‘Easy. I used to love crunchy, now I prefer smooth. How about you?’
He nods. ‘Definitely smooth.’ His smile widens. ‘So we passed the first one.’
He pushes the pot towards me, and I unfold the next. ‘Dogs or cats?’ I stop to think. ‘Dogs, but I’d love a houseful of cats with the dogs– if I ever got a house of my own, which I never plan to, but whatever.’
Lando nods. ‘I shared my bed with a Norwegian Forest cat called Pax as a toddler. I’d happily add in one of those again, so long as Martha didn’t mind.’
I give him a hard stare. ‘So you’re going to give in and adopt her?’
He frowns for a second, then he grins again. ‘She and Angel get on well.’
My chest contracts. ‘If you’ve mentally moved in with us already, this is never going to work.’
He rolls his eyes. ‘I was thinking more that I could use your dog-walking services to cover times I couldn’t take Martha to work with me.’
I’m kicking myself for that. Damn. Of course. ‘Good thinking, not a problem.’
He’s definitely biting back his laughter, but there’s nothing I can do so I push the pot towards him again.
He picks out the next question and smiles. ‘Best jelly? Has to be strawberry with fresh fruit chunks and Bolly’—he takes in my one raised eyebrow—‘although I’m sure Prosecco would work just as well as champers.’
I’m already dipping for the next. ‘Favourite Smartie colour?’ I’m smiling at how cute the questions are. ‘As kids Sav wouldn’t touch the yellow ones or the brown ones, but that meant there was all the more for me! Left to myself I eat the dark brown ones first, because I like to leave the colourful ones.’
Lando grins. ‘It’s a deal. You have those, I’ll have the rest.’ He goes in again. ‘What’s your best achievement at work?’
I laugh. ‘When I first started at the bingo hall, all the regulars used to give me such a hard time when I called out the numbers. My proudest moment was when I went back after having Nemmie, and they all cheered because they were pleased to see me again.’
Lando nods at me. ‘Did you work there a long time?’
I nod. ‘I started as a stop-gap after uni, and the evening shifts fitted in so well with the childcare once Nemmie arrived, I carried on. They were such a community of characters, with so much love and heart, they were like a second family. It’s funny to think that if it hadn’t closed down, I’d still be there.’
Lando laughs. ‘As you explained to me the other week, it’s a dangerous game thinking about “what ifs”. Like if you hadn’t run around St Aidan in a wedding dress, the kids would never have thought about finding you a husband.’ He frowns at his empty plate. ‘I’d hate to have missed out on these awesome scones.’
I push more towards him. ‘Don’t stop at three, have some more while you’re telling me about your job.’ I still don’t properly know what Lando does when he’s not directing brides and grooms around the beach.
While he concentrates on spreading his jam and cream, his expression is so like Nemmie’s. Then he looks up, takes another bite, and licks a slick of cream off his finger. If I’m inhaling jam and cream and thinking it feels delicious having him in the garden, I have to be getting my sensory responses mixed up.
He shuffles in his seat. ‘I avoid talking about work because I hate to bore people, but I work with conservation projects. There are lots of programs looking for cash, and lots of entrepreneurs and companies willing to put money into worthwhile schemes. I simply find the best matches and bring them together.’
I laugh. ‘So you’re like eHarmony for the conservation world?’
He looks at the clouds. ‘It’s slightly more complex than that. But yes.’
‘You can say another sentence without me falling asleep.’ I scour his face and think of what else I can ask. ‘Don’t you miss being hands-on in the wild?’
His lips twist into a smile again. ‘I enable millions of pounds worth of work to go forward each year. The satisfaction is knowing all those worthwhile projects are happening when they might struggle otherwise.’ He grins at me. ‘When it came to it, this was the part I was best at. If I want to count little terns, I’ll always be welcome to help out at one of the projects.’
‘It’s funny how things worked out, years down the line.’
He laughs. ‘Very few people end up doing what they aimed for as teenagers.’
He pulls out the next question. ‘What was your biggest surprise?’
Whoever snuck this in knew they were lobbing a hand grenade, but I’m making Lando answer first. ‘What was yours?’
His smile widens. ‘That’s easy. You turning up on my pontoon in your wedding dress, then promptly falling in the harbour.’
It’s a surprise to me that out of his whole life he’s chosen this, but it might be a sign he has a short memory.
