a pest who wouldn’t worship her like the rest. For that, she deliberately didn’t pay him much attention. Perhaps if she had she would’ve seen more beyond her own shallow interests and made better choices.
She made a noncommittal sound of agreement anyway, considering she’d just spied Mason stroll into the roadhouse and didn’t want to acknowledge that his teen smoulder had morphed into outright sexiness. They were about to have a business meeting. She had no right noticing how his navy T-shirt moulded to his chest or how his beige chinos elongated his muscular legs. He may have changed physically but his reaction to her during their first meeting after all these years still showed he didn’t think much of her. Sure, he’d apologised, but that’s only because he wanted her to design the interior for his precious new bakery.
‘He’s just arrived,’ she said, feeling increasingly antsy as Mason spotted her and his handsome face broke into a smile.
With a knowing grin, Ruby stood. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’
Almost panicked at the thought of being left alone with the gorgeous guy strolling towards her, Jane said, ‘Stay. He’ll want to say hi.’
‘Okay, just for a minute.’
They watched him cover the last few feet and Jane could’ve sworn she heard an echo of her sigh in Ruby’s.
‘Ruby?’ To Jane’s chagrin, Mason leaned down and brushed Ruby’s cheek with a kiss, an easy greeting far removed from their fraught first encounter. ‘Long time, no see.’
‘Ain’t that the truth.’ Ruby laughed and Mason seemed unable to take his eyes off her.
For a moment Jane experienced a stab of jealousy so potent it took her breath away.
Stupid, because she and Mason were frenemies, acquaintances thrust together for business purposes, but the fact she noticed his attractiveness and didn’t like the ease with which he interacted with Ruby compared to her meant she wanted to impress him, shake up his opinion of her.
Bad girls like her had no right showing interest in good guys like him.
‘Mum told me about Clara.’ He touched Ruby’s arm. ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’
‘Thanks. I still miss her every day.’ Ruby gestured around the room. ‘She left me this place and keeping her legacy alive is my way of acknowledging her.’
‘She would’ve been proud of you.’
Ruby smiled. ‘Jane tells me you’re lending a French flair to the bakery? Good for you.’
‘It’s a pet project.’ Finally acknowledging Jane’s presence, he turned that warm chocolate stare onto her. ‘And Jane’s being kind enough to lend me a hand.’
‘Great. On that note, I’ll leave you to it.’ She pointed at the kitchen. ‘If you’re hungry, Harry’s whipped up a mean butter chicken as the special and I highly recommend it.’
‘Thanks,’ Jane and Mason said in unison, followed by an awkward laugh.
As Ruby walked away, Jane held her breath, wondering if Mason would kiss her in greeting, and couldn’t help a little twang of disappointment when he didn’t, and took the seat Ruby had just vacated.
‘That was a blast from the past,’ he said, resting his tanned, muscular forearms on the table. Jane had a thing for guys’ arms. You could judge a lot by the strength in a forearm and it looked like Mason spent a lot of time preparing dough. She stopped staring at his arms to find him studying her with blatant curiosity.
‘Yeah, it’s great Ruby’s back in town,’ she said. ‘Most of our year left after school so it’s nice to have some of you return.’
‘So does that mean you’re happy to see me? Because when we bumped into each other you had that same look in your eye you had back in high school.’
‘What look’s that?’
‘The one where you’d like to push me into the Murray River and hold my head under.’
She laughed. ‘You were a pain in the arse at school.’
‘Why? Because I didn’t grovel like the rest of your minions?’
Harsh, but true. ‘You didn’t put up with any crap.’ She shrugged. ‘I guess that’s a good thing.’
‘I hated that you and your friends never looked twice at me,’ he said, with a sheepish wince.
‘Are you fishing for compliments?’
He chuckled. ‘What if I am?’
‘You don’t need to. You’ll be turning enough heads in town.’
‘Is that right?’ He arched an eyebrow, lending a rakish quality to his face. ‘Does that apply to you too?’
Jane wanted to tell him his flirting was wasted on her, that she didn’t want to stuff this up for Betty considering how supportive she’d been over the years when not many had. But when Mason