‘No, you’re just strange. It’s two different things.’
His laughter filled the kitchen, warming it through, reverberating through my chest as it did so.
‘Do you have any more meetings today?’
‘I’m starting work at Mrs Wembley’s at two o’clock this afternoon. Probably be there until about five.’
‘Great! Diving straight in.’
‘Yes. But until then, I’m all yours.’
I raised an eyebrow. ‘Lucky me.’
He shook his head, his lips curling in a smile. ‘Thanks for the tea.’
‘You made it.’
‘I thought I probably should after I sent your first one flying this morning.’
‘In the future, perhaps we should both agree to take a little extra care with where we’re going whilst you are here.’
‘Deal. I’m going to head back outside.’
‘No, you’ve done enough, especially if you’re working this afternoon as well. I don’t want you wearing yourself out before you get to your paid job.’
‘I’m fine,’ he assured me, one hand on the door handle. ‘The exercise does me good and I love the work.’
With a quick wave, he was off, striding across the garden and into the wilderness.
I watched him go, his words tumbling around in my mind. Judging by what I’d seen this morning when he ripped off his scalding T-shirt, the one thing Jack did not need was exercise. From where I was standing, his body looked pretty damn perfect just the way it was.
* * *
‘So?’ Poppy asked, looking out to where Felix and Jack were spinning the children around in the garden. ‘Do you still think he’s hot all these years later?’
‘Of course not,’ I said, dismissively. ‘It was just a teenage crush. Pretty much all the girls in the village had one on him at one time or another.’
I could feel her eyes boring into me as I kneaded the biscuit dough. ‘What?’ I asked without looking up.
‘It’s OK, you know?’
I pushed a lock of hair that had come away from my clip back from my forehead with the side of my hand.
‘What’s OK?’
‘To have feelings for someone else. Mike wouldn’t have expected you to stay alone forever. It’s the last thing he would have wanted.’
‘Surely it’s more about what I want now, though, isn’t it?’ I replied, sharper than I intended.
Poppy sat back.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you. I just don’t want you or anybody thinking there’s more to this than there is. Yes, Jack is good-looking – I’m not blind, but neither am I interested in another relationship. And bearing in mind the state he saw me in the other morning, I think we can pretty much categorically say he’s not interested in a relationship with me either.’
‘Oooh? What state did he see you in?’ Poppy leaned back in.
‘Calm down.’ I laughed. ‘I was half asleep and forgot he was here, so I wandered out into the garden without brushing my hair in my ratty old dressing gown, hairy legs and those little welly shoe things.’
‘You never know, that might be his sort of thing,’ Poppy replied, a mischievous grin on her face.
