‘Oh, yes, okay, I’ll go inside and put the kettle on and put my feet up in the kitchen and sit there wondering whether or not you’re going to break your neck or your back or just your leg. If I sit at the table, I’ll have a good view of you falling when you go past the window.’
Cassie took a deep breath. Her shoulder was really sore now and she hadn’t even started cleaning the leaves out.
‘It’s lovely to see you here,’ she said. It wasn’t. He’d given her a big shock and now he was having a go at her. ‘But could you maybe move a little so that I can scoop the leaves and snow out without them landing on you?’
‘Nope. I’m staying here so that if you fall I can catch you.’
Cassie took a deeper breath. She’d been right the first time she’d seen his photo: he really was an incredibly irritating man.
‘Fine.’ She started scooping. ‘I hope that expensive-looking jacket’s machine washable.’Damn. Itreallyhurt her shoulder when she leaned on it without the support of the other arm. She scooped harder, to speed things up.
Finally done. Thank goodness. This was an awful job when you were pregnant. Now she was going to have to get properly back onto the ladder. She looked down. James, his hair and shoulders covered in gutter gunk and dirty snow, was looking up at her.
‘Finished?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’ She beamed at him. ‘So if you move I can come down.’
‘Obviously I’m going to stay here to hold the ladder.’ He sounded like he was speaking through gritted teeth. His problem.
‘Fine.’ With her non-hurting arm she launched herself away from the roof and back onto the ladder. The ladder wobbled alotfor a couple of seconds until James clamped it against the house with his weight.
‘You idiot,’ James shouted while Cassie descended with as much dignity as a woman could find when she had a sore shoulder, a bigger tummy than she was used to and the knowledge that she’d just been shown to have been utterly in the wrong.
‘Thank you,’ she said when she’d let him completely unnecessarily help her off the bottom rung.
‘Cassie.’ He was still holding onto her arm. ‘You have to look after yourself and the baby. You could have hurt her. You could have hurt yourself. Have you done something to your shoulder?’
Cassie blinked to get rid of sudden hot tears. ‘I’m sorry. I agree that it was a little bit silly. I should have asked someone else to help. I will not clear a gutter again, or go up a tree again, while pregnant. Or cycle. I would like to make the point, though, that Iwouldhave been fine.’ She was pretty sure that she could have steadied the ladder with her legs when the big wobble happened. ‘I wouldn’t even have wobbled in the first place if you hadn’t surprised me.’
‘Okay, so I’m going to try really hardnotto make the points thatwho knowswhether or not you would have been fine plus you do seem to have hurt your shoulder a little. I’m also going to try really hard not toshoutabout the “up a tree” thing and cycling. And I’m also going to say I love you and that’s why I’m here.’
‘Oh.’ Cassie stopped walking and blinked back more tears. ‘Thank you.’ She suddenly wanted to hurl herself into his arms and tell him she loved him too. But if they were going to have another serious conversation, they had to get it right. They had the baby to think about. And maybe he wasn’t expecting the I-love-you thing to lead towards any hugging. Maybe he only wanted to talk about how they were going to share their parenting duties. She started walking again. ‘Would you like a drink?’
‘That would be great, thank you.’
‘Tea? The smell of coffee still makes me feel sick.’ She opened the kitchen door and stepped inside, bending down to pull off her boots.
‘Can I help? Your shoulder?’ James was bending down too. Cassie straightened up.
‘Thank you.’ There was no point in being obstinate for the sake of obstinacy.
There was something strangely intimate about someone helping you off with your boots. And a bit embarrassing when you remembered too late that you were wearing your favourite fluffy purple socks. And her trouser leg had ridden right up. Had she shaved her legs in the last couple of days? Eek.
This wasnice, though. Did she have some kind of ankle fetish that she hadn’t previously discovered? Shereallyliked the feel of James’s firm hand around her leg.
‘Thank you again.’ Her voice sounded oddly prim. ‘My shoulder is a bit sore. And that was more difficult than I expected while pregnant. I’ve still got four months to go but I’m definitely not having a tiny pregnancy.’
‘Pleasure.’ He smiled up at her. ‘I think you’re having a gorgeous pregnancy.’
Honestly. It was silly how that made her feel warm inside and how she couldn’t stop a big smile of her own spreading across her face. She did a mouth scrunch, to stop herself smiling any more stupidly, and went over to the kettle.
She made a lot of noise splashing water and clattering crockery so that they couldn’t really talk while she was getting their teas.
And then they were sitting one on each side of the kitchen table with their drinks and one of Laura’s blueberry tarts between them and they were going to have to talk or they’d be sitting in awkward silence. Except Cassie had no words.
‘I should have been here to know that coffee made you feel sick,’ James said.
Cassie said nothing, sniffed and cut two big slices of tart.
