Page 67 of The House on Sunset Lake

‘Connor, this is just such a surprise,’ she said, trying to explain herself.

‘Do you love me?’ he repeated.

‘Yes,’ she whispered, because it seemed the easiest response. She certainly didn’t want to create a scene at her own birthday party, and she was aware of guests drifting down towards the pavilion.

He suddenly looked less despondent. ‘So you’ll at least think about it?’

‘Of course I will.’

‘Are you coming back to the house, then?’ he said more briskly.

‘I was just taking time out here for a few minutes.’

‘Don’t be too long,’ he said, his mouth a firm, tight line as he put the ring box back into his jacket pocket and walked back to Casa D’Or without another word.

Chapter Twenty

Jennifer watched Connor’s figure recede towards the brightness of the house and she felt wretched inside.

‘Crap,’ she whispered under her breath, but she wasn’t really sure who or what she was referring to.

She didn’t know why she had just said no to him. It certainly didn’t feel right to accept his proposal of marriage. Jennifer had never been the sort of dreamy, romantic girl who had spent her whole life fantasising about this moment. But as she took a moment to think about why she had turned him down, she knew that she should have been feeling love and hope in her heart when she had opened that velvet box, not dread, and for that she had made exactly the right decision.

Fireflies were dancing in the darkness like tiny showers of gold, miniature meteors. On any other night Jennifer would have watched them with joy and wonder, but she just wanted to get back to the house.

Already the crowds had begun to thin. Ten o’clock, she discovered, glancing at her watch. The oldest guests would be dispersing first; others would mutter about babysitters and early starts. Her fun friends like Jeanne and Pete could possibly be relied upon to party into the night, so too the out-of-towners billeted in a nearby hotel, although Sylvia had told Jennifer that she expected the party to be over by midnight, and she did not doubt her mother would have Casa D’Or cleared by then.

A cooler breeze began to ripple through the trees, and Jennifer decided to go inside for a cardigan.

Threading through the guests, she walked up the steps on to the terrace, not looking where she was going until she walked into someone who steadied her with a hand.

‘Jim,’ she said, gasping in surprise. ‘You’re here!’

‘Well, you did invite me.’

She started to laugh nervously.

‘I should have known you’d be fashionably late.’

‘I don’t know it’s too fashionable in these parts. Southern manners and all,’ he grinned.

‘Have a drink. Have champagne,’ she said, taking a glass from a passing waiter and thrusting it giddily into his hands.

‘Happy birthday,’ he said, not taking his eyes from her.

‘A big day. I can now officially buy alcohol.’

‘It’s a strange old country, the United States of America,’ he said, shaking his head and smiling. ‘You can buy a gun at sixteen, but you have to wait until you’re twenty-one to get a beer.’

‘We have our quirks,’ she said, still thrilled that he was here.

‘I got you something,’ he said, handing her a small packet wrapped in Barbie paper.

‘Cute,’ she said, taking it from him.

‘I thought so.’

‘Can I open it?’