To Have and to Hold by Jane Green Page B

pan. “Sometimes. But I don’t think I’m the sort of person who would be happy working in a nine-to-five job.”
    “Do you think being a vet constitutes a nine to five?”
    “Actually it’s longer, you’d have to be on call all the time even when you weren’t at your practice, but it’s more about routine. I didn’t have the discipline to do the same thing every day, and although I do sometimes think I should have finished, just to have got the qualifications, on the whole I’m very happy with my life.”
    “And is dog training everything you thought it would be?”
    Harry laughs, walking over to the table and sliding the eggs and bacon onto plates as Alice puts a pile of toast on the table and sits down. “Dog training is fantastic, but best of all is the time it gives me to do other things.”
    “Such as?”
    “Such as gardening. And pottering round the house. And I’m a bit of a dab hand at woodwork.”
    “What kind of woodwork?”
    “Bookshelves. Benches. That kind of stuff.”
    “For yourself or for other people? God, this is delicious! I don’t even remember the last time I had fried eggs and bacon for breakfast. This feels so decadent!”
    “What do you normally have for breakfast?”
    “Fruit.”
    “And?”
    Alice shrugs. “Just fruit.”
    “That’s not breakfast!” Harry is horrified. “You need something much heartier for breakfast. I’ll have to have a word with Emily about you.”
    “What do you have for breakfast then? Surely not this every day. You’ll be having a heart attack any moment now.”
    “Nope, these breakfasts are only for the weekend. My usual breakfast is a bowl of porridge, toast, and fruit. Oh, and sometimes pancakes.”
    “Pancakes? How are you not the size of a house?”
    “Gardening’s bloody good exercise. It’s hard physical labor.”
    Alice laughs. “You could start a new fitness craze: Harry’s hard-core gardening workout.”
    “I’m serious.”
    “I know. I’m sorry. So go on, which is it? Do you do the gardening and carpentry for yourself or for other people?”
    “Both. I took them up years ago just because I wanted to learn new skills, but now I do quite a lot for other people, usually friends, or friends of friends. I try to work only with people I like. Life’s too short to be doing something you don’t want to do. So what about you, Alice? What do you do?”
    There is a silence while Alice thinks about how to answer. How can she possibly tell him she has lunch? Or she is on various charity committees? How can she say she goes shopping? And has manicures?
    “I don’t do very much really,” she says eventually, preferring nothing to the truth.
    “Okay. Next question. What would you want to do?”
    “You mean if I wasn’t living this life?”
    “Yup, if you could do anything at all.”
    Alice sits and thinks for a while. “Probably a bit of gardening and carpentry,” she says, and they both laugh.
    “Morning!” Emily, in a dressing gown, stretches in the doorway and grins, first at Harry, then at Alice. She walks over to Harry and puts her arms around his neck, leaning down as he looks up at her with a smile, and kissing him on the lips.
    Alice watches them with envy. How exciting a relationship is when it’s this new, when you’re still discovering one another, when you still have the capacity to fall head over heels in love.
    “Did you sleep well?” Alice manages an innocent expression, laughing as Emily blushes.
    “I slept terribly, thank you for asking,” Alice continues. “That bed is a bloody nightmare. I can’t believe you haven’t changed it yet.”
    “Why would I change it? I don’t have to sleep on it.”
    “Oh, thanks a lot.” Alice harrumphs as Emily sits on Harry’s lap. “Can you two just try and keep your hands off each other first thing in the morning?”
    “It’s not first thing in the morning,” Emily laughs, twining her arms around Harry’s neck. “It’s nearly ten.”
    “Oh God. I’d