Chapter 20
Mary woke and stretched luxuriously. She picked up her phone and checked the time. It was almost eight. She was surprised she’d slept so late. Amazingly, despite having eaten so much yesterday, she was starving. She pulled on a jumper over her pyjamas and went downstairs in search of breakfast.
She was even more surprised when she went into the kitchen and found Evan already up. He was sitting at the breakfast counter shovelling granola into his mouth, one of Carmel’s books propped open in front of him. There was a delicious smell of toasting soda bread.
‘You’re up early,’ she said as she went to the fridge. ‘Considering you have absolutely nothing to do today but grump along the beach and veg out on the sofa.’
‘I was starving when I woke up.’ He took off his glasses and closed the book.
‘Me too.’
‘Besides, I’ve got a big day of grinching around ahead of me. I wanted to get an early start.’
Mary laughed. She made herself a mug of tea and joined him at the counter.
‘There’s some of your mom’s soda bread in the toaster.’ He nodded to it. ‘Help yourself.’
‘Isn’t that yours?’
‘You can have it,’ he said, standing up as the toaster popped. ‘I’ll do more.’ He put two slices on a plate and handed it to her.
‘Thanks.’
‘Fair warning, though – this is the last of it,’ he said as he cut two more slices. ‘We’re going to have to ration it.’
‘No need for that.’ She shrugged. ‘I can always make more.’
‘You can make this stuff?’
‘Yeah. It’s easy.’
‘Have bakers been holding out on us all this time? I thought bread making was supposed to be really tricky.’
‘Not soda bread. It’s the easiest thing in the world.’ She took a big bite.
‘How does the rest of the world not know about this?’
‘It’s our best-kept secret.’ She smiled. ‘But I can show you, if you like.’
‘You would?’ He grinned. ‘That would be awesome.’
‘You can amaze your friends when you’re back in New York.’
‘Great! I’m putting it on the chart.’ He picked a pen up from the worktop and Mary watched as he added ‘bread-making class’ to both halves of the day. ‘Now you can’t back out.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of it.’
When he’d buttered his toast, he sat beside her at the counter.
‘How are you enjoying the book?’ She noticed he was already almost halfway through.
‘It’s great! But was there really so much boning in those days?’
Mary shrugged. ‘Probably not as much as Carmel likes to imagine, but I guess there was more than you’d think. People were just more discreet about it. It was all on the down-low, behind closed doors.’
He nodded. ‘No sex tapes…’
‘No Instagram. No Pill either, remember, so it was a much riskier endeavour.’
‘I don’t get why everyone’s so hot for this duke, though. I mean, I get that he’s rich and handsome and all that. But he’s kind of an asshat.’
‘He’s a total asshat.’
‘And women like that?’ He frowned.
‘In fiction, yes. In real life, absolutely not.’
‘Ah! That explains why the whole Grinch thing wasn’t working for me. So if we were in a book…’ He gave her a mischievous smile, eyebrows raised suggestively.
‘Yeah, I’d have been all over you like a rash.’ She felt heat rise to her cheeks as Evan laughed.
‘Well, I’m going to hit the shower,’ he said, as he finished eating. ‘Then I thought I might go for that moody beach walk.’
‘Really?’
‘Any excuse to wear my cool new Aran sweater.’
Mary smiled. ‘It’s the perfect look for the broody young Grinch-about-town.’
‘You’re welcome to join me if you’d like.’
‘I might just take you up on that.’
‘Good.’ He looked pleased as he picked up his book and left the room.
When they’d both showered and dressed, they strolled down the hill to the beach. It was a bright, clear day, but chilly, with a wind that whipped Mary’s hair around her face as they walked.
‘It’s so beautiful here.’ Evan shielded his eyes against the sun, gazing out towards the horizon. ‘Oh my God, look, there are people in the sea.’ He pointed to two heads bobbing around in the water.
‘There are people who swim here every day of the year. I told you, it’s a thing.’
‘It’s a very weird thing.’
‘You don’t feel the urge for another bracing dip in the Atlantic?’
He shivered extravagantly. ‘Definitely not. Certain parts of my anatomy still haven’t recovered from yesterday.’
Mary laughed. Was it weird that she found the casual reference to his dick charming – flattering even? It was definitely a sign that he was feeling more relaxed and comfortable around her, so she decided to take it as a compliment.
‘Do you ever think about moving back here?’ Evan asked as they strolled along the sand.
‘I used to, but not in a while. When I first moved to New York, I didn’t intend it to be permanent. I thought I’d spend a year or two there and then move back home. But then I got the job at Bright Walker, I made friends… and I met Greg. Leaving wasn’t so easy then.’
Greg had been her first big commission. He’d been an ambitious young litigation lawyer looking for his next move, and she’d found him his job at his present company and negotiated a generous salary for him.
He’d taken her out to lunch to celebrate and they’d hit it off right away.
She still got a little buzz thinking about those days – going on dates to cool New York restaurants with her handsome boyfriend, meeting her girlfriends for Sunday brunch to pick apart the details of the night before.
There had been nights at the Met, hot-ticket Broadway shows, Sunday walks in Central Park or strolling through galleries.
She’d felt like she was living in a Nora Ephron movie.
‘Anyway, there isn’t so much call for recruitment consultants around here.’
‘I guess people everywhere need jobs?’
‘True. But it’s mostly family businesses around here, and it’s not exactly a huge market to begin with.’
‘You could work remotely.’
‘I could.’ It was true that since the pandemic more and more of her work was done remotely.
People had started working from home out of necessity, and many had never gone back since – at least not fully.
It was more convenient for everyone to conduct interviews and meetings online, and they all spent less time in the office now.
They walked the entire length of the beach and Mary told Evan a bit about the area and what it was like growing up there.
‘You should come back in the summer. There are so many beautiful places to visit. You could take some of Abbie’s tours. If you got good weather, you might be able to visit Skellig Michael – see the place where Rey finds Luke Skywalker in The Force Awakens.’
‘Really? That’s here?’
She nodded. ‘It’s tricky to get there. Access is restricted and boats can’t always make a landing, depending on the weather and the sea conditions, so you have to be lucky. The crossing is rough, even on a good day, but it’s totally worth it once you get there.’
‘I bet. That place was stunning. I’d love to see it.’
‘Are you okay on boats?’ she asked as they turned back towards the house.
‘I haven’t spent much time on them, but I think I’m fine.’
It was good to get some fresh air and exercise after all the rich food and sitting around yesterday. But a cold wind had whipped up while they were walking and Mary was looking forward to the vegging out on the sofa portion of the day. She was glad to get back to the cosy warmth of the house.
‘Do you still want that bread-making lesson?’ she asked Evan when they’d taken off their coats.
‘Absolutely. And you have to do it – it’s on the chart.’
‘Don’t worry, I’m not trying to back out of it.’ She had a feeling it was going to be fun teaching Evan. ‘Why don’t we do it now, and then we’ll have the rest of the day to eat leftovers and watch movies?’
‘Sounds good.’
In the kitchen, Mary took a big mixing bowl from the cupboard and placed it on the worktop in front of him. ‘So we need wholemeal flour, bread soda, salt and buttermilk,’ she said, searching in the cupboards. She found the ingredients and put them on the counter next to the bowl.
‘Buttermilk? Do you think I’ll be able to find that in New York?’
‘Come on. You can find anything in New York.’
‘That’s true.’
‘But it doesn’t matter if you can’t.’ Her mother almost always had a good supply of buttermilk in the house, but even she sometimes ran out, so Mary knew there were plenty of acceptable substitutes.
‘You just need something acidic to react with the bread soda. So you could use natural yoghurt or even milk soured with some lemon juice.’
‘Look at you being all resourceful! You’re like a frontier woman or something. You’d have been a useful addition to a wagon train. Okay, what else do we need?’
‘Nothing. These are the ingredients.’
‘Seriously? That’s it?’
She nodded. ‘That’s it. You can add other stuff, if you like – some porridge oats, other grains, seeds – anything you want really. There are all sorts of variations. But this is basically all you need.’
Evan rolled up his sleeves and she handed him a wooden spoon. ‘Okay, mix all the dry ingredients together first.’
‘How much flour?’
Mary shrugged. ‘About half that packet should make a decent-sized loaf.’
‘You don’t weigh it?’
‘Mum always made it by sight, so that’s how I learned. There are loads of recipes online if you want to be more accurate. But half that packet is five hundred grams.’
Bread making was a great idea, Mary mused, as she watched Evan stirring in the bread soda and salt. It gave her the perfect excuse to stare at his strong, lean forearms. She handed him the carton of buttermilk.
‘How much of this stuff?’ He started pouring it gingerly into the flour.
‘Keep going. You want enough to make a soft dough, but not too wet. Mix it with the spoon and then go in with your hands to bring it together at the end. It’ll give you a better feel for the consistency.’
He had beautiful hands, with long, elegant fingers, and as she watched him work the dough, she couldn’t help imagining those hands working her.
It was a pity soda bread didn’t require much kneading because she could watch this for hours.
When he was done, she tipped the dough out onto the floured worktop and showed him how to shape it into a round, then she cut a deep cross in the top.
‘Wow! I can’t believe how easy that was,’ he said, brushing flour from his hands as Mary slid the loaf into the oven. ‘When will it be ready?’
‘It takes about half an hour.’ She glanced at the clock. It was almost one. ‘Why don’t we make lunch while we’re waiting? Then when it’s done, we’ll be all set for an afternoon of slobbing out in front of the TV.’
They made leftover sandwiches and chatted idly while they waited for the bread to bake.
‘It smells amazing,’ Evan said when Mary slid it out of the oven.
She showed him how to test that it was baked by tapping on the crust. ‘When it has that hollow sound, that means it’s done.’ She grabbed a clean tea towel and wrapped the bread in it, then propped it up by the window.
‘Aren’t we going to try it now?’ Evan asked.
‘You should really wait for it to cool before you cut it. But since this is your first attempt, I suppose we could make an exception.’
She unwrapped the bread and cut a quarter, and they ate it, still steaming, with butter melting into the soft dough. The crust was crunchy and delicious.
‘Wow, I can bake bread!’ Evan said. ‘Who knew? I can’t wait to make this for my friends back in New York.’
Mary felt a little pang, wishing she’d be there to see it. ‘Well, it’s always good to learn a new skill.’
‘I should put it on my résumé.’
‘And now if the whole acting thing doesn’t work out, you’ll have something to fall back on.’