The Rebound Guy by Fiona Harper Page A

that fitted.
    Kelly looked down at her own denim-clad thighs and suddenly wished for her normal temp uniform of skirt and blouse. She hadn’t realised they were part of her anti-Jason armour until that moment, but they were. And without her usual uniform the edges of their relationship...well, they seemed too blurry .
    She discovered she didn’t know what to do with herself. The position she was sitting in now seemed posed and fake, but whatever she did with her arms and legs just felt awkward and unnatural. It was as if she was expecting him to look up and notice her sitting there, expecting him to jog over and smile at her before he dropped down on the blanket beside her. And she wasn’t. Yes, they worked together, but that didn’t mean anything. There were plenty of other people he would want to spend time with today.
    However, it was just as well she wasn’t secretly hoping Jason would come over and say hi, because for the next half hour he was fully occupied showing young, pretty things—who’d developed a sudden burning passion for rounders—how to hold a bat properly. All of them needed one-to-one tuition, preferably involving Jason wrapping his arms around them from behind and swinging the bat with his large hands covering theirs.
    Not that Kelly was paying much attention, although it didn’t take more than a quick glance to work out that Jason was loving every second of it.
    Still, it irritated her that while she was aware of him maybe fifty feet away, while she could hear the artificially loud giggles of some of his protégées, she just couldn’t seem to get back that restful groove she’d had going. Eventually, she stamped to her feet, headed back to her own blanket and started unpacking her and the boys’ picnic. They were sure to be hungry soon, what with all that running around Sarah’s husband had them doing. And the fending off of yucky girls.
    When it was all laid out she called her sons over. They ran back long enough to grab a packet of crisps each then raced back to their football game. On a normal day, Kelly would have sat them down and made sure they ate a sandwich, but today they were having so much fun she didn’t have the heart.
    She sighed and picked up a packet herself. The first mouthful confirmed what she’d expected of them. She’d bought them at the pound shop and, while they weren’t quite out of date, they had a slight chewiness that suggested they were only just on the right side of staleness.
    â€˜Can I have one?’
    Kelly stopped chewing for a second and looked up to find Jason towering over her, silhouetted as he blocked out the sun. Unable to talk, she just nodded and watched with big eyes as he dropped gracefully on the blanket beside her and helped himself to a packet of cheese and onion.
    â€˜Rounders over for now?’ she asked breezily, once she’d swallowed her mouthful of crisp crumbs. ‘Only you seemed to have quite a fan club a minute ago.’
    Why had she said that? Why? Now he’d know she’d noticed, and she didn’t want him knowing that.
    Jason just grinned back at her. ‘Saving myself for later.’
    Stop it, she told her stomach, which did a little flip as his eyes glinted with mischief. That sort of thing does not appeal to you.
    She sat up and craned her neck. ‘Haven’t you got an ermine-lined blanket of your own around somewhere?’
    Jason just laughed. ‘No. I forgot it. But it’s nicer to share.’
    Kelly looked at the tiny, not-quite-wool tartan rug beneath them. If she’d known that she’d be forced to sit quite this close to him, she might have invested in one that was...oh...twenty times larger?
    â€˜Well, the crisps are all you’re having off me. I didn’t bring a lot.’ She looked down at the little cling-film-wrapped packets of sandwiches and assortment of fruit in the centre of the rug. There were three