Page 118 of A Recipe for Love
‘I guess.’
‘And I have a home.’ Her nan smiled slightly tipsily. ‘You, darling, are my home.’
Bella rolled her eyes.
‘I’m serious! Anyway, it sounds like everything was going marvellously. What on earth are you doing back here?’
‘It turned out,’ Bella’s tone hardened as she explained, ‘that Adam didn’t want any of that. He walked in one day and announced that he was selling the whole place.’
Her nan frowned. ‘And he hadn’t talked to you about it?’
Bella shook her head.
‘I am so sorry. I can’t imagine how much that would have hurt.’
It had. It had hurt so much.
‘And it was a complete shock?’
‘Well I knew he’d had an offer, but I never thought he’d take it.’ Bella sipped her wine. ‘I thought he was happy.’
Her nan took a long sip of wine. ‘Well, not perfectly happy I wouldn’t think.’
‘Why not?’ Adam had every reason to be happy. He had a castle. He was an actual baron. He said he loved Bella and she was working so hard to make everything work.
‘Well his father just died, for one. And you said his business partner in Edinburgh needed him back there.’
‘Well yeah, but…’
‘What happened to make him actually decide?’
‘I don’t know.’ It had all been so out of the blue.
‘You didn’t ask?’
‘I…’ Had she asked? ‘Well his mum turned up. I think Veronica thought the whole thing was her fault.’
‘Is he close to his mum?’
‘I don’t think he’d seen her since he was a kid.’
Bella’s nan let out a long sharp breath. ‘I love you darling.’
‘I know.’
‘I’m going to say some things now that you might not want to hear.’
Bella steeled herself. This was why she hadn’t talked to her nan. It was because, although she knew she’d get sympathy and she knew she’d get love, she would always also get truth.
‘Well, his father died, he gave up his whole life to move back home, he’s grieving, trying to adapt to this whole new role, and then the mother he hasn’t seen for decades shows up out of nowhere and he freaks out and his fiancée leaves him.’
‘That’s not what happened.’
Her nan’s voice was soft. ‘Which bit did I get wrong?’
Bella went over the steps her grandmother had laid out. ‘Well, it’s not so much wrong as…’
‘As not the way you see it, which is fine. It doesn’t mean you’re wrong either, but you promised this lad you were going to be part of his life.’
