Page 103 of Brighter Together

“What about me?”

“You’ve somehow managed to get my entire relationship history and I know almost nothing about yours.”

“One ex hardly counts as an entire history.”

“Fair.”

“And Lord Grumpiness, whose fault is it that we didn’t have a single proper conversation until a few days ago?”

“I was protecting you from my irresistible charm.”

“You hid it exceptionally well.”

I pinch her side.

Ella squeals and wriggles away, laughing.

“You’re a bad boy.”

“Answer the question.”

She settles back against me.

“What do you want to know?”

“Why Fellside?”

Something shifts in her.

Not enough that anyone else might notice, but I do.

Her body becomes a little more still.

“Manchester wasn’t for me.”

“What made you leave?”

She looks towards the dark window.

“I felt trapped here. There wasn’t really a place for me in the family business anymore.”

I remember what she said at the pub about never having had the kind of family we have in FMR.

“What happened?”

She takes a moment.

“I’d just had enough.”

There is more.

I can hear it in the way she says the words, neat and polished as though she has repeated them before, but I don’t press.

“I came to Fellside for a break,” she continues. “Then I fell in love with the village and realised I didn’t want to leave.”

“And Greenview Manor?”

Her smile returns. “Greenview Manor Hotel helped.”