Sorrell’s eyes flicked from one man to the other, trying to read the situation that was being left unsaid.
“It’s a good thing he’s starting to get out there,” Jake said. “And an even better thing that he’s not keeping his—well—options local.”
Zack shook his head. “I’d rather not think about his options.”
“Zack, he’s a single man and you’re not a kid anymore. He is allowed to, you know, date.” Jake looked amused, his eyes checking over at Sorrell, almost as if he was checking if she shared the amusement or if she was planning to get the hell out of there.
“I know. But he’s not had awomanfriend since mum left,” Zack said.
Jake shook his head. “I think you’ve been burying your head in the hay if that’s what you think. I better go. Two of the high schoolers are in charge of setting up the boundary near the bonfire and it looks like they’re being over cautious.”
“There are worse things to be,” Zack mumbled.
Jake looked at him and raised his brows. “Zacky, you really need…” He then glanced at Sorrell and shook his head slightly. “I’ll see you in a bit. Sorrell, I’ll get your number off Zack and pass it onto the chef I know. He’s looking to move over here from Manchester.”
Jake strode outside, ignoring two sixth form girls who stared at him and then burst into giggles as he walked past.
“How long has your dad been single?” Sorrell asked Zack, who was staring at his almost empty mug.
Zack looked up, locking his eyes onto hers. “Sixteen years. I was seventeen when him and mum split. It wasn’t horrendous and no one had affairs that I knew of. I think they’d both outgrown each other and she wanted to do her own thing, given that the three of us were old enough to not be so dependent on her.”
“Do you still see her?”
He nodded. “Regularly. When she visits, she and her new husband stay at the farm. Her and my dad never fell out or argued. It was the definition of amicable.”
“But he hasn’t dated?”
“Not that I know of. But Jake lives there, so I think he knows a bit more,” Zack said. “It isn’t that I don’t want him to have someone; I don’t want him to be lonely and he’s doing less and less on the farm now Jake’s stepping up, so he needs company.”
“It just feels a bit weird?” Sorrell guessed.
Zack bit his lips together. “It does. And it makes me sound like I’m thirteen. Speaking of thirteen…”
Another large group of teenagers entered, all looking very excited and talking very quickly and loudly. The girls were mainly wearing sheepskin boots; the boys, skinny and lanky in the main, were in tracksuits and beanie hats.
“I remember bonfire night being huge as a kid at secondary school,” Sorrell said. “Everyone wanted to be at the biggest ones with the best firework displays.”
“What did you usually do?” he asked.
She noticed how his eyes were shining, crinkled at the sides from his smile. And then she realized that she was smiling too. He was making her feel comfortable, relaxed. Her shoulders no longer felt like they were clutched around her ears and her breaths were longer.
“We used to have a family bonfire. My parents were, well, Pagans is the best way I can explain it, so we used to commemorate the solstices and equinox, so our big party was Samhain—Halloween. They weren’t in favour of celebrating Guy Fawkes’ death,” Sorrell said. Her family were not the straightforward middle-class norm by any stretch of the definition.
Zack took her empty mug from her hands. “I get that. A lot of Pagan traditions float around this town too. I know the kids make the guys and we have the competition that Rayah pretty much always wins because she’s bloodthirsty, but we have a wicker man. And wait until Christmas.”
His smile was infectious and filled with promise.
“I like this town,” Sorrell said. She felt Zack’s hand push between her shoulder blades, guiding her out of the way of some slightly older teenagers who had just arrived. “It’s different.”
“That’s one way of putting it. I can’t think of anywhere else you’d find alpacas walking around a care home for the elderly,” Zack said, his expression morphing into the one she remembered from the first time they’d met, when his temper had been frazzled from the theft of his builders.
Sorrell laughed softly and found herself reaching out to touch his arm. “I’m pretty sure things like that give your residents something to talk about,” she said. “I bet they tell their grandchildren when they speak to them or visit. It’s more interesting than what they’ve had for dinner.”
There was the curve of a smile again. “You’re right,” he said. “I need to take a leaf out of Jake’s book and relax a bit more.”
She kept her hand on his arm, feeling hard muscle underneath. “Jake doesn’t strike me as a person who has books.”
That stirred a laugh. “He’s more of a magazine guy.” Zack glanced over to where his cousin was chatting up a blonde. “As in top shelf.”
