go,’ she said, when he’d explained, ‘and to impress upon you that there’s nothing worse than clinging onto something you can’t have.’
His face dropped.
‘But,’ she said, hurrying on, ‘what I’m actually going to say is, if you love Jesse, do all you can to win her back. If that means giving her a month to reconsider, or perhaps even longer, then so be it. If you have the patience and you truly believe she’s worth it, hang in there. What have you got to lose?’
‘You sound so sure,’ he said.
‘Trust me, I wrote the book when it came to missing my chance. I know exactly what you can lose.’ And because he’d been so candid with her, and because it seemed so vitally important that he didn’t make the same mistake as she had, she told him why she knew what she was talking about.
When she’d finished raking through the embers of her history with Seb, and suddenly feeling self-conscious, she said, ‘I know that receiving his wedding invitation has stirred things up for me, but amazingly I haven’t spoken to anyone about him in ages, now here I am telling you all about him when I hardly know you, just as I did with Esme on Sunday.’
‘That makes two of us,’ Adam said. ‘I told her about Jesse on Saturday when I called round, so perhaps she’s some kind of divining conduit.’
‘Either that or she’s a witch,’ Floriana said with a laugh.
A slow smile spread over his serious face, a face she’d noted that tended towards solemnity all too frequently. ‘Talking of witches,’ he said, ‘I’m disappointed you’re not wearing your Professor McGonagall hat for lunch. I was looking forward to that.’
‘Now that’s just plain creepy,’ she said. ‘Any more of that talk and I’ll start to revise my opinion of you.’
Chapter Twelve
The house looked like somebody had lifted it up and shaken it hard, and then, just for good measure, turned it upside down and given it another shake.
It was less than a week until Christmas and with Adam’s help Floriana had moved all the furniture from the sitting room and squeezed it into the kitchen and hall. She was now sweeping the dusty bare floorboards in readiness for the arrival of the new carpet while Adam put the old one out by the front door to be taken away.
With an impressive army of people at his disposal who could provide or fix almost anything at a few hours’ notice, Floriana had voted Adam to be the most useful man on the planet. Last week he had not only mended the puncture on her bike but had arranged for one of his helpful men to replace the broken window in her bathroom. She didn’t really know what the going rate was for a job like that, but the bill was for such a small amount she was suspicious Adam had intervened and negotiated a reduced figure.
The same was true of the carpet today. ‘It’s the end of a roll,’ he’d explained airily when she’d been surprised how cheap it was. ‘No more than an offcut that I’d put to one side to use at a later date.’ He spoke like a man who had any amount of carpet offcuts just lying about. He’d brought a sample round the other day to see if she liked it and it had been just what she’d had in mind – a light oatmeal shade.
This was after she’d pulled up a corner of the old carpet and, seeing the state of the wooden floorboards beneath, had decided replacing the badly stained carpet with a new one was easiest and cheapest. She had asked Adam’s advice, seeing as he seemed to be an expert on anything to do with houses, and he’d said that he knew a man who could probably do a good job of sanding and polishing the floorboards, but the estimated cost had brought Floriana out in a cold sweat. Even factoring in paying a bit extra to get this bargain-priced carpet laid on a Sunday afternoon, it was still cheaper, and by a huge margin.
In the weeks since she had met him, it had become very obvious to Floriana that Adam’s cash flow was vastly different to hers, but in no
His face dropped.
‘But,’ she said, hurrying on, ‘what I’m actually going to say is, if you love Jesse, do all you can to win her back. If that means giving her a month to reconsider, or perhaps even longer, then so be it. If you have the patience and you truly believe she’s worth it, hang in there. What have you got to lose?’
‘You sound so sure,’ he said.
‘Trust me, I wrote the book when it came to missing my chance. I know exactly what you can lose.’ And because he’d been so candid with her, and because it seemed so vitally important that he didn’t make the same mistake as she had, she told him why she knew what she was talking about.
When she’d finished raking through the embers of her history with Seb, and suddenly feeling self-conscious, she said, ‘I know that receiving his wedding invitation has stirred things up for me, but amazingly I haven’t spoken to anyone about him in ages, now here I am telling you all about him when I hardly know you, just as I did with Esme on Sunday.’
‘That makes two of us,’ Adam said. ‘I told her about Jesse on Saturday when I called round, so perhaps she’s some kind of divining conduit.’
‘Either that or she’s a witch,’ Floriana said with a laugh.
A slow smile spread over his serious face, a face she’d noted that tended towards solemnity all too frequently. ‘Talking of witches,’ he said, ‘I’m disappointed you’re not wearing your Professor McGonagall hat for lunch. I was looking forward to that.’
‘Now that’s just plain creepy,’ she said. ‘Any more of that talk and I’ll start to revise my opinion of you.’
Chapter Twelve
The house looked like somebody had lifted it up and shaken it hard, and then, just for good measure, turned it upside down and given it another shake.
It was less than a week until Christmas and with Adam’s help Floriana had moved all the furniture from the sitting room and squeezed it into the kitchen and hall. She was now sweeping the dusty bare floorboards in readiness for the arrival of the new carpet while Adam put the old one out by the front door to be taken away.
With an impressive army of people at his disposal who could provide or fix almost anything at a few hours’ notice, Floriana had voted Adam to be the most useful man on the planet. Last week he had not only mended the puncture on her bike but had arranged for one of his helpful men to replace the broken window in her bathroom. She didn’t really know what the going rate was for a job like that, but the bill was for such a small amount she was suspicious Adam had intervened and negotiated a reduced figure.
The same was true of the carpet today. ‘It’s the end of a roll,’ he’d explained airily when she’d been surprised how cheap it was. ‘No more than an offcut that I’d put to one side to use at a later date.’ He spoke like a man who had any amount of carpet offcuts just lying about. He’d brought a sample round the other day to see if she liked it and it had been just what she’d had in mind – a light oatmeal shade.
This was after she’d pulled up a corner of the old carpet and, seeing the state of the wooden floorboards beneath, had decided replacing the badly stained carpet with a new one was easiest and cheapest. She had asked Adam’s advice, seeing as he seemed to be an expert on anything to do with houses, and he’d said that he knew a man who could probably do a good job of sanding and polishing the floorboards, but the estimated cost had brought Floriana out in a cold sweat. Even factoring in paying a bit extra to get this bargain-priced carpet laid on a Sunday afternoon, it was still cheaper, and by a huge margin.
In the weeks since she had met him, it had become very obvious to Floriana that Adam’s cash flow was vastly different to hers, but in no
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