‘Thanks for this.’ I waved my hand around and the thought that I probably should have stopped at the one large glass flitted briefly through my brain but didn’t pause to land. ‘Taking me out tonight. I mean, not that you’re taking me out, out. I just mean driving me – us – out tonight.’ Another thought then flew in, this one roosting in my brain a little longer, that perhaps I should have waited for the food before downing nearly all the contents of the first glass. ‘Why did you bring me those nails when I dropped them?’
‘Huh?’
I shuffled my bum round in the seat. ‘At the DIY shop? You didn’t have to follow me.’
‘It sounds creepy when you put it like that.’
‘No-o-o-o-o. It was really kind. If I’d realised I’d left them behind at that point, I might have just lain in that mud and never got up again.’
‘Then I’m glad I did what I did.’
‘But why?’
‘Honestly? I was kind of worried who else might get hurt with that timber. Let’s just say you didn’t look like a natural.’
‘I dread to think what I looked like – don’t remind me!’
‘And secondly, probably a bit of basic nosiness. I knew who you were. At least, I knew you’d moved in and I hadn’t been up here for years so I was interested to see what my cousin had done with the place. The fact you were buying wood made me wonder why. He’d been on about making it a turnkey property.’
‘I might have been building something.’
‘You might have,’ Jesse replied without a hint of belief in his tone. ‘Which reminds me,’ he continued as we swung into his driveway. ‘We need to sort out that entrance that I came through. It needs blocking off. The last thing you need is animals wandering in or out.’
Oh God, I never had this problem in London. I let out a groan and covered my face with my hands. ‘What have I done?’
Jesse applied the handbrake and then gently curled his fingers around the edges of mine and removed my hands from my face.
‘We’ll sort it. Don’t worry.’
I let my head drop back against the headrest. ‘This isn’t your problem, Jesse. You’ve already done more than enough. Look, maybe you were right earlier. Maybe I should just have sold to someone. It doesn’t have to be a golf club or whatever. Perhaps the agent can find someone who’s looking for a project and can finish it to the level it should have been?’ I pulled my head back up and faced him. ‘We both know I don’t really belong here.’
Jesse didn’t say anything for a moment, then sat back and got out of the car. Yeah. Wine was definitely a bad idea. I closed my eyes.
The passenger door opened and I jumped. Jesse held out a hand and I took it. Suddenly everything, including me, was feeling a bit wobbly. I stood, my head closer to his chin with the heels I’d possibly risked my life to retrieve. I turned to close the door but he was there before me.
‘Come on. Let’s get inside. It’s freezing out here.’
I held back. The wine had led me to look at things a little more deeply and the realisation of the current state of my life, combined with the sharp cold air of the night, had suddenly sobered me entirely.
‘I’m going to call a taxi.’
‘To where?’ The planes of Jesse’s face were all highlights and shadow from the porch light.
‘A hotel.’
He let out a sigh. ‘Felicity, we’ve been through this. Come on.’
‘No. I’m leaving.’ I took a step back. ‘What the hell am I doing, Jesse? I don’t belong here. I’ve been playing at fitting in and being part of the village but we both know I’m not. I made a stupid, stupid mistake and now I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere, on my own, with a disaster of an uninsured house, no job and, as much as I’d like them to be, my finances aren’t bottomless. It’s better for everyone if I leave now and sell it to someone who either knows what they’re doing or can at least pay people to do the huge amount of work the house needs.’
‘I already told you that’s not an issue.’
‘I’m not having you keep doing everything for free!’
‘You really don’t take help well, do you?’
‘No, I probably don’t. People can’t let you down if you don’t involve them.’
‘I’m not going to let you down, Felicity.’
