Page 53 of The Forever Cottage

‘Sorry I’ve not been in touch.’

‘It’s fine,’ she said breezily, as though she hadn’t given it a second thought.

‘That’s not to say I haven’t been thinking of you both,’ he said, casting a glance down at Barney. ‘I realised I’ve not had a chance to thank you properly for putting me up all those weeks so I wondered if I could take you out to dinner sometime.’

‘Oh, Rob, that’s very kind, but you don’t need to do that.’ She felt her breath catch.

‘I’d like to, though, but only if you wanted to.’ He turned to hold up a hand to her. ‘No pressure. Although… there was something I wanted to tell you.’

‘Sure,’ she said, intrigued now.

‘Well, the thing is, I’ve missed Barney, I’ve missed the annexe and I’ve missed this delightful garden. I’ve missed walking down the lane and being amongst the beautiful countryside around here, but most of all, I’ve missed you, Tess.’ He paused, gauging her reaction, but she simply nodded, showing her understanding. ‘I’ve missed seeing your face, hearing your laughter and our long conversations that went off on complete tangents. The things we talked about! From that first moment we met, I was able to open up to you in a way that I haven’t always been able to. I don’t know if that was because I thought I’d never see you again after that day outside the café when you inflicted personal injury on me.’

She smiled, recalling that day. ‘It wasn’t deliberate, although there was no getting away from me after that. I was like a crazed stalker tracking you down. It surprises me even now because I’d never done anything like that before.’

‘Well, I for one am very glad that you did. Anyway, I hope that what I said about missing you isn’t too much. I don’t want to completely freak you out.’

‘No.’ She shook her head, taking hold of his hand. ‘My turn. There’s something I need to tell you.’

Rob nodded.

‘I’ve missed you too; we both have, haven’t we, Barney? When I didn’t hear from you, I wondered if I’d imagined the closeness we shared? It upset me to think that we might lose contact, that I might not see you again.’

‘You didn’t imagine it at all. I wanted to give us both some time and space, mainly so that I could make sense of my own feelings. I wasn’t sure…’ Rob faltered and dropped his head to one side as if considering whether to go on.

‘You weren’t sure about what?’ Tess said, clasping his hand now, looking at him intently.

‘I wasn’t sure if you were seeing someone. I didn’t want to stand in the way of that if there was someone new on the scene.’

‘Why would you think that? Oh… I remember now.’ It came flooding back to her. The night she’d gone out with Nico. They’d stood in the driveway after their date and he’d clasped her in an intimate embrace. She thought she might have seen Rob moving around inside the annexe and she’d certainly noticed the light turning off. He must have seen them together and jumped to the wrong conclusion.

‘No, I’m not seeing anyone. I went on a date with a colleague of my husband’s, so it was probably doomed to failure from the start. He’s a nice guy, has everything going for him, but I quickly realised there was something wrong with him.’

Rob flinched and broke into a smile. ‘Poor guy! What on earth was wrong with him?’

‘I’m kidding. He’s lovely, and we’ve agreed to stay friends, but honestly…’ She paused, wondering whether to go on.

Rob nodded, encouraging her to finish her sentence.

‘He wasn’t you. I spent the whole time when I was with him wishing it was you there instead. I decided there and then that dating wasn’t for me. I didn’t even know then if you felt the same way about me, though.’

‘Oh, yep. Definitely. I fell for you early on, but I tried to keep some emotional distance. Failed miserably, of course.’ He gave a wry laugh. ‘After everything I’d been through, I couldn’t trust my feelings. I wasn’t sure if my closeness to you was simply my immense gratitude for everything that you’d done for me. I also didn’t want to put you in a difficult position when I was still effectively living under your roof. I told myself that once I’d moved away, I’d get a better handle on my feelings, I’d be able to gain a different perspective, but really it only confirmed to me what I’d known all along: that I had developed feelings for you.’

Tess gulped, feeling vindicated. Rob was articulating her own feelings exactly.

He went on. ‘I tried to tell myself that it wouldn’t work, that someone as lovely as you would never want to be with someone like me, someone with a dubious past and an uncertain future. Although things are looking a lot more positive now.’

‘Of course they are, and I’m really pleased for you, Rob, but you know, you shouldn’t put yourself down. You’ve got a job, a home, your own head of hair. And I’ve always loved that whole bad-boy vibe,’ she said, teasing him. ‘Honestly, I’m surprised I’m not fighting off a whole swathe of women in front of me.’

‘It’s all right, they’re forming an orderly queue round at my place. Cheers for that, though,’ he said, running a hand through his thick hair, laughing, looking down at their hands intertwined as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.

In truth, she could have recited a whole long list of Rob’s admirable traits: his kindness, his thoughtfulness, his practicality, his artistic ability and his dark good looks too, but she would save those for another day. It would be interesting to see how their relationship might develop now that they’d admitted they had feelings for each other.

‘So you’re off dating, but I’m hoping you might make an exception in my case?’

‘Well, I think it would be churlish not to,’ she said with a coy smile, feeling a delightful sense of anticipation. Despite her head telling her that she didn’t need a man in her life, that it was far too soon to embark on a new relationship and she had plenty of other things to keep her occupied, her heart was telling her how much she liked Rob and how she wanted to explore getting to know him better.

‘Would you like to go out somewhere for dinner or perhaps you’d like to come round to mine? I would love to cook for you if you fancied it. I make a mean lamb curry.’

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