In that first moment, a broad smile swept across his face. He felt that same odd rush of warmth deep in the pit of his stomach that he felt each time he saw her.
Then he remembered Ben’s revelation. The flowers he had brought for Beth drooped to his side. He glanced from Holly’s curiously blanched face to Ben’s apologetic one and he knew.
He had just turned up to a blind date with a husband hunter.
‘Look, Holly. Flowers.’ Ben grabbed the posy out of Jacob’s hand and put them in Holly’s, clasping her limp fist around the stems. ‘Now, go put them in water.’
Ben spun her on the spot and gave her a little shove in the direction of the kitchen.
Jacob shrugged off his coat and shook his head to rid himself of a spray of raindrops that caught him on the way to the door, and then laid a friendly but controlling arm around his friend’s shoulder. ‘Is this what I think it is?’
‘Mate, I’m sorry. I had a feeling neither of you would agree to come to dinner if I let on the other would be here.’
‘You got that right.’
‘If you are staying in town for any length of time you will be bound to run in the same circles so you may as well get to know each other.’
‘Fair enough. But if that’s all that this is, why is she acting like a living mummy?’
Ben flicked furtive glances towards the closed kitchen door. ‘At times Holly can drive me around the bend, tonight being a prime example. And just before I opened the door I snapped and told her that—’
Ben stopped talking and swallowed. Jacob squeezed his friend’s shoulder to hurry him up.
‘I pretty much told her you knew she was “husband hunting” and that’s why you were here.’
‘You what?’ Jacob dropped his arm from his friend’s shoulder and took a step back, physically distancing himself from the shock.
‘Look, Beth will be out any second, and she doesn’t need too much excitement right now; so any shouting, and hitting, and telling Beth what I’ve done would create excitement. Please stay, eat a nice dinner. It’ll all be over in a couple of hours.’
‘I’ll stay,’ Jacob said through clenched teeth. ‘For Beth.’
‘Of course. And the shouting and hitting?’
‘We’ll save that for a rainy day.’ Jacob grinned but it was all bared teeth and no pleasantry.
‘And there’s one more thing,’ Ben said.
‘What more could there possibly be?’
‘It turns out Holly doesn’t know you’re Jacob Lincoln of Lincoln Holdings, which is a good thing as she really hated the whole boxing match and thus doesn’t think much of him. You.’
Jacob blinked slowly. His mind was turning devilishly. Never one to shy away from a challenge—
‘So, your Holly doesn’t think much of me. Yet she thinks I have delivered myself here on a platter.’
‘Yes. And?’
Jacob knew he had Ben worried. Good. ‘Oh, I don’t think you have the right to question me right now, my friend. No shouting, no hitting, now and for ever, as long as tonight you go along with whatever I throw at you. Deal?’
Ben looked over to the closed kitchen door. The water turned off and the kitchen door bumped as it started to open.
‘Okay, deal,’ Ben said.
Jacob slapped Ben on the back and grinned at his friend. But this time his smile was radiant with good humour.
Holly took her time fetching the food, and so gladly missed several minutes of chit-chat. That meant they were several minutes closer to the end of the night. Beth had just finished telling about the guitar lessons she was taking so she could play for her baby when Jacob informed the table at large that his younger sister was engaged.
‘So that’s why you’re here,’ Beth said. ‘I knew it had to be more than just the temptation of my roast lamb. Have you met her fiancé?’
‘I have. On Sunday. Nice guy,’ Jacob said. ‘This will be his second time around.’
‘Divorced?’ Beth asked.
‘A widower.’
‘Oh. Poor man. So he’s older than Ana?’
‘A good bit.’
‘Doesn’t surprise me, really, considering.’ Beth brought her fingers to her temples and started to rub. ‘Now, let me guess, knowing Ana, I bet he is in a caring profession. He’s a…vet?’
‘A triage nurse.’
Beth grinned. ‘Oh, how perfect.’
‘It would take someone with that sort of temperament to look after our Ana. She’s quite a handful.’
‘You would know.’
‘No comment.’
Holly could tell there was some serious subtext to Beth’s comments. She was intrigued despite herself, but her desire to stay invisible outweighed her curiosity so she let the conversation continue over her head.
‘Anyway, good on him for taking her on,’ Jacob said. ‘I guess some people just like to be married.’
Holly stopped chewing and her cutlery stilled in her hand. Did he seriously just say what I think he said?
Ben coughed and she hoped he was choking on his potato. Beth’s face, on the other hand, was all innocence. Perhaps Holly had misread the matter and Jacob was really talking about his sister, and not about her.
‘Holly, could you please pass the broccoli?’ Jacob asked.
Holly jumped in her seat at the call of her name. Her frazzled nerves were drawn as tight as Beth’s new guitar strings. As she passed the bowl she locked eyes with the man across the table. He smiled bringing out his oh, so charming dimples.
He’s the anti-husband, she reminded herself, distant and indifferent. And his admittedly appealing dimples are, well, irrelevant.
‘Holly did the vegetables tonight, Jacob,’ Beth said. ‘She’s a whiz with a steamer.’
Holly happily let go of the eye contact as she let go of the plate, and then shot Beth a quick yet entirely humourless smile.
‘Anyway,’ Jacob began again, ‘Ana and Michael have known each other six months, been engaged for a week and are already talking kids.’
‘Oh, that’s wonderful,’ Beth said.
‘I’m all for short engagements,’ Jacob said. ‘She found someone like-minded, at the same point in his life, with the same goals and desires, and snapped him up. It was the smart thing to do.’
Was he serious? Holly had her reasons for embarking on her husband hunt, but what would Mr Standoffish be doing on a blind date with a woman he knew was after marriage? It made no sense. And, worse, it laughed in the face of her theory.
And who on earth was this guy? Ben had conveniently not let on what he did for the company. Maybe because Lincoln Holdings only kept him on in sympathy for some shocking flaw he hid under his cool good looks. Well, apart from the obvious personality defects Holly had already been subjected to.
To make matters worse, what if he eventually recognised her and let on that he was the guy on the street, the guy Beth knew had started her off on this crusade? If Beth knew, she would never let up about signs and primes and all sorts of gibberish. Holly was certain nothing bar that revelation could make this night more unbearable.
‘I want kids, you know,’ Jacob practically cooed. ‘At least eight. No,