‘Oh no, we couldn’t intrude,’ said the man, who I assumed was Rose’s husband and carer.
My eyes met Adam’s and I saw the apology in them, and something flipped inside me at the kindness of this man.
‘Really, we’d love you to have lunch with us,’ I added with a smile.
Our date had taken a surprising detour, but over the next forty-five minutes, as we shared our picnic with Rose and her slightly embarrassed husband, Frank, strangely I learnt more about Adam than I could ever have done after weeks of dating. And there wasn’t a single thing I discovered that I didn’t like.
By the time we waved goodbye to our lunchtime companions, the skies had grown cloudier and a breeze was whipping through the trees. The first fat spots of rain fell when the hamper was still only half packed. I looked skywards as forked lightning streaked across a sky that was rapidly darkening to the colour of a bruise.
‘This was not meant to happen,’ Adam said, gathering up plates and containers and bundling them into the picnic basket with more haste than care. We were a good twenty-minute walk from where we’d left the car, and there was nowhere nearby to shelter safely.
In just minutes our clothes were plastered to our skin, which was nowhere near as sexy as Hollywood would have you believe. Though Adam’s white t-shirt had turned interestingly transparent, as diverting as that was, I was horribly afraid my shorts might be about to do the same.
‘Sit it out or make a run for it?’ he asked as thunder rumbled in the distance.
‘Run,’ I said decisively.
The grass was slippery, and the hill steep, so when Adam held out his hand, I didn’t hesitate to place mine within his firm grip. But when we reached the safety of the pathway, he didn’t release it and I didn’t tug it free. We were laughing as we ran through the rain, swerving puddles and dodging Fletcher, who seemed to think it was all an enormous game.
When the car park was in sight we put on a final burst of speed, falling breathlessly against the vehicle like sprinters crossing a finishing line. Adam was fumbling in his pocket for the car keys when a weird retching sound made me spin around, and I saw Fletcher hunkered down low, his sides heaving alarmingly. The question of whether it was wise to feed dogs pâté was answered seconds later, very graphically. Adam immediately dropped to a crouch beside his poorly dog.
‘It’s okay, buddy, you’re okay,’ he gently crooned, running his hand down the dog’s back until the worst was over. Fletcher looked up at his owner with sorrowful eyes. ‘It’s not your fault, boy. Don’t worry.’
Adam passed me the car keys, urging me to get out of the downpour, but I made no move to open the door. I just stood there in the rain watching this big man, with his big heart, crouched down on the ground, soothing his frightened dog.
Even though his attention was all on Fletcher, Adam must have somehow sensed my eyes were on him. He looked up with an expression of apology.
‘I’m so sorry, Lily. Nothing about today has gone the way I planned. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a first date going any worse than this.’
‘Really? I was just thinking the exact opposite.’
‘You were?’
I loved the way his eyes widened and then lit up at my reply. Very slowly, I nodded and started to smile.
Adam gave a flash of the grin I was going to fall in love with. I just didn’t know it yet.
‘I guess it will make a great story one day.’
And he was right. It did.
Chapter Fifteen
With an impatient sigh I tossed the paperback on to the settee beside me. It landed beside the first two I’d plucked from Josh’s bookcase and abandoned. The problem wasn’t the books, it was me.
I was filled with restless energy, the kind that has zoo animals pacing their cages – or savaging their keepers, I thought darkly, my eyes going to the workshop on the other side of the clearing where Josh had disappeared three hours earlier.
I’d spent the first hour of his absence working my way to the bottom of the coffee pot, which in hindsight might not have been the best decision. When you’re already climbing halfway up the walls, an overdose of caffeine is probably the last thing you need.
I paced Josh’s cabin until I knew exactly how many steps there were from the bedroom to the kitchen, and the lounge to the larder. After my fourth circuit, even Fletcher abandoned me for a spot in front of a crackling log fire in the lounge which Josh must have lit earlier.
‘Four more days of this and I might truly lose my mind,’ I said out loud with a despairing shake of my head. I wasn’t sure why the isolation felt so much worse here than it did when I was alone in the home I’d shared with Adam. Perhaps it had something to do with being constantly reminded that the man who lived here didn’twant me under his roof. So much so that he’d sooner spend hours in a freezing cold outbuilding than in my company.
Fletcher’s paws were twitching as he ran through a dream, chasing something he’d never catch. And in a way so was I, trying to crack the mystery of why Adam had sent me here, but only if Josh was willing to lower his defences. What I needed was something to use as a metaphorical white flag to call a truce in our sniping.
My restless feet had taken me on yet another tour of the cabin’s floorplan, and I came to a stop inside Josh’s Armageddon-style larder. And there was the answer right there in front of me, innocently disguised as a shelf full of canned rice pudding. Josh had always had a sweet tooth, and I owned a cake-making business. It didn’t take a genius to work out what I should do next.
I’d never tried to change someone’s mind with a gateau before, but I had literally nothing to lose.
