"It's an honour to meet you Sir James!" she replied sheepishly. All the guys on the table were handsome and they felt homely. James grinned at her boyishly.
"How are you feeling?" asked Mike who drew her attention to him. Smiling lightly, she reassured him that she felt better.
"I'm Liam, pleased to meet you Miss Jenny." Liam introduced himself shyly. Jenny was so beautiful that he found himself blushing.
"Ehhh, Liam are you blushing?!!" Mike asked loudly clearly alarmed and stiffled his laugh. All eyes on the table shifted to look at Liam and this just fanned his face setting it ablaze. He felt so embarrassed but when he saw Jenny's gentle smile and the fact that she didn't seem to have a problem with the situation, he got a bit brazen.
"Miss Jenny is so beautiful!" he said looking her in the eyes. This made her laugh at his boldness yet being shy at the same time.
The room temperature dropped and James dramatically made a pause, his fork hanging mid air just before his mouth and rolled his eyes to Jason's direction. Everybody looked at each other to find the source emitting such a deadly aura and all eyes landed on Jason. He pretended not to notice the eyes on him and continued eating, James couldn't hold it anylonger and burst out laughing. Mike joined too and the wirerd atmosphere from before vanished with their hearty laughter.
"You've grown balls!" Travis whispered and acknowledged with a nod at Liam's earlier statement who turned redder. "But be careful where you grow them!" he added cautioning and continued his meal.
At first, Liam frowned his fine brows and seemed not to have understood but when his eyes accidentally fell on Jason, he felt a chill and it finally dawned on him!!!!! He gasped internally. 'Brother has his eyes on her!!!!!'
Jason on the the other hand was perplexed and angry with himself. 'He just complimented her, why do I feel sour?', his frown deepened.
Markus returned from God knows where and he drew the group's attention and with him, was a shopping basket hunging on his neck. Seeing Jenny up, he was so delighted that he barked excitedly, his tail swinging all over the place. He dashed to her side but screeched to a stop as if he had remembered how she was afraid of his excited self.
Everybody was keenly observing Markus incredulously.
He calmly moved towards Jenny with the shopping basket with shinning eyes that looked adorable. Jenny found herself smiling when she observed Markus's expression, he reminded her of someone.
"Markus, come here boy!", James called out to him, he was the one who had sent him to the store earlier but he only gave a subtle glance at him let the basket fall off from over his head and continued towards Jenny.
Mike gave James a gloating look saying, 'you've been ditched. Even captain stands no chance!!!!' Once Markus was close enough, he stared at Jenny and observed her, she had not yet jumped up so he extended his head for a pat which he surprisingly got however Jenny did it obliviously.
If possible, hearts could be seen fly off Markus's head in appreciation. He had been officially approved.
Markus is in love!!!!!
The guys could only facepalm themselves whereas Jason had officially lost a loyal subject to this strange woman. Or rather, Markus knew best where to put his loyalty. He was an excellent strategist.
James drew Jenny's attention back to her meal and continued to flatter her all through out the meal and she couldn't help the nostalgic feeling that brewed in her chest. She had this kind of life before where she smiled and laughed and lived up to see another day but all of that was taken away and now being in this familiar environment, she unconsciously teared up buffling the men at the table.
She had been laughing a few moments ago, now why's she crying? They all thought.
'Probably, female hormones.' thought Travis.
'Did she recall the tragedy from the time she was attacked?' Mike was puzzled.
'She's pitiful.' James sympathised with her. She seemed to have remembered something.
'I hate tears.' Liam looked away. He hated seeing people cry, it somehow reminded him of his painful days.
'Really!!!' Jason felt suffocated. 'What's this feeling?'
"Miss Jenny, are you alright?"asked James.
"Huh!!!!!"she snapped back to her senses.
"Your crying, are you in pain? Tell me where?" James probed further.
When Jenny saw the stupified expressions of the men, she lifted her hands to her face went she felt it wet then noticed that she had been tearing up. She laughed nervously but the underlying message was clear, she had dismissed them.
The previously harmonious breakfast turned awkward, she felt bad for dismissing them when all seemed worried and genuinely concerned but she was not to devulge any information to strangers. She was happy that they saved her but were their intentions as pure as they portrayed themselves. What if they too were bad guys, or, ok if they were good guys and she ended up implicating them with her dark past.
She'd love to rebuild another social circle and start anew but the fear of losing it as well overwhelmed her that she didn't dare think of such a thing. Perhaps she had managed to run away but the fear embedded in the core of her soul still haunted her.
Returning from her journey of thoughts, she suddenly stood up attracting the men's attention. "I.. "she deeply bowed to show her gratitude and rose to look at all of them, "thank you for being kind, saving my life and treating me warmly." She gave them a weak smile. "I suppose I should head out now. I've over stayed. Dr James, please help me with your bank card number, I'd like to pay for my medical expenses and Sir Jason, thanks for letting me stay, I'll compensate with any amount you require or if you'd like, I could get new things to replace those that have been used by me in the recent days."
"Your leaving." It was a statement from Mike. 'So soon!!!'
"Yeah, I must leave. I can take it on from here." she smiled. Markus stood up that insatant.
"Are you leaving with her?" Mike asked Markus unbelievingly. And Markus barked to confirm his stand.
Jenny was stupified and nervously laughed. "Markus..." she called out and he looked at her, "I'm sorry I won't be taking you with me. I have a strong fear for dogs so I won't be able to keep you." She watched as the dogs ears fell dejectedly, "but we can try to meet if it's okay with your owner." She looked at the men one after the other to know the owner only to ram into a cold stern face. 'He probably is the owner!!' she thought.
"Thanks for the meal Mike, Dr James, Liam, Travis and Jason." She turned to walk away dragging her IV drip with her but when she reached the staircase, she froze in place when she heard a voice question her.
"Why were you shot?" Jason finally spoke.
"It's my business." she replied curtly and coldly. 'This man!!!!, I was seated with him the whole time but he just ignored me and now that am leaving his playing concerned. I really want to beat him up.'
The room grew more silent as a small tornado brewed in the house. 'They make a perfect couple', thought James. 'I officially switch profession and am a matchmaker!' he smiled slightly, however, he wasn't the only one who seemed to want this profession. Mike was literally drooling over it. He'd finally find his Captain a wife and their elite force would finally a senior sister in law. Hehehehehehehehhhehe, his shoulders trembled as he held back his silly thought.
Jason didn't seem ready to let Jenny leave. If his intuition was right and in coordination with the information he got of her, he wasn't going to take it ease.
"You leave only after you tell me who shot you and why?" It was a command but who was Jenny?
Lots of love from Litto-ways ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️