And then Jake approached, his shadow passing over the grass. He was wearing an open-necked white shirt made of heavy cotton and a pale green-and-gray kilt. Lissa wished more than anything else Kim-Ange were there; she would have fainted, she would have fainted clean away. Obviously it was just totally normal around here, but it was pretty hot stuff regardless.

“Stop there,” said Lissa, smiling and taking out her phone camera. “I want a pic. You look like you’re in Outlander.”

Jake smiled bashfully but, in fact, was pleased and secretly felt like cheering. He spotted the empty glass of elderflower wine by her side. He should probably warn her a bit about that.

“Okay,” said Lissa. “I’ll send it.”

“Don’t you want to be in it?” said Jake. “Hey, hi, Ginty, can you take a picture of us?”

Ginty scowled but stepped forward nonetheless. She wanted to take an unflattering picture of Lissa, but Lissa was so happy and, for once, carefree and utterly amazed at just how great she felt, she couldn’t stop grinning, and the sun shone through her light floral dress, and Jake leaned in and just ever so gently put his arm around her to touch her opposite elbow, ever so lightly, and he was grinning too, and Ginty could have hurled the camera back at the pair of them.

“Ooh!” said Lissa, and she sent it immediately to Kim-Ange.

“AW, LOOK AT this,” said Kim-Ange, who was hot and sweaty from all the dancing, and she passed her phone over to Cormac. She had absolutely no idea he’d never seen a picture of Lissa before. Taking pictures of everyone and everything was one of the cornerstones of Kim-Ange’s life.

He saw the shot and winced. He’d been right about the curly hair.

Well. Good for Jake. They looked incredibly happy.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever seen her,” he said.

Kim-Ange looked at him crossly. “You don’t follow her Insta? Although her Insta is very boring,” said Kim-Ange, whose Insta was not in the slightest bit boring.

“Ach, I don’t really go in for that stuff,” said Cormac shyly.

“You’re sleeping in her bed!”

“I know,” said Cormac, still staring. Her smile beamed. The screen faded to black on Kim-Ange’s phone and he handed it back, somewhat reluctantly.

He had kind of known what she looked like, from what Jake said. But from her missives, her slightly short, occasionally sarcastic emails, he’d been expecting someone a little . . . more uptight. The girl in the picture, she was radiant.

“She looks happy,” said Kim-Ange. “Good. It’s been a while.”

“Yeah,” said Cormac. “Good.”

And they tried to take one together to send back, but Kim-Ange wasn’t happy with the angle and insisted on nine more, and then Cormac got called away to pay the bar staff, and it never happened after all.

Chapter 46