The Grafton Girls - Annie Groves [144]
‘Give over,’ Billy demanded. ‘You made out like you was sweet on Walter, clinging to his arm and looking up at him all daft-eyed and that.’
‘I never.’
‘Yes you did.’
‘I’m surprised you had time to notice how I was looking at Walter wi’ all them girls of yours fawning all over you all the time,’ Jess challenged him, changing tack.
‘What girls?’
Billy looked and sounded genuinely perplexed but Jess wasn’t going to give in.
‘Them girls wot you’re always flirting with, and don’t say that you aren’t, because you are.’
‘Well, don’t you tell me that you weren’t flirting with Walter neither.’
‘I never! Me and Walter were just friends. He was lonely and he wanted someone to talk to about his girl on account of having to leave her back at home without having a chance to say goodbye to her properly like.’
There was silence for a few seconds as they glared at one another, and then Billy said gruffly, ‘Well, you should have said summat to me then, shouldn’t you? You know, like telling me that he was just a friend, and you knowing he had a girl at home.’
‘What? You’ve got your nerve, Billy Spencer! Why should I go telling you anything of the kind? Huh! We all know now what would have happened if I had. The next thing, I’d have known, you’d have bin telling everyone that I was sweet on you and acting like I had to make sure you knew I was free for if you wanted to ask me out.’
‘Don’t be daft.’
Another silence. But a different one this time. Billy shuffled slightly towards Jess and when she didn’t move back he reached out and took told of her hand.
‘If you was to say that you were sweet on me, Jess…’
Jess looked back at him. She felt as though she was trembling on the edge of something that was both exciting and dangerous, something she longed for and yet at the same time feared.
Billy was pulling her gently closer to him and she wasn’t resisting. She looked into his face and her heart did a cartwheel.
‘Jess…I know this might not be the time but—’
‘Billy! There you are. I’ve bin looking everywhere for you. You owe me a dance, remember?’
Jess stiffened as the other girl came up to them, deliberately turning her back on her whilst she leaned towards Billy, acting as though Jess just wasn’t there, never mind having her hand held by him. Abruptly she pulled her hand from Billy’s and turned on her heel, ignoring him when he called out to her to stay. Stay here and wait in line for him behind someone like that? He’d got a nerve, and she’d got more respect for herself!
She could see Ruthie making her way back to their table. Determinedly, she hurried over to her and said, ‘I don’t know about you, Ruthie, but I’m ready for me bed. I reckon I’ve had enough here, what with all that’s happened this week, an’ all.’
‘I’m ready to leave as well,’ Ruthie confirmed. She couldn’t wait to get home and give her mother and their neighbours the good news about Glen.
THIRTY
‘Ready?’
Diane nodded without being able to look at Lee as he took her small case from her and put it into the back of the Jeep.
They had both agreed that it made sense to meet up away from Derby House and its prying eyes, but that didn’t stop her from feeling somehow uncomfortably shabby about the manner in which she had deliberately let the others think she was going home to see her parents for the weekend before making her way to her prearranged rendezvous with Lee on Wavertree Road. There was no reason for her to feel like this, she reassured herself. It wasn’t as though she had had to hang around on a street corner, advertising her intentions by putting her case at her feet, after all. Lee had been waiting for her.
No reason? What about Mrs Saunders, Lee’s wife? Wasn’t she any kind of a reason for her to feel guilty about what she was doing?
* * *
Lee was opening the passenger door to the Jeep for her.
‘Have you any idea how damn much I want to kiss you?’ he told her thickly.
Immediately her pulse quickened, whilst a now-familiar heat flooded her body. This was so different from what she had felt for Kit.