Page 39 of Breathe Me: Smith & Belle

“You sure?”

“I cooked it myself.” He gave a crooked grin. “I’m afraid I’m pulling triple duty most weekdays.”

“You’re the cook?” Lola looked delighted by this news.

“And the owner, which sounds a lot more glamorous than it is,” he admitted.

I couldn’t help being surprised. He couldn’t be much older than us. I guessed there was a story about how he’d wound up here with a restaurant, but I didn’t want to pry.

“What are you celebrating?” He dropped into Nora’s chair.

“What aren’t we celebrating?” Lola asked. “Let’s see her new baby and our business getting a column in the U.K.’s leading high fashion magazine...oh, and I guess, your new house.”

“And you came to Sussex for that?” he said with a laugh.

“Her new house is here,” Lola explained.

“Really? Welcome to town. Where did you move?”

“Thornham Park,” I said.

He flinched. I cocked my head, checking to see if Lola caught it, too. From the quizzical look, she was giving him, she had.

“Sorry,” he said quickly. “You spend enough time around these parts and you hear plenty about Thornham.”

“All good, I hope,” I said dryly. Considering we’d found skeletons during our remodel, I knew better than to expect that. I could only imagine what a small village like Briarshead whispered about a house as old as mine. Superstition and gossip. Still, I couldn’t shake the way he’d reacted when I’d told him I lived there. A pit formed in my stomach, my hunger vanishing.

“What kind of things?” Lola pressed, interested in the detached way of someone who didn’t have to return to sleep there. I wanted to tell them to drop it, but I found myself curious.

“The usual ghost stories.” He shrugged. “The place is hundreds of years old. It’s all nonsense.” He looked at me with a soft smile. “The champagne is on me.”

“Oh, I couldn’t—”

“Consider it a housewarming present…”

“Belle,” I told him, holding out a hand.

To my surprise, he didn’t shake it, he kissed it. I flushed as he smiled up at me. I couldn’t remember the last time a man had been so forward with me. Then again, I’d been hugely pregnant for months, and I usually had a protective alpha male at my side.

"Enchantée, Belle. I’m Tomas,” he told me.

Before I could be too embarrassed, he turned and took Lola’s hand. She giggled as she introduced herself. Before he could continue his seduction attempts, Nora appeared holding a shrieking baby. I stood so quickly, my chair clattered to the floor. Guilt washed over me. I’d nearly forgotten she was off with Nora. What kind of mother was I? Letting a strange French man kiss my hand while my baby was off with her nanny?

“What’s wrong?” I switched into anxious mum mode instantly.

“I’m so sorry.” Nora looked genuinely horrified as she bounced from foot to foot. “But there’s no nappies in the bag.”

“What? I packed them!” I swiped the bag from her, rifling through it anxiously, each second growing more aware of Lola and Tomas’s eyes on me as Penny screamed.

There were none. I’d made a list. I’d laid awake planning, worried I would screw something up—and I had. How had I forgotten something as basic as nappies?

“There’s a shop on the corner,” Tomas said kindly.

“I’ll go grab them,” Nora said. She moved to pass Penny to me and I took her, rocking swiftly in a desperate attempt to calm her. But my daughter only seemed more upset to be with me. Her howling cries splintered the last remnants of my self-control and I dissolved into tears as Nora disappeared to find diapers.

“Sorry,” I croaked, shushing Penny to no effect.

“Forget the guinea fowl,” Tomas said. “I’ll be right back.”