Chapter 18

Luca’s car bumped up the track towards the farm. The day was bright and warm, and although late in the season, summer was showing no signs of fading. It’d taken a lot of diary wrangling to clear the afternoon, but as the sun flowed through the open window, it’d been worth it.

As the farmhouse came into sight, Luca chewed down on his lower lip as nerves crawled up his spine. It was lunch, that was all. Adrian was going to drive them to an out of the way place, high up on the moor, with views that went for miles and to the sea beyond. Not Love’s Harbour, they’d agreed. Not for their first… date. Something that felt suspiciously like butterflies fluttered in his stomach, just as they’d been doing since they’d made the arrangement a small handful of days before. Sure, it was nerves. It was anticipation. But it was also excitement.

He let out a groan, loud in the car. He hadn’t been excited about a man for a long time… which had led to guilty, uncomfortable thoughts about Jonathan. Jonathan who was just a friend. Jonathan, whom he’d put off meeting for dinner or supper. Jonathan, with whom he would need to make clear, again, where their boundaries lay. Luca exhaled, long and slow. He wouldn’t think about Jonathan. Not today.

Pulling up outside the farmhouse, a stocky dark-haired woman made her way towards him, her smile bright and friendly.

“I see you coming down track,” she said, in heavily accented and slightly broken English. “I am Elena, I work for Adrian on…” She clicked her fingers as she searched for the word. “Half time, and extra when more busy. He’s in upper field, with kids. Follow path,” she said, pointing past the house to a rough track.

“Kids? What?” Did Adrian have children?

But Elena was already trotting towards the house. “I bring them a drink, so I get you something too,” she called as she retreated.

Children… That was a complication he wasn’t looking for. He cast a guilty glance towards the car. Perhaps he should leave and make his apologies later. It was a mean thought, and it made him cringe. Instead, he made his way along the path, which led through a small patch of wood, emerging into an open field. Luca stopped and stared.

A small flock of sheep was herded into a pen, being fed by a group of children who were filling up a long trough and laughing as the sheep jostled and bumped against them, all of it supervised by Adrian, who dragged away one of the sheep when it got too boisterous. The children, who looked pre-teen, had smiles on their faces bright enough to rival the sun. But they weren’t the only ones. Adrian was smiling too, his face relaxed and open. Next to him, one child kept close, less confident about the lively flock.

Adrian bent down to speak to the nervous looking boy, who glanced from Adrian to the sheep, and back again before he nodded. Adrian grabbed one of the sheep and pulled it away from the trough, its place instantly taken by another. Bleating hard, it struggled, and the boy jumped back, alarm on his face, but it cleared when Adrian said something, offering a smile as he dumped the animal on its back. It instantly stopped wriggling.

The boy stepped closer, hesitant and unsure, looking from the sheep to Adrian, before he reached out and stroked the compliant animal. The boy’s face broke into a smile of wonder, bringing one to Luca’s own face as the boy grew in confidence. The sheep began to wriggle again and Adrian let it go when the boy stepped back. With an indignant bleat, it scampered to the trough to fill its belly.

Luca walked over to the pen. “Elena told me I’d find you with the kids. Why didn’t you tell me you had a secret brood?”

Adrian laughed. “I didn’t realise the time. They’d have normally been on their way by now, but they were late getting here.”

“Who’re ‘they’?”

“Kids from towns who never get out into the countryside. Most come from challenging backgrounds,” he said, lowering his voice. “This crew come from a home, once a month. Should have seen them when they first arrived, they were scared stiff. But contact with animals has been proven to be beneficial for emotional and mental health. A few farms in the area have got involved, but not enough.” He gave an awkward shrug. “They’ll be going soon, after a quick drink.”

As though summoned, Elena arrived swinging a large bottle by its handle and a stack of plastic beakers. The promise of what looked like orange squash on a warm day was enough to snag the kids’ attention away from the animals. Shepherded into a semi-orderly line, each was given a generous squirt of hand sanitiser before they were allowed their cold drink.

“Mr. Hardy?” A girl sidled up to Adrian, blushing hard when Adrian smiled down at her. Luca battled to keep the smile from his own lips.

“Yes, Kerry?”

“Can you take a picture of me and Tyson? He’s my favourite.” She held out an outrageously pink mobile phone.

“Sure. Tyson!” Adrian hollered, and Luca’s jaw dropped open when a sheep, the smallest in the small breed flock, staggered over, its bad tempered bleat making it clear it didn’t much like being diverted from its food.

Luca looked closer. “Does that sheep only have?—”

“Yep.” Adrian took a few shots of the sheep, which was so not a Tyson, and a grinning Kerry. Handing back her phone, she ran off to show a friend. “Three legs due to a deformity which meant amputation. I called him Tyson because he was a fighter, and survived against all the odds. I looked after him inside the house, where Spud took a liking to him and which is why the daft wool ball thinks he’s more sheep dog than sheep. He should have gone for slaughter and ended up as Sunday dinner, but…” Adrian trailed off. “Anyway, it’s time for this rabble to go,” he muttered, as he jumped over the pen and made his way towards the helpers who’d come with the children.

Luca kept his distance, watching as Adrian laughed and joked with them, his smile wide and transforming his face, wiping away the grumpy expression that so often clouded his features. The boy who’d been fearful in the sheep pen hovered, and Adrian turned to him, giving him every last ounce of his attention. The boy smiled, seemed to stand up straighter, and bloomed like a flower opening up to the sun as Adrian spoke to him.

Seconds later, in a flurry of waves and laughter, the children climbed aboard a minibus. Moments later they were gone.

“Elena, can you sort everything out here?” Without waiting for an answer, Adrian nodded for Luca to follow him into the kitchen.

“I need to have a quick shower, to wash the farmyard off me.” Adrian wrinkled his nose. “Perhaps I should have suggested dinner instead. We could still?—”

Luca shook his head. He wasn’t used to this less assured version of Adrian. It was so at odds with the cocky, commanding, on the edge of aggressive man he’d come to know. Adrian disappeared upstairs, but rather than take a seat at the table, just the sight of it making his cheeks heat, Luca instead made his way to the lounge.

An old, large brick fireplace filled up most of one wall but otherwise they were whitewashed and lumpy, as they were in the kitchen. A large TV sat in the corner, but it was the dark brown leather sofa that dominated. Although it looked squashy and very comfortable, the room was severely masculine, nothing softening its hard lines.

A plain white bookcase stood against the wall, and Luca inspected the packed shelves. Non-fiction, mostly. Books on sustainable farming, but also economics and politics, along with a large number in Spanish, Italian, French and German. But not every inch of the shelves were stuffed with books. In a cleared space was a photograph in a plain silver frame. The teenage version of Adrian, of which there was no doubt. Smiling into the camera, he held a protective arm around a small, plump, elderly woman. Like Adrian, she was smiling, but whereas Adrian’s smile had an aggressive edge, almost a challenge, the woman’s smile was soft and serene.

“My gran.”

Luca swung around; he’d been so absorbed in the photo he hadn’t heard Adrian come in.

“I’m sorry. I hope you don’t think I was snooping.” He swallowed, sharply aware Adrian hadn’t said anything about making himself comfortable in the lounge.

“Not at all.” He took the photo from Luca, and stared down at it. “It’s one of the few photos of me at that age where I’m smiling. She was an amazing woman. I don’t know what I’d have done without her,” Adrian added quietly.

Luca glanced back at the shelving. No other photos. No evidence of family other than an elderly grandmother.

“Anyway,” Adrian said, putting the photo back, and running his fingers through his damp hair, “how about a change of plan?”

“Just as long as it includes food, because I’m starving.” But it wasn’t just food Luca craved.

Adrian looked good enough to eat. Faded jeans that moulded to him perfectly, sitting low on his hips, and a snowy white T-shirt which clung to the defined muscles of his stomach and chest, muscles that had everything to do with hard, physical work rather than weights in the gym. Everything about Adrian was uncompromisingly masculine, a wet dream on two legs. He glanced up, meeting Adrian’s gaze, feeling every single pulse of heat in his face.

“I was thinking maybe we could eat outside?”

“Yes. Yes, of course, why not. Here, in the garden you mean?”

“No, not here, somewhere I know that’s — well, it’s a bit different. For a picnic, as the weather’s so good. But if you’d rather we went to the pub I’d suggested?” Adrian’s hand found the back of his neck.

“I think eating al fresco would be perfect.”

“Al fresco?” Adrian laughed. “Thought I’d offered a picnic. Sandwiches and scotch eggs.”

“Call it what you want, and as long as there’s plenty, I’ll eat it. Seriously, it’s a great idea. I don’t really get too many chances to get out and about. In fact, I’ve rarely been much further than the village.”

Adrian’s jaw dropped, his surprise almost comic. “That’s… outrageous. I was going to suggest Starry Point, which has great views, even though it’s best at night because of the?—”

“Stars?”

“All right. Yes, because of the stars. I’ll drive us up there one night.”

“Star gazing. That’s very romantic.”

“Look, erm, make yourself at home. I won’t be long and then we’ll go.” Adrian was already moving in the direction of the kitchen.

“On our romantic picnic?” Luca called out, grinning when Adrian answered with something that might have sounded like smart arse.