Page 24 of A Recipe for Love
Adam shook his head. ‘The only person she ever behaves for…’ He stopped. ‘Behavedfor was my dad.’
‘I thought I was going to have to crawl back and tell you all I’d lost the dog.’
‘No. No. Honestly I don’t think you could lose Dipper. She always knows where her next meal is coming from.’
The relief of being in the car, of knowing that Dipper was safe, and of knowing that Adam had come to find her, filled Bella with warmth despite her wet clothes and sodden feet. ‘Oh,’ she remembered. ‘Another thing?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Can I have your phone number?’
‘What?’
‘I don’t have your number. I mean I didn’t have very much signal so it might not have helped but I just thought, people who are getting married should probably have each other’s numbers.’
He smiled as he drove.
‘What are you grinning at?’
‘We’re getting married.’
She found herself grinning equally dopily back at him. ‘Yeah, we are.’
Back at the coach house, Bella agreed to Adam’s suggestion of a hot bath to warm her up and then some dry clothes before they sought out a bandage for her ankle. The bath was hot and welcoming, and Adam perched himself on the lid of the toilet, ostensibly to keep an eye on the invalid, but, if he was honest with himself, more to stay in hiding from his grandmother.
‘How far up the hill did you walk?’
Bella shrugged. ‘Not sure. I was trying to get to the village.’
‘Why didn’t you go over the bridge?’
‘What bridge?’
‘Just past the coach house, before the hill rises.’
She frowned, and then nodded. ‘Yeah. The man mentioned a bridge.’
‘What man?’
‘There was a guy across the river. He said the bridge wasn’t safe though.’
That couldn’t be right. If the bridge had needed repairs his father would have done them.
‘I didn’t see a bridge anyway.’
Adam laughed. ‘Lowbridge? The name of the village and the house and the barony. Kind of implies there’s a low bridge.’
His fiancée submerged herself under the water for a second. ‘I didn’t think of that.’
‘I’ll show you when your ankle’s up to it.’
‘That would be nice.’ She sat up a little bit. ‘Did your grandma say anything about me?’
He knew why she was asking. She wanted to assess the depth of Veronica’s disapproval. It was, he feared, even worse than she thought. ‘No. She didn’t really say anything.’
Bella shrugged. ‘Well it’s better than her spending all morning trying to persuade you to get rid of me.’
‘She wouldn’t do that.’
