Kate had given the puppies a bowl of food so that Sam could watch them eat, then ushered Ethan and him out onto the back garden, installing Sam in a child’s garden chair next to the door which led from the utility room onto the patio.
Ethan’s tall frame made the table and two chairs that sat on the paved area seem even smaller. He sat down, looking at the riot of spring colour that stretched twenty yards from the back of the cottage and spilled around each of its sides. Kate was pleased with the way her garden was coming along this year.
‘You’re a gardener, then.’ Ethan laughed when she shrugged. ‘It takes a lot of hard work to make a garden look this random and natural.’
He’d noticed. Kate suppressed a smile and set about arranging the teacups on the table. ‘This is the second summer I’ve been here. I did a lot of planting last year, and I’m beginning to enjoy the results.’
‘It’s nice here. Quiet.’
That was one of the things that had attracted Kate to this place, away from the hustle of London. Away from the memories and the fears. But now it brought new fears. She realised that she hadn’t sat out here in her garden for a few weeks, contenting herself with viewing it from behind the locked windows of the kitchen.
‘We don’t get a lot of through traffic.’
He nodded, his gaze following the trajectory of the lane that passed in front of her cottage and continued straight for another hundred yards. It then curled in an arc and stopped short.
‘Where does the lane lead?’
Kate smiled. It wasn’t the first time someone had asked the question. ‘This cottage used to be the second-to-last in the lane. There was another one further along, but I’m told it burned down about fifty years ago. You can still see the foundations if you walk down there.’
‘You have a great view.’ He nodded towards Summer Hill rising in the distance, and Kate remembered that he’d said it was his favourite place. ‘I miss living in the countryside. My parents have a couple of acres out by Hambleton and I was brought up there.’
‘I imagine living in the town’s more convenient. With Sam...’
He shrugged. ‘It has its pros and cons. It’s further away from a community where everyone knows everyone else.’
‘Yes, I’ve been learning all about that. I’m still the new girl here, but there’s always something going on. I’ve managed to get on one of the teams for quiz night at the pub.’
Ethan chuckled. ‘You’re well on your way to becoming a local, then. I hope you take it seriously.’
‘Very seriously. My grasp of anatomy came in useful last week.’
‘What made you move up here?’ He turned suddenly, as if this was a question that was more than just idle talk filling in the time while Sam stared at the puppies.
‘I just wanted to make a new start. Have my own garden and a bit of fresh air.
If this place was in London I wouldn’t be able to even think about affording it.’
His gaze held hers for a moment, as if he knew that there was more to it than that. His dark-blue eyes were almost mesmerising, sucking her in and demanding the truth. And then he looked away.
‘I think he’s found a new friend.’ One of the puppies had finished eating and come to the doorway, pressing itself against the piece of wood that Kate had wedged across the threshold to stop the puppies from escaping.
She craned round to look at Sam, who was stroking the puppy and talking to it quietly. ‘He doesn’t need to make a decision yet.’
‘I think I’ve made mine.’ Ethan caught his son’s attention. ‘Sam, would you like it if we took one of these puppies home when it’s a bit bigger?’
‘Can we have them all?’
‘I think one’s enough.’
‘Two?’ Sam was obviously open to a bit of bargaining.
Kate giggled. ‘But where are you going to get the time to play with two of them?’
Sam thought about it for a moment and nodded sagely. ‘All right. Just one.’
Ethan’s blue eyes were all she could see as he looked back at her. ‘How old are they—six weeks?’
‘Five and a half. As I said, they’ve no pedigree certificates, but they all come with a clean bill of health, and Sue’s done a great job with socialising them. We’re hoping to find homes for them to go to at eight weeks, but I can take the one you choose after that. Until you’re ready.’