‘You’re acting so weird.’ Lexi slipped it into her pocket, staring at her mother as if she were an alien. ‘You know—last night, for a moment, I really thought—’

Jenna’s breathing stopped. ‘What did you think?’

‘I thought that you—’ Lexi broke off and shrugged. ‘Never mind. Crazy idea, and anyway I was wrong. Thank goodness. What are you planning to do today?’

Chew over everything that had happened the night before; try not to spend the day thinking of Ryan; remind herself that she was too old to have crushes on men—‘Housework,’ Jenna muttered, staring blindly at the pile of unwashed plates that were waiting to be stacked in the dishwasher. ‘Catch up on a few things. The laundry basket is overflowing, and I need to weed the herbaceous border.’ It all sounded like a boring day to her, but her answer seemed to satisfy Lexi.

Clearly Lexi had been reassured by Evanna’s assertion that the two of them had been discussing the emergency they’d dealt with. Either that or she’d just decided that no man was ever going to be seriously interested in her mother.

‘I’ll see you later, then. Do you mind if I take Rebel?’ Grabbing his lead, Lexi whistled to the dog and sauntered off to meet Fraser and his friends at the castle, leaving Jenna to face a day on her own with her thoughts.

And her thoughts didn’t make good company.

Tormented by the memory of what had happened the night before, she pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and sat down with a thump. Then she smoothed the crumpled envelope she’d been clutching and stared at her list. She’d started with ten but there were probably a million reasons why it was a bad idea to kiss Ryan McKinley.

With a groan, she buried her face in her hands. She had to stop this nonsense. She had to pull herself together and act like an adult. She was a mother, for goodness’ sake.

‘You’re obviously feeling as frustrated as I am.’ His voice came from the doorway and Jenna flew to her feet, the chair crashing backwards onto the tiled floor, her heart pounding.

‘Ryan!’ The fact that she’d been thinking about him made the whole thing even more embarrassing—but not as humiliating as the fact that she was wearing nothing but her knickers and the old tee shirt of Lexi’s that she’d worn to bed. Jenna tugged at the hem, until she realised that just exposed more of her breasts. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Trying to have five minutes with you without the whole of Glenmore watching.’ He strode across the kitchen, righting the chair that she’d tipped over. Then he gave her a wicked smile. ‘Nice outfit.’