Page 37 of The Wisteria Tree Cottage

Bear was just finishing off the last electrical socket and then he had to go and get ready for the speed-dating event later that night. River was busy working near the entrance on the archway that would become the chapel doors. Heath had already gone to spend some time with Star.

Bear’s phone beeped with an email notification and when he pulled it out of his pocket he saw he had a new message from Twilight. He logged in to his profile on Connected Hearts to read it.

How was your date last night?

He thought about how to answer that question. He’d had a lovely time with Meadow but technically that hadn’t been his date.

Not good. How was yours?

She replied almost instantly.I bet it wasn’t as bad as mine. So I was wondering if you wanted to go for a drink or dinner some time?

His heart ached for her, he knew that must have taken a lot of courage to ask him that if she hadn’t asked out someone before.

He thought about it for a moment because his gut was to say yes, he wanted to get to know Twilight better, but at the same time he wanted to see how things were going to play out with Meadow.

Last night on their fake date they had just clicked and of course he knew that was because they were such good friends but there seemed to be something else going on, maybe something deeper. She’d talked about how she regretted her actions after their kiss, and he really needed to talk to her about that and find out why, because if she regretted pushing him away did that mean she wanted a second chance with him? Was she waiting to see if he wanted that too before she made her move?

And then this morning over breakfast, she’d talked about their date as if it had been real and how much she liked the man she had dated the night before. Well, that sure as hell wasn’t Josh. Even Star had spotted her moony eyes, as she called it. Bear had promised Star he would tell Meadow how he felt too. Maybe tonight at the dating event, he might get the chance to talk to her. He wanted this second chance with Meadow more than anything. He didn’t want to start something with Twilight and then have to finish with her if something happened with Meadow, that wasn’t fair on Twilight when she was venturing out on the dating circuit for the first time.

He cringed as he wrote out his answer, hating himself just a little bit for lying to her.

I’m afraid I’m away with work now for the next five or six days at least. But the second I get back, I’d be very happy to take you out for dinner. Maybe I should set you a riddle for you to work out which restaurant I’ll be taking you to.

He would give it a week to see if all these dates would lead to something finally happening with Meadow and if not he would take Twilight out but at least this way he wasn’t going to hurt Twilight.

She quickly replied.I would love that. I’m up for the challenge. You might have to give me the clues the night before so I have time to work it out, otherwise I might be very late for dinner.

He smiled.I can absolutely do that.

Are we still OK to chat while you’re away or will you be too busy?

He thought about it. It felt a bit crappy to keep his options open with Twilight but if nothing was going to happen with Meadow maybe it was time to get over her once and for all, to move on with someone like Twilight. There would be no harm in chatting to her in the meantime. He could be a friend to her if nothing else and it sounded like she needed a bit of a sounding board with these dates she was going on, he could do that for her.

It will be great to chat, work doesn’t take up a lot of my time and I’ll always find time for you.

OK, I’ll speak to you later. X

He smiled as he put his phone in his pocket.

‘So how did your date go last night?’ River asked, taking off his toolbelt and wiping his hands.

‘It wasn’t a proper date, I was just there to support Meadow on her first ever date.’

‘And how did that go? She seemed happy enough this morning.’

‘Not good but… I took her out after and showed her how it should have been done.’

River grinned. ‘So that’s why she was happy, she had a lovely evening with you.’

‘I… tried to make it special for her. I want to encourage her to aim high when she goes out with different men. I want someone for her who is attentive, respectful and kind, someone who will hold her hand, dance with her, really take the time to listen. She shouldn’t settle for an OK date. She should be swept off her feet.’

River laughed and shook his head. ‘I’m not sure if that was remarkably clever thinking or just naïvely brilliant.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘No man she dates is going to live up to that.’

‘Then she needs to choose better men.’

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