Secrets at the Loch (Loch Lannick #5) - Hannah Ellis Page 0,20

stickler for the rules and he doesn’t like anyone undermining his authority.”

“I don’t care.” Nick walked away without looking at her.

“Hey.” She grabbed his arm as she hurried after him. “Why are you annoyed with me?”

He swung around to face her. “You didn’t need to jump in and defend me. I can fight my own battles.”

She was taken aback by his tone and confused by him being angry with her. “Sorry. But he was having a go at you when you didn’t do anything wrong. I couldn’t stand by and say nothing.”

Nick took a few steps away before stopping again. “Did you think I only helped Grace to impress you?”

Lexie opened her mouth, then closed it again. “No,” she finally mumbled. Even she could hear how insincere she sounded.

It wasn’t that she’d thought he was trying to impress her, more that she wondered if he’d want to impress her. For a while it had been obvious that Nick had a crush on her. He hadn’t made a secret of it and had even asked her on a date once. Elspeth had been there when he’d asked, and Lexie hadn’t even been sure if he was serious at the time. Occasionally, she’d wondered if he’d asked her properly, when no one else was around, whether she might have broken her “no dating” rule and said yes.

“Nick!” she called as he walked away. He didn’t turn back and she wasn’t sure what she would have said if he did.

Chapter Nine

Lexie spent her last half hour of work pointedly avoiding Damian. As soon as the kids had all left, she set off for home. Her eyes lingered on Nick’s house when she passed, but there was no sign of him. She pondered whether to go and speak to him, but if the look he’d given her earlier was anything to go by, she was sure he wouldn’t want to see her.

Chatter from the tables at the back of the pub distracted her. If there were people sitting outside that probably meant it was busy inside. Her mum was going out with friends, so Lexie had said she’d help in the pub for the evening. After running around the woods all afternoon, a shower would have been nice. Instead, she settled for a change of clothes and a squirt of perfume.

The pub wasn’t overly busy when she arrived but there were quite a few people eating. Her dad called hello to her from behind the bar and Leana smiled a greeting on her way to the kitchen with hands full of dishes.

“Do you mind checking on things out the back?” her dad said. “That bit of sunshine has kept the garden full all day.”

After clearing tables outside, Lexie spent the next hour bouncing between bringing food orders out, serving at the bar and collecting glasses.

Once the sun had disappeared behind the mountains, the customers sitting outside dispersed. Things quietened down inside too once the dinner rush was over.

“It’s so much nicer when it’s busy,” Leana remarked when they finally had a chance to talk. Angus was resting his legs and chatting to a couple of regulars at the table in the window.

“Yeah.” Lexie definitely preferred it when it was busy too. Time went a lot faster. Being busy had also meant she hadn’t had a chance to think about what had happened with Nick. As soon as she stopped, it had come back to her with an annoying knot in her stomach.

“Are you okay?” Leana asked.

“I had a weird day at work.”

“What happened?” Leana asked, pouring herself a Coke.

“It was the kids’ adventure afternoon and we were short-staffed so Tim asked Nick to help out.”

Leana’s eyebrows drew together. “How was that?”

“Good. Well, mostly.” Lexie rubbed at her temple, then filled Leana in on the incident with Grace and how Nick had carried her back. Then she explained about Damian being annoyed about it.

“It was a bit awkward,” Lexie said, hesitant to tell Leana the final part of the story but also keen to get her take on it. “Damian accused Nick of only helping Grace to try and impress me.”

Leana laughed loudly.

“What? Do you think Damian was right?”

“Oh my God! It’s Nick.” Leana had a tone that implied the answer to the question was obvious. So she still thought Nick had a crush on Lexie? Recently Lexie had the feeling that maybe he was over it. He didn’t seem nervous around her any more. At one time he seemed to lose the power of