The Girl He'd Overlooked Read Free Page B

she itched to slap him. ‘But you’re young. I know you said that you’re only a few years younger than me, but in terms of experience we’re light years apart. Trust me when I tell you that in a year’s time you’ll have forgotten all about this. You’ll have met some nice lad…’
    ‘Yes,’ Jennifer parroted dutifully, wanting this entireconversation to be over so that she could go upstairs and bury herself under the freshly laundered covers.
    He sighed and shook his head. This was a Jennifer he didn’t recognise. Gone was the smiling, malleable girl. Had he known that she had a crush on him? Yes, of course he had, although he had never openly addressed the issue. Now, for the first time, he could sense her locking him out. He understood but it was a strange sensation and he didn’t like it.
    ‘Your feelings for me are misplaced,’ he told her roughly. ‘I wasn’t lying when I told you that you want to enjoy your youth with boys who are uncomplicated and fun-loving.’
    ‘You make it sound as though I was looking for… looking for something more than just…’
    ‘A romp in the sack?’
    Mortified, Jennifer shrugged.
    ‘You deserve a lot more than I could give you.’
    By which,
she thought, you mean that there’s nothing you’re interested in giving me aside from a peck on the cheek every now and again and lots of good advice about how to live my life.
    He was being patronising and the worst of it was that he wasn’t even aware of it.
    ‘Don’t worry about me, James,’ she said with a forced smile, relieving him of the obligation to keep thinking about her feelings because he was a decent human being. ‘I’ll be fine. These things happen.’ Two steps back, putting distance between them. ‘I probably won’t see you before I leave.’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Of course I’ll keep in touch and I’m sure we’ll bump into one another now and again.’ One more step back.
    ‘You’ll be all right, will you?’
    Jennifer chose to interpret this at face value and she looked at him with a polite, unfocused expression. ‘Of course I will. As I told you, the job I’ll be doing over there isn’t going to be substantially different than what I’ve done over the summer vacations. Naturally, I’ll be following through on a lot more and there’ll be a great deal of translating but I’m sure I’ll be able to handle it.’
    ‘Right. Good.’
    ‘So.’
    James hesitated and raked his fingers through his hair.
    ‘Thanks for dinner, James… and I’ll see you…’
    She remained frozen to the spot as he brushed past her, pausing fleetingly, as though hesitant to leave.
    What did he think she was going to do? Jennifer wondered. Fling herself out of her bedroom window because he had rejected her? Was she so pathetic in his eyes that he doubted her ability to get over the slight?
    The soft click of the front door closing signalled his departure and it was only once she was certain that he had left the cottage that Jennifer slumped.
    She closed her eyes and thought of the excited girl who had bought a new outfit especially for her big date. She remembered her anticipation at having him all to herself over dinner. She had dreamt of seduction and of finally having this crazy crush of hers fulfilled. It suddenly felt like a million years ago and, although a year wasn’t long, it was long enough to say goodbye to that person.

CHAPTER ONE
    E XCEPT one year became two, which became three, which became four. And in all those four years, Jennifer had not once set eyes on James. Each Christmas, she had contrived to bring her father over to Paris for the holidays, which he had loved. What had begun as a one-year placement, during which she could consolidate her French, had seen her rise through the company, and as she had risen so too had her pay cheque. She found that she could afford to holiday with her father abroad, and on those occasions when she
had
returned to England she had been careful with her visits, always