Second Chance Lane (Brockenridge #2) - Nicola Marsh Page 0,18

Mason was, from the golden stubble dusting his jaw to the deep tan that set off hair naturally lightened by the sun. He must take really bad selfies because he looked nothing like the photos Betty occasionally showed her on her mobile.

‘Still the same supercilious princess, I see,’ Mason said with a dismissive shake of his head. ‘Some things never change.’

Supercilious princess? He was right about one thing, though. Some things never change. Still the same old Mason: a judgemental prick. Before she had a chance to tell him exactly where he could stick his unwanted opinion, he pinned her with a withering stare.

‘You don’t even know who I am, do you?’

In that moment Jane knew how to get back at him for his holier-than-thou attitude: wound him in his precious ego. Besides, if she pretended she didn’t recognise him the sooner she could get that vanilla slice.

She peered at him, forcing a confused frown. ‘Uh, no.’

‘That’s because you only deigned to notice the pretty boys.’ He snorted in disgust. ‘Too bad for you, because the geeks were the smart ones who actually made something of themselves.’

It irked that he was partially right; she did only notice the kids like her back then: rich, popular, cool. But they’d left high school a long time ago and she didn’t deserve this level of vitriol, so she mustered her best blasé mask and quirked an eyebrow.

‘Bitter much?’

‘Just stay out of my way,’ he growled, his frown doing little to detract from his exceedingly good looks.

‘I will if you get out of mine.’ She pointed over his shoulder. ‘I have a date with Betty’s sublime creations.’

Some of the tension pinching his mouth eased but his frown didn’t. ‘I’ll make sure to tell Mum to lace whatever you buy with arsenic.’

Her incredulity at his overt rudeness must’ve shown on her face because a faint pink stained his cheeks. ‘Remember me now?’

‘Yeah, but you haven’t changed a bit, Mason Woodley.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘I recognised you earlier and was pulling your leg, but looks like your sense of humour is the same as it was back in high school. Pretty damn crappy.’ She blew a raspberry.

She hoped he might laugh. She really liked Betty and having to fraternise with the enemy during however long he was visiting wasn’t something she looked forward to if he couldn’t lighten up.

‘Still a game-player, huh?’ Disapproval radiated off him. ‘For the record, I’ll be helping Mum run the bakery for a while, so if you want to feed your sweet tooth, you better be a hell of a lot nicer than you were in high school.’

Maybe it was her plummeting blood sugar levels, maybe it was the morning she’d had, or maybe it was yet another person in a long line of people judging her, but Jane wanted to slug him; tiny pinpricks of black danced across her vision as anger made her hands shake.

‘I can’t believe you’re dredging up the past.’ She stepped in closer, hating that he smelled so good, an enticing combination of citrus and freshly showered male. ‘For the record, high school was a long time ago and some of us have matured, so why don’t you grow up?’

She pushed past him and strode towards the bakery, her desire for one vanilla slice morphing into a desperate need for three.

CHAPTER

9

Tash had no recollection how she made it home from next door. She must’ve traversed the path automatically, one foot trudging in front of the other as she tried to hold herself together.

Kody Lansdowne was her neighbour. He now knew the truth.

Which meant she had to tell Isla before he did.

A wave of nausea swept over her and she staggered to the bench in their backyard. She collapsed onto it, dragging in deep breaths that did little to settle her roiling stomach. She’d always instilled honesty in her daughter, so how could she turn around now and admit to a monstrous lie?

Isla would never trust her again … A sob clogged her throat and she hung her head, unable to stop the tears from falling. She’d learned to live with the guilt of not telling Kody the truth, but had never imagined it would come to this.

‘Mum? Are you okay?’ Isla sat next to her and rested a tentative hand on her shoulder.

Her daughter’s concern only served to make the tears fall faster but she had to pull herself together to get through this.

‘Mum, you’re scaring me.’ Isla tugged on her arm this time and