Page 67 of Valentine Nook
He nods, and boy, was I way off base. Iama dumbass.
“So you really didn’t think I was bragging when I told you how much my contract was worth?”
“No, and I don’t know why you think I would have.”
He sounds so offended that I honestly want to crawl inside myself and redo the last twenty minutes.
“Because it was kind of gross for me to tell you that I earned so much, even though you could look it up, but the day at the pool when you said Pierre wasn’t part of the rental, I figured you were one of those English old money families where your net worth is in antique oil paintings or gold mines . . .” I stop babbling.
“Gold mines?” Lando groans in despair. “God, Milo’s right. I’m such a dick. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for the terrible impression I left on you. Please believe me when I say it really had nothing to do with you, but I’m sorry nevertheless.”
“I’m sorry I started this conversation in the first place.” I pick at an invisible thread on my pants and ignore the heat in my cheeks. “But now I know you know what you’re talking about, so maybe I will take a second opinion.”
“And I’d be happy to help. We don’t own any gold mines, but that’s not a bad idea.”
I force a chuckle. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now it’s my turn for a question.”
“Shoot. But if it’s about money, I’m all out.”
He laughs. “In the time you’re here in Valentine Nook, should we be expecting a boyfriend of any kind to turn up for a visit? Or, you know, be waiting for you when you get home?”
I’m not buying the innocence in his tone because if I’m not mistaken, he’s trying to figure out if I’m single.
I can’t answer quick enough, and I don’t even care because my heart’s fluttering.
“No. No boyfriend. Here or there.”
“That’s good to know. And Hollywood, if you did have one and he’s not coming to visit, then he damn sure isn’t good enough to be waiting for you when you get back.”
I’m wondering where this conversation is going, but Lando remains silent, and the second we hit the interstate, he shifts gears, and the car rockets forward.
It doesn’t take long for the urban surroundings to give way to leafy fields filled with yellow rapeseed, and soon, we pass a sign welcoming us to Oxfordshire right as a huge clap of thunder echoes through the sky.
The nearer we get to Valentine Nook, the lower my heart sinks in my chest, and as Lando pulls up outside Bluebell Cottage, I know I’m not ready for this day to end.
Out of nowhere, I remember the restaurant voucher I won at the coconut shy.
So, for the first time in my life, I ask a guy on a date.
And he says yes.
CHAPTER 13
Lando
The first time I went on a first date to The One True Love, I was seventeen, and she was Madeline Baxter.
I’d been a bundle of nerves leading up to it because Ireallyliked this girl.
I spent the afternoon riding with Jeremy, galloping through the fields, checking the calves and the fence line. Anything I could do to distract myself.
Madeline lived in Lower Slaughter, a village about twenty miles from Valentine Nook, and at exactly seven o’clock, I pulled up outside her parents’ house to collect her.
I genuinely thought I was having a heart attack as I knocked on the door. I hoped she’d be just as nervous, but she was completely unfazed instead, which made it worse.
Madeline’s dark hair was fastened back with a band, and she wore the skinniest pair of jeans, making her legs seem longer than usual. To my seventeen-year-old self, she was hot. I was still growing into my size and gangly enough that it made me self-conscious.
