Madi laughed again. ‘Or you could ask your neighbours. And you could get them to help with your decorations too. That should get them in the Christmas spirit. I’d better let you go and find your plumber slash heating engineer. Call me later with an update.’
‘Will do,’ I said, dabbing at my saturated dressing gown with reams of kitchen paper towel. ‘I’m already wet, so I might as well go and have my shower. The water should be warming up by now. Give my love to Tristan.’
Two
‘Alec Richman Heating and Plumbing. How may I help you?’ The voice took me by surprise, partly because a human being, not a machine, had answered, and partly because the man was so polite and friendly, but mainly because I hadn’t expected the voice to sound quite as deep and gravelly. Or as … sexy.
‘Oh. Erm. I need someone to come and fix my heating. And my kitchen tap. Would you be able to do that, please?’
‘I wouldn’t be a particularly good heating engineer and plumber if I couldn’t. Where do you live?’
‘Middle Cottage. On Midwinter Lane. It’s on Midwinter Ridge in the tiny hamlet of Midwinter. Near Fairlight Bay.’
‘I know Midwinter Lane.’ He sounded amused by my directions, which I’d given because his website stated, “we cover East Sussex”, and as that was a rather large area, I had no idea if he would’ve heard of such a tiny place as Midwinter. Apparently, he had. ‘Is it an emergency?’
‘Erm. It’s December and it’s freezing today. So yes, I would say so.’
‘Do you have kids?’
‘Sorry?’
‘Do you have kids?’ he repeated.
‘N-o.’ That was a weird thing to ask.
‘Do you live with elderly relatives?’
‘No. And before you ask, I don’t have a dog, a cat, or a hamster. I live alone. Erm. I need a heating engineer and a plumber, not a date. What has any of that got to do with this?’ I kept my voice light and friendly but it crossed my mind that I might’ve called a weirdo.
His laugh, however, was pleasant. Very pleasant. Almost melodic.
An image of the man developed in my mind’s eye. Tall, broad shouldered, athletic build, long legs, a cheerful and sexy smile, dark hair and dark, straight eyebrows framing equally dark eyes, above a full mouth and a firm jaw.
A shiver ran through me, and it wasn’t because I was cold. The heating had been on for some time now and the cottage was as toasty as could be. Of course, the man would probably be the complete opposite of what I had imagined. Which was just as well. Because the image I had conjured up was that of Berry’s brother, Paul. And I shouldn’t be thinking about Paul in any way, shape, or form. The man had a girlfriend.
Perhaps this Alec Richman would be short, fat and hairy. In fact, I rather hoped he would be, because the last thing I needed in my life was to have a crush on both Berry’s brother, and a plumber. Or on anyone for that matter. I had a business to run and Christmas to prepare for, and, unlike Madi’s, my love life had always been a bit of a disaster.
Although … it had been a long time since I had had a crush on anyone, prior to meeting Paul. The last date I had been on was before I had moved to Middle Cottage so that was well over a year ago now. Perhaps meeting someone wouldn’t be so bad after all. And with Christmas coming, it would be lovely to havesomeone to snuggle up with in front of a roaring, log fire on the cold, winter nights. Not that I had a roaring log fire to snuggle in front of. Or any fire for that matter.
Alec interrupted my thoughts with a small cough. ‘As you said, it’s December and it’s freezing. I’m trying to establish how much of an emergency it is. My list is longer than Santa’s right now, so if you don’t have kids or elderly people living in your home, you won’t be at the top of my list. Sorry. What’s the problem with the heating?’
‘If I knew that, I wouldn’t be calling you.’ I laughed even though it wasn’t funny.
‘Fair point. What I meant was, is it the boiler? Or is it a problem with the programmer? Is the pilot light on?’
‘Yes. And I managed to turn the heating on manually.’
‘So you’ve got heating then?’
‘Yes. But it didn’t come on this morning, so it might not come on tomorrow either.’
‘But it’s working okay other than that?’
‘Yes. It seems to be.’
‘And you’ve got hot water?’
‘I have now, but it was tepid when I had my shower.’
