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‘Well, that’s something.’

It was a relief to discover her father was already opening up the shop, straightening the jars of sweets and setting up the bags and scales ready for the first customers.

When he saw Evan, his face flushed with embarrassment.

‘Evan, I’ve been told I owe you a proper apology. And Holly is probably right. We did get a bit heated yesterday.’

Holly was grateful her dad hadn’t tried to avoid the situation.

‘It’s fine,’ Evan assured him, shaking his hand. ‘You’re right to be protective. She’s a wonderful woman. And I promise I will postpone the parachute jump I had planned until next year.’

Arthur’s eyes bulged in shock.

‘He’s joking, Dad, he’s joking.’

‘Oh, right,’ he said, letting out a strained chuckle. ‘Of course it’s a joke.’

Holly took a deep breath in. Later today, she must remind Evan that not everyone shared the same sense of humour as he did.

‘Dad, I’m going to do some accounts work upstairs for a bit, but I’m going to need to head out in an hour. You’ll be okay here, right? Just for a couple of hours. Evan is going to be at the cottage working if you need him.’

‘Is that right?’ Her father was eyeing Evan with suspicion yet again, possibly still from the parachute jump comment. ‘So you can do that, can you? Work wherever you want? Must be nice.’

‘Yes, it’s not bad,’ Evan said. ‘I mean, I have to go into the office sometimes. Either the London one or the New York one. But most of the time, I can set up wherever I fancy.’

‘Looks like you’re fixing yourself here a fair bit,’ her dad added, with a quick quirk of the eyebrow.

‘Well, I think that might be the plan,’ Evan replied, glancing at Holly, only to add hurriedly, ‘Not that I want to rush anything, of course. We have to take our time.’

Holly felt a prickle of disappointment at the statement, along with a pang of relief. She was grateful she hadn’t mentioned moving in together yesterday at Slaughter when Evan clearly still had doubts about it.

Besides, she already had enough on her plate right now.

59

Holly felt a little guilty for choosing somewhere smack bang in the middle of Bourton to meet Giles.

Since the incident early in their relationship, where he had tried to sabotage her business by planting a dead mouse among the chocolate hedgehogs, people in the village had viewed him with scepticism. Rumours had travelled fast and, as such, he had made a concerted effort to avoid the village. Yet Giles was not one to let the opinions of others get to him, and when Holly walked into the Riverside Café, he was sitting there at a table in the far corner with a grin on his face. A grin that dropped the moment he saw her.

It was clearly something she was going to have to get used to while her arm was in a sling and the bruises were still prominent, but thankfully, the stitches were doing their job and her face looked a little better.

‘What did you do?’ The first words out of his mouth were almost an exact copy of what her parents had said to her the night before. ‘Oh my God, that looks serious.’

‘A Vespa accident,’ she said.

Unlike her parents, this response caused a smirk to flicker on his face. ‘The new man bought you a Vespa?’

‘I didn’t say that.’ Holly was mildly affronted by this comment, however truthful it was.

‘You didn’t need to say it. You told me about the Vespa in France, remember? You loved it and he’s got money. If I’d been him, it’s what I’d do. The perfect present. So, how many times had you been out on it when you crashed?’

His smirk was so irritating. That know-it-all-ness of it drove her mad, but at the same time made her want to wrap her arms around him and squeeze as tightly as she could. If nothing else, Giles always made her smile.

‘If you must know, it was my first trip out. Or at least, first trip on my own.’

‘God, he must feel like crap.’

‘Yes, you could say that. He’s moved into the cottage with me to help, given that I can’t do much.’ She lifted her cast-laden arm to show what she meant. ‘My mum and dad are absolutely furious with him, obviously. Not a great impression to make right at the beginning of a relationship.’