I bundled together a few stray cinnamon sticks and a partly clove-studded satsuma and added them to the bits Chloe said she could make use of.
‘You might as well get off,’ she said to me. ‘You’re helping Poppy and Mark tomorrow, aren’t you?’
‘Yes,’ I said, stifling a yawn, ‘I am.’
‘You’ll be shattered by Monday.’
‘That’s why I’m giving her the day off,’ said Luke, who had come back to help.
‘No, that’s all right,’ I told him, shrugging the suggestion off, even though it was rather appealing.
‘I insist,’ he said firmly. ‘By the looks of the forecast, it’s not going to be great gardening weather anyway. In fact, take Monday and Tuesday off and Chloe, you come in just on Thursday next week. You’ve both been flat out and I really appreciate it.’
‘But there’s still loads to do ahead of the Winter Garden opening,’ I protested, but he wouldn’t hear of it.
‘You’ve got an extra pair of hands now, thanks to enlisting Graham, and you were the one who told me that it was going to be a work in progress, weren’t you?’
‘I was,’ I admitted.
‘There you are then.’
He wouldn’t be swayed and I went home looking forward to the lazy start to my working week as well as the evening ahead. The only thing hampering my mood was Finn’s insistence that he had something to tell me. I really hoped it wasn’t going to be anything that would throw us off course again.
Chapter 24
Nell was in a buoyant mood when I arrived home and opened the door, having hung my pretty wreath on a hook which had conveniently appeared at some point during the afternoon. I guessed that was Finn’s doing. I also guessed that Nell was so happy because someone – Finn again – had been extremely generous with the treats I usually saved for walks which I knew were going to test her recall. Not that I really minded. He’d clearly been determined to make an effort with her and my guess was that she’d love him forever now.
I’d just finished soaking in a hot bubble bath when my phone pinged with a disjointed text saying he’d be with me in half an hour, that he’d already put the plates to warm in the airing cupboard and that he’d bring a Chinese takeaway with him. I wasn’t sure if his decrepit phone was the cause of the message arriving in separate chunks or if Finn was more proficient at wielding hand tools than texting, but it didn’t really matter.
‘I didn’t know what you fancied,’ he said, when I answered the door, ‘so I’ve got a bit of everything.’
‘I’m not fussy,’ I told him, resisting the urge to point out that if he was concerned about that, then he could have come over empty-handed and I would have been happy.
Neither of us wanted to sit in the kitchen, so we set everything out on the coffee table in the sitting room and dipped in and out of the containers with trays on our laps.
‘This is so good,’ I said. ‘I can’t remember the last time I had a takeaway at home.’
‘This place is only up the road,’ Finn told me. ‘Two doors along from The Dragon.’
‘I still haven’t got my head around how close everything is,’ I laughed. ‘When I was living at Broad-Meadows there was no such thing as home delivery or a quick wander down the road for a pint of milk.’
‘Did you mind that?’
‘No,’ I said, remembering how beautiful the place was, even if it was rather isolated, ‘not at the time. But I could definitely get used to this.’
‘We’ll have to make a habit of it then,’ he grinned, leaning over to refill my glass of cola.
‘I’d like that,’ I smiled back.
I was really falling for this guy and I hoped that whatever it was he was gearing up to tell me wasn’t going to send me crashing back down to earth with a bump. I rather liked the feeling of walking on air.
‘What is it?’ he asked, his smile turning into a frown.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You looked so happy a second ago,’ he said, taking in my expression, ‘but then your face changed and now you look sad.’
‘I’m worried about what you’re going to tell me,’ I said, meeting his gaze.
We’d spent so long not saying the things that we should that I didn’t want to waste more time hiding our feelings or pretending that everything was fine when it wasn’t.