It Started With A Tweet(61)

‘You don’t have to be coy with me,’ he says sitting forward and leaning his elbows on his knees, a lovesick look on his face. ‘I know you city girls are a bit more forward. I watch Made in Chelsea. You don’t need to pretend, I know you can read your mail on your phone. You came round here to get to know me better. It’s the George Clooney-older-man thing, is it?’

Uh-oh. This is not going to plan. All I wanted was to see what I was missing out on on Twitter and now I’m in danger of guest appearing on Farmer Wants a Wife.

‘I was hoping we’d get to know each other a bit more. It’s been a long time since I entertained a woman here, and I might be a bit rusty, but –’

Before I can say anything, Shep the dog begins to bark loudly at the door.

‘That’s enough,’ says Rodney as he walks over and opens it.

There, standing on the other side, are Jack and Buster. I sigh with relief as I watch Shep and Buster have a little sniff of each other’s bottoms before they settle side by side at the Aga as if they do this all the time.

‘Ah, Jack, cup of tea?’ says Rodney. ‘Kettle’s on, just made a cup for Daisy here.’ He points at me hovering awkwardly by the dogs.

‘Actually, I’m fine thanks, mate. It’s Daisy I came for. Rosie asked me if I’d come and get her to sort out a problem with one of the contractors.’

I look at him and he gives me a look to suggest I should play along.

‘Oh right, yeah. Thanks for the tea, Rodney,’ I say, heading towards the door as quickly as I can.

He looks a little crestfallen that I’m going. ‘Do you have to go? You could use the phone from here,’ he says a little hopefully.

‘We don’t have a phone at our end yet. But thank you again for the tea.’

‘You’ll have to come back and use that Internet another day.’

I wince as he winks at me. Jack gives me a look as it dawns on him why I’m actually here. We say our goodbyes and Rodney shuts the door behind us.

‘How did you know where I was?’

‘I was on my way to the village and I saw you walking up. Your red hoodie’s a bit like a neon signpost.’

‘I thought you’d be pleased – aren’t you supposed to be visible when you’re hiking?’

‘Well, it certainly did you some favours today.’

Jack climbs on the quad bike and he passes me a spare helmet.

‘You don’t expect me to go on that, do you?’

I look down at the incline of the hill and think I’d rather take my chances sliding all the way down on my bum.

‘I can leave you here with Rodney, if you like?’

I turn my head back and see that Rodney is waving out of the window at me, and I wave back quickly, before slipping onto the back of the quad.

‘You have to be a bit more careful, Daisy. You could have been stuck there all day if I hadn’t come along. Don’t get me wrong, Rodney’s a lovely man and he wouldn’t hurt a fly, but he could talk the hind legs off a donkey.’

‘Yeah, I get that now,’ I say sheepishly.

‘And not to mention, what would Rosie think? You checking your emails .?.?.’

‘You won’t tell her, will you? It’s not like I actually got to check them.’

‘Probably a good job too as I think Rodney keeps his computer in his bedroom.’

‘Why is his computer in his .?.?. I don’t want to know,’ I say realising that my visit could have got a whole lot more awkward. I’m actually glad that he was chivalrous enough to want to chat before he took me upstairs to see his computer.

‘Right, hold on,’ says Jack as he starts the engine.

‘To what?’ I shout, but it’s too late, he’s off. I grab on to his waist for dear life.

I close my eyes and scream all the way down the hill, which is so steep that it’s like I’m lying on top of Jack. I really wish I hadn’t eaten that big breakfast as I bet I’m going to squash him. Before long, we even out and we’re back on our bumpy drive, and I try to wriggle myself away from being so close to Jack. He pulls up into our courtyard and I take it as my cue to get off.

‘Um, thanks,’ I say, almost shouting, as Jack cuts the engine. ‘I guess I didn’t think that through very well.’

I watch Buster as he sniffs his way around the courtyard, probably on the trail of more pigeons.

‘As I said, Rodney’s harmless, but everyone knows not to visit. Well, not unless you’ve got nothing better to do with your day. He’s just a bit lonely.’

‘Is that why you go up?’

‘Yeah, I try to go once a week. You know, ever since I arrived in the village he’s taken me under his wing. Telling me the best place to get things, checking on me when I’ve been climbing, translating the local dialect. He couldn’t have done more for me.’

I feel bad that I went up there with such selfish intentions. I’d only thought about what I could get out of the trip, not what it would have meant to him.

‘I’ve got to go to the village, so I’ll see you.’

‘Thanks, Jack.’

‘Did you want me to pick you up some sugar – you know, so you don’t run out and have to ask a neighbour?’ he says, giving me a slight wink.