Page 16 of Love Letters on Hazel Lane

‘Have you got hiking boots?’

‘Hiking boots? No.’

‘Trainers?’

‘Sure,’ she said. ‘I’ve got trainers.’

*

Ras drove Jo to Hazel Lane where she changed her shoes and, on his suggestion, swapped her smart jacket for a warmer coat. They set off up a steep road out of Hebbleswick, zigzagging between rows of terraced houses. Ras negotiated several hairpins with great skill until they emerged onto open moorland, covered with heather.

‘What do you do for a living?’ said Ras.

‘I work in TV.’

‘That’s exciting. You must be very creative.’

‘Not especially,’ Jo said. ‘I book taxis, write schedules and keep the budgets up to date. I’m not at all creative.’ She paused for a moment. Perhaps she was selling herself a bit short. ‘But I am good at organising,’ she added. ‘In fact, I love organising.’

‘Good to know. Can I call on you if I ever need anything organising?’

She laughed. ‘Of course.’

‘And how was your week? Did you organise an awful lot of things?’

‘I’ve had a terrible week,’ began Jo, then stopped herself. Why hadn’t she said her usual, ‘Fine, thanks. Yours?’? She couldn’t tell him about the lost spreadsheet, David slamming his hand on the desk and Leona smirking about him. She didn’t need to consult Kate to know that telling your date about your problems, moaning, complaining, whatever you wanted to call it, wasn’t a good tactic.

‘How come?’ he said.

‘Oh, it’s nothing. A colleague I don’t get on with. Your messages on Monday evening cheered me up.’

‘Did they? I’m glad.’

The stark beauty of the moorland gave way to gently undulating hills, their green slopes dotted with trees.

‘Almost there,’ he said. ‘See the old-fashioned signal box? That’s the Settle–Carlisle railway.’

She might have known he’d be into trains. With that anorak, he’d fit right in with the little crowd of middle-aged men she sometimes saw on the end of the station platform in Manchester, jotting down numbers in their little books.

But so what if he seemed a bit geeky? There was something she rather liked about Ras.

7

A car park.

They were in a car park. Granted it was in a pretty village. Popular too, judging by how difficult it was to find a space and the number of people brandishing walking poles and studying ordnance survey maps.

A hill, she decided. This famous, local attraction he’d mentioned must be a hill.

Well, that wouldn’t be too bad. Given that she’d put that she liked doing ‘adventurous things’ on her profile, he could have chosen anything. Skydiving. Bungee jumping. Waterskiing. At least her arms weren’t going to get wrenched out of their sockets. And hopefully, it wouldn’t be too steep a hill.

Besides, the exercise would do her good. She loved her curves – they were the only thing she liked about her body – but for health reasons, she could do with being a little fitter.

‘Ready?’ said Ras, and he managed to make eye contact.

Jo nodded. Okay, so he was too short for her, but those eyes were sparkling with excitement and they were a rather lovely shade of blue. The same shade, in fact, as a double letter score square on a Scrabble board. And although he was scruffy, there was something rather cute about him, rather endearing, like a hairy puppy in the dogs’ home that jumped up and down with excitement every time a potential new owner went past.

Definitely not axe murderer material, which was lucky since she was about to head up into the hills with him and he was giving her a lift home later.