Page 31 of You Had Me At Pumpkin Patch
An extremely errant part of her wanted to grab him and pull him there with her, if the notion wasn’t completely absurd. They barely knew each other, outside of their constant clashing, and she was still trying to navigate her topsy-turvy new life and bewildered heart. And she could not go losing her job and home for one shameless night ofresearch.
‘Do you want to come inside?’ Damn. Had she said that out loud?
The moment stretched out, more unsaid words dancing between them, until finally he responded. ‘Yes.’
Something inside her bounced.
‘I mean no.’ He exhaled again.
Then he leaned towards her, his arm outstretched. And at that last delicious moment when she thought he was going to cup her face and kiss her, and she was getting ready to sink right in and taste him, to grasp at his long waves and feel the silkiness between her fingers, he moved his hand swiftly towards her hair and made a grabbing motion.
‘Leaf in your hair. Sorry.’
She watched his hand pull away. She couldn’t see him drop a leaf, but the night was dark. Had he been going to kiss her, or had she completely imagined that? It was like something from one of her romcom novels. Realising her mouth was still open in readiness, she clamped it shut.
The brief touch of his fingertips against her ear had left every nerve ending tingling. Except, more than anything, she’d wanted his lips on her mouth.
‘Goodnight,’ he said, sounding more flustered than usual, before turning to walk away.
Why was her heart sinking? Kissing him had never been part of her plan. He was meant to be inspiration for her wild and free story. This man belonged safely locked in the confines of her imagination. Yet somehow, her thoughts and feelings were beginning to spill out.
‘Wait,’ she hissed, not wanting to disturb the bats and their bug-shaped dinner. Despite everything reeling around her jumbled head, she didn’t want him to leave yet. ‘Will you... show me your bat houses?’ She tried not to inwardly groan, because that had to be the worst line ever.
21
Wow, had she really just come out with a terrible line about bat houses? Not that she was trying to pick Zain up – especially not after the awkwardleaf in your hairincident. She was just curious about flying mammals. And she did have pumpkin-shaped truths to discuss with Zain, whether he wanted to hear them or not.
‘You want to see my bat houses? Out in the fields?’ He seemed surprised.
Well, she’d half hoped they could inspect the ones in his hut, which were presumably empty. Somewhere warm, that smelt like cedar and manly musk, and where she might cadge a cup of tea, if teabags weren’t too cutting edge for him.
She held up her chin, pretending she wasn’t wearing Snoopy pyjama bottoms with a mud patch on her rear. ‘Of course in the fields. I’m not scared. The other day, I didn’t even scream at the snake in your pumpkin compost.’ He hopefully couldn’t see she had her fingers crossed behind her back or hear her heart racing. ‘And I make bug houses. I care about this place too, you know.’
‘I did receive Wingsor Castle,’ he said, clearly fighting the edges of a smile. ‘As strange as it was.’ He shrugged and paced back towards her, eyeing her patterned wellies doubtfully and grabbing her hand. ‘Walking boots would have been safer, but you’ll be all right.’
Now she had her hand tucked inside his, she had a strong sense she would be – even if the thought seemed peculiar.
Click clack click click clickkkkk...
She jumped and moved closer into him. If she could only get used to these funny bat noises.
As they crept around the edges of the fields, their path lit only by the screen of Zain’s bat detector and the iridescent moon, they slid into all kinds of unlikely chat. Zain pointed out the bat boxes he’d apparently made from old wood and fixed into the trees. When he launched into a lively whisper about bat roosting and mating seasons, he was quick to apologise, mumbling something about his lack of conversation skills and being an oddball.
Rosie squeezed his hand, which she was only still holding for health and safety reasons. ‘Nothing is odder than the couple of weeks I’ve had. I feel like I’ve literally seen and heard it all.’ And while there was no way she was going to admit that she’d misjudged every single man in her whole history of relationships, including, perhaps, her late sort-of fiancé, she did find herself spilling the tale of walking in on her ex trying to conjugate with a life-like sexy robot.
Zain turned to look at her, his eyes dancing with confusion. ‘What?’
‘Exactly. And that was just moments after I lost my writing job to a computer chatbot thingy called Kimberkoo Chat. Artificial Intelligence that’s more creative than me.’ She huffed into the night, her breath producing a cross little cloud, which made her want to laugh at the sheer stupidity. It felt like a lifetime away now she was here. Zain’s decades-old bat screen was surely the most state-of-the-art thing she wasevergoing to contend with at Autumn Meadows, and she didn’t mind if technology had better ears than her.
‘K... K... Kimberkoo?’ Zain seemed to have trouble getting the word out.
‘I know, extraordinary name. I didn’t even dignify it with a Google search, because I don’t want to see the thing in action.’
‘Right,’ he said, scratching the back of his neck.
‘My old boss reckoned it could probably script whole love stories. Can you imagine? It’s just nonsense, isn’t it? Talk about technology overstepping the mark.’
‘Overstepping the mark,’he grunted back. ‘Wait. Your job was writing? Thought you were something to do with organising retreats?’
