‘None o’ your bloody business!’ Fortunately, Mark seemed to find Ellie amusing rather than nosy. ‘I dunno. Women want more of a talker. I’m not much in the conversation stakes.’
‘We’re having a conversation.’ Ellie gave him a look. ‘Don’t play the “hot but dumb” card.’
‘You think I’m hot?’ He raised an eyebrow, grinning.
Ellie flicked a tea towel at him. ‘Oh, shut up.’ She was suddenly flustered. ‘You know what I mean. Whatever. Forget it.’
Mark laughed for quite a few moments until she flicked him with the towel again.
‘I mean it. Forget I said that.’ She glared at him, trying not to laugh herself.
‘I will forget it immediately. Said what?’ He feigned innocence.
‘That’s more like it. I’m going to look at this dough now.’ She turned around, smiling to herself. She was having fun, and she couldn’t quite remember ever having this nice a time with a man, basically doing nothing in particular. It was easy being with Mark, like she’d known him a long time and not a couple of weeks. She sneaked a look back at him as he replied to a message on his phone, not watching her, and wondered at what he’d said. She didn’t find him quiet at all.Maybe women in Cornwall are just really picky,she thought, but it seemed unlikely. It was entirely more likely that Mark had lots of girlfriends and was sparing her feelings.
Ellie returned to her recipe and lifted the dough out of the bowl. Maybe Mark was a gigolo, seeing a new woman every night? Maybe he taught all the women in Magpie Cove to cook in his lovely kitchen, and seduced them with Bath buns in his rosemary-scented garden? Really, it wasn’t any business of hers if he did.
But the idea that Mark might be becoming a little more than a friend gave Ellie a feeling of pleasurable anticipation, tinged with a current of fear. She wasn’t sure she was in the right place for anything like that yet, but the idea wasn’t as unappealing as she might have once thought it was.
‘Ready for the next stage?’ he asked, looking up from his phone.Maybe that was another of his women, texting him about a date, she thought.But, even if it is, I’m the one that’s here now.And that thought filled her with a surprising warmth.
She smiled. ‘Ready.’
