Chapter 47
47
Boathouse Cottage, St Aidan
The wrong trousers
Sunday
A s I pull on my clothes and come out from behind my screen on Sunday morning, my head is banging, I feel like I’ve been awake for hours, and Miles appears from the mud room, his arms full of boxes.
‘I’m sorry for the way things ended last night, Betsy Eliza. The last thing I intended was to upset you.’
I blink at the morning sunlight that splashes through the roof windows. ‘Upset? Why would I be upset? ’ I hear my shriek, give a cough and lower my voice. ‘If you’re heading out, you might like to take my scarf off before you go?’
‘Damn.’ He stares down at his clean T-shirt. ‘I don’t have any spare hands. I’m off to do some baking tuition at Carol’s. I’ll do it in the car and return it later.’ His eyes pull in to focus on my own top and he frowns at me. ‘Did you sleep in your clothes? Because you’re still wearing my jacket.’
Crap. There’s no way I’m telling him that I slept in it. Or that I couldn’t bear to be without it and pulled it straight back on again when I put some different layers on just now.
I pull a face. ‘Blame it on the hangover, I picked it up by mistake getting dressed. Just taking Fudge out. I’ll swap it when I come back.’
It’s crazy that every pore of my body is desperate to soak up the scent from his clothes when the man himself is right in front of me, making me furious. I’m not sure I’ve ever been turned down by a guy, let alone knocked back so spectacularly I’m still smarting hours later. I refuse to admit the bitter pangs I’m feeling in my chest have anything to do with disappointment.
I give a sniff. ‘You made the right call last night, Miles. Now I’ve lost my booze goggles, there’s no attraction at all.’
Perhaps I’m not being one hundred percent straight about that, because in spite of everything that’s happened, my body is still screaming out for him. But the good news is, the fury at being rejected means it has cancelled out a bit.
He raises his eyebrows. ‘I’m not interested in one-night stands, I’m afraid I want more. You have to ask me when you haven’t had a drink. I have to be a rational, well-considered decision, not a reckless lunge that you regret in the morning.’
I make my smile very bright. ‘Great we’ve cleared that one up. It’s fabulous we both know where we stand.’ If he were the last guy in the world begging to save the human race, I would not be saying yes.
He takes two strides to the door, and when he gets there he turns round. ‘And we’re all good to go ahead with the phased opening of the new shops next week?’
Why else would he be smoothing this over? ‘No worries on that front, Miles. It’ll be business as usual.’
Why did I ever think his apology was about anything else? I grab Fudge’s lead, whistle, and we head out to the field to pick up Pumpkin for a walk along the beach.