Tom, finally noticing Sebastian in the doorway looked between them. “I’ll um … busy myself in the garden, then.”
Alone with Sebastian, Helen hobbled toward him.
“Thank you for tidying up,” Helen said. “You didn’t have to.”
“Of course I did.” He gently took her hand and walked her to her room. “You’ll feel more like yourself after a few days’ rest.”
“Thanks for holding the fort while I’m away,” she said. “When I get back, maybe we could do those day trips we planned. You can finally see Stonehenge and Glastonbury Tor.”
Again, there was the sad regret in his eyes.
“I’d like to, but I can’t. My mom …” Sebastian sighed. “I told you she has impeccable timing, right?”
Helen sat on her bed and listened carefully as he told her that his mother had started to drink heavily since his father had died.
“I really can’t understand it,” he said, “but I need to go check on her. My flight leaves the night you come back from Cornwall. You understand don’t you, Hobbs?”
“Of course I do.” She understood lots of things about Sebastian. In particular how he couldn’t cope with too many complications all at once.
Helen picked her rucksack off her bedroom floor, tossed out the bits and pieces that were in there and stuffed in some fresh clothes.
Sebastian strode to the French doors, his back to her.
“Helen, I …” He started to pace, like he always did when something was too awkwardly close for comfort. “About us …”
He paced some more, taking in little gulps of air that produced no words. Helen knew the words though. They went something like,Look, Helen, I care about you, but my life is in Canada and yours is here. We had fun, but it’s over now.
Sebastian turned on his heels and looked straight at her, and as if he’d heard her thoughts, said, “Look, Helen, I—”
“Don’t worry, Sebastian.” After all she’d put him through this summer, she should help him out with this. “I know already.”
“You do?”
“Yes, and you’re right. We had fun this summer but neither of us expected it to last beyond the day you returned to Canada, and we both have so much going on at the moment. Me with everything here, my home and the estate and the police, and you, with your mom, your training … Let’s just be friends. I’d really, really like that.”
“Friends?” Sebastian blinked. “Like, just friends?”
“We get on as friends, don’t we?”
“Sure we do.” He studied her with his starting-block gaze. “Friends, eh?”
She smiled. “You’ve done enough cleaning up. No more dirty pots and pans for you to scrub. Just let me know what you need me to do during our official breakup phase. What clause was that again?”
“Clause six. But you don’t need to do anything, Hobbs. I’ll handle it all.” He kissed her on the cheek. “Friends.”
“Yes.” It was better this way. “Just friends.”
Looking after a flock of hens was yet something else Seb hadn’t expected to do this summer. On his last day in England, he filled up their feeder with gray pellets and refilled their water like he’d seen Helen do so often since he’d moved in with her.
He’d miss it here. He’d miss her. Leaving today would be hard. But Seb had a new plan now and being Just Friends with Helen would be … nice.Really nice.
These past few days while she’d been in Cornwall had given Seb a taste of what their friendship would be like. Sparky, snarky texts, telling each other trivial details about whatever was going on at the time.
That skinny speckled hen doesn’t like me. She makes a beeline to peck my legs every morning.
She’s showing you affection.
I’d like to show her some too—with garlic and rosemary.
