Page 54 of A Scottish Country Escape

‘Yes.’

When Cate continued to examine me, I flapped my hands. ‘It’s only to let him see for himself how stunning the area is. Dexter made a point of asking me to go with him.’

‘Just the two of you?’

I tried to look nonchalant about the whole thing. ‘That’s right.’

Cate digested this with a huge dollop of cynicism. She rolled her eyes. ‘Right. Of course. So there are no other people around here who could have taken him on a tour of it?’

I jumped to my feet, eager to end this conversation. ‘I’d better get on. Sorry again for leaving you this morning on your own. Now go and get some lunch.’

‘No problem.’

I had begun rifling through the post, which Cate had gathered up and propped beside the till, when she poked her head back around the shop door. The bell tinkled above her spiralling curls. ‘Promise me you will be careful.’

She held up one hand as I prepared to answer her. ‘I know what the reserve means to you – to us all – but I don’t want to see you getting hurt.’

‘Cate! It’s just to show Dexter the reserve! I’m not asking him to marry me.’

She made the hand gesture again. ‘You know what I’m saying, don’t you?’

I blanched and attempted to appear ambivalent about the while situation.

‘Keep all that in mind, won’t you, Elle? You’ve had enough to contend with over the last year and what with Lloyd too.’

Then she vanished out of the shop in a flap of denim jacket.

Chapter Thirty-Five

I texted Dexter and asked him to drop by Paper Roses at 6:30 p.m.

Cate had departed for home by that time, but not without another knowing look and a dire warning to stay away from Dexter’s evil clutches.

‘You make him sound like Dick Dastardly.’

Cate pulled in her lips. ‘That’s putting it mildly.’

‘So does that make me Penelope Pitstop or Mutley?’

Cate laughed.

I busied myself by swinging the shop door sign to read Closed and assured her that there was nothing to read into it. ‘Dexter won’t be able to appreciate how gorgeous the nature reserve is until he goes up there and sees it first-hand. That’s all there is to it.’

My eyes softened at the thought of the bowing trees, silvery ribbons of streams and the hedgerows throbbing with wildlife. The prospect of taking Dexter there, a place that carried so many blissful memories, caused my stomach to ripple. I tried to dismiss it. ‘I haven’t got an ulterior motive, you know.’

Cate hitched up her collar. ‘It’s not your motives I’m worried about.’

Her words reverberated in my ears while I hovered on the step of the shop, waiting for Dexter to arrive.

‘Hi there.’

I spun round. Dexter was a few feet away, with his car like something out of a futuristic TV series, glinting beyond the pedestrianised area. I snuck a look at my watch. It was just before 6: 25 p.m. He was early.

As I walked towards him, I struggled not to appreciate his sculpted shoulders in the white T-shirt he was wearing. He was also sporting what appeared to be new designer jeans in navy blue. On his feet were a pair of beige and black Dior sneakers.

I had dashed back to Pebble Brook over lunch to collect a change of outfit, which was an electric-blue vest top, loose checked shirt, my old jeans and my battered walking boots. I’d secured my hair back in a ponytail.

I must have looked so scruffy compared to what he was adorned in.