Chapter 19
Thea felt relieved that she wasn’t due back at the farm shop until Thursday: she had enough to occupy her in school with the nativity play rehearsals and the other Christmas activities that were taking place.
Her mind kept sliding off sideways to think about Nick’s kiss with Tally, and she firmly shut herself down every time it tried.
Nick was a free agent, and he could kiss whomever he liked.
As such, by the time she got to the shop on Thursday, she was more at peace with herself.
It wasn’t worth risking a friendship over, and she had no intention of losing Nick as a friend.
She’d finally ’fessed up to Cora and Dylan about working a few days here and there at Saints’ Farm, but had said it was because Nick was short-handed in the run up to Christmas.
They’d both seemed to accept this with little fuss, and Cora had even volunteered to make dinner tonight and tomorrow, to save Thea the trouble.
Thea felt grateful that the two of them were so understanding.
‘Uh, yeah, of course,’ Thea stammered. Nick’s tone seemed a little off-hand, and she wondered why. Hurriedly, she walked into the shop, grabbed her apron and opened up the till ready for new customers.
It was an oddly quiet start to the day, and Thea found herself walking up and down the aisles of the shop, straightening wonky groceries and re-stacking bags of flour and dried fruit to pass the time.
She hated to admit it, but she was as much of a stickler for order as Tristan was, especially when she felt under pressure, and this strange atmosphere that seemed to have fallen between herself and Nick since she’d witnessed him and Tally under the mistletoe seemed to be pervading.
Nick seemed to be absenting himself from the shop floor as much as possible during the morning, and once the veg order came in and Thea had ticked it all off and put it out, she was too busy to notice whether he’d checked in or not.
It wasn’t until midday that he came back in, and suggested she take her lunch break.
‘I can man the till for an hour – I think I’ve got everything in from the barns, now.’
‘OK,’ Thea replied. She opened her mouth to say something else, but then realised she wasn’t quite sure where to start.
Feeling more than a little dispirited, she mooched into the back office and unwrapped her sandwich.
Bloody Tally and her commandeering of Nick under the mistletoe!
She knew she had no claim on Nick other than his friendship, but it still irritated her that he seemed to be avoiding her.
In an attempt to take her mind off it, she pulled out her phone and was surprised to see a WhatsApp from Annabelle.
She and Annabelle were good friends, but their lives often took them in different directions.
However, she smiled when she saw the message thanking her for stepping in to cover at such short notice.
She messaged back replying that it was no problem, although she could have done without a bloody annoying TV director putting her stamp on the place quite so thoroughly.
Annabelle’s laughing emoji was swiftly followed by a wry:
That’ll be Tally, then. Did she try it on with Nick again, this time?
Thea paused before replying.
Let’s just say the mistletoe’s had a good workout this year…
Annie’s shocked face emoji made Thea smirk. The smile, however, disappeared when Annabelle replied with a:
Well, he is STILL a free agent, poor lonely saddo that he is. He can kiss whomever he likes.
Thea paused before replying. Annabelle was right, but she still felt unsettled by Tally’s behaviour towards Nick.
She had the distinct feeling that Annabelle was leading her, trying to get her to admit to something, but she was wiser than that.
She merely added, ‘Yeah, but I thought he’d have better taste than that.
She’s so OBVIOUS!’ before signing off. Perhaps she shouldn’t be grumbling about Nick to his sister, especially since he was the one who’d given her this job, but she had to talk to someone.
And Tristan was out of the question; he’d take the piss even more than Annabelle would.
Sighing, she put her phone down and picked up her book.
She’d tried to make more time to read, lately, and she had half an hour before she was back on the counter.
As she tried to lose herself in the latest Mick Herron novel, she wondered if she ought to just have it out with Nick.
It was going to be a bit tricky if he kept avoiding her, seeing as they were the only ones staffing the shop.
After about twenty minutes, she closed her book and headed towards the counter again. Just as she was about to walk through the doorway of the back office, she encountered Nick coming the other way.
‘It’s all right, I’ll get back out there now,’ she said.
The doorway was tight, and as he stepped in, she stepped out.
Their bodies brushed together, and Thea felt a jolt of electricity between them as they made contact.
She laughed nervously and looked up at Nick, who was staring down at her, a look of surprise and consternation on his face.
‘Look, Thea, can we talk?’ he said.
Thea’s gaze met his, and she was suddenly hit with such a sense of longing and desire that her knees wobbled. ‘Um, sure,’ she stammered. ‘About what?’
‘You know what,’ Nick replied softly.
Just as Thea was about to reply, a ‘Hellooooooo? Service?’ came from the shop counter.
‘Bugger.’ Nick rolled his eyes and Thea, taking the opportunity to escape a conversation she wasn’t quite ready to have, eased her way past him. ‘I’ll go. We can chat later, can’t we?’
Nick nodded, and Thea hurried out to the front of the shop. Mollie Wakefield from Purrfect Paws was standing at the counter. Thea greeted her and rang up her purchases.
‘It’s such a gorgeous, sunny winter’s day outside,’ Mollie said, smiling at Thea. ‘One could almost forget we’re in the midst of winter. We see so little sunshine at this time of year, don’t we? My cats all perk up when there’s a bit more light and warmth in the air.’
‘I know the feeling!’ Thea joked, but she was half on autopilot.
She heard Mollie mentioning something about a long-range forecast for snow in the West Country, but she didn’t take much notice.
Snow was a rarity in this part of the county, blessed as it was by south westerly winds from the Gulf Stream.
Thea couldn’t remember the last time they’d had more than a smattering of the white stuff in Lower Brambleton.
As Mollie left, there seemed to be a steady stream of afternoon customers, so much so that by the time there was a lull, Nick had disappeared again, ostensibly off to one of the other barns on site.
Thea huffed in frustration, and not a little confusion.
That interaction in the doorway had made her pause.
She had a very strong sense that seeing Tally kissing Nick under the mistletoe had been a bit of ‘moment’ for her, too, but she also knew she couldn’t trust her own instincts right now.
There was too much going on for her to think straight.