‘You really love it?’
‘I really do! Believe me, I’m not this good an actor.’
‘Thank you.’ My face was beginning to ache now but I couldn’t seem to turn the smile wattage down. ‘So you’re not regretting your decision to bring me in as your interior designer on the property.’
‘I wasn’t regretting that anyway.’
‘At least now you can be sure.’
‘Like I said. I already was. Do you like it?’
‘This?’ I scurried over and plopped myself down in the pale-blue chair. ‘I love it!’
‘Good. There’s Champagne in the fridge. Let’s go and celebrate.’
‘Why is there Champagne in the fridge?’
He gave me the head tilt again. ‘Oh, Fliss. There should always be a bottle of Champagne in the fridge. You never know when you might need it.’
I was really beginning to like this man. If I was honest, perhaps a little too much. Even when I was arguing with him, I felt a connection to him that I hadn’t felt with anyone for a long time. Not since Nanny. She’d been the only person in my life who’d made me feel as though just being me was enough. Now, decades later, I got that feeling once more with a man I hardly knew but wanted to know better. And that was kind of scary.
‘You’ve got a strange look on your face. Everything all right?’
‘Absolutely,’ I replied, shaking the feeling off and stuffing it in a corner of my mind to be dealt with another time. ‘Lead the way.’
14
Jesse and I watched as Dermot the surveyor walked towards us, clipboard in one hand, bright-yellow hard hat on his head.
‘Oh God, I feel sick,’ I whispered.
‘Let’s just see what he says first.’ Jesse put an arm around my shoulder, gave a quick squeeze and then dropped his hands back to his sides. Which was probably for the best.
‘Do you want the good news or the bad news?’
‘The good. If there is any,’ I replied.
‘The good news is that the house doesn’t need to be torn down.’
That wasn’t even something I’d considered so I didn’t especially see this as news. Obviously, it was good. Extremely good considering the bloody thing wasn’t insured. Otherwise I might have been happy to take the money and run.
‘And the bad news?’
‘Although the house is technically safe, it’s pretty obvious that it isn’t liveable. When the tree came through the roof, it also took out the water tank in the attic so there’s no chance of a heating system working for a bit, plus, from what I can see, the bedroom that took the biggest hit was the one room that appeared to be in the best state of repair before the storm. I assume you’ve been living elsewhere while the renovations are being done?’
‘No. I’ve not long bought the place and I’ve been living here.’ I looked up at the house. ‘Briefly.’
‘Oh. I see. Is there somewhere you can stay while the roof is being repaired at least?’
‘Yes.’ Jesse answered before I had a chance.
‘Good. Good,’ Dermot continued, tapping at his clipboard. ‘There’s a few things I need to go through.’ He looked up at the sky, which, in contrast to yesterday’s blue, today was a heavy pewter grey and was now beginning to deposit large, fat droplets of rain. ‘Shall we meet up at Julie’s and discuss it? Things are always better over a cuppa.’
The only way I could imagine making this better was to pour gin in the teapot, but that approach had been what landed me in this predicament in the first place. And there was, as Dermot had said, some good news. It was the bad news I was more concerned about.
Jesse and I headed back to the pick-up and drove past my pancaked car.
‘Have you heard from the insurance company yet?’
