Page 107 of He's the One

“It’s okay. Apart from my lovely mum and dad, no one has ever worried if I’d made it home.”

“You don’t think I’m weird?”

“Of course you’re weird. That’s why I like you.”

Theo laughed.

“Did you ring to tell me something or just to check I’d got back?”

“Both. For the first time in forever, I managed to spend a few hours in my father’s company without him wanting to strangle me. But I have to go with the computer guy tomorrow, so I can’t help you with the folly.”

“I’m glad you and your dad bonded, even if it was over the fraud. Going with the guy tomorrow makes sense. You’ll be able to explain what the various files are about.”

“I wanted to help you.”

“It’s not going to be done in a day.”

“If I can get back in time tomorrow, can we go out somewhere?”

“I’d like that.”

“We had fun, didn’t we? With the…you know.”

Col smiled. “The cauliflower thing was great.”

“Hmm.”

“Oh, you didn’t mean that? Feeding me that dessert was even better.”

“Are you going to make me say it?”

“No. Goodnight, Theo. I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll keep working on the folly until you get there.”

“Not if it’s dark. That would be folly. Er…that was a joke.”

“A terrible one.”

“Are you in bed?” Theo whispered.

“Yes, are you?”

“Yes. Are you naked?”

“Yes.”

“Oh God. Why did I ask that? I’ll see you tomorrow. Night.”

“Night, Theo.”

Col fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Col arrived at Asquith the next morning with his stonemasonry tools, and the repaired rabbit. He’d touched up the break line with special paint and once he’d cleaned the whole thing, it was almost impossible to see where it had been broken. He stood it on a flat slab where it wasn’t likely to get knocked and started work. The deeper he moved into the folly, the more rubbish he found and he cleared that out into a separate pile.

James arrived on a tractor-trailer with the items Col had requested, including a ladder, bags of mortar, container of water and lengths of wood.

“Morning,” James said.

“Morning.” Col helped unload everything.

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