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Avril smiled. ‘Lucky girl.’
‘Is there a card?’ asked Maddy, her nose practically buried in the expensive-looking blooms.
‘Doesn’t appear to be,’ I murmured. But my heart was singing because I knew they must be from Kurt. Who else?
As we left the spa, I texted him to thank him.
But a minute later, I received a message back from him:I’d love to claim the flowers were from me but sadly not. You must have another big admirer. Kurt x
I swallowed hard, stopping in my tracks on the way to Jaz’s car. They weren’t from Kurt?So who...?
I shivered. The hellebores in the bouquet had taken on a sinister meaning now. Who could they be from? The obvious candidate would be Nash – except how on earth would he know where I was today?
The flowers had to be from someone who knew I loved hellebores. So at a stretch, that had to include Saul, although I couldn’t imagine a man who was so into nature and wild flowers sending a bouquet full of hothouse blooms. Plus, he wouldn’t be sending me flowers, full stop. We got on brilliantly, of course, but just as friends. I’d never felt any kind of romantic spark between us.
Could the sender be Skye? To thank me for letting her stay? Maybe. Although it didn’t really seem like something she would do.
Apart from Kurt and my family, Janey was the only other person who knew I was at the spa today; I’d sent her a text to tell her about my unexpected treat. And Cal, of course, who I’d emailed to apologise in advance for missing the class.
In the end, I had to give up and leave the mystery unsolved for a while longer as I chatted to Jaz on the way home and she delivered me to Sunnybrook High Street.
I was about to step into the village store to buy milk, carrying my lavish bouquet over one arm, when a familiar voice behind me said, ‘Hey, are they for me?’
As my insides rolled over with shock, I turned to find myself face to face with Nash...
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
‘Actually, I’ve changed my mind,’ I muttered, turning and walking away from the shop.
But I could hear his footsteps behind me.
‘Rori? How are you? Hey, why are you running away?’
I turned. ‘Didyousend me these flowers?’ I glared at him challengingly, daring him to lie to me.
He looked bemused for a second. ‘Er, no. Why would I?’ Then he grinned. ‘Maybe I should have said yes to get back into your good books. But then again, I don’t think Shirley would be too pleased. Eh, Shirl?’ He smiled at someone over my shoulder.
I turned to see a slender woman dressed in blue jeans and a green bolero-style jacket. She looked to be in her late twenties, her neat blonde topknot emphasising her pretty, elfin features.
‘What’s that, Nash?’ she asked, coming over with a smile.
‘This is my ex, Rori. Someone sent her flowers but she doesn’t know who they’re from.’
Shirley laughed. ‘Well, they wouldn’t be from Nash, that’s for sure. He’s far too tight to buy a bunch as gorgeous as that.’ She looked teasingly at him and he made a fake shock-horror face at her.
‘So how are you anyway, Rori?’ he asked, turning to me.
‘I’m... okay.’ He’d no doubt be on his best behaviour with his new girlfriend present. But I wondered if Shirley had found herself the target of one of his rages yet? If not, the poor girl was in for a shock when it happened. ‘I’m... settling in quite well here, actually,’ I added cagily.
Nash nodded. ‘Good. I’m really glad to hear it. I... erm...’ He hesitated, shuffling his feet. Then he looked up rather sheepishly. ‘You might be interested to hear that I decided to goback for more anger management counselling. I realised I didn’t give it a proper go the first time.’
‘Oh, right. Well, good for you.’
‘Just had my fifth session and it’s going really well.’ He looked at Shirley, who smiled and nodded encouragingly at him.
I stared at them, my mind in a whirl at this news. Nash was having more counselling and it was apparently working? Why didn’t he stick at the sessions when he was with me? I felt quite angry thinking about it. All the bad behaviour I’d put up with from him – and now here he was, calmly telling me how he was getting his life together at last. Well, this Shirley woman was very welcome to him. Very welcome indeed!
‘I... saw you the other week, actually. You were driving away from my flat in a tearing hurry,’ I said, challenging him with a hard stare to deny it. I glanced quickly at Shirley, realising I might have put my foot in it with her.
