Page 32 of The Wisteria Tree Cottage

‘You said last night went really well?’ Heath said, looking thoroughly confused.

‘It did. Last night wasn’t an internet date.’

‘Now I am confused,’ Heath said.

But thankfully they were saved from any more awkward questions by the arrival of River, Indigo and Tierra.

Indigo sat down. ‘Hey, how did it go last night? You look tired,’ she waggled her eyebrows mischievously. ‘Was it a late night?’

‘I was up late reading a brilliant book.’ Meadow’s eyes locked with Bear’s again and his heart leapt. She’d read his book? ‘I was only going to read one chapter but it was so good, I ended up reading nine. I was up until two which is why I look so tired. I can’t remember the last time a book kept me awake halfway through the night.’

‘Which book is this?’ River said.

‘It’s my friend’s. It’s not out yet. I was given an early copy. It’s calledThe Lost Crystalsand it is incredible.’

His heart soared. She liked his book. He suddenly felt ten feet tall.

‘So if you were busy reading last night, does that mean that your… meeting wasn’t that successful?’ Indigo asked.

‘No, I read after. Mymeetingwas utterly lovely but I do have a group event tonight, which I’m looking forward to.’

As Star returned to the table the subject quickly moved on so the little girl didn’t realise what they were talking about.

Bear couldn’t take his eyes off Meadow. He felt like something had happened last night to move them forward. Maybe tonight, at the group event, he needed to pull out all the stops so there was no doubt at all of what he wanted.

CHAPTERNINETEEN

‘So far, three out of four food stations were visited by someone or something,’ Star said, consulting her clipboard as they walked through the trees to the next food station.

Bear helped her over the little brook that bubbled and curved through the middle of the woods. He waved at Emma and Jason Lovegrove who looked like they were on their way to the beach, poor Jason weighed down with a hundred different beach accessories.

‘The nuts didn’t seem that popular but maybe that’s because they don’t smell as strongly as the fruit and meat we left out so the animals weren’t able to find them,’ Star said. ‘So far all the meat has been eaten so we know something is out here eating it, or several somethings.’

‘I think it’s likely that there’s several somethings,’ Bear said. ‘In a wood this size there could be all sorts of animals and many animals live in groups so there could be more than one of each of these animals. I think, if the webcams arrive, we should just set them up tonight with the food stations and just see what we capture. I have five coming so we put them up – if we get no action on one or two of them for the next few nights, we can always move them. I think by putting out more cat or dog food, that will be attractive enough to any carnivores or omnivores that live in the woods.’

‘I agree.’

They fell into silence for a moment and Bear got the distinct impression Star wanted to say something.

‘Bear, is Mummy going out to meet all these new friends so she can find a man to marry and have babies with?’

God, she was so astute.

He cleared his throat. ‘What makes you think that?’

‘Because Leah and Charlie were friends before they got married and he gave her his baby. And Mummy and Daddy were friends before they got married and had me and I think that’s what really really good friends do. And I think Mummy wants to find a friend who she can marry and have a baby with but it’s hard to find the right friend because you have to have rollercoaster love with them not carousel love. Mummy and Daddy have carousel love not rollercoaster love but Leah says she loves Charlie with both rollercoaster and carousel and I think Mummy needs to find someone like that. And this morning at breakfast Mummy was talking about this new friend she met last night and she had those moony eyes she has when she loves something, not Daddy but Chris Hemsworth or The Rock or Jason Momoa, she loves them. Or you. She looks at you with moony eyes when you’re not looking and then pretends she isn’t when you look at her. And she had the same moony eyes you did when you saw Mummy in her pretty dress before she went out last night. And I think you and Mummy have rollercoasterandcarousel love for each other and you want to get married to each other and have a baby. But she doesn’t want to tell you she loves you with rollercoaster love and you don’t want to tell her so now you are both looking for other friends when you are clearly looking in the wrong place.’

Bear had no words at all. He had always wondered if Meadow had feelings for him that went way beyond friendship. Had she been wondering the same thing about him all these years too and neither of them were brave enough to act on it? Despite it having been clear from the very beginning that Heath and Meadow had never had any kind of real relationship, with Meadow even pushing Heath to date other people, Bear had never wanted to pursue anything with her because she’d been married to his brother and that felt like a crappy thing to do. But now they were divorced, was it time to have that conversation once and for all? The irony of having a little girl with all her seven years of wisdom having to point out the obvious rather than the adults seeing it for themselves was not lost on him.

‘Why won’t you tell Mummy you love her with rollercoaster love?’ Star asked.

He let out a heavy sigh. ‘I think love is a bit complicated, the rollercoaster kind. If Charlie had told Leah that he loved her with rollercoaster love and she didn’t feel the same way, then it would have been awkward between them and they might have felt they couldn’t be friends after that.’

Star looked at him incredulously. ‘That’s stupid. You said carousel love is constant and always there no matter what you do. If Charlie and Leah couldn’t be friends because he loved her more than she loved him then I don’t think they were really friends to start with.’

Bear nodded. ‘Good point.’

‘So you’ll tell her then?’ Star said, simply, as if it was that easy. Maybe it was.

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