She nodded. “Amazing. It’s really something to see.”
He looked towards Scarhead Pike where the river continued, Scott’s flame some distance at the back, watching the people in front. Shepherding. “I’m never sure whether it’s better to do or better to watch.”
“When’s the last time you watched?” she said, half knowing the answer.
“When I was eleven. I was old enough at twelve to take part and I haven’t missed a year since. Scott, Jake and Rayah are the same. Alex has had to because of work,” he said, taking off his gloves. “I’ve booked a table for us at the Swan. I wasn’t sure if you’d fancy it, but I knew it would be pretty busy after this. I do need to get a quick shower first,”
“That sounds good,” she said. “I haven’t eaten there yet.”
“Excellent. How do you feel about helping me get warmed up?”
They were back in bed three hours later. Her head was on the top of his chest, the thick duvet covering them both, although he gave off enough heat for her not to need one almost.
“I loved watching you coming down the peak this evening,” she said, feeling sated and sleepy.
He used a hand to move her hair out of her face. “Not going to lie, it was great to know you were there waiting for me.”
“I bet there have been girls waiting there for you before me,” she said. “Come on, Zack, I’ve heard your reputation.”
He didn’t say anything and she felt him tense beneath her, his hand frozen on her waist.
“You know, Ells, you keep mentioning other women or girls like you’re just one of many, as if you’re just the one I’m passing time with at the moment. I don’t feel like that about you but I think because your ex didn’t realise how good he had it, you don’t see that.” He paused, rearranging them so she was on her side looking at him. He tucked the duvet around her. “I’m not interested in seeing another woman than you in my future and I know I’m going out on a limb saying that and to be honest, telling you that is harder than doing that climb tonight in the snow because I don’t know how you’re going to react to this. I don’t know whether I’m just a stop gap while you get your confidence back or if you’ll ever believe that I feel more for you than just someone to help me keep warm this winter.”
She stilled, feeling his tension through every muscle in his body. This man, this glorious man who made her feel so much was on his knees because of her and yet still she didn’t know herself how she could respond, whether she was able to give him what he asked.
“I don’t know, Zack. I don’t know if I can put myself out there and think of a future like I did before.”
He held her, saying nothing. When he spoke, it was as if all the world was waiting for his words.
“Give me twelve days, Sorrell, or just a bit more than. Let me have the twelve days of Christmas to make you know that what I feel is real.”
“Twelve days?”
“Until twelfth night. Then if you don’t think it can work we’ll discuss where we go from there.”
“And if I think it will work?”
“Then we discuss where it goes from then.”
Chapter 28
The first day of Christmas
“There had better be proper gravy!”
Zack smiled at May Pearson as he added an extra roast potato to her plate, hoping that the time she took to chew it would give everyone else a bit more peace.
“There is proper gravy? Not that fancy stuff they give you in a small jug in a posh restaurant that isn’t enough to drown one potato.”
It continued and he wished sometimes that it wouldn’t.
“There’s proper gravy for you May and something a bit richer for those who want that. We thought of everything,” he said, catching sight of Sorrell who was serving at another table. He hopedhe’dthought of everything.
Last night he’d said more than he’d intended, but he wanted her to know that she wasn’t simply someone he was passing the time with. He could see more with her, a fact his family had picked up on because they had stepped back on the teasing and comments, realising that he was in deep with her.
“What about the alpacas?” Mac said. “Have they been looked after properly this morning? I’d have gone to help Jake but that daft son of mine came.”
Mac’s family had visited him early on. They’d asked him to go with them and have Christmas dinner at their house, but he’d refused, preferring to stick with routine, which had started to include feeding the alpacas each morning. No one was complaining: Mac was physically fairly fit, just a bit forgetful and incapable of looking after himself after having a wife who did it for him for more than fifty years. He liked being at Sunrise and now he liked having his purpose with the animals again, having been a farmer himself.
