‘And your worst nightmare.’
‘Not at all. What makes you say that?’ I ask with a frown.
‘Come on,’ he mutters.
‘All I need is a hot tub.’
‘Ellie, please be serious.’
‘I am. I’ve become kind of reclusive myself, you know.’
He turns his face towards me, his expression dubious.
‘I’m not on social media, I don’t watch the news, my best friends are audiobooks – I only recently replaced my Nokia with an iPhone so I could listen to books and music on my drive to work. I like my colleagues, but we hardly ever socialise outside of work.’
I’d love to know what’s going through his mind, but he averts his gaze and finishes his tea, climbing back out of bed.
‘I’ll go throw on some logs to heat the shower.’
‘Shall I make us breakfast?’ I call after him.
He pokes his head back around the door frame. ‘How about a walk first?’
‘Okay.’
‘Are those the only other shoes you have with you?’ he asks a few minutes later when I join him.
He’s standing just outside the front door, wearing his big black boots.
‘I thought I was spending a week in an upmarket seaside town. I wanted to look nice.’
He eyes my high-heeled ankle boots circumspectly. ‘You’re going to get them muddy,’ he warns.
I shrug. ‘Mud comes off. At least they’re not white,’ I say, thinking ruefully of my trainers, which are still too wet to wear.
My Renault ZOE is parked behind his shed, and now I can see that there’s a dirt track beyond it.
‘So your car and bike are in the shed. Anything else?’
‘Only a few things in boxes that I didn’t want to throw out.’
‘What, like family heirlooms?’
He shakes his head as we walk in the direction of the track.
‘I didn’t keep anything for myself.’
‘Nothing for your children?’
‘My mother can pass on what she likes.IfI have kids,’ he adds tonelessly.
‘Do you want them?’
‘Maybe. One day. But I couldn’t raise a family out here. It’s too isolated.’
‘Nah, it’s just a bit too small. You’d have to build an extension.’
He throws me a wry look.
