gruffly.
‘Are you sure that’s not him?’ Peter persisted.
‘I’m really sorry,’ I said to Finn as I gathered up the bag of bulbs, I had dumped on the studio floor. ‘But I think I’d better go.’
‘It’s fine,’ he said tersely.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ I insisted. ‘We’ll…’
‘What?’ he said, his chin held high. ‘Pick up where we left off?’
Had it not been for Chloe’s obvious interest in him, that was exactly where I would have liked to have picked up, but I really did have to factor my friend into the equation and embarrassingly, Finn sounded far from thrilled at the prospect. He was obviously regretting the moment already, which made me feel even worse about allowing it to happen.
‘I thought we could look at the meadow lawn and work out where to put the hares,’ I therefore suggested instead.
He shrugged his shoulders and turned away.
‘Freya?’ came Peter’s voice in my ear again. ‘I’m sorry, but I really do need to get on.’
I suppose I could have told Peter that I’d catch up with him when he got back from his trip, but given that he had taken the time to read through what I had sent him and had kindly made the effort to call, I could hardly cut him off and so I left Finn brooding over his trio of beautiful hares, and walked back to the office, all the while wishing that Finn hadn’t invited me to look at his sculptures and cursing that we had got caught up in the moment and let our artistic emotions get the better of us.
Chapter 14
Needless to say, I wasn’t looking forward to having to face Finn the next day and spent the morning hoping that he hadn’t been paying attention when I had suggested that we should look over the meadow lawn, but luck wasn’t with me and he turned up at the office just as Chloe and I were finishing lunch.
I had given Chloe a morning full of jobs on the opposite side of the garden from where I was working, for fear of blurting out what I had done. Keeping quiet didn’t make me feel any better about betraying her, or less embarrassed that Finn hadn’t requested a repeat performance, but it did save me from hurting my friend.
Peter, full of praise for my plans and proposals, had soon winkled the details of my heated moment with Finn out of me and said I should just come clean with Chloe, like I had with him when I had broken our engagement, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it and opted instead to pretend it hadn’t happened.
That wasn’t an easy mindset to maintain when I could still feel the imprint of Finn’s lips on mine and when faced with him, standing just behind where Chloe was sitting in the office, it became even harder. My already flimsy denial bid a hasty retreat, and left me floundering, which was probably no less than I deserved.
‘I’m just going to take Nell back to the square,’ was all I could think to say. ‘It’s chilly this afternoon and she’ll be more comfortable at home with the heating on.’
I knew I was taking the coward’s way out, but I thought that if Finn wanted Chloe to know what had happened between me and him, then he might take the opportunity to mention it himself. She wasn’t going to hate me any less, finding out like that, but at least I wouldn’t be the one having to say the words.
The pair of them were coming out of the studio when I arrived back and Chloe was looking more than happy, so I knew he hadn’t spilled the beans. Perhaps like me, he was going to pretend it hadn’t happened. It would certainly make our lives simpler, and perhaps it really hadn’t been a memorable moment for him, but I was still full of mixed emotions.
I’d never experienced a kiss like it, the heat between us, to my mind, had been scorching and there was a part of me, quite a large part actually, that would have very much liked to experience it again.
‘The hares are amazing,’ Chloe beamed when she spotted me. ‘You should see them, Freya.’
‘She has,’ Finn said bluntly.
‘They certainly are,’ I agreed with a smile and making a gargantuan effort to pull myself together.
‘You didn’t say,’ Chloe frowned, looking at me.
‘Well,’ I said, ‘we’ve hardly seen each other all morning, have we? Now, let’s get on. It looks like it