Page 33 of Sunset at Embthwaite Farm
She laughed, amused but also gratified by the remark. It made her feel not just like a lovesick teenager, but a giggly girl. “So, you’re a cradle robber?” she teased, only to blush at the obvious innuendo. This wasn’t a date. At least, it hadn’t been explicitlysaid.
“Tell me how old you are and then I’ll tell you if you’re right,” James replied, utterly unfazed by her remark, its implication.
Anna took a breath, met his bright blue eyes directly. She felt as if everything in her was tingling. “Fifty-three.”
“Fifty-seven,” he answered. “I don’t think thatquitemakes me cradle-robber territory, does it?” He held her gaze, and it felt like a challenge.
What was happening…and already?
“No,” Anna answered after a pause. She found she had to look away, his gaze was that piercing. “Notquite.”
“What a relief,” James remarked dryly, and she laughed.
Oh, this wasfun, being here like this. She could become drunk on the sheer possibility of it, never mind the wine she was trying to cautiously sip, considering she had to drive home tonight. Shelikedthis. She liked feeling so…alive.
“I’m glad to put your mind at ease,” she quipped before adding, “but you haven’t actually told me how you’ve found Mathering.”
James paused, his eyes cast to the ceiling, his gaze distant and thoughtful. He was wearing chinos and a button-down shirt in light blue with a grey cashmere V-necked jumper, and she suspected this was his uniform for ‘smart casual’. It was soodd, how she felt she knew him already, could surmise or at least guess what made him tick. Or was she just being fanciful?
Did she even care if she was?
“Small,” he said at last. “I spent most of my working life outside London. I didn’t think of myself as a city man, per se, but I grew up in Solihull, outside Birmingham, and so North Yorkshire is…different.” He smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “What about you? You must have spent a good amount of time in Mathering…?”
“I grew up in Reading,” Anna told him, “but yes, twenty years in Mathering.” Twenty long years.
James must have understood something from her tone, or maybe just the fact that he knew she was divorced, for he asked cautiously, “I know we’re just getting to know one another, but…has it been hard? Coming back here?”
Anna rested her head against the back of her chair as she closed her eyes. “You have no idea,” she stated quietly.
James was silent, and she wondered, with her eyes still closed, if she’d shocked him. Scared him off, maybe. So much for that fizzy feeling. She forced herself to open her eyes and look at him, and saw that he looked neither scared nor shocked, but rather understanding, his head cocked to one side, his eyes crinkled and full of warmth. She also realised she was not surprised by this. She’dexpectedhim to be understanding, even in the middle of fearing that he wouldn’t. Still, she felt she had to say something. “Sorry,” she offered with a faint smile. “That’s probably a bit grim for a getting-to-know-you chat.”
“Not at all,” he replied. “If we can’t be honest in a getting-to-know-you chat, when can we be?”
Anna wrinkled her nose. “I always assumed people doled out the more gruesome parts of themselves in medicinal sips,” she said, and James let out a bark of genuine laughter.
“They probably should,” he agreed, “but there’s something to be said for a warts-and-all confession, don’t you think? I like to take my medicine in one big gulp.”
Suddenly feeling very sober, Anna shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s a lot to take in, when you’re getting to know someone.”
Again, James was quiet for a long moment and then he finally stated, his tone sombre, “We’re both in our fifties, Anna, and truth be told, I’m staring at sixty. We both have battle scars. No one goes through life unscathed.”
She swallowed past the tightness in her throat. “Some people might appear a bit more battle-worn than others.”
“They might,” he agreed, “but scars mean you’ve survived. They’re badges of honour, in my mind.”
“That’s a good way of looking at it,” she replied with a smile. She realised she didn’t want to go through their messy pasts just then, dragging them into this cosy, welcoming room like a cat bringing in a dead mouse, stinking up the air. The evening felt far too pleasant, far too full of possibility, for that.
“So, if you don’t live in Mathering,” James resumed after a moment when the only sound was the comforting crackle of the fire, “where do you live?”
“Stroud, in Gloucestershire, but…” Anna trailed off, and James raised his eyebrows, his mouth quirking upwards.
“But?”
“But there’s nothing really holding me there,” Anna explained slowly, feeling the words out for herself. Since coming back to Mathering, she hadn’t really thought about returning to Stroud, save for getting some of her things and bringing them back here. But to return to Stroud forgood, when both Harriet and Rachel were finally talking to her, and living up here? It made no sense.
But as for an alternative…
“I have a few friends there,” she continued, “but no family. And my job is just at a garden centre, nothing very career-based, although I do enjoy it.” She paused to take a sip of wine as James continued to gaze at her thoughtfully. “I don’t really know what I’m trying to say,” she admitted.
