“No. Why?”
“I was going to stop by the village pond on my way home. Have you met the ducks yet? They love pastry almost as much as children’s fingers.”
Her words hinted at malice but visiting the village pond sounded nice. Perhaps he should take Lucas one day. Throw some bread for the birds. Enjoy a little father-son bonding time.
“I’ll put it on my list of things to do,” he said.
With a smirk, she leaned over and picked up the remains of his doughnut. “Do yourself a favour, though. Get yourself some full body armour beforehand, anddon’ttake your phone. Those ducks have a demanding streak, too.”
With those words of warning, Thea turned and left the café. The open door carried a waft of cool air laced with a heavy dose of her floral shampoo.
5
THEA
Thea left the bakery and sucked in a breath of fresh, chilly air. Nobody else was in the street, but the sight of her old truck parked against the curb had her glancing over her shoulder. She didn’t want Felix Walsh to set eyes on it again.
She could just imagine him, hands on hips, shaking his head at its dilapidated state. The filthy paintwork wore far too many dents and scrapes for most people’s taste. She ran her eyes over the vehicle and cringed. Oh well. With her bank balance, it would have to do.
Unlocking the door, Thea hopped into the driver’s seat. The calm of the interior seeped into her bones, pushing out the residue of Felix from her body. She shouldn’t care what he thought of her vehicle. They’d agreed to meet, and now it was done. She needn’t think of him again. Thea closed her eyes. Why, then, had a jittering fizz taken up residence in her belly?
She hadn’t enjoyed his company exactly, but neither had it left a nasty aftertaste. Thea wanted to dislike Felix. Detest him even. But try as she might, she couldn’t muster up the expected bitterness. The simmering irritation from yesterday remained,but none of the loathing, even after Kitty’s revelation about his dinner party bombshell.
Thea didn’t like him and wouldn’t choose to hang out with him, but she’d enjoyed teasing Felix. Not that she planned to repeat their coffee date, but if she had to, she could probably cope with another half hour in his company. Forty-five minutes at the most.
Thea turned on the engine and pulled away toward The Five Bob. She glanced at the Bakery’s front as she drove past. Felix stood in the middle of the path, talking on his phone—of course—with his eyebrows drawn together and a face like thunder. From his expression, she wouldn’t want to be the person on the receiving end. Winding down her window, she side-eyed him, hoping to catch a little of his conversation.
He'd dressed more casually today. Alongside his tailored jacket, he wore a cornflower blue shirt and a pair of smart black jeans. As he dragged a hand through his hair, he turned, and Thea ran her eyes over his body. Felix had a rather nice bottom. High and tight, and… She sucked in a breath. Bloody hell.Having impure thoughts about a man she was determined to detest wasn’t a good sign.
As she crawled past Felix at a snail’s pace, he didn’t even notice her. Didn’t cast a critical eye over the car. Instead, he had the look of a defeated man. Shoulders slumped. Like an executioner wearing a fluffy pink tiara or a policeman wearing hooker heels, his demeanour was starkly out of place against the picture of him she’d constructed in her head. Strong. Arrogant. And a little bit grumpy.
Thea craned her neck behind as she passed. What could the emptiness in his face mean? She gaped at him until a curdling scream tore into her consciousness, and she spun her head back to the road. Slap bang in the middle stood a rotund hiker, waving her hands wildly, her eyes the size of saucepanlids. The countryside around the village was a magnet for nature walkers.
Holy crap, Thea was heading right for her! She gripped the steering wheel and pushed on the break. When she stopped, the hiker shook a fist in her direction. With an apologetic wave, Thea steadied her breath. She’d almost killed someone, and “distraction by pert buttocks” wasn’t a solid defence.
A movement in her wing mirror caught Thea’s attention, and her heart skittered when she spotted Felix Walsh marching along the pavement, headed straight for her truck. No, no, no! He couldn’t see her like this. A few other walkers had joined the original hiker, and the small group scowled and pointed fingers in her direction. How could she explain the angry mob to him? She wasn’t about to tell Felix that she’d almost ploughed over an innocent pedestrian because she’d been admiring his bottom. No. She’d never give him the satisfaction.
With a burn in her chest and a final sheepish grin at the hiker, Thea let off the handbrake and pressed down hard on the accelerator. She pulled off, heading along High Street at breakneck speed. Felix, along with his disapproving face, shrank in her mirrors.
Thea let out an enormous sigh. With the muddy puddle episode and now the almost hit-and-run, he’d think her driving skills were as terrible as her car. Maybe even petition to have her licence taken away. She couldn’t do her job without a vehicle. Couldn’t transport rescued animals by piggyback alone. Ammy’s roller skates wouldn’t get her very far, either.
Thea drove past the shops in a daze, their ornate fronts and eclectic colours blurring with her thoughts as the breeze from the open window whipped tendrils of hair around her face.
The silhouette of the Five Bob loomed at the end of the lane. With trembling fingers, Thea pulled into the pub car park with a scrape of gravel. The run-in with the hiker must have affected her more than she thought. She needed to calm down.As she exited the car, the faintest aroma of wood smoke tickled her nostrils. Amber must have the fireplace going. Thea pushed the pub’s thick wooden door open and headed into the interior.
Amber popped up from behind the bar with a pen tucked behind her ear and a big grin on her face. “Thea!” The redhead’s smile disintegrated. “Are you okay? You look pale.”
Thea thumped down onto a high stool. With one elbow on the edge of the bar, she rested her forehead in her palm. “Oh, you know, I almost hit an innocent hiker with my car. Just your average Thursday morning.” She didn’t think it appropriate to mention the pert buttocks.
“Oh, crap. I’ll get you a drink to calm your nerves.”
Amber grabbed a bottle of brandy from the back of the bar and added a healthy slug to a glass. Handing it over, she swept her eyes over Thea's face. “Did your brakes fail? Look, I’m just going to say it. You ought to get a newer car. Yours could rival Fred Flintstone’s. Every time I see you drive down the street, I expect to see your work boots poking out the bottom, scuttling along for dear life.”
Thea flung her arms up in exasperation. “Not you, too. My old truck’s copped enough criticism in the last twenty-four hours. Nobody around here seems to appreciate its vintage charm.”
Amber raised an eyebrow, resting both hands on the bar. “What’s happened?”
Thea sighed, about to tell Amber about the bakery meeting from hell, when she was interrupted by a tuneless whistle. Daniel Cunningham emerged through the doorway, his hair uncharacteristically mussed and two shirt buttons fastened in the wrong holes. Thank goodness Thea hadn’t arrived a little earlier. She might have walked in on something she’d never un-see.
