‘And Fletcher made him laugh. He adored that dog.’
Josh made a small sound that sounded like agreement. ‘And what was it that drove him crazy?’
I paused, like a cautious diver preparing to leap off the high board. ‘You. You drove him crazy.’
‘Me?’ I could tell my answer had shocked him. ‘Why?’
It was suddenly hard to meet his eyes. ‘I don’t know. But just the mention of your name ...’
‘What possible reason was there toevermention my name?’
Trust Josh to go for the one question I wasn’t prepared to answer. I lost my composure, stumbling over the words as though they were suddenly too awkward to get past.
‘I didn’t. We never really spoke about you. I guess it was just knowing you’d been there in my past ... that there’d been history between us—’
‘Ancient history,’ Josh corrected, looking about as uncomfortable as I felt.
The truce between us suddenly felt in danger of collapse and, determined to salvage it, my tongue set off at a sprint, without waiting for my brain to catch up.
‘Anyhoo, in answer to your question about cooking: Adam had a three-dish repertoire that peaked at fish finger sandwiches. Everything else he incinerated.’ I gave a laugh that sounded a little too high to be natural. ‘He’d have set off every smoke alarm in the house if he’d attempted anything like you pulled off tonight. You’re definitely a better chef.’
Josh got abruptly to his feet and strode across the kitchen in scissor-sharp strides, to scrape his uneaten dessert into the rubbish. There was no doubt he was angry; the proof was right there in the pedal bin.
‘I don’t need you to throw me a bone here, Lily. Adam and I aren’t in competition with each other anymore.’ His laugh held very little humour. ‘The best man won, didn’t he ... and then he got to be the groom.’
As closing lines go, I had to admit that one would be hard to beat.
The wind, which had been steadily picking up since late afternoon, matched the mood in the kitchen by angrily rattling the glass in the window frame. It gave Josh an excellent excuse to walk away from me, something he was particularly good at doing. I wasn’t surprised when he snatched up his coat and muttered something about having to go outside to ‘check things out’.
With a switch of allegiance that irritated me more than it should, Fletcher hurried to Josh’s side, exactly as he used to do when Adam took him out for his last walk of the night. Wordlessly, Josh bent to clip on the lead and disappeared out of the kitchen with my dog.
I’d always found cleaning to be a great way of relieving tension. When Adam was really sick, and our future was hanging by a thread, our flat had never been more spotless. But tidying up Josh’smessy kitchen scarcely even dented my frustration. I suspected it would take more than a few gleaming work surfaces to stifle my irritation with the man who lived here.
I wasn’t snooping. But I’d seen Josh delve into this drawer for clean tea towels and I needed one to dry the glasses. As I reached for a folded cloth, I felt it snag on something at the back of the drawer. I tugged a little harder and it came free, bringing whatever had been lodged behind it.
‘Oh!’ The tiny exclamation sounded loud in the empty room as I stared down at the snow globe sitting incongruously on a nest of kitchen odds and ends.
I recognised it instantly. The laughing polar bear sitting in a clearing of tall pines was just as cute and amusing as it had been the first time I’d seen it. I carefully reached for the ornament, as though the glass was as fragile as a soap bubble. I shook it gently, settling it in the palm of my hand as the artificial snow fell on the trees and engulfed the jovial bear in swirling flurries. The price label was still on the base, and I wondered if the globe had spent its entire life hidden away at the back of the drawer, like a guilty secret.
I breathed in deeply, and suddenly my nose was filled with the memory of crisp winter air and mulled wine ...
Chapter Twenty Two
Seven Years Earlier
‘Are you having a good time?’
I looked up at Adam and smiled. ‘I really am. I’m a complete sucker for a Christmas market.’
Adam grinned and pulled me a little closer to his side, a place I was fast realising I might be happy to occupy forever. ‘Warm enough?’ he checked, cinching me even closer.
‘I am, but you must be freezing.’
He’d come straight from work, still in his suit and tie, to meet me at the Winter Wonderland extravaganza, knowing how much I’d been looking forward to browsing the market with its festive bars, street food stalls and unique holiday gifts.
‘We don’t have to stay much longer if you’re cold,’ I said, my eyes saying something entirely different when I spotted a whole avenue of artisan stalls which we’d yet to explore.
‘I’m happy to keep browsing,’ Adam said, his eyes warm even if the rest of him wasn’t. ‘It’s fun seeing you all lit up with excitement like this.’
