‘I can’t just turn up at his door without an invite.’
‘Why not? You’re returning his property and giving him a thank you gift. If he’s got plans, he won’t invite you in. It doesn’t need to be complicated.’
I mulled it over. ‘I guess I do need to collect my hoodie. Okay. I’ll freshen up and do that. What are you going to do?’
‘Get lost in a book.’
I ran upstairs and rummaged in my suitcase for a summery top, tutting to myself that I still hadn’t unpacked my clothes. Earlier today, I’d pulled my hair back into a messy bun and several curly tendrils had now broken loose but it probably looked better like that than it would if I let it down and tried to brush it.
If Caleb had invited me to join him for a drink, I’d have applied make-up but doing that now would be too much – a suggestion that I was either expecting to be invited in or that I was heading out somewhere else. He’d already seen me barefaced several times and… I tutted once more. Why was I overthinking this? Who cared what I looked like when I saw him? We were neighbours – nothing more.
But as I made my way towards Peartree Cottage ten minutes later with his clean drinks bottle in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other, the butterflies in my stomach took flight.
Scampi barked when I approached the front door and I heard the scampering of his paws on the wooden floorboards as I knocked and stepped back to wait for Caleb. A minute or sopassed with no answer so I knocked again. I was about to leave when the door opened.
‘Hi!’ I said, smiling at him. ‘I’ve finally remembered to return your drinks bottle.’
‘Thanks.’ He took it from me without a smile.
‘And I wanted to give you this to say thank you for your help with Clemmie.’ I lifted up the wine. ‘I wasn’t sure if you liked red or white or even if you like wine but I figured white would be the better choice for the summer.’
‘You didn’t need to do that,’ he said, his tone flat.
When he showed no sign of taking the bottle, I thrust it closer to him. ‘Please take it. If you don’t like wine, you can give it to a friend or donate it to a tombola or something.’
I really needed to stop talking. I was babbling just like I had the day we met and I’d wittered on about country singers.
He took the wine from me with a nod. ‘I’ve got your hoodie. Wait here a second.’
My stomach lurched as he closed the door to. Clearly there wasn’t going to be an invite inside to share the bottle with him. Thank goodness I hadn’t put any make-up on after all or, much worse, invited myself to stay for a drink.
‘Here you go,’ he said, opening the door and handing me my hoodie. ‘All the stains are out and it’s dry.’
‘Thanks so much for doing that. It was over and above.’
‘It’s fine. See you later.’
And he closed the door on me.
I exhaled slowly before turning and heading back to the farmhouse.
Mam looked up from her book when I joined her in the lounge. ‘That was quick. Was he out?’
‘No, he was in but it was strange. It was like Thursday night had never happened and he was back to being aloof with me.’
‘Men!’ she said, rolling her eyes before returning to her book.
‘Yeah, men!’ Whatever that meant. ‘I’m going upstairs. The unpacking isn’t going to do itself.’ The dogs looked comfortable sprawled across the rug so I gave them a quick stroke then called for Clemmie and headed up to my bedroom.
Clemmie curled up by my pillows watching me as I placed dresses and tops on coat hangers and hung them in my wardrobe.
‘I’m so confused,’ I told her. ‘He was lovely on Thursday and I thought we were going to be friends. I even thought there was a spark between us, although we both know I’m not ready to go there yet.’
I picked up another dress and shook it out.
‘And when I bumped into him in Tesco yesterday, he…’ I gasped and dropped the dress back into the suitcase. Of course! The pregnancy test. He had to have spotted it. What if I hadn’t imagined that spark? What if he had been attracted to me but now he thought I was pregnant? That would be an understandable reason for pulling away.
‘Is it big headed to think he might like me?’ I asked Clemmie, sitting down beside her and stroking her warm belly.
