‘You wanna come, Flors?’ he asked and Flora looked as though her world had turned from black and white into technicolour as she ran from the study.
‘Take your coat,’ called Edward after Flora.
He and Eve faced each other. ‘A dog?’
‘He was supposed to call you and ask, but he lied and I will deal with that, but he was so smitten. I think he thought you would say no.’
Edward frowned. ‘I wouldn’t have said no. I think all children should have a family dog, but Amber disagreed. It will be great for him and you are the perfect person to help him with little Jimmi. Are you okay?’
‘Fine thanks. Get some words down?’ she asked.
‘Yes, I wrote two thousand five hundred and thirty-three words,’ he said, looking proud of himself.
‘Send them to me and I’ll get to work,’ she said and she turned to leave the study.
He grabbed her hand. ‘Eve, what’s happened?’ he asked.
‘Nothing, I just have things to do,’ she said and she gave him a thin smile and left the room.
She would never have this conversation with Edward Priest. The man was a flirt, probably slept with anyone who was interested and assumed she was the stupid young girl from the office who was looking for a leg up with a leg over.
She headed to the snug and opened the door and saw her laptop closed. She had left it open when she left the house. She had thought about it when she and Myles left, because she thought the battery would be flat when they returned.
She opened it up and Zara’s message flashed on the screen. She scanned it quickly and then closed the laptop again.
God, she hoped Hilditch or – even worse – Edward hadn’t seen it. That would be so embarrassing on so many levels. No, it was best she kept this experience professional with Edward. Nothing more than editing his work.
22
The morning sun shone brightly, promising warmth like Edward’s smile and interest, but it was all a sham, Eve thought as she stomped around the grounds of Cranberry Cross. She was trying to stay out of Edward’s presence as much as possible. For the last three nights she had begged off dinner with him and had eaten one night with Flora and the other night with Myles in the tower, sharing a pizza and crooning over Jimmi, and once in her room.
The more she avoided spending time with Edward, the more keenly she felt him trying to connect with her. Asking her what she wanted for dinner, if she wanted to have lunch with him in Crossbourne, if she wanted to come to a movie with him and Flora.
She was polite but distant. If he was entangled with Serena then she wanted nothing more to do with him than working on his book.
And he seemed to have slowed down on his commitment to the word count of fifteen hundred words per day. He’d delivered eight hundred words the first day and then six hundred the second day, and then five hundred the third day.
She wasn’t sure if he was blocked or doing it on purpose, but she wasn’t his muse and if he couldn’t deliver then that was on him, she had thought as she’d watched Flora digging in the snow under a bare-branched oak tree.
‘Any luck with your baby-finding mission?’ she asked the little girl as she approached.
Flora stood up, and squinted as she looked at Eve and the sun behind her.
‘No, I’ve lost one of my babies,’ she said looking more curious than worried.
‘I was sure I put her here but we’ve had more snow and now she’s really deep.’
Eve looked around and saw some gardening equipment in the distance, leaning against a wheelbarrow.
‘Then we’ll need to dig,’ Eve announced and stomped through the snow and onto the gravel path where the snow was melting.
Flora followed her, her little feet leaving marks behind Eve like a baby duck following her mother.
‘Here you go,’ said Eve, looking into the wheelbarrow and seeing a trowel and handing it to her.
‘A little spade,’ said Flora proudly.
Eve picked up a large spade and went back to the tree where Flora claimed the doll was buried.
