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“Yes, you do,” said Poppy, coming into the room, “but it’s OK. It wasn’t that loud. Michael is much louder.”

“Are you hungry?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah, it smells good,” said Lucy. She heaved herself up from the sofa.

Poppy entertained them with the complete storyline of The Christmas Prince and its sequels while they ate and Monty begged from each of them in turn, despite wolfing down his own dinner in about ten seconds flat.

“Didn’t I tell you Dylan makes good burgers?” Poppy announced as they finished.

“You did, and it’s no surprise because he’s been cooking for me a lot and it’s all been delicious.”

“That’s because he’s trying extra hard to look after you and the baby,” Poppy said.

“I guess so,” replied Lucy, concentrating very hard on taking a sip from her glass of water and not on looking at Dylan.

Lucy’s phone dinged with a message from Carrie saying that she and Michael would be back in about half an hour, so Poppy went to continue watching her film while Lucy and Dylan cleaned up.

“I can manage this,” Dylan said.

“Helping you with the washing up is the least I can do after you cooked for me,” Lucy said. “Do you think she had a good time with us?”

“I think so. Knowing Poppy, I suspect she’d tell us if she hadn’t,” Dylan joked. “But she seemed to enjoy our walk.”

“And your burgers clearly went down well.”

“So,” said Dylan slowly, “what I’m hearing is that we managed to look after a child together and we did a good job?”

“We did! She got exercise and was fed. I call that a success. Though I slept while on duty, so thankfully we were in it together and teamwork came into play.” They high-fived and laughed. “Now I guess we just have to repeat this for the next eighteen years or so . . .” Lucy pointed out.

That was a rather long time for her and Dylan not to murder one another and yet it seemed to be becoming more and more likely that they might succeed.

Chapter 18

Dylan needed to leave early the next morning. Lucy heard him get up and move around the flat quietly so as not to disturb her.

She felt a twinge of sadness as the click of the flat door closed behind him. She turned over and attempted to go back to sleep but gave up after an hour. Something just felt off, and she was cross because she knew that thing was that Dylan wasn’t there. A month ago, she’d coped perfectly well without him, hadn’t even felt that there was anything missing in her life . . . unless you counted the ability to stay awake for a whole day if she was actually talking about a month ago. Maybe she should be looking further back . . . four months ago she was great. Happy. Running her business. Great friends. And now he’d left an hour ago and she was . . . bereft. Ridiculous.

She dragged herself out of bed and headed for the kitchen where she popped the kettle on and put a slice of bread into the toaster. She finished making her breakfast and took it into the sitting room, where she restarted A Christmas Prince, partly to see what it was that Poppy so loved about it, partly to take her mind off eating.

It was a sweet story, not usually her kind of thing, but, and she blamed this on her hormones, she got swept away by it, losing track of time, and ending up with tears running down her cheeks as the happy ever after unfolded. She brushed them away crossly. What was this pregnancy doing to her?

Her whole body still felt exhausted, and the last thing she felt like doing was getting ready for work. Which was, again, so unlike her; she loved what she did. Loved baking. Loved chatting with her customers and being part of the community in this beautiful town that she was so lucky to call home.

She showered, dressed and went downstairs to the shop, smiling as she turned on the lights and all the Christmas decorations Dylan had put up came into sight.

She turned on the coffee machine. She was allowing herself one caffeinated coffee a day and tended to have it as she was opening up the shop; she could really appreciate it when she was pottering around getting things ready.

* * *

The day dragged more than usual. Ellen was in and was as lovely as always. It was no wonder that Carrie was so pleased her mum had moved to Castle Cove — she was wonderful. Spending time with her did sometimes make Lucy miss her own mum though.

Carrie popped in during her lunch hour, which she usually spent with Michael, but she sat behind the counter chatting with Lucy and sipping on a tea. It was lovely to see her friend, but she was also in the way during the busiest time of the day. Eventually Lucy said, “Carrie, has Dylan asked you to keep an eye on me and check in while he’s away?”

“Of course, he did.” Carrie laughed, her arms folded over her bump. “But not just me. You know what he’s like.”

“I’m fine, really,” said Lucy. “I’m feeling so much better now. You can all stand down. I promise, I’ll call you straight away if I need anything. I did live by myself until very recently and I managed perfectly well.”

“Dylan’s a fusspot,” Carrie said. “Let him fuss over you.”