Page 32 of A Christmas Celebration
‘But I need to pop into a couple of shops in town,’ I went on, ‘so I can’t take him with me, can I?’
‘It’s chilly enough to leave him in the truck,’ said Angus. ‘He’ll be happy enough waiting in the Land Rover with a window open, won’t he, Mick?’
‘I don’t see why not,’ Mick agreed. ‘It’s not as if he’s going to overheat.’
There was no way out of it, but Bran was going to be cooped up for ages. As well as booking Albert’s eye test, I also wanted to pick up some essentials for him too, so the poor dog would have to stay in the Land Rover while I dropped those off. I had told Albert that I would telephone and let him know when the optician and I would be going, but I didn’t think it would hurt to quickly pop in on the pretence of checking that the boiler was still running.
‘Right, Bran,’ I said, pushing him back as he made to jump out once I’d parked in town. ‘I won’t be long. You need to stay here.’
He gave me his most forlorn look, then huffed and slumped back down.
‘I won’t be long,’ I reassured him, then raced off to seek out some food which would be easy for Albert to prepare and cook.
Once I’d got a decent selection, along with essentials like bread, milk and biscuits, I headed over to the opticians. I had considered putting the shopping in the Land Rover and checking on Bran first, but I didn’t want to test his good manners that far. He looked like a hound who might be partial to a custard cream or three.
‘Hello, Paige.’
‘Brodie,’ I gasped, as I clattered through the optician’s door, knocking the bags of groceries on the frame in my surprise. ‘Hi.’
He rushed forward to help and having got our hands and the bag handles thoroughly tangled, I felt my cheeks turn even pinker than the chilly Wynbridge wind had already made them.
‘Sorry,’ he said, once we’d set everything down and I’d taken the seat next to his. ‘I wasn’t much help there, was I?’
‘You meant well,’ I laughed, noticing he was as red as I was.
‘I don’t seem to be much help anywhere at the moment,’ he sighed gloomily, sounding fed up.
‘Oh,’ I said, taken aback. ‘I’m sure you are.’
He sat upright and ran his hands through his hair.
‘Ignore me,’ he said, then asked, sounding brighter, ‘How’s the volunteering going?’
‘Good,’ I nodded. ‘Really good.’
‘Jack’s still going on about the fact that you haven’t got social media,’ he said, leaning his head back against the wall and looking at me out of the corner of his eye.
‘Is he?’ I asked, surprised that his brother had given it, or me, a second thought.
I tried to look ahead rather than at Brodie because him staring at me from under his long dark lashes and giving me his full attention had caused my heart to flutter again. The way my body continued to react to him was especially disconcerting because he wasn’t the type of guy I was usually attracted to at all.
Not that I’d been attracted to anyone or had a relationship in a long time, but my dating history was made up of athletic, blond easy-going, light-hearted guys and Brodie seemed to be the polar opposite in every conceivable way.
‘He is.’ He then smiled, which was no help in reining the fluttery feelings in either. ‘He honestly believes we’re the last two humans of our age without it.’
I had to laugh at that.
‘He’s probably right.’ I swallowed, quickly looking away again. ‘Funny that we should end up in the same place at the same time, isn’t it?’
I could tell he was staring at me even more intently then.
‘I suppose it is,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘We must have been meant to meet, Paige.’
I didn’t know what to say in response to that but found my eyes drawn back to his face. Neither of us seemed ableto look away. I thought I heard someone clear their throat, but it didn’t really register, unlike Brodie’s widening pupils.
‘Brodie?’
As one, we turned to look back at the shopfloor and standing in front of us, holding a pair of dark framed glasses, was a middle-aged man. He looked amused.
