Page 99 of The Summer Escape

“You already know the small matter of Ellie waking up to find you not here and me dealing with that by giving her the news that her friend is in hospital…” He raised an eyebrow. “Once she recovered from that, we were pretty much all good.”

She decided not to dwell on the fact that he’d only saidpretty muchall good. “Sorry. I really should have woken her before I left. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“It was fine in the end,” he said dismissively.

“Did you find something to eat here?” she asked, glancing around the kitchen and realising she’d given no thought to food since she’d expected Ellie to be at Dee’s place.

“We went out for dinner. Found an Italian restaurant not far away.”

“You took Ellie in a restaurant that wasn’t a fast-food place?” Beth asked, amused at the thought of the two of them out for dinner.

“Yep.”

“I presume she was well behaved for you?” Beth was unnerved by his slight hesitation. “Oh god. Was she a nightmare?”

“No. Of course not. She was fine.” He tightened his arms around her waist. “How was your day?”

She had an inkling there was something he wasn’t telling her but decided not to push him on it. If it was important he’d say. “Really good.” She wrinkled her nose, thinking about how beautiful the wedding had been. “It made me a bit sad that I can’t do that any more.”

She brightened immediately, determined not to dwell on it and remembering what Dee had said about it not being forever. “A change might be good. Maybe I can find something I like just as much as wedding photography. If not, I can come back to it when Ellie’s older.”

Trystan looked thoughtful. “You still have one more wedding lined up, right?”

“Yes, in two weeks. The editing and post-production stuff takes me a couple of weeks too so that means I can put off looking for more work for a while longer.”

“Will Dee look after Ellie next time?”

“Yes.” She paused, wondering if he’d offer, then felt slightly disappointed when he didn’t. Maybe Ellie really had been hard work and it had put him off looking after her in future. She told herself she was being paranoid and cast a quick glance at his laptop. “Were you working?”

“Yes. But it’s nothing important.” He closed the lid decisively.

Beth trailed her fingers across his brow. “You look tired.”

“I’m very tired.” The light came back to his eyes as his lips pulled to a flirty smile. “I probably need an early night.”

“I’ve had a very long day. I might need an early night too …”

His hand moved to the back of her neck and he drew her close. “I was hoping you might,” he murmured, right before their lips met.

* * *

The following morning, Beth woke with a smile on her face that vanished when she realised she was alone in the bed. Thinking Ellie must have got Trystan up, she headed downstairs in search of them, only to find Trystan staring at his laptop at the kitchen table with a look of concentration on his face.

“Are you working on a Sunday morning?”

He startled at her voice.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you jump.” She bent to kiss his cheek. “I assumed Ellie had woken you. Is she up?”

“She’s still asleep.”

“Why did you get up then?” She felt a pang of rejection that he’d passed up an opportunity to snuggle in bed. “Do you have that much work on?”

“Not really. I just woke up early.” He closed his laptop and turned in his seat when she moved to set the coffee machine running. “And then I wasn’t sure if it would be weird for Ellie to find us in bed together.”

Beth frowned. “I don’t think it would be an issue.”

“Maybe I was overthinking it …” He tapped on the tabletop, his gaze intense for a moment before his features softened. “Are you making coffee?”