Page 99 of A Recipe for Love
He shook his head. ‘Definitely not. And we’ve already done one in the coach house.’
‘Two,’ she corrected.
He thought back. The light dawned. ‘The day Flinty was cleaning and would not stop.’
Bella nodded.
Any plans to sneak in a little afternoon delight at Lowbridge had to fit around Flinty’s strict and immovable cleaning schedule.
‘I don’t think she understands what retirement means.’
Adam laughed, and wrapped an arm around Bella’s waist. ‘Where do you want to start then?’
‘Well you still haven’t shown me your actual room, from when you were a kid.’
Adam shook his head. ‘No. There’s no way I hold on to any sort of sex appeal after you’ve seen through that looking glass.’
‘Well now I have to.’ She grabbed his hand. ‘Lead on.’
‘Fine.’ He led her across the hallway and down the west wing corridor. ‘Here you go.’
Most of the trappings of teenage Adam were long gone – his carefully pressed school uniform and Iron Man duvet set were things of the past. Bella, of course, alighted on the things that were left. ‘You have a wall poster about different types of moss.’
‘What can I say? I’m just naturally cool.’
‘I didn’t even know there were different types of moss.’
Adam sat on the end of the single bed. ‘I haven’t been in here since we got back.’
‘Why not?’
He shrugged. He could say that there just hadn’t been any reason to, but that wouldn’t be the whole truth. ‘I think I knew that in here it would feel like my dad was just downstairs or out in the garden or something. Like I’m still fifteen and he’s still around making sure everything’s OK.’
‘Isn’t it nice to feel like that?’
He shook his head. ‘It’s not real though, is it? I can’t just pretend.’ He closed his eyes and forced down the wave of emotion that was threatening to overwhelm him. Bella was trying to cheer him up. The least he could do in return was attempt to be cheered. ‘Anyway,’ he reached for her. ‘I don’t think we should sleep in here. So which of the many other rooms do you want to check out next?’
She moved to him and kissed the top of his head. ‘Well I am going to be a proper lady, you know.’
‘I heard.’
‘So I do think I ought to find out what it feels like to be properly courted in the official lady’s bedroom.’
He shook his head. ‘That is not what courted means.’
‘Really? I thought it was like a euphemism.’
‘No. It means all the stuff before you get married.’
‘Well this is before we’ve got married.’ He opened his mouth to argue, but she shut him up with a kiss, entangling her fingers around his and leading him to the other bedroom. Making love to Bella didn’t make anything better, but at the same time, and for a short time, it made everything that was wrong disappear.
Afterwards, he closed his eyes and hoped to drift away to sleep. He felt the bed shift beside him as Bella sat up and pulled out her phone. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Just had an idea for the cookery school. Like could we get a mixologist in and do cocktail nights?’ She paused. ‘We’d need accommodation, or maybe we could get a minibus and minibus people back to the pub. Or give a designated driver place free?’
Adam listened to her stream of ideas. ‘Yeah. Sure.’
‘Well which?’
