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Whatever was waiting for him he’d just have to accept it; smashed windows, filthy carpets, the kitchen all spoiled. It didn’t matter. He’d accept it.
He’d have to move with the times, fill a skip and buy a replacement everything. It was just stuff, he knew now.
All of that could be faced later. Right now, what mattered most was making himself presentable for Minty and getting back up to the Big House to tell her that he really,reallywanted to ruin their friendship.
As he drew closer to his old B&B, head down, thinking only of how quickly he could get changed and how on earth he was going to wash, he didn’t notice that the front door of his home had been forced open by the water and was now gaping. He didn’t notice the armchairs lifted into the corner of the living room and deposited in a sludgy pile along with Isolde’s cushions and rugs and all the accoutrements of his old life. He didn’t notice the tidemark around the walls five foot high, or the way the wallpaper was washed clean away in parts and peeling and blistered in others.
Jowan saw only Hunter wellies, then sensible slacks, a green bodywarmer and a silk scarf tied in a smart knot across a slender throat and blonde hair framing a bold, beautiful face.
‘Mint?’
She stood bolt upright in the spot where, until yesterday, the cottage’s low hedge and metal fence posts had been.
‘I didn’t want you going in there on your own,’ she told him in her familiar way, reserved and imperious, but kind.
She wasn’t angry with him any more, at least.
Minty’s eyes belied her anxious state, even though the way she held herself was the picture of poise and calm.
Neither of them made any move towards the cottage. She stared entreatingly at her old friend. Jowan knew he would have to be the one to fix this, and it had to be now.
‘Mint…’
Her mouth tightened and she turned her face a little to one side, as though that could stop her having to listen to any more painful excuses about how Isolde would always be the one for Jowan.
‘Mint, you are my oldest friend, and I promised you I would always be there for you.’
Minty closed her eyes, readying herself for another bout of rejection.
‘No, Minty, no, it’s not like that, come here.’ He reached for her hand and she let him hold it, barely daring to look in his eyes. ‘The promises I made to you in friendship, I want to make all over again as your… as your—’
Now he had Minty’s full attention and her eyes threatened to overflow with tears. Her brow crinkled in a way that made Jowan’s heart soften even more.
‘Go on.’ She wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily.
‘As your lover.’ As soon as the words were out, Jowan gulped and clamped his lips closed. He and Minty stared hard at one another.
‘I mean, as… your partner? Your best friend. Your most important person.’
Minty’s laughter rang out as she brought a hand to her mouth. ‘My most important person?’
Jowan blushed and tried to find more words but there were none. ‘Yes, my most important person,’ he shrugged.
‘Right then, well… Good.’ Minty nodded sharply, accepting the new arrangement, and Jowan’s smile burst across his face.
Ever so slowly, he stepped closer, taking her other hand in his, then bringing his fingertips in a slow trail all the way up over her arm and across the knot of silk at her throat.
Seeing her gulp and her lips soften – she was barely breathing, it seemed – he let his hand settle along her jaw, sweeping his thumb across her cheek and the edge of her lips, his eyes sinking to her mouth before he closed the last of the distance between them in a soft kiss the likes of which could only happen between best friends well on their way to becoming lovers.
