Had she totally blown it with him?
‘You came back…’ she stumbled as they walked, him pacing ahead of her. ‘To the markets, I mean, to sell things.’
‘Yup.’
Was that all she got? He wasn’t making this easy.
‘Are you still making things?’
‘Yup.’
This was painful. ‘Nate, would you stop and talk to me?’
‘This is heavy,’ he claimed and strode over to his pick-up.
‘You’re so frustrating!’ Her outburst didn’t do much to stop him arranging the box and the board in the metal tray before he pulled the cover over everything. ‘And you’re stubborn!’
‘Any more insults for me?’ he asked once the cover was secure.
She didn’t say a word.
He pulled open the driver’s door. Was he just going to leave?
But he turned, one hand on the top of the door. ‘I don’t like not knowing what’s going on, that’s all. You just left. Without a word. And Morgan…’ He ran a hand across his jaw. ‘I can’t do this with you. I’ve told you that more than once.’
Before he could climb into the pick-up, she asked, ‘What are you doing back here?’ This time, she moved in front of him and closed the driver’s door. ‘Why won’t you look at me, Nate?’
He looked then but only briefly. ‘You know why.’
‘No, actually, I don’t.’
‘How’s the new job in Edinburgh?’ he asked. ‘That’s where you went, isn’t it?’
‘I did go to Scotland, yes. But I haven’t started the job yet.’ She pushed her back against his driver’s door, unwilling to let him get in, let alone drive away from her. She was about to tell him that the new job wasn’t in Scotland, not any more, when he put his hands on the tops of her arms and moved her out of the way gently. She didn’t have a chance to brace herself and refuse to move.
He climbed into the pick-up and started the engine. When he wound the window down to get some air circulating, she rested her hands on the top.
He puffed out his cheeks at her persistence. ‘Where’s your fiancé?’ A hint of mockery mixed with a tone that sounded hurt, pissed off, delivered the question. But in that moment, he clocked the ringless fourth finger of her left hand.
‘I don’t have one,’ she said simply. And still he said nothing. ‘Oh, you’re impossible, Nate. Maybe I can’t do this either.’
She stomped away between parked cars so his pick-up couldn’t follow her and when she emerged towards the entrance of the car park, she turned onto Snowdrop Lane.
But she hadn’t walked much further when she heard a snapping of twigs beside her, followed by a swish of the bushes before Nate appeared, puffed from what was likely a sprint to cut her off. He’d never looked so good, even with the leaf on the shoulder of his t-shirt, a twig he yanked from his hair before he scraped a hand through it, the stubble that saidsexyrather thanforgot to shave.
He stood in her path, the puffing subsiding as his heart rate returned to normal. ‘Would it interest you to know that I’ve moved in with Dad? For the foreseeable?’
She hadn’t expected to see him today, let alone have him say something like that. ‘You’re moving back to the village?’
‘Looks like it.’ He stepped closer, forcing her to look up some more rather than have her gaze fixed on his chest.
‘What about Wales? Your home? Your business?’
‘Technicalities, Morgan.’
She looked down again, the stone near her shoe of sudden interest. This was real now. Both single, both in the village.
‘What, you don’t have anything to say?’ he asked. When she still said nothing, he added, ‘Well, that’s a first. Now who’s being stubborn?’
