Page 4 of The Wisteria Tree Cottage

‘I’m not quite sure how it works. But this is a more realistic way of finding your soul mate. This is based on science.’

‘You’re talking about sniffing people’s armpits to see if you find them attractive,’ he said.

‘No, of course not,’ Meadow laughed. God, she hoped it wasn’t that.

‘OK. How about a bet?’ Bear said. ‘You try both ways. Online dating and sniffing armpits to see what works out the best for you. Let’s see which one leads to a meaningful relationship. If online dating wins you give me twenty pounds and if sniffing armpits wins—’

‘Not just sniffing armpits, the face to face stuff, body language, smiles, that kind of thing.’

‘OK, if that wins I pay you twenty pounds.’

‘How do we know who has won? What counts as a meaningful deep relationship?’

Bear clearly thought about this for a moment. ‘Three months. You date someone for three months, then that’s a sign it’s going somewhere beyond the initial getting to know each other. Three months means you want something more than that, it means that you could have something special.’

She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to actually meet someone and go out with them for that length of time. But then she had never really dated anyone, apart from a few silly, nothing dates with a few teenage boys.

She sighed, feeling like she was being coerced into doing something she didn’t want to do.

‘If it makes you feel any better, I could resurrect my dating profile and then we can go on dates together,’ Bear said.

Her heart missed a beat. Had Greta been right? ‘Together?’

‘Yeah, I could arrange to meet my dates at the same place you’re meeting yours and then if any weirdos or axe murderers turn up I can see them off, or at least take video evidence for comedy value.’

Meadow laughed. ‘There is no way I want you there to watch me make a fool of myself. I haven’t been on a date for… well, forever. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.’

‘Any man would be lucky to go on a date with you. Just be yourself and I’m sure they will fall in love with you.’

She smiled. Bear was so lovely. He was always saying stuff like that to her.

‘OK, if you do it with me, including all the armpit sniffing, then you have yourself a deal,’ Meadow said.

Bear pulled a face and then offered out a hand. ‘I must really love you if I’m agreeing to sniff armpits for you.’

She shook his hand to seal the deal, sighing to herself because, if he really did love her, then all this dating malarkey was completely pointless.

CHAPTERTHREE

Bear put the phone down after disappointing someone who wanted to know if they had any vacancies August bank holiday weekend and glanced over at some guests who were checking in. Meadow was explaining where everything was and how to get to the beaches in her usual efficient manner.

He noticed the woman was heavily pregnant, dressed in dungarees. It reminded him of Meadow when she was pregnant with Star, she’d practically lived in her dungarees once she started showing and she looked so damn cute in them.

‘So you’re staying in Honeysuckle Cottage,’ Meadow said, handing over the key. ‘Do you have a lot of bags?’

‘Quite a lot, yes,’ the woman giggled, looking at her husband who rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

‘I’ll take you down in the buggy,’ Bear said.

He got up and walked round the desk.

‘We hope you’ll enjoy your stay, Mr and Mrs Lovegrove, and if you need anything at all, please do come and see us.’

‘Emma and Jason,’ the man said. ‘Mr and Mrs Lovegrove are my parents, I always feel so old when people call us that.’

‘Then we’ll call you Emma and Jason from now on,’ Meadow said.

The couple followed Bear outside to their car and Bear jumped on the buggy and pulled it up next to their boot. He grabbed the bags and loaded them onto the back and then helped Emma to get in. Jason climbed in the other side and Bear drove off, a lot slower than he normally would considering the precious cargo he was carrying.

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