‘That’s a relief. I’m enjoying this far too much to hurry it.’
He really was perfect, Lettie decided giving him a discreet look, her stomach flipping over as she watched him enjoying his own food. ‘Me too.’
Brodie looked at her and smiled. ‘I feel very lucky to have met you, Lettie.’
‘Likewise.’
‘I was sure you’d be more interested in Joe than me, especially after seeing the pair of you together that night in the pub.’
Lettie had almost forgotten that evening then recalled her own jealousy seeing Brodie with Cathy.
‘He looks like many of those film stars and pop stars Maddie had on posters on her wall when we were younger. He seems self-assured too, unlike me, but clearly a nice chap.’
‘Joe’s just a friend,’ she assured him. Joe might be devilishly handsome with his dark, Heathcliff-esque looks and his easy confidence but seeing him didn’t make her heart flutter and stomach fliplike it did when she saw Brodie. ‘And he doesn’t make me feel like you do.’
He kissed her lightly on the mouth. ‘I’m so happy to hear you say that.’
‘Good, because it’s true.’ She kissed him. ‘He also knows that you and I have feelings for each other because he told me that day on the beach collecting seaweed how he had seen the way the two of us looked at each other the night before.’
‘Oh, I see.’
45
BRODIE
The day has arrived
Brodie had to concentrate harder than usual at work to stop his mind from drifting off to the night before when he and Lettie made love and then how good it felt to be eating breakfast with her at Hollyhock Farm.
He waved his final patient from the room and leant against his desk, trying to picture his future with Lettie. If their relationship continued to get more serious and Lettie continued running the farm, would she want to stay there or might she agree to move into his cottage with him? He liked the idea, very much. The cottage was closer to the beach as well as being conveniently placed next to his surgery. He decided to agree to whatever it took for them to be together. Supporting Lettie’s new career was something he was determined to do.
Brodie decided that he would take each step as he reached it. He wanted this relationship with Lettie to work. He had once asked his father how he knew his mother was the woman for him and couldn’t understand it when his father told him that he knew assoon as he saw her. Brodie realised that it had been the same for him. He might not have known how important Lettie would be to him when they had met that night at the school disco all those years before, but he had definitely noticed her, even if he had been too embarrassed to do anything about it. This time round though, he had known instantly that she was special. He hadn’t known quite how special she would be to his future. He knew now though.
The memory of her face as she stood by the kitchen door earlier that morning and the look of disappointment that he was already up made him smile. He wished he hadn’t tried to impress her with his cooking. Who knew what might have happened between them if he had stayed in bed and waited for her to return. Then again, he mused, how presumptuous would that have seemed for her to come back to the house and find him lying in her bed as if he had every right to be there.
He looked at his watch and wondered if her parents had arrived home yet and if so, what Mr Torel’s decision might be about the farm. He could still insist on selling the land if he didn’t trust Lettie to make it work. Brodie hoped Gareth Torel would give her the opportunity to keep running Hollyhock Farm. She had clearly relished her time there and Brodie hoped her father was open to letting her at least try to run the place and prove herself for longer than the two months he had given her so far.
Wanting to show her he was thinking of her, Brodie took his phone from his jeans pocket and sent her a text.
Good luck this evening. I’ll be thinking of you. Let me know how it goes with your dad.X
He waited for her to reply but after a few minutes decided to go back to his cottage and wash the dishes that he had left in the sink from the previous evening. Was it only last night that Lettie hadcome to his cottage for supper? So much had happened since then that it seemed much longer ago.
He recalled Maddie interrupting them and thought he should give her a call. She might be very annoying at times, but she did have his best interests at heart and was trying to help him make the cottage more of a home. It wasn’t his sister’s fault that she had lousy timing, he decided with a smile.
46
LETTIE
No time left
She glanced at the kitchen clock for the fifth time that hour. Lettie had received a text from her father earlier that morning letting her know they would get a taxi home so that she didn’t need to fetch them. Surely Mum and Dad should be home by now? she thought trying to keep the concern from her mind. She may as well do something with the extra time and decided to go out and double-check that everything was just as it should be in the barns. She had already given the house a vacuum and a dust, cleaned her parents’ en suite and made up their bed with fresh linen. They would be flying back from Southampton, so it was only a short flight, but they would probably be tired from all the travelling and packing up their stateroom on the ship after living onboard for the past few months.
She tried to imagine what it must have been like to cruise around the world. So many new places to discover and explore. She smiled to think of all the photos her mother would have taken and how long she would have to spend sitting as she was talked througheach one. A warm feeling ran through her at the thought of giving her parents a hug and seeing them again. She had been so focused on working hard to prove herself and now her father’s decision that she hadn’t missed them nearly as much as she had expected she might.
The sound of a car engine interrupted her thoughts and she looked up to see dust flying behind a large taxi. How many extra suitcases had her mother needed to buy to carry everything she had bought for herself on the cruise? Lettie wondered.
She whistled for Spud to come to her and he dutifully did as she asked and sat patiently at her side, waiting for the taxi to draw into the yard and park up. The doors opened and her father then her mother stepped out.
