Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
As soon as the thump from the doorknocker sounded, Alfie jumped from where he’d been sleeping on the sofa and raced to the door, barking, fully alert and ready to defend the two of them.
‘Hold up, Alfie, that’ll be Lucy.’ Closing the lid of her laptop, Gemma followed him and peered through the peephole to double-check it was indeed Lucy, and she wasn’t about to throw the door open and come face-to-face with Jonathan.
She hadn’t seen or heard from him since the ‘almost kiss’ last night, and she still couldn’t work out if she was relieved or upset by his absence.
Relieved. She was definitely relieved. Why would she not be? The idea of them getting into a relationship was completely ridiculous. Ludicrous even.
Shaking the thoughts from her head, Gemma grabbed Alfie’s lead from the coat hook and pulled open the front door. ‘Hi, Lucy.’
‘Morning,’ Lucy drew Gemma in for a quick hug before taking the lead and kneeling down to clip it to Alfie’s collar. ‘Are you coming on a lovely walk with us, buddy?’
‘Thanks.’ Shrugging into her coat, Gemma ushered both Lucy and Alfie back outside before locking the door. ‘And thanks for agreeing to come with me. I know you’ve had that Guide thing this morning.’
‘No worries. I’m always happy to get out into the countryside.’ Lucy began to lead them down the garden path. ‘Besides, it was just a quick meeting this morning with the other leaders, so all I’ve done is eat cake and drink...’
‘Quick!’ Hearing the unmistakable quiet click of Jonathan’s front door being unlocked, Gemma grabbed Lucy by the wrist and sank to her knees, pulling Lucy down beside her.
‘What on earth…?’
‘Shhh!’ Gemma placed her index finger to her lips as she held her breath.
Please don’t let him notice them. Please.
She wasn’t ready to face him again quite yet.
Well, not ever, but she knew she would inevitably have to when she went to work tomorrow.
But just one day, if she could just have one day, she’d be happy.
Quietly tapping her thigh, Lucy waited until Alfie had trotted back towards her before shortening his lead and silently fussing over him. Once he’d curled up beside her, she glared at Gemma and widened her eyes as she jerked her head towards the hedge.
Gemma shook her head and mouthed, ‘Not now.’
Shrugging, Lucy focused her attention back to the small dog beside her.
How long did it take to walk down the garden path?
Being a mere three metres or so, it was hardly palatial, so why hadn’t she heard the click of his gate yet?
She scrunched her nose up. Had his gate even been closed?
Not everyone kept theirs shut. Not all the time.
Hers only was because of looking after Alfie, otherwise, she usually didn’t bother.
Yes, it only saved a millisecond or so of her time, so she acknowledged it was pure laziness on her behalf, but…
She glanced at Lucy, who stabbed her finger in the direction of next door’s garden.
‘Has he gone yet?’ She hissed.
Shrugging, Gemma slowly got to her feet, careful to keep herself lower than the hedge before quickly peering over the top. They were in the clear! Straightening her back, she rubbed her knees, wiping at the dampness from the grass on the fabric of her jeans. ‘The coast is clear.’
‘Thank goodness! I thought we’d be hunkered down all day.’ Jumping to her feet, Lucy turned to face Gemma and placed her hands on her hips, Alfie’s lead drooping from her wrist. ‘What on earth was that about? You shouldn’t feel you have to go to these lengths just to avoid your neighbour and boss.’
‘No, it’s not that. Something happened.’ Gemma glanced quickly back towards Jonathan’s cottage. The last thing she needed right now was him overhearing her gossiping to her girlfriend.
‘He’s out.’
‘We don’t know he’s out. We heard him walk down his garden path, he could have gone back inside.
’ Gemma bit down on her lower lip. What if he had?
What if he’d forgotten his phone or something and had gone back inside only to see them emerge from below the hedge through his window?
What if he was watching them now, knowing that she was avoiding him?
She rubbed at the back of her neck, the flush of warmth cascading across her skin.
‘I heard the click of the gate. He’s definitely gone.’ Lucy brushed her knees, smearing bits of mud into the fabric of her jeans.
Relaxing her shoulders, Gemma looked at Lucy’s stained knees and grimaced. ‘Sorry about that.’
‘Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll come out.’ Lucy began leading the way towards the path before glancing over her shoulder at her friend. ‘Although I do feel you owe me an explanation. What happened?’
Gemma threaded her arm through Lucy’s and picked up the pace, waiting until they’d turned the corner into the next street before answering her.
‘So, you know I thought he hated me? Well, I think he’s just stressed as the school is in financial trouble.
I went round there, to his cottage, last night and we ended up getting food and worked on ways to save people’s job and we kissed. ’
Slowing to a stop, Lucy turned to face her and frowned. ‘You do know I only got half of that, don’t you?’
‘Sorry, I just.’ Gemma shoved her hands in her pockets.
She could hardly make sense of last yesterday’s events herself, how did she expect Lucy to get up to speed after spouting a jumble of incoherent words to her?
‘I don’t think he, Jonathan, my new boss, does hate me after all.
I don’t know. We kissed last night as we were trying to think of ways to save the school. ’
Lucy blinked, obviously trying to make sense of it all. ‘Save the school? Kiss? You kissed him?’
‘Yes, no. I don’t know, I kissed him, or he kissed me. Well, we didn’t. We almost did.’ She took a deep breath and began walking again, hoping the movement would help to clear her head. ‘We didn’t kiss. We almost did. You know when you both lean in to kiss, then pull away?’
‘Right. You pulled away.’ Lucy nodded slowly as she matched Gemma’s pace.
‘How did you know it was me?’ Gemma continued without waiting for an answer.
Lucy knew her too well. She knew how much Reece’s affair had taken its toll on her, and she knew her go-to was to protect herself and her heart.
‘He’s my boss, and the school is in financial trouble.
What would people think if I were in a relationship with him and he made someone else redundant? ’
‘A relationship? So, this wasn’t just an almost kiss, then? You’ve actually got feelings for him?’
‘What? No. No, of course not.’ Had she? Even just the thought of him made something flutter in the pit of her stomach, but that wasn’t because she had feelings for him, that was just because of the whole sorry situation and the stress of the position the school was in, wasn’t it?
Besides, they’d hated one another until yesterday, hadn’t they?
Turning, she clambered over the stile into the field at the edge of the village before taking Alfie from Lucy as she passed him over.
Lowering him to the ground, she waited until Lucy had climbed over before passing the lead back.
‘He thinks he’s going to have to make redundancies because the school is in a financial deficit.
Nothing can happen between us, even if we wanted it to. Which we don’t.’
‘Uh-huh, sounds like it.’
‘It’s true. You know I don’t want another relationship yet.’ She shrugged. Whether it was to Tania, Annie, Lucy or Sophie, she felt as though she were constantly defending her choice.
Holding her hands up, palms forward with Alfie’s lead drooping from her wrist, Lucy raised her eyebrows. ‘I know, I know. Besides, it sounds as though it wouldn’t exactly be a match made in Heaven, anyway.’
They walked along the track in silence for a few moments before Gemma cleared her throat and hoped her question wouldn’t betray the weird feeling she felt in her stomach. ‘Why?’
‘A million reasons.’ Lucy held her hand up and ticked them off as she listed them.
‘For a start, he’s your boss. And your neighbour.
Neither of those would be good if you got together and then broke up.
You’ve just said the school is in financial trouble.
If redundancies are involved and it’s not your head on the block, then people will gossip and wonder if your intentions are honourable. Or his, of course.’
‘Exactly. It would just be wrong.’ Gemma nodded firmly. ‘Completely wrong.’
‘And that’s without mentioning the glaringly obvious, the small fact that you are most definitely not ready for a new relationship.’ Lucy said softly.
Watching her out of the corner of her eye, Gemma sighed. By the look on Lucy’s face, she believed that as much as Gemma felt it. ‘I’m not.’
‘There’s one thing you should bear in mind, though…’ Lucy glanced at her.
‘And what’s that?’ Furrowing her forehead, Gemma shrugged.
‘That sometimes even if the relationship looks as though it shouldn’t work on paper, such as dating your best friend’s brother, it doesn’t mean it’s not worth fighting for or that it won’t work.’ Lucy’s voice was soft, but her tone firm.
‘But I don’t…’ Gemma’s voice trailed off.
She didn’t what? She didn’t want to march home and wait on Jonathan’s doorstep until he came back, speak to him, feel his arms wrap around her, feel his lips against hers…
She didn’t want to go back to that moment when he’d leaned forward, and she’d done the same, her face upturned to his, expecting, wanting.
She buried her face in her hands. ‘I’m quite literally doomed. ’
‘You do like him then.’ Lucy’s warm tone told Gemma it was a statement and not a question.
Gemma nodded, and they both slipped into a comfortable silence as they walked down the track beside the fields. Gemma would miss this when Hannah came back. She’d miss the chance to clear her mind, to feel the cool breeze against her cheeks, and to fill her lungs with the clean country air.