixed on her phone, she took several bursts of images—hell, there would be loads in there, some of them probably awful. Owen glanced at Verity, who sent back a look of helpless apology.

“You’re so lucky working with Mason,” Jen said wistfully as she pocketed her phone again. “Is he even more gorgeous in real life?”

“Er…” Owen felt himself redden further. How the hell was he supposed to answer that? Would she write about this on social media? Shit, Mason would know what to do, but Owen didn’t have a clue.

“And is it real?” Jen said, her eyes gleaming fervently. “Please tell me it’s real.”

“Real?”

“You and him,” she said. “All the flirting and the posts on Instagram? Are you and he…you know, together?”

Verity said awkwardly, “I think you might be getting rather personal, Jen.”

Jen just laughed. “Oh, don’t worry. This isn’t personal. These guys love people shipping them. If they didn’t, Mason wouldn't be posting cute pics of them together all over the internet, would he?” She turned back to Owen and smiled. “You don’t mind me asking, do you? Mason’s always so wonderfully open about his life. It’s one of the things I love about him. That and his bum—ohmygod, so squeezable!” She giggled. “You can tell him that from me.”

Owen honestly didn’t know what to say to that. Mason was kind of open about his life—well, the curated version of it—but Owen wasn’t, and this conversation was making him really uncomfortable. It was like she thought she knew him.

Finally, Verity seemed to cotton on to his discomfort. “Well,” she said briskly. “Jen and I should let you get back to work.”

Owen flashed her a grateful look. “We do have quite a lot to get through, if you don’t mind.”

Jen looked quite put out at that—in fact, she looked like she was about to protest—but just then the back gate swung open, and Mac appeared, lugging a heavy bag of mulch.

“Ah, there you are, April,” Verity said, blithely using the Christian name that Mac absolutely hated. “Would you like a cup of tea? What about you, Owen?”

“I’d bloody love one,” Mac said. “Milk and one sugar, please.”

“Yeah,” Owen agreed quickly. “That would be great. Just milk for me.” He watched, relieved, as Verity began to steer Jen away. “Come on, Jen. I’ll make you one too, before you go.”

“I guess I’ll just have to keep up to date with Mason’s posts to find out how things go,” Jen grumbled, but she let herself be tugged away.

Owen grabbed his spade to get back to work.

Turning, he saw Mac busying herself opening the bag of mulch while failing to hide her grin. “She actually came down to meet you?”