Alice Ross - Forty Things To Do Before You're Forty

‘Well, that’s very generous of her,’ said Jake, throwing Annie a look she couldn’t quite decipher.

Right. That was enough, Annie decided. If they carried on at this rate, the man would soon know her weight, as well as her shoe size. She glanced at the kitchen clock and was relieved to see that it was a little after eight. ‘Okay,’ she said, plonking down her mug on the bench behind her. ‘That’s enough colouring-in now. It’s time for you to go to bed.’

‘Oh, but do I have to?’ Sophie crossed her arms on the table and dropped her head onto them.

‘I’m afraid so. Say goodnight to Mr Sinclair. Then upstairs.’

Muttering all the while, a reluctant Sophie bade Jake goodnight, tickled Pip under the chin and disappeared up the stairs.

‘I’ll have to make sure she brushes her teeth,’ said Annie, battling the urge to run up the stairs after her daughter and put some space between her and this man who was having the most unsettling effect on her.

‘Of course.’ Jake picked up Pip from his lap and placed him gently on the floor. ‘I’d better get going. Thanks for the tea and the, er, colouring-in.’

‘No problem. I’ll, um see you around.’

‘No doubt.’

Jake rose to his feet, his impressive height and width seeming to fill the room. It was more than Annie could bear. Not waiting to see him out, she flew up the stairs as fast as her aching legs would carry her.

It took all of five minutes and three pages of The Fantastic Mr Fox before Sophie fell asleep. Clearly, entertaining strange men had worn the child out. Hopefully she’d learned her lesson, thought Annie as she made her way down the stairs. She, too, was exhausted. No doubt as a result of the roller coaster of emotions her body had been subjected to during the last hour or so, all of which she could attribute to the newly-arrived Jake Sinclair. Thank goodness he had gone now. She would tidy up, then sit in the garden and read for an hour before heading up to-

‘Ah!’ Annie jumped as she entered the kitchen. Because there, still sitting in his chair at the table, was Jake Sinclair – with a very smug-looking Pip on his lap.

‘I’m really sorry,’ he grimaced. ‘I’ve been trying to leave but Pip has other ideas. Look.’ He set the dog down on the floor, rose to his feet and took a step towards the door. In a flash, Pip was in the doorway making a strange throaty sound which sounded suspiciously like a growl.

Annie’s mortification returned – tenfold. ‘I don’t know what’s got into him,’ she blustered, marching over to the mutt and scooping him up. ‘He’s never done that before.’

‘Maybe he hasn’t quite grasped the guard dog concept yet,’ chuckled Jake.

‘Maybe,’ muttered Annie, burning with embarrassment. Honestly, what must he think of them all? First she waved a sword in his face like some kind of deranged Power Ranger, then her five year old daughter railroaded him into their house and now their psychotic Jack Russell wouldn’t let him out.

‘Well, I’ll definitely be going now then.’

‘Of course,’ mumbled Annie, still standing in the open doorway with Pip in her arms.

Jake came to a standstill directly in front of her. Annie’s heart began hammering wildly and her head started to spin.

‘Would you, um, mind if I squeezed past?’ he asked.

Annie hurtled back to reality. God! What was she doing? Standing in the doorway gawping at him, that was what. She opened her mouth to say something – anything. But her gaze locked on his and all words flew from her head. Stupefied, she watched as Jake raised his hand and gently brushed the pad of his thumb against her cheek. The slight roughness of his skin against hers caused red-hot desire to shoot down her spine, her breath to catch in her throat and her legs to weaken. Her eyes moved to his mouth. That wickedly sensual mouth she’d been fantasising about a few minutes before. At that precise moment she wanted nothing more than to feel it on hers. To-

‘Chocolate,’ he said softly, his eyes twinkling.

Chocolate? Annie furrowed her brow.

‘You had a smudge on your cheek.’

Of course she did. Just to complete the picture of her being a total idiot. ‘Right. Thanks,’ she mumbled, attempting to ignore the disappointment flooding her veins. What did she think he’d been going to? Kiss her? Okay, so maybe that idea had fleetingly skipped across her mind. Very fleetingly. But it was a ludicrous one. She didn’t want any man to kiss her – let alone one of Jasper’s playboy friends. So what, then, was happening to her? It could only be the running. Completing five miles had clearly affected her in a very strange way. Goodness only knows how she would behave after ten or thirteen. If she carried on at this rate, she would be locked up, a danger to the entire male species. Still, there was one way to minimise making a plank of herself again and that was to keep well out of Jake Sinclair’s way; a situation which he, too, would no doubt be happy about given that he probably thought her household on par with some kind of mental institution.

She stepped out of the doorway. ‘Goodnight,’ she said, with as much dignity as she could muster.

‘Night. And thanks again for the tea. I’ll, er, see you later.’

Annie managed a feeble smile in reply. Not if I see you first, she resolved.

‘Oh. My. God!’ In shocking-pink hot-pants and impossibly high heels, Lydia Pembleton almost toppled into Crumbs - Annie’s cake shop. ‘I have just had the most delicious mirage,’ she gushed, fanning her face with her hand. ‘And I say “mirage”, darling, because no man could possibly be that good-looking and be wandering around Buttersley unsupervised . Any idea who he is?’

Arranging limoncello cupcakes on a tiered stand in the window, Annie rolled her eyes. It did not require the services of a famous Belgian detective to know that Lydia must be referring to Jake Sinclair. She guessed his presence in the village would cause a stir – particularly amongst the single female brigade, over which Lydia reigned supreme.

‘I’ve no idea,’ she muttered disinterestedly. There was no way she was going to admit to Lydia that she’d already met Jake. To do so would be to subject herself to an interrogation of which any member of the secret service would be proud.

‘Well, I’m going to find out,’ resolved Lydia, tapping a long scarlet fingernail against her chin. ‘It’s a long time since a man’s had that effect on me, I can tell you. I wonder if it’s one of Mrs Coombes’s long lost relatives. Where did she say they were from again?’

‘Devon.’

‘Hmmm. He didn’t look very Devon-ish to me. He looked more … cosmopolitan. Like one of those really fit South African swimmers at the Olympics. I might go and bump into him – accidentally on purpose. Or do you think that’s a bit obvious?’

‘Possibly,’ sighed Annie. She really didn’t want to have this conversation. Or any conversation that involved Jake Sinclair. After the idiotic way she’d acted in front of him yesterday, she wanted to forget all about the man. And she had. She hadn’t given him a second thought until now. Well, that wasn’t strictly true. Perhaps she’d given him a second one. And a third. But by the tenth, she’d wised up. That thought, and any subsequent ones, had been batted away with all the aplomb of a world-class cricketer.

‘I know,’ piped up Lydia, ‘I could sprain my ankle. Right in front of him. That wouldn’t be too obvious, would it? Not in these heels. Mind you, I wouldn’t want to damage them. They cost a fortune. Still, might be worth it for just one night with a man like that. I bet he can do things that would make a girl –’