I bit my lip, just in case it betrayed me by trembling.
‘Okay then. Consider it forgotten.’
Chapter Twenty Nine
There were voices coming from the kitchen. I only recognised one of them – Josh’s. The others had thick Scottish accents that I thought I might need subtitles to decipher. I lifted my head off the pillow, but the heavy hangover of a largely sleepless night was hard to shake off.
The smell of frying bacon and the sound of laughter travelled down the corridor to the bedroom. It was followed by a series of sharp, excited barks. It sounded like the kitchen was the place to be, despite the ungodly hour. Although, when I checked my phone, I saw it wasn’t early at all.
I wasn’t surprised I’d overslept, having spent a large chunk of the night staring at the bedroom ceiling, thinking of all the things Ishouldhave said following the kiss. They’d ranged from pithy to pathetic, and in the cold light of morning, it was probably just as well I’d been too shell-shocked to deliver any of them.
I pulled on jeans and a sweatshirt and ran a comb through my tangled hair. The kitchen appeared to be full of men, and all of them were laughing when I entered the room. The amusement died away the moment they saw me and was immediately replaced by an air of sheepish embarrassment. I truly hoped it was becausesomeone had just told a dirty joke, and not because Josh had shared with his mates what had happened between us the night before.
I searched the room for his face among the strangers and it answered my question. From the way he flinched as our eyes locked, I instinctively knew he hadn’t told his friends a thing.Of coursehe hadn’t; not while he was still desperately trying to forget it had ever happened at all.
I took a deep breath and pasted what I hoped looked like a natural smile on the lips Josh wished he’d never kissed.
‘Good morning ... everyone,’ I said, making sure my greeting encompassed the three burly farmers in the room, who had apparently all received the same memo to dress in a plaid shirt, dark jeans and heavy work boots.
Josh, however, was dressed all in black, which felt oddly symbolic.
He cleared his throat. ‘Lily, this is Rory, Giles and Cameron.’
The men chorused a hello, giving me no opportunity to work out which name belonged to who.
‘Guys, this is my ... This is Lily.’
If any of them noticed the stumble as he failed to find a label to fit me, they were too polite to show it.
‘They’ve come to clear the trees that came down,’ Josh added unnecessarily. Did they know him well enough to realise he was feeling uncomfortable? Because to me it was glaringly obvious.
‘Trees? In the plural?’ I asked.
One of the interchangeable farmers replied, and as hard as I tried, I only managed to catch every other word.
For the first time since I’d entered the room, I saw an almost relaxed smile on Josh’s face. ‘Don’t worry, they’re used to having to repeat things for me. It took almost two years before I could make out what people were saying. God knows what I agreed to in that time,’ Josh said, earning himself a hefty shoulder-shove from theman beside him that would probably have toppled someone less muscular.
‘Cheeky bugger.’
That one I got.
Everyone laughed and I joined in, because these men were here today to help me leave, and it wasn’t their fault that I wasn’t entirely sure now whether I was ready to go.
Josh drained the contents of his mug and placed it on a grease-stained plate. ‘Giles said they discovered more trees that must have come down after we drove back on the night of the storm.’ He looked rueful. ‘I had hoped we’d be able to get you on your way this morning, but Rory thinks it might take a little longer.’
I gave what I hoped looked like a casual shrug. Could Josh make it any more obvious that he wanted me gone?
‘Aye, well, we’d better get at it. Pleasure meeting you, Lily,’ said the oldest of the three men, carefully enunciating each word as though I was a foreigner.
‘There’s coffee in the pot and I’ve left a couple of bacon sandwiches in the warming drawer for you,’ Josh advised, reaching for his coat.
‘Oh. Are you going with them?’ I asked as he pulled on heavy work gloves.
‘I am.’ Josh’s eyes were shuttered. It stung that if I’d woken up five minutes later, the cabin would probably already have been deserted.
‘He’s just going to get in the way,’ muttered Farmer Number Two.
‘Or be trying to make a chair out of every branch we cut off,’ his mate joked back with a hearty laugh.
