Page 55 of A Recipe for Love
‘As you wish. Don’t forget to check out our retail experience area before you leave.’
‘We won’t.’ Bella leaned towards her fiancé. ‘She means gift shop, right?’
‘Wait!’ the woman called after them. Bella turned in time to see her speed walking towards them on her high heels, her smile reaching her eyes for the first time. ‘Adam? Adam Lowbridge?’
Adam nodded, failing utterly to hide the confusion on his face.
‘Fiona! Fiona from school!’
Adam’s mouth had fallen open. ‘Fi? Fi MacCellan?’
The woman nodded.
‘You’re working here?’
Her smiled faltered. ‘Not a lot else available around here. And it would break Dad’s heart if I moved away. I’m the last MacCellan still clinging on.’
‘I know the feeling.’
She dropped her gaze to the floor for a second. ‘I’m sorry. I heard about your dad. I wanted to come yesterday but John was going so I couldn’t get the day off. I’m his right-hand woman. Visitor experience manager.’
‘Right. Well, congratulations.’
‘It is so good to see you.’ She checked her watch. ‘Why don’t I join you for that drink? We’ve got so much to catch up on.’
Bella wasn’t oblivious to the fact that she hadn’t yet been acknowledged by the perfectly mascara’d Fiona, and she definitely wasn’t oblivious to the way that this stranger was making eyes at Adam Lowbridge. Fortunately, she hoped, even Fiona couldn’t be oblivious to the way Adam’s arm snaked around Bella’s waist as he nodded. ‘This is Bella, by the way.’
‘Hi!’ Fiona smiled vaguely. ‘So a drink?’
The top-class eatery,oneof the estate’s top-class eateries, actually, Fiona explained, turned out to be one of those frustrating types of cafe you often found at tourist attractions that had notions above their station. Everything, the overly tartaned signage proclaimed, was locally sourced and organic and grown within a gnat’s whisker of where you were standing right now, and despite that there was very little that a person might actually want to eat.
‘Our organic grain bowls are very popular.’ Fiona beamed.
Bella scoured the menu board above the counter. What she really wanted was a massive hot chocolate and a slab of cake she could bury her face in. ‘What cakes do you have?’
Fiona directed her to a display of ‘sweet treats’. Bella appraised them speedily. Everything looked good at first glance, but at second glance the slices were suspiciously neat and regular. ‘Do you bake these on site?’
Fiona’s beaming smile faltered. ‘I think the cakes are bought in. From a local supplier,’ she added briskly.
Bollocks, thought Bella. The only way these were local was if there was a secret supermarket cake factory nestled unsuspected somewhere in the surrounding hills. There was no way anything on this table had been baked by an actual human in anything the average chap on the street would recognise as a kitchen. She selected a brownie, more out of professional curiosity than actual enthusiasm, and ordered a cup of tea.
Fiona waved what looked like a staff ID badge. ‘I’ll get these. Seriously, it’s four quid for a cup of tea without the discount.’ She paused, like a computer programme momentarily glitching. ‘Which reflects the quality of the product produced by our local partners, of course.’
Bella caught the smile pulling at her fiancé’s lips. ‘Local tea growers?’
‘Yeah.’ Fiona paused again. ‘Well no. I’ll get these anyway.’
They found a table next to the full height windows overlooking a pond and a bird feeding station. The bird feeders were a nice idea, at least.
As soon as they were seated, Fiona launched into an enthusiastic reminiscence of the apparently hilarious high jinks Adam had got into at school. Adam nodded politely. Eventually Fiona let out a deep sigh. ‘I can’t believe you and Olivia didn’t go the distance though.’
Olivia? Bella’s ears pricked up.
Adam shook his head. ‘Oh come on. We were teenagers. I haven’t seen her for years.’
‘I know.’ Fiona leaned across the table and rested a hand on Adam’s arm. ‘We were all so jealous of her.’ She laughed, slightly too loud and too high. ‘We all had crushes on you, you know.’
Bella mentally upgraded Fiona from irritant to would-be rival.
