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Jack had been sitting so long in his car stewing and pondering, and finally thinking about the situation at hand that he hadn’t noticed that it had begun to rain.
Originally, he’d been annoyed that one minute he had been sharing a lovely walk with Miss Fisher, discussing the case and quipping as they were now wont to do, and then, out of the blue, she had left with that Lin fellow because she felt “peckish”.
Peckish, huh? Was that what they were calling it now?
She gave him such a sweet smile as she left on the other man’s arm and there seemed to be a touch of something else in her eyes, something he couldn’t quite identify.
He had no right to feel the tightening in his gut when she had made the choice to go off with Lin. He knew that she was an unattached adult woman with a healthy sexual appetite. He didn’t begrudge her that, it wasn’t his place. And he’d made it perfectly clear not that long ago that he was a man that stayed true to his wedding vows, even if his wife had lived in another part of the city for quite some time. So why had he had a flash of feeling like he had just been rejected for another man?
Miss Fisher was just a friend, wasn’t she?
But if that were true, he had to explain to himself why his mind had immediately created the scene of a pleasant meal, a scintillating discussion, a walk along the beach, laughter, the moment when the promise of a kiss was in her eyes, and then, the moment when the promise and all other promises were fulfilled.
He had to explain to himself why his mind replaced Lin with himself.
The epiphany hit like a flash of lightning in the storm outside.
It wasn’t just the sexual attraction of any beautiful woman. It wasn’t just the enjoyment of intellectual sparring with a professional colleague. It wasn’t just the companionship of a new friend.
His heart had been in his throat when he thought that she would be killed by the sandbag and it had quickened when he held her against him when they surprised each other during the search. They had moved quickly from strangers to friends to something frighteningly undefined. She had respected his need to explain his situation and she’d accepted it.
But, it was becoming painfully obvious to Jack that his feelings for Phryne were defining themselves and the barriers he had placed to stop them from being expressed were more and more becoming unacceptable…to him.
He was beginning to fall in love with Phryne Fisher. And now that he fully recognized it, he had to decide what he was going to do about it.