‘I don’t.’
‘Because the way you two look and act around each other tells me there’s a spark there, chemistry, whatever you want to call it. Don’t think I haven’t noticed. I just hadn’t wanted to make either of you uncomfortable by mentioning it.’
‘I’d say she’s already got plenty of chemistry with an Italian in her life.’
Barney and Lois came in and when Lois started running on about the Italian stallion and fed Etna more information after she’d apparently met him briefly outside the girls’ cottage, Linc took it as his cue to leave. He didn’t want to hear about the man whose photograph Jade had carried around with her for so long and who must surely be here in the Cove to pick up where they left off.
Instead, he headed up to the Little Waffle Shack.
*
A couple of hours later Linc felt much better. There was nothing like plunging a spade into dirt and heaving out roots or revving up a digger to battle the most stubborn brambles, weeds and stones to work out your frustrations. Harvey had been here all morning since the cottage viewing and handed over to him while he went home to take Winnie for a walk and then went back to his day job.
The buzz in the Cove preceding the wedding and the ball hadn’t lessened when he left the tea rooms. He’d almost bumped into a couple of ladies rushing past with dresses in see-through plastic coverings, he’d passed Lucy and Tilly hovering outside the ice-creamery and talking up-dos, and even a few people heading away from the waffle shack had been talking about the wedding, debating whether they should even be eating waffles with the catering to come tonight. Linc had put his head down as he went to the shack and tried to forget it all, to put out of his mind the woman who’d begun to mean more to him, the fact he’d missed out on getting to know her now her past had reared it’s not-ugly-at-all head.
Linc wiped the sweat from his brow when Daniel brought out a bottle of water for him. He gulped half of it in one go. ‘Cheers, I needed that.’
‘The water or the work?’
‘Both.’ He’d worked so hard that the preparation for the pergola to be put up was almost done.
‘Is everything all right? Just that you seemed pretty wound up when you got here. And I called out about taking a break half an hour ago but you didn’t hear me.’
Daniel put pause to the conversation when Peter hollered from the back door that his mum was here to collect him. ‘I won’t be a sec.’
Linc bent down and hand-picked out some of the rubble along with a few odd bits of metal or junk that had somehow found their way into the dirt he’d managed to overturn with the help of the digger. It was all going into a pile at the side and either they’d get another skip or load it into Harvey’s truck to get rid of somewhere.
‘Sorry about that.’ Daniel was back. ‘I had to find some pocket money for Peter. I like to give him extra for helping out.’
‘It’s nice you’re still so close.’
‘It is. But don’t change the subject. What’s on your mind? Brianna has it all in hand inside, for now, so I’m all ears.’
He was about to claim he was too busy, had too much to do if there was any hope of him finishing in time to go back to Harvey’s for a shower before the event everyone in the village was so revved up about. But, somehow, he found himself admitting his feelings for Jade.
‘I don’t see what the problem is,’ said Daniel. ‘Ask her out, simple.’
‘I’ve got competition.’ He explained Dario’s arrival and Daniel realised he must’ve been the one at the shack asking after the bakery the other day.
‘Is he taking her to the wedding?’
‘No idea.’ Linc rested a hand on the spade he’d thrust into the ground. ‘But it’s not just the new man in town. It’s what I overheard at the pub one night.’ He explained how he’d heard the girls talking about Jade finding a baby daddy, the conversation that had prompted him to leave sharpish without even saying goodbye to her.
‘You need to talk to her,’ Daniel advised. ‘I know you might think you know everything but believe me when I say I know a lot about misunderstandings.’
‘I was going to talk to her when the Italian showed up.’
‘I’d persevere if I were you. Until then, you’ll never know what the truth is – and who knows, the Italian might be on his way soon.’
Linc doubted it. She hadn’t looked displeased to see him and they had a history, they’d once planned a future they could still be heading towards if circumstances had been different.
‘Lucy and I had a few misunderstandings before we got together and if we hadn’t got to the bottom of them, we might not be together now. And for what it’s worth, I can’t see Jade looking for a baby daddy, no matter what you overheard. She doesn’t seem the type.’
Neither had Orla.
And as Linc got on with the task in hand, shoving the spade into the ground beneath the summer sunshine, sweating more and more as time wore on, he couldn’t banish the thought of Jade and Dario. Were they cuddled up in bed together right now? Were they between the sheets making plans for the future?
And it was those thoughts that occupied his mind as he worked right up until it was time to go and take a shower, pull on a tux, put on a brave face and actually try to talk to her, if he could get her alone for long enough.
