Read Online Summer of Love by Katie Fforde - Free Book Online

passion for candles, tea lights in paper bags and fairy lights wouldn’t listen to thoughts of potential showers.
    Sian and Rory were coming over soon to help her. She’d got suitable paper for Rory to paint place names on. She was just looking at her menu, wondering what to start on first, when there was a knock on the door.
    She glanced at her watch. Just past nine. She wasn’t expecting anyone except Sian and she’d come round the back way. Hoping it was a delivery and not a time-consuming caller she wiped her hands on her apron and went to answer it.
    It was someone she recognised but only after he had smiled and said his name. It was the man from the bookshop.
    ‘James,’ she said. ‘Do come in. I confess I’d completely forgotten you were coming today.’
    He hesitated. ‘If there’s a problem, I could easily come back another time.’
    ‘Oh no – no problem. It’s just I’m having a dinner party this evening and your coming slipped my mind. Come through. Would you like some coffee? I’m about ready for a cup.’
    She established James Langley in the library with a large mug of coffee and some home-made biscuits, rejects from the sables she had made to go with the gooseberry fool. She’d offered him a radio for entertainment but he’d declined. The books were more than enough for him; music or background noise would be a distraction.
    Back in the kitchen, still feeling guilty for having forgotten he was coming, Fiona set about making chocolate brownies for her third pudding. She knew it was pudding overkill but she suffered badly from ‘hostess anxiety’ and decided she’d worry less if she could feed thirty people instead of the eight she was expecting.
    There was a gentle knock on the door and Fiona jumped and dropped her knife on the floor. It was James.
    ‘Sorry to startle you. I’ve brought back the mug and my plate.’
    ‘Oh no need to do that.’ She picked up the knife and wiped it on her apron.
    ‘You’re obviously a very good cook,’ said James, looking round the kitchen at the signs of Fiona’s efforts.
    ‘Not really. I mean, sometimes it comes off OK, but I’m not reliably good. Not like some people I know – people who are coming!’ She winced and put her knife down of her own accord.
    ‘I always feel that good cooks aren’t people who can follow a recipe and make it look vaguely like the picture, but those who can make meals out of what’s lying around in the refrigerator.’
    ‘I can do that, actually. As a wife and mother you have to, most of the time. Are you married?’ She could have bitten her tongue off but she managed to keep her expression bland.
    ‘Not currently.’ He smiled, apparently not offended by her question.
    She nodded, approving of his good sense. ‘Not sure I would go through all that again, to be honest. It takes so long to break a spouse in, don’t you think? And I made such a mistake after my first husband died.’ She paused. ‘Why am I telling you all this? Why did I even ask you if you were married? I am so sorry! I think it’s what people call over-sharing.’
    He laughed again. ‘It’s because we were talking about marriage. It made you think about it.’
    ‘I was talking, you were just being bored but not showing it. More coffee? Anything I can do to make up for the over-share?’
    ‘No thank you, I’m doing very well.’
    ‘I’ll make you some lunch later.’
    ‘No need to do that. I did bring sandwiches.’
    ‘I’ll be making soup anyway. I’ve got Sian, my young neighbour and her son coming. He’s gorgeous. I’d marry him in a giddy minute.’
    ‘And how old is he?’
    ‘Four. Sad, isn’t it?’
    ‘Well, there’s a danger that someone else might snap you up while you were waiting for him.’
    Fiona chuckled. ‘I doubt it, somehow.’
    He smiled at her. ‘I’d better get back to work.’
    ‘And so should I.’
    They exchanged looks for a second and Fiona realised she’d enjoyed chatting to him. He didn’t seem