‘Yeah.’ With a sigh she picked up her wine glass to take a sip, before adding sadly, ‘But at some point, you have to face it and sort everything out.’
‘This,’ he touched her lips, a sad smile playing at his mouth, ‘is probably muddying the waters.’ He paused before adding, ‘For both of us.’
His words caused a funny hollowness in her chest.
‘So what’s happening with Marina?’ Despite the bluntness of her question Devon didn’t seem to mind. She studied his face in relief as he watched the flames of the fire.
‘Same as ever. I get daily emails from her asking what the progress is. Putting the pressure on. At first I wasn’t quite sure what she expects me to do. I can’t magic the money up from thin air. Then I realised she’s decided she wants me back and this is her means to do it. The only way to make my debt disappear is to go back.’
‘And you don’t want to.’
His face closed down, a stern expression telling her all she needed to know. ‘Absolutely not. I considered it. Would have been easier. To go back to the status quo but once you realise something’s broken, it’s really hard, if not impossible, to fix.’ He sighed. ‘Now that I’m here and away from the day to day life, I know I couldn’t go back. I wasn’t happy but I didn’t know it at the time.’ He touched her face. ‘Does that sound familiar?’
With a lightness of heart, Ella nodded. ‘Yes. I wasn’t unhappy but I wasn’t as happy as I could be. Coming here wasn’t what I wanted at all.’
‘Me neither. I’ll stay for now but it is temporary.’ With a candid look, he straightened. ‘Sorry. This . . . ’ he spread his hands out. ‘I shouldn’t have . . . kissed you.’
‘Devon, it’s fine. I’d rather you were honest. This, staying in the village, is a stopgap, for me as much as you. I’ve no idea what I’m going to do. I said I’d stay for six months.’
‘I . . . like you, a lot.’ He pulled a face. ‘That sounds pathetic. What I’m trying to say is, I want to spend time with you but there’s no . . . sounds callous, happy ever after, but at the same time, if I said it’s just casual, that sounds shallow and empty and I can’t do that either.’
Ella laid a finger on his lips. ‘I thought women overthought things. Why don’t we just enjoy each other’s company, while wefigure out our own lives? I don’t expect anything from you.’ She trailed her finger down his chin and laid her hand on his chest. ‘Well, perhaps the odd thing.’
‘Dessert maybe.’
His pulse leapt at the husky tone in her voice.
‘Dessert, I can handle.’
Yup, he could definitely handle that. So why did her previous words, agreeing with him, dammit, cause a twinge of regret that twisted in his gut? Having a bloody protective streak a mile wide had a lot to answer for. He had a feeling the type of things she expected from a man were the sort of things he could give without too much effort if his circumstances were different.
Her fingers had found their way to bare flesh, so he leaned back, pulling her with him, as they skimmed just above the waistband of his jeans.
‘Who are you calling odd?’ he asked, feathering a kiss at the side of her lips. ‘I might have to prove there’s nothing odd about me.’
‘I might just have to let you.’
Dimly he heard the crackle of the fire in the background as he settled into her, their kisses deepening as daylight slipped away outside.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
‘You look a bit flushed, dear.’ Audrey greeted her at the door of the village hall. ‘Don’t worry, we’ve got everything under control.’
Ella wondered what she’d say if she knew what had put the colour on her cheeks and the warm tingle coursing through her bloodstream. Devon had stopped by as she was loading her pictures into the car and offered to take Tess for her for the afternoon and then they’d got a little distracted. Boy, was he a good kisser.
He was the one who’d convinced her to bring along her three new watercolours when he’d spotted them in her studio. She’d been dithering about whether to bring them along. Part of her didn’t want to share them with anyone yet. They were still too private. They were hers. Raw. Untried. She tilted her head to one side. How could she be objective about them? She had no idea if they were any good or not, couldn’t even say they were her best work. All she knew was that for the first time ever, she’d manage to faithfully reproduce the image in her head with such crispness and clarity it made her heart sing. The greens were exactly the right greens, the shadows had a depth to them she imagined losing herself in and the mist rising had a magical opalescence to it.
Before she could speak, Audrey’s team of helpers, primed to unload the pictures from the car, were soon carrying the pictures inside, ably directed by Audrey who coordinated her team witha voice as loud as a foghorn, dictating exactly where each one should go.
Within fifteen minutes the room had been laid out, a couple of easels at the front displayed the Cuthbert pictures she’d borrowed from her parents and then a makeshift gallery around the back of the room to the right of the refreshment table, displayed some of her recent sketches and pictures which Bets had helped her to hastily mount and put into cheap IKEA frames.
Ella scarcely had a chance to draw breath before the room began filling with a range of ladies of various shapes and sizes, all talking like vivacious parrots.
She stood at the front of the room, twisting her cold hands together. The words she’d rehearsed in her head were harder to recall now she was faced with an audience. Why had she agreed to do this? Luckily it seemed that everyone in the room had been in solitary confinement for the last six months – the nearest group of ladies fell upon each other with cries of delight and barely drew breath as they talked non-stop, completely ignoring her.
Audrey glided to the front to stand beside Ella. ‘Don’t worry, they’ll shut up in a minute,’ she whispered and sure enough the talk died away, which was actually far worse because one by one every head turned with intense, focused interest to survey Ella. If it weren’t for the fact that her feet were frozen to the floor, she might have made a run for it.
‘Ladies.’ Audrey signalled to the corner where Ella realised there was a woman seated at the piano. Everyone stood up. Ella shifted and looked behind her.
