dodgy sink.’
‘There’s no need,’ I told him, exasperated that Luke hadn’t believed me when I had told him that it was all in hand. ‘I’m doing it at the weekend.’
‘It’s not my call,’ he said, picking up the bulb planter and scrutinising it. ‘I told Luke you were more than capable of dealing with a little job like that, but he’s got a bee in his bonnet about water.’
‘Oh yes,’ I said, biting my lip as I remembered. ‘Kate did mention that he’s on high water alert after a burst pipe incident last year.’
‘That did cause one hell of a rumpus,’ said Zak, turning the planter up the wrong way. ‘What is this?’ he frowned.
I gave him a quick demonstration, much to Chloe’s amusement but only because it was easier for him to see it in action, than explain.
‘Cool,’ he beamed, kneeling next to me so he could have a go himself. ‘So how about it then?’
Chloe looked at me and rolled her eyes.
‘Fixing the sink, I mean,’ he quickly qualified without so much as a smirk, which made Chloe’s eyebrows shoot up.
‘Can you come over about four?’ I asked. ‘We’re packing up early this afternoon, at Luke’s insistence, so we can make the most of the Christmas carnival.’
The street next to Nightingale Square was holding a full-on festive event that evening. The road was going to be completely closed to traffic, apart from Santa’s sleigh and, as well as the shops staying open late, there would be street performers, food carts, carollers and market stalls, all with a seasonal twist.
Lots of us were going to walk down together and I had been looking forward to it all week. It was about time I started my Christmas shopping and I was excited to be getting in the mood.
‘All right,’ Zak agreed, standing up and handing back the planter. ‘I’ll see you in the square at four. Nice scarf by the way,’ he added, addressing Chloe, who was wearing a very bright and colourful knitted creation of her own making. ‘Very striking.’
He strode off, whistling and with a spring in his step, and Chloe looked from his retreating figure to me and back again, her mouth moving like a marionette who had lost the puppeteer who supplied her voice.
‘Oh well,’ I said, ‘that saves me the hassle, I suppose.’
‘Saves you the hassle,’ she eventually repeated, sounding incredulous. ‘Is that all you can say?’
‘What else is there to say?’ I shrugged, pushing the barrow along a bit.
‘But,’ she said, pointing to where Zak had disappeared, ‘we just had a completely normal conversation with Zak Stanton.’
‘And?’
‘And,’ she said, ‘there were no bulging muscles, no bravado, no flirting and no cringeworthy innuendo.’
‘Is that really what a standard conversation with him is always full of then?’
‘You know it is,’ she said. ‘You’ve seen, and heard, him in action.’
I had been privy to some of that, but I had to play it down in view of my recent promise.
‘Well,’ I shrugged, ‘I’ve hardly known him any time at all, have I? And I did have a feeling that he couldn’t be like that all the time. Especially the bulging muscles bit. It’s freezing today so he could hardly strut about in a T-shirt, could he?’
‘But he didn’t even strut,’ she pointed out, still sounding gobsmacked.
‘Like I said,’ I nodded, rubbing my hands together, ‘it’s too cold for all that and we need to get on. We’ve got loads to get through if we want to finish early again.’
* * *
‘So, how did I do?’ Zak asked, later that afternoon when he was ensconced in my kitchen with a mug of tea, a plate of biscuits and Nell’s head perched on his knee.
She wasn’t usually so demonstrative when it came to showing affection, especially to men she barely knew. Eloise and I had always speculated that she must have been mistreated in the past and that made her wary, but she was more than happy to cosy up with Zak. Unless it was the biscuits she was after, but I didn’t think it was.
‘Do?’ I frowned, sitting opposite him.
‘This morning,’ he elaborated. ‘Talking to you and Chloe. I reckon the compliment about the scarf might have been a step too far.’
I couldn’t help but laugh as I remembered Chloe’s expression after he had gone.
‘That and the sight of you in a jumper,’ I told him. ‘The poor girl didn’t know what had hit her.’
He patted Nell’s head. ‘I’m still trying to get the balance right,’ he told