‘Just for a walk.’ Evie pushed her feet into her boots and wound a scarf round her neck. Unbelievable how cold it was for the end of August. She’d turned into a soft urban-dweller, always expecting mild weather, after only a couple of years in London.
‘She’s going with Sasha’s brother Dan,’ said Autumn, putting her arms above her head so that their mum could tie an apron behind her back. Autumn was a seriously messy baker.
Their mum raised her eyebrows and said, ‘Have fun. Tell me about it later.’
‘Nothing to tell,’ Evie said, grabbing her coat and heading for the door.
‘Afternoon.’ Dan was smiling, waiting for her under the tree in the middle of the green after she’d done a loop round the village. The permanently mistletoe-covered tree. She was back here bang on time, so he must have been early.
‘Hello. How are you feeling today?’ Should they hug? Cheek-kiss? No. She stopped a few feet away from him. ‘Did you hear from Sasha this morning? I had a text from her a couple of hours ago just as they were boarding their flight.’ They’d left first thing for their honeymoon.
‘I had a one-worder –Bali– and a lot of exclamation marks. Sounded like she was happy with Angus’s choice. This way?’ Dan indicated with his head in the direction of the woodland and little river to one side of the village, Evie nodded and they started walking.
They were quite close to the cottages on the church end of the green now, so if anyone looked out of their front windows they’d definitely see them. Evie couldn’t decide whether she more wanted no-one, particularly Mrs Bird, to see them and gossip, oreveryoneto see them andknowthat she was out for a walk with Dan, like she’d been lucky enough to land a dance with the coolest boy at the school disco. Basically, it was like she’d regressed a good fifteen years.
Oh, God, now she was really conscious of Dan. They were walking quite close to each other, but not touching,obviously, because why would they touch? Like, for what reason? No reason at all, clearly. Woah, Evie had just swung her arm a bit too much and her hand had almost brushed Dan’s and her heart had literally jumped as it happened. She’d gonemad. She was behaving like a lovesick teenager. And she had a boyfriend.
They turned the corner up the short lane that led to the church and then beyond into woodland. Why weren’t they talking? Was this a companionable silence or was it awkward?
Oh, God, it was probably awkward.
‘It’s great weather today,’ Evie said. ‘Really nice. I love a sunny but cold day. Lucky for the photos that the weather turned before yesterday.’ Seriously. A weather conversation. Scintillating.
‘Yes, very lucky.’ They’d got to a stile into a field. Dan pointed at the bushes at the foot of it. ‘Those are some serious spider webs.’
‘I love them in the winter covered in frost. Magical. I used to imagine that a winter queen with special powers made them.’
Dan laughed. ‘I’ve just always thought they look nice. Clearly I have no imagination. Come on.’ He climbed over the stile and turned and held his hand out for Evie.
She could totally have got herself over it and she had a vague feeling that she ought to tell Dan that, but no way was she passing up an innocent opportunity to hold his hand for a moment.
She was so conscious of the fact that she had her hand in his that she wobbled massively.
‘Argh,’ she screeched.
Dan reached his other arm up and caught her round her waist, which stopped her crashing down on top of him. He lifted her down and for what seemed like a very long moment after he’d set her on the ground held onto her. Evie’s heart was hammering away, and she was pretty sure that it wasn’t from the near-miss fall.
Her lips and mouth were very dry all of a sudden. She didn’t want to lick her lips, though, because that was your cliché please-kiss-me-now action. Oh, God, she wanted him to kiss her now. He was looking at her with a small smile on her face. And she was smiling at him. And he was moving a little bit towards her. He was going to kiss her. He absolutely was.
He’d stopped moving. They were still standing there, Dan with his hands on Evie’s waist and Evie with her hands on his upper arms.
She could just slide her hands up his arms right now and round his neck. Sheknewhow good it would be if they did kiss.
They’d been standing like this for a really long time. Nothing was happening.
And, Christ, this was terrible. Matthew.
She let go of his arm, like it was scalding hot, and cleared her throat. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘For catching me.’
‘Not a problem,’ he said, and let go of her waist.
‘So which way shall we walk?’ Evie said.
‘I’m totally easy and I have all afternoon, so whichever way you prefer.’
‘What about the circular walk via Little Bishop?’ That was quite a long walk, which usually took a good couple of hours, but not the longest.
‘Good plan. There’s that great view over the Bishop valley on the way. It’s only in the last few years that I’ve started to appreciate how lucky we are to have grown up here.’
