Chapter 16
‘Visitor centre?’
Meg’s eyes were wide and her rose pink lips were pursed as she looked at him.
‘I… I’m getting the feeling that maybe you’ve missed a memo.’
She recoiled slightly, her brows arching upwards. She folded her arms and looked at him wordlessly.
‘Sorry about this,’ Gabe said, not quite sure what the procedure was when you turned up to a job and the client knew nothing about it.
She raised her chin slightly and hooked a strand of hair behind her ear with her free hand. ‘Don’t apologise,’ she said, and smiled. ‘I’m sure I’ve got the wrong end of the stick or something.’
He reached down to tickle the little corgi under the chin. ‘She’s very cute.’
‘This is Eliza,’ she said. ‘Oh - and I’m Meg. We haven’t actually been introduced.’
‘Gabe,’ he said, and for some reason he reached out and shook her hand, which seemed weirdly formal under the circumstances.
‘Hello.’ She looked up at him and made a wry face. ‘Well, here we are.’
‘Yes. My boots seem to be very popular, anyway.’ He looked down at the corgi who was conducting a detailed sniff-investigation of his feet. ‘I suspect it’ll be the scent of my spaniel. He’s back at my place today, because I thought I’d better leave him as I was coming up here.’
‘Does he normally come to work with you?’
‘Always. When I’m planting trees, he likes to potter about sniffing out rabbit holes and trying to get into mischief.’
Meg reached down and unclipped Eliza’s lead. ‘Talking of which, I think she’s probably unlikely to get into any trouble while we’re standing here talking.’
‘You’re staying here looking after your scatter-brained friend’s house while she’s away. Are you working?’
She shook her head. ‘Not just now, no. I’m – taking a break. So have you always worked up here?’
‘No, I came up about six months ago on a – well, I suppose you could call it a break, too.’ He shrugged. It was as good a way to describe it as any. ‘I thought it would give me a chance to figure some things out, and it’s surprising how peaceful it is out there on the moor planting trees in all weathers.’
‘Must be freezing, though. You don’t plant them in the winter?’
‘That’s the best time.’ He pushed a hand through his hair as he spoke. ‘You need to plant the trees when they’re dormant, so it does as little damage to them as possible.’
‘Oh, that makes sense. So were you out on the moors even in the snow and rain?’
He laughed. ‘Even in the snow and rain. Especially in the snow and rain, it felt like. Now the weather’s picking up and we’re coming to the end of the season we’re getting the fair-weather workers. But even they’re likely to get soaked – you saw the weather the other day.’
‘Oh about that,’ she said, shaking her head and half-laughing. ‘I couldn’t really explain through hand gestures that my car was parked at the top of the street. But it was nice of you to offer me a lift, even if you were going in the opposite direction.’
‘I don’t offer lifts to just anyone,’ he said, smiling.
‘Well, I’m honoured. But I had a hot date with a load of cleaning equipment and some cardboard boxes.’
He cocked his head in query.
‘My friend –’
‘The chaotic friend.’
‘Yes,’ she went on. ‘She’s a bit more, um, artistically inclined than me. She said if I wanted to declutter the place in her absence she’d be more than grateful.’
‘So you’re house-sitting and decluttering and your friend’s completely forgotten to tell you we’re turning up to turn this place –’ he thumbed in the direction of the building between the cottage and the lighthouse ‘– into a visitor centre.’
‘Something like that, yes.’
‘You must have the patience of a saint. I think I’d have serious words if a mate dropped me in it like that.’
She raised her palms up in a gesture of surrender and puffed out a breath.
‘Not much you can do?’
‘Literally nothing. I love her, but I have to admit I wasn’t really expecting to be in the middle of a building site. Maybe this is my sign. I need to start asking more questions.’
‘Well,’ he said, holding up the clipboard as an offering, ‘I’ve got the plans here, if it helps.’
‘Can I have a look?’
‘Of course. Come over to the truck and you can see them out of the wind.’
She followed him over the close-cut grass and he laid the clipboard out on the open back of the truck.
‘So we’re going to be putting a fence round there, and some hedging around the side of that, and a planting scheme here around the foot of the building.’
‘I’m confused,’ she said, looking at the plans. ‘You said you plant trees, and the truck says Grant Forestry, and now you’re talking about putting up fences and planting hedges?’
He laughed. ‘Yeah, it was a bit of a steep learning curve for me, too. I came up here to plant baby fir trees. Next thing I know I find out that they also do fencing for the big country landowners, and then they also do things like this as part of their community offering.’
‘Interesting. So you didn’t work in forestry before this?’
He shook his head. ‘Nope. I was a systems architect. This is all new.’
Gabe didn’t mention that Donald handed him the project two hours ago over coffee at the forestry office, where Donald expressed his delight in having him on board. He had to admit that if he had known that his first project would come with a disconcerted – albeit very pretty – girl as part of the package, he would have put any residual doubts to one side.