Standard female necessities.
I slipped my feet into ballet flats and after a quick check in the mirror to ensure I really did look like I could go out in public, I headed back downstairs to say goodbye to Aunt Cat and Arthur. I hadn’t seen my father all morning, but since we had guests, including my cousin, I wasn’t surprised about that.
They’d probably been up half the night drinking and playing pool in the billiards room.
Men, right?
Giggling came from the kitchen right as I was about to round the doorway and say goodbye. I paused and peered in. The girlish giggling was coming from Aunt Cat as she taught Arthur how to navigate the coffee machine.
I frowned.
Was…
Was there something going on between those two?
Hmm.
I decided not to interrupt and quickly left, leaving them to… whatever that was.
I didn’t want to think too much into it. Between random strangers’ love lives and my own semi-complicated one, I wasn’t entirely sure I could cope with another one being added to the equation.
I got into my car and started it up. If I wasn’t sure about needing coffee before, I definitely was now. I was also going to need to talk that whole Aunt Cat-slash-Arthur thing through with Eva and Adelaide.
Just not today.
Today was for all the peace and quiet.
I drove into the village, parked up, paid for my ticket, and headed towards the coffee shop. It was blissfully quiet this morning, and that peace continued into the shop. I ordered my coffee along with a breakfast sandwich and took a seat at one of the tables in the back corner.
Now, I had to get to studying.
I set up at the table, and by the time my laptop was loaded, my coffee was brought over to me. I thanked Julia for bringing it and settled in to do my research. Now that I had the basic garden plan, I needed to bring it to life. My first stop was researching pergolas and searching for someone local who could potentially make one for me.
Ten minutes in, and it was painfully obvious that a custom one would blow half my budget. Unfortunately, it was a curriculum set budget, so there was nothing I could do about it.
It looked as though I’d have to order one and build it myself.
Hm.
That couldn’t possibly go wrong, could it?
Well, it was the only option.
My sandwich was brought over right before I could make a terrible decision and buy a pergola unsupervised, so I pushed the laptop to the side and tucked in, turning my browsing activities to picnic tables.
Picnic tables I could buy.
Surely even I couldn’t fuck that up.
I’d said it now, hadn’t I? Sod’s law dictated that I would.
Oy vey.
I needed a keeper.
I blew out a huffing breath and dropped my head onto the trackpad of my laptop. This was hard.
“Hey.”
I looked up and into Miles’ blue eyes. Lord have mercy, they were so pretty. “Hi.”
“Sorry. I didn’t want to bother you, but, well.” He motioned to the laptop. “You look like you need a break.”
“Am I that obvious?” I fought back a smile. “You can sit down, if you want.”
Why was this so awkward?
“Thanks.” He looked at my setup. “Change of scenery?”
“Mm. My tutor was slow sending emails and only sent grades this morning.”
“On a Sunday?”
“Yep. Mind you, it’s taken him more than a week, so it serves him right.” I dabbed at the corners of my mouth with a napkin and set it on my plate. “Also, there are about twelve people more than normal in my house, and I really need to fix this grade.”
His eyebrows shot up. “There’s no way you got a bad one.”
I sighed and told him.
“That’s not a crap grade. It’s only for that part of the course, right?”
“Only that specific part of the coursework,” I explained. “But I’m pretty sure the designing side of horticulture is where I want to work, not the actual planting and stuff. There’s a course for that I can go into after this, but it’s competitive, and I really need to get a near-perfect grade on this second half of it.”
He tilted his head to the side. “Bringing it to life?”
“Yes. Unfortunately we have a curriculum-mandated budget which is a lot smaller than my father would usually allocate for a project, and my pergola idea just became a lot more work than I’d assumed.”
Miles’ lips twitched. “You looked up local builders, didn’t you?”
I pouted. “Is it that obvious?”
“I know how much they cost.”
“A heads up would have been nice.”
He allowed his lips to pull into a real smile.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to that.
I hoped I did.
“Sorry,” he said after a moment. “But you can buy them in and they’re nowhere near as expensive to build it yourself.”
“Do I look like I build pergolas in my spare time?”
He ran his eyes over me. “No. It looks like you adjust flower arrangements, walk gaily through meadows of green, green grass, and dream of house plants.”
“Eh.” I sagged back. “That’s sadly accurate.”
Laughing, he leaned forward. “I can help you. I’m pretty sure your father isn’t expecting you to put all this stuff together yourself. There are more than enough of us who can spare a day or two to help you with construction.”
“You’d help me?”
“I said I would, didn’t I?”
I blushed, glancing down. He had, and that was before… well. “Thank you. Does that mean you can help me now?”
He opened his mouth, pausing only to motion to Julia that he was sitting over here.
“You done with that, Gabi?” She motioned to my plate.
“Yes, thank you. Can I have a cup of tea, please?”
“Sure can, dear.” She bundled up all my dishes, clearing the table. “Would you like a pot?”
I looked to Miles.
“I have tea,” he replied.
“Yes, please, then. Better make it a pot.” I smiled at Julia, and she returned it with a cheeky grin before she disappeared.
Damn it.
Now I was going to get the rumour mill started. I could hear it now: Lady Gabriella spotted canoodling with the gardener! Downton Abbey has nothing on this scandal!
Drama was my middle name today, apparently.
“Can you help?” I asked sheepishly.
“All right.” Miles couldn’t fight his smile. “But only because you got more tea. And I know the pergola in your basket is the wrong dimensions.”
I paused. “Probably. I don’t think I checked. It just looked pretty.”
With a sigh, he rounded the table and sat next to me, turning my laptop so we could both see the screen. “I assumed as much. Do you have the measurements?”
“In the Word document.”
“All right. You don’t happen to have a pen, do you?”
Ah-ha! I grabbed my bag. “I have three.”
“Why do you have three pens in your bag?” He eyed it sceptically.
“In case somebody needs a pen,” I replied, digging around for one.
“Yes, but why do you have three? Surely one would suffice.”