Page 90

“I’m making mud pies for Joshie.”

Kitty’s heart skipped a beat. Would she ever be able to hear his name again without having a coronary? “Why does he need mud pies?”

“Because you made him sad.” Ammy looked up into Kitty’s eyes. “Mud pies might cheer him up. Do you want to help?”

Kitty was floored by the little girl’s words. She had to find out what Ammy knew, but grilling a four-year-old about her uncle’s emotional state probably wasn’t ethical. Electing for a gentler approach, Kitty grabbed a green garden trowel and helped Amelia add to her piles of dirt.

“Who said I made your uncle sad?” she asked.

“He did. I heard him and Mum talking last night. They were in the kitchen, and I crept down the stairs. They didn’t see me.” An impish grin stretched across her face. “I’m good at hiding.”

“I’ll bet you are. So, they didn’t see you at all?”

“No. But I heard Joshie say he was devilstated, and then he hugged Wendy. She can’t make him mud pies, though. Joshie says she doesn’t have thumbs.”

Kitty had to smile. He’d made the same joke with her. Josh was devilstated? Ammy must mean devastated. Was he really devastated? It wasn’t a word the little girl would make up.

“And then Mummy said you were going away. Is that true?”

Kitty gazed down at Ammy, her blue eyes innocent and trusting. Her gut twisted at the thought of telling her she was leaving, but she shouldn’t lie. It wasn’t fair.

“It is. I have to go back to London. I need to earn money.”

“But wouldn’t you rather stay here? Jeffrey is going to miss you, and I’ll miss you. You’re good at playing Barbies.”

Kitty smiled, her heart bursting with affection, but at the same time, tears threatened to come. She was so confused.

“I’ll miss you too,” she said.

Ammy stared back at Kitty before nodding her head. “If you’re leaving, then we’ll have to dig harder. We’ll need to make much bigger pies because my uncle will be double devilstated.”

54

KITTY

Over the following week,Kitty worked like a slave at the sanctuary to ensure things ran like clockwork after she left. She lost weight, and the dark circles under her eyes told a tale of sleepless nights and rumination.

Today was the most challenging day so far, though. It was the first time she’d seen Josh since the party.

He was fixing something underneath his truck, and Kitty hadn’t seen him when she wandered up from the pond. As she drew level to the vehicle, a delighted Wendy shot round the corner, greeting her by pawing the metal buckets Kitty carried out of her hands. They clanked rudely against the cobbles, and she giggled, fending off the licks Wendy covered her with.

As she grappled the giant dog back to the ground, a movement behind the truck drew her eye, and Josh stood up, wiping his hands on an old rag. Her mouth ran dry, and her heart thumped in her chest. Incredible didn’t begin to describe how he looked. He wore faded jeans slung low around his hips, and his T-shirt, abandoned in the heat, was tucked into his waistband.

Kitty had seen his body before, but it never failed to amaze her. His skin was as golden as she remembered, and every muscle was imprinted in her memory.

Fire shot to Kitty’s cheeks the minute their eyes met. He seemed as uncomfortable as she did, looking at everything and everywhere except at her.

“Hi,” Josh said, running his hands through his hair.

“Shit, sorry, I didn’t see you there. I mean, I’m not avoiding you. I really didn’t see you.”

A touch of a smile played on Josh’s lips, and Kitty cursed the return of her verbal diarrhoea. It spilt out whenever she was nervous around him.

Josh smiled at her. “It’s really nice to see you,” he said. “Wendy’s been missing your ear tickles.”

Kitty swallowed. Was he talking in riddles? Trying to tell her that it washimwho missed her?And why was he smiling? He was supposed to bedevilstatedor, at the very least, furious with her. Why couldn’t he play fair instead of being all cute and sexy looking? Reasonable. She’d built him into a villain in her musings, but his warmth disarmed her, one chiselled ab at a time.

Okay, she could talk in riddles too.