Chapter 6 #2
I smiled at that. ‘He didn’t say you were anything other than lovely,’ I reassured him and Finn blushed deeper. ‘And I’m a huge fan of yours, Finn. I had the best time on Friday spotting all the dragons as I got to know the garden. Not to mention the hares. They’re outstanding.’
‘Don’t say another word, Skylar,’ Freya laughed. ‘He’s already wishing the floor would open up and swallow him.’
Clearly, Finn was as shy as Rafe had guessed, but what about Erik?
I didn’t much want to talk to him, but I could hardly ignore him, could I?
I shifted my gaze to look at him. He was wearing jeans and boots with the laces undone and a ruby coloured linen henley shirt which I realised, when my eyes travelled up to his face, annoyingly enhanced the blueness of his eyes.
It was an accomplishment I wouldn’t have thought possible because they were already bright enough.
‘Hello,’ I nodded.
On meeting him again, I couldn’t help thinking he looked familiar, but whether that was because he had been annoyingly in my thoughts during the last few days or another reason, I couldn’t decide. Either way, here he was, the set of his jaw almost as rigid as it had been during our first encounter.
‘Hi,’ he responded and that was it.
Freya, obviously realising that neither of us were going to say anything further, carried on.
‘Until you and Rafe arrived,’ she said to me, ‘Erik was the newest member of the clan.’
‘Is that right?’ I said and turned to look at her.
I wondered if he’d taken a dislike to me for taking his place as the newbie, but that would have been ridiculous, wouldn’t it?
‘He was Luke’s friend first and now he’s… well, I suppose you’re the unofficial property manager and maintenance guy here, aren’t you, Erik?’ Freya said.
I wondered if he was the person responsible for trying to get Kate to change the security codes and how he was feeling about Freya telling me things that he clearly had no desire to volunteer himself. I turned back to look at him to find he was already staring at me. It was most unsettling.
‘Something like that,’ he said, his eyes still on mine.
‘I suppose that explains why you were so rude to me when you spotted me in the garden last week, doesn’t it?’ I blurted out. ‘I daresay you thought I was trespassing. You would have made me feel better if you’d explained that.’
I sensed Freya and Finn exchanging a look.
‘You’ve already met?’ Freya asked.
‘Sort of,’ I shrugged.
‘You didn’t mention it, Erik,’ Finn said.
‘I didn’t think,’ he also shrugged as he finally looked away and as the rain began to drum more loudly on the studio roof. ‘I need to go.’
‘Not in this!’ Freya protested. ‘You’ll get soaked without a coat.’
‘I told Luke we’d look at some quotes for clearing the gutters ahead of winter,’ he mumbled. ‘I’d hoped to do it myself, but… anyway, I don’t want to keep him waiting.’
Clearly, I wasn’t going to get either an apology or even an acknowledgement that he could have made me feel better before.
‘Take this then,’ Finn said, as he moved to grab a waxed coat from a hook.
‘Thanks,’ Erik said and shrugged it on.
He looked even more rugged in the oversized coat, and I stepped aside as he made for the door in a reversal of the dance we’d had at the gate on Friday.
‘See you tonight!’ Finn called after him, but he was gone.
‘He’s not usually like that,’ Freya frowned looking from Finn to me.
‘I can’t say that makes me feel any better,’ I smiled brightly, even though I felt a fool. And not for the first time where he was concerned. ‘Though thank you for telling me.’
‘No, I’m sorry,’ Freya tutted. ‘I don’t suppose it would.’
‘Coffee?’ Finn offered, holding up a jar.
‘I should get back really,’ I said and looked towards the door Erik had just fled through.
The rain was still hammering down.
‘But you haven’t got a coat either,’ Freya pointed out.
‘And I haven’t got another spare,’ Finn added. ‘So, you might as well wait until it slackens off a bit.’
‘And I’m not going anywhere,’ Freya said. ‘I can’t do much in this and certainly nothing I’d got planned.’
‘All right,’ I agreed. ‘I’ll stay and coffee would be great, thank you.’
Finn gave me a tour of his studio. His work was mostly made from scrap metal which made it sustainable as well as stunning and Freya made me laugh when she explained that Nell was only allowed inside if she was wearing little bootees to protect her pads from any sharp bits of metal that hadn’t been swept up.
‘What a sensible precaution,’ I smiled as I imagined what Nell must look like. ‘Does she mind wearing them?’
‘Not at all now,’ Freya told me. ‘She waits at the studio door for me to put them on. She’s a clever old thing.’
The image of Nell lifting one leg and then the other while Freya or Finn slipped the bootees on was an amusing one, but as soon as it popped out of my head, my second encounter with Erik burst back in.
‘You’re not thinking about Erik, are you?’ Freya asked perceptively, when Finn went to rinse out the mugs.
‘No,’ I fibbed. ‘I just remembered about the Insta account being deleted, but I’m grateful to you for the distraction this afternoon. You’ve stopped me dwelling for too long.’
‘Well,’ she said, ‘dwelling is fine for a while.’
‘But not a life plan,’ I nodded as Finn came back into the room.
‘Another tea towel saying?’ Freya nudged.
‘It could be, couldn’t it?’ I laughed.
‘What’s this?’ Finn asked.
‘While Skylar’s between jobs, she’s been thinking about printing a range of inspirational quotes on tea towels,’ Freya told him, deadpan.
‘Oh right,’ he said, looking from her to me. ‘Well, that sounds—’
‘She’s joking,’ I interrupted before he had to struggle to find the words to say something positive about the made-up venture. ‘I might not know what my next job is going to be, but it won’t be that!’