Leaf flapping open, she dropped and abandoned the envelope, grabbed a sheet of paper from the printer tray and headed to the kitchen drawer for some tape.
And when she thought she’d had the biggest surprise of the day, what was in there threw her even further.
Oh, bloody hell! He didn’t?Cherry wanted to sob and laugh at the same time.Oh, Sean, you wonderful human.
She blinked hard. The tears would flood her face if she didn’t force them back and concentrate on the cat. Grabbing the tape and a pen, she slammed the drawer closed and, pulse still ricocheting from what oddly felt like a run-in with a bear, took them out to Summer.
The cat was rubbing up against Summer’s legs when Cherry stepped out onto the patio.
‘If no one claims him,’ Summer said, ‘you could get him checked over by Nate and then adopt him as your family pet.’
Cherry considered the sweet, affectionate creature. It broke her heart that someone would abandon a cat like this, although the idea of adopting him warmed her to the core. Sean and her sitting in this garden, a little cat sniffing at the flowers and chasing butterflies.
‘That would be lovely.’ Her mind drifted momentarily to everything she had seen inside the house. ‘Really, really lovely.’
Chapter 22
Sean
Behind Sean, the front door clicked shut, the serenity of Kinshore almost ringing in his ears after the noise of the past few days’ travel. It was the perfect welcome home, although there was one thing he’d like more.One thing he’d thought of constantly whilst away.
No sign of her, though.Not standing making toast in those denim hot pants he loved, or dancing to country music whilst dunking a tea bag in a cup. And certainly not waiting to kiss him and let him tear her clothes off like he’d imagined for most of the journey home.
Dropping his bag, Sean moved to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water, downing it in a few gulps. Only then did it come to his attention that the patio door was slightly open.
He slid the door open and, for a second, forgot to breathe as the sight of a transformed landscape hit him, including slender soil-stained legs bathing in early-afternoon sunlight and equally filthy feet restingon an old garden chair.
Standing unnoticed, he took her in. From behind, covered in dirt, his wife was still the most captivating woman he’d ever seen. He let out a long, low whistle.
‘Woah! What happened here?’
As Cherry glanced back, joy and delight shimmered in her eyes.‘Oh, hi!’
‘Did you do this?’ Sean moved to the edge of the patio, drinking in his newly made-over garden.The answer could only be yes, unless she’d hired a gardener, but she looked like she had been in amongst it.
‘Maybe,’ she teased. ‘With a little help from my new friend, Summer.’
He spun back. ‘Summer? Summer Munro?’
‘Yes, she works in the garden shop. Speaks very highly of you.’
‘I speak highly of her, even higher now that you’ve both turned the place into the Garden of Eden. I’m speechless. I mean, as speechless as I get, but you know…’
‘You like it?’ Cherry brightened.
‘Aye. It’s incredible.’ He stepped onto the lawn, then stopped. ‘Can I go here with my shoes on?’
She laughed. ‘Of course you can. It’s grass, not diamonds.’
Sean did a little dance on the lawn. ‘Check out this normal-sized grass… And all these plants that aren’t weeds… You’ve got honeysuckle!’ He walked over and called to her from the fence as if she weren’t the one who had put it there. ‘Honeysuckle!’
‘Yes, like at your mum’s house.’
This caught him off guard for its thoughtfulness, and all he could do was stare at her. He thought of her constantly, but to know it might be mutual moved him more than he could say.
‘There are bird feeders and a birdbath.’ Cherry pointed to the rowan tree in the right-hand corner where the bird paraphernalia was set out. ‘This place is going to be a wee winged creature’s paradise.’
‘Did the wee winged creatures vandalise this one already?’ Sean stared down at the unassembled birdhouse sitting on the patio.
