Tori let herself back into Blossom Cottage the following morning after spending several hours berry-picking and another wonderful night in Aidan’s bed. She could have stayed there all day with him, but she wanted to get back to Max. Aidan had stuff to do around the farm and he needed to finish off the boat before the big race the following day. She was meeting Melody, Isla and Elliot later so she had a few hours to work with Max.

She looked over at Max, poised waiting for her, and smiled. She walked into the kitchen and started boiling the kettle to make a cup of tea while she worked. A bark drew her attention outside of the window and she saw Beast standing guard over the shed door and Dobby the turkey flapping his wings around. It was almost as if they were having some kind of argument.

She hurried outside and immediately they both turned their attention on her, Beast barking at her, though not leaving his space in the door of the shed, and Dobby running towards her, making his weird gobbling, barking noise and flapping his wings.

She stood her ground this time, refusing to be intimidated by a bird. But as she tried to sidestep him to see if Beast was OK, Dobby blocked her path at every turn, not letting her get anywhere near the shed. Beast was still barking, and she decided to go get some food and see if that would help to calm the crazy dog down.

She returned to the kitchen, poured out a bowl of dried food and topped it off with half a can of wet stuff, which he seemed to like, and went back outside with that and a bowl of water.

The arrival of food at least had the effect of stopping Beast barking, but he still didn’t seem to want to leave the doorway of the shed, at least not while she was there.

She went back inside and closed the kitchen door, watching as Beast ran out, took a few mouthfuls of food and then dragged the bowl back into the shed.

What was going on? Whatever was happening, Jamie would probably be looking for Dobby.

Tori texted Aidan and asked for Jamie’s number. A few moments later, the number arrived on her phone followed by another text from him:

She laughed and texted back.

She dialled Jamie’s number and he answered almost immediately.

‘Hello?’

‘Jamie, it’s Tori.’

‘Hey Tori, how you doing?’ Jamie asked, easily, and again Tori was struck with how laid-back he was, the complete opposite to the way he was when it came to Melody.

‘I’m fine. I’m just letting you know Dobby has come round for a play-date with Beast, although Beast doesn’t seem too happy to see him.’

‘That’s odd.’

‘That your turkey has escaped again and, not content to chase me down the hill, he has now turned up at my house to haunt me even more?’

He laughed. ‘No, that Beast has taken exception to him, they’re normally best friends. Beast often turns up at my house to see Dobby, although I haven’t seen him for several days. I’ll pop by, see what’s going on.’

‘And take your turkey back home?’

Jamie laughed again. ‘That too. I’ll be there in five minutes.’

‘I’ll put the kettle on.’

‘I take my coffee with lots of milk and three sugars, please,’ Jamie said, cheekily.

Tori smiled. ‘It’ll be waiting for you.’

She hung up and made herself a camomile tea and Jamie’s coffee exactly how he wanted it. Before she had taken her first sip, there was a knock on the door. Sandcastle Bay really was very tiny.

She opened the door and Jamie was standing on her doorstep grinning at her. She handed him his mug and moved back to let him in.

He stepped inside and took a big sip, seemingly in no hurry to sort out the turkey problem. His eyes fell on Max and he hurried over.

‘Don’t touch him,’ Tori quickly said. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean that to sound so harsh, but we’re between takes and if you touch Max, you could ruin the shot.’

‘Oh, I have no intention of touching him. I would freak out if someone touched one of my sculptures before it was finished,’ Jamie said, squatting down to have a look. ‘Aidan said you were an animator, how fascinating. What do you use?’

‘This is newplast plasticine mainly. There’s a few other things mixed in to get the right colours and to stop it fading under the bright hot lights.’

‘I see. I’ve had to do that with some of my sculptures.’

‘What medium do you use?’ Tori asked.

‘Everything really. Clay mainly. I love porcelain but that’s expensive, but I’ve also used plasticine, Play-Doh, Fimo, anything that’s soft and malleable, and then added other ingredients to some of the things to preserve it.’

‘I would love to keep some of my characters, but they are not in any fit state by the end of shoots. But once you’ve made your sculptures, you sell them on; I think that’s got to be hard too.’

‘Some I keep. I’ve just started one that I don’t think I’ll ever sell.’

‘Oh, what’s that?’

Jamie took a big slug of his coffee, turning to look back at Max. ‘Will you use the same model for the whole of this project?’

Tori noted the quick subject change away from his own work. Some artists, she knew, wouldn’t talk about or share their work until it was finished.

‘No, I will probably make between five or ten different models, some for close-ups, some smaller ones for long-distance shots. I normally make moulds for something like this, so each of the models are the same, but I didn’t bring that gear with me. Max here isn’t too hard to do though and as he will be walking and moving it won’t look too obvious if he looks slightly different – well, I will notice but I doubt anyone else will.’

‘So, you’re doing an advert for Heartberry Farm? Aidan mentioned that too.’

‘Yes, it’s for social media so I can have a bit more fun with it.’

He stood back up, taking another swig of coffee. ‘I can’t imagine making a sculpture and then spending several days moving it out of its original shape. Please tell me Max here doesn’t get squashed at the end of the advert. I don’t think I could take it.’

Tori laughed. ‘No, he falls in love.’

He turned to face her, a mischievous smile on his lips. ‘Ah, and how are things going with my brother?’

She smiled at the tenuous link and then decided to tease him. ‘Well he’s amazing in bed, he can do things with his tongue—’

‘Whoa, I don’t want to know that,’ Jamie said, looking horrified.

‘Well then, don’t ask.’

He laughed. ‘Fair point. It’s good to see him having a bit of fun. He hasn’t been with anyone since Imogen left him and I was worried he would never find anyone again. Now he’s with you and I couldn’t be happier for him.’ He must have seen something in her face because he quickly seemed to backpedal. ‘I mean, of course it’s not anything serious, I didn’t mean that. Of course, it’s never going to end with marriage and babies. It’s not love for him, you don’t need to worry about that. I just meant a casual, meaningless fling is exactly what he needs to get him back in the saddle again.’

Tori felt the smile fall off her face. The last few days she had pushed away her doubts, just like Matthew had told her she should, and embraced the possibilities of a serious relationship, but Jamie didn’t see it going that way at all. Surely Aidan still didn’t think it was a casual fling as well?

‘Oh god, I didn’t mean that, that sounded awful, didn’t it? Not meaningless. I know he likes you, I just meant that it’s never going to be anything more than just sex. I know that Agatha would love to see the two of you get married but that’s not going to happen, is it?’

Tori swallowed. ‘I’m not sure what will happen between us.’

‘But you go back to London in a few weeks,’ Jamie said.

‘Yes, I do but we might…’ she trailed off. What would they do when her time here came to an end? Travel back and forth between here and London to visit each other? She worked during the week and Aidan would be busy with people coming to the farm at weekends to pick their own fruit. Could they really make this work? Would Aidan even want to, or was this really a casual, meaningless fling to him?

‘Oh crap, I’ve upset you. What the hell do I know about what you and Aidan have? He could be planning to propose to you at the festival of love this weekend. Don’t pay any attention to me. I never say the right thing.’ He finished off his coffee. ‘Let’s go get this turkey.’

He walked past her, but she caught his arm. ‘Why do you think this isn’t anything serious for him?’

‘I don’t think that, I just thought this was just something casual for both of you, just a bit of fun. I didn’t realise it had become something more. Imogen was from London and they met while she was working down here for a few months. He fell in love with her very quickly and he said after they’d broken up that he would never fall in love like that again. He would take his time to get to know someone, work out if he could trust them before letting himself fall in love again. He knew that Imogen would never stay in Sandcastle Bay, he never felt like he had anything to offer her, and in the end, she left him because a life with him wasn’t enough for her. He said he’d never fall in love with someone like her again.’

‘You think I’m like Imogen?’

‘Oh god no, you’re nothing like her. I didn’t like her at all. I just meant that Aidan knows you’re going back to London in a few weeks and I thought he would be more cautious with his heart after what happened with Imogen. Look, please don’t pay any attention to my ramblings. We haven’t really spoken about your relationship at all, so what would I know?’

Aidan and Jamie hadn’t spoken about her. Was that a good thing or bad? It had been a long time before Luc had introduced her to any of his friends, most of them hadn’t even known she existed. Luc had said that he wanted to keep their relationship special and just between them, but had it been because it didn’t really mean anything to him at all, or so he could just keep playing the field? Had Aidan not talked about it with Jamie because he didn’t see it going anywhere? And why was she suddenly second-guessing this thing between them? She was happy, why not just enjoy it now and stop worrying about the future?

‘Let’s go and get Dobby before I say anything else to upset you,’ Jamie said.

He moved into the kitchen and she followed, hating the ache in her heart that this conversation had given her.

She needed to talk to Aidan, she hadn’t discussed any kind of future with him. As far as he was concerned, she could just want something casual.

Urgh! Relationships were so complicated and tricky to navigate. One or both parties invariably got hurt and that was why she had avoided them for so long.

Beast had returned to his spot near the door of the shed and Dobby was patrolling the garden as if he was on guard too.

Jamie stepped outside and immediately Beast started barking at him. Dobby charged towards Jamie and she wondered how he would deal with the turkey but, to Tori’s surprise, Jamie immediately bent down and hugged the bird, actually hugged him, Dobby wrapping his wings around Jamie’s back. It was the sweetest thing she’d ever seen.

‘Hey you,’ Jamie said, softly.

It was no wonder that Melody had fallen head over heels in love with this man. Apart from his ability to put his foot in it every time he opened his mouth, he was really very likeable.

Beast was continuing to bark as Jamie scooped the turkey up in his arms and walked back towards the house.

‘I’ll just put Dobby back in the car and I’ll be back in a second to see what’s wrong with Beast.’

‘OK.’

He disappeared inside the house and Tori heard the front door close as he went out to the car. He reappeared a few moments later and dug into his pocket, fishing out a bag of chicken.

‘Let’s see what’s got Beast so upset, though I have a fair idea.’ Jamie walked towards the shed and Beast continued to bark, though Tori could tell he was interested in the chicken, as he licked his lips.

She followed Jamie. ‘You do?’

‘Hmm, when he roams the streets of Sandcastle Bay, he is often seen in the company of another dog called Beauty. No idea where she came from, she might have escaped from one of the tourists that came down here. Beauty is skittish and nervous and won’t let anyone near her and Beast kind of takes care of her.’

‘You think Beauty is in the shed?’

‘Yes, Beast is guarding something, and I haven’t seen Beauty for several days.’ He offered out the chicken and Beast stopped barking and wolfed it down. Jamie peered into the shed. ‘Ah, yes. Seems I was right. I thought Beauty was getting a bit fat, although hard to tell under all that fur.’

Tori looked round the door and saw a large scraggy grey dog lying on the mattress. Next to her was a whole bundle of black curly-haired puppies.

‘Oh, Beast is a daddy.’

Jamie grinned at her. ‘Seems that way. No wonder he was so protective. I wonder if he’ll let us in to check on them, though Beauty might not be too happy.’

‘I’ll get some more food and drink for her. If she’s feeding that many puppies, she must be starving.’

Jamie nodded. ‘Good idea.’

She rushed back into the cottage, filled two bowls with food and then carried them back out to the shed.

Jamie squatted down, so he was face to face with Beast, offering out some chicken. ‘Hey Beastie, can we come in and see your puppies?’

Beast took a piece of chicken and moved back inside, dropping it in front of Beauty. It was so sweet the way he was looking out for her.

Jamie inched into the shed and Tori followed him. He crouched down slowly in front of Beauty, offering out the chicken. The dog hesitated, and Beast snuffled against the side of her head. It was as if reassuring her it was OK because, after that, she took the chicken from Jamie. Whether she was too tired from the constant demands of the puppies or she sensed that Jamie wasn’t a threat to her, she didn’t get up or try to get away. Tori moved forward and squatted down next to him, holding out her hand so Beauty could sniff her.

‘OK, let’s see what we’ve got,’ Jamie said softly, and he moved round and picked up one of the tiny black bundles of fur. ‘This one’s a boy.’ The puppy snuffled and yawned in his hand and Jamie handed it to Tori to hold. She cradled it in her hands, feeling the warmth from the puppy seep into her. ‘These two are girls,’ he said, putting them down softly on the mattress as he moved on to the others.

Tori continued to hold and stroke the tiny bundle of fur, all her fears and worries about Aidan drifting away. She smiled at the power of the puppy.

‘OK, we have five boys and six girls,’ Jamie said, a note of concern in his voice.

‘God that’s a lot.’

‘Yes, it is. Normally dogs Beauty’s size have a litter of between six and eight. It’s not unheard of to have ten or twelve but it doesn’t happen very often.’ He looked at Beauty who still had barely moved since their arrival. ‘I don’t think they’re getting enough milk. I estimate they are three or four days old and I think they should be bigger than this. Some of them are really small. I think she might be malnourished. If she’s not been able to get out and get any food, relying solely on what Beast is bringing her, she’ll be hungry herself and, with eleven hungry mouths to feed, that lack of food means a lack of milk.’

‘Oh no, I feel awful. If I’d known she was in here, I would have put out more food.’

‘Well now you know, it will mean that we can get more food inside her over the next few days and she’ll probably get better. But I think she might need a hand with these puppies. She can’t feed them all. I don’t know enough about this though, I’m not sure if normal milk from the shops is good enough.’

A thought occurred to her.

‘You know who would know. Melody.’

At the mention of her friend’s name, Jamie blushed. ‘I’m not sure…’ he started awkwardly. It was almost painful to watch.

‘No, she would. Her mum used to breed Labrador puppies. Quite often there would be one or two puppies that weren’t taking the milk or would get pushed out the way of the stronger puppies and Melody and Isla would help their mum to hand-wean them. She would know exactly what to do. Let me give her a call.’

Jamie nodded as he watched Beauty eating the food that Tori had put down for her. ‘Well that’s a good sign, at least she’s strong enough to feed herself. Why don’t I go and get more chicken? I’ll give the vet a call as well, have them all checked over, if the dogs will let the vet anywhere near them. If you can talk to Melody, I can pick up supplies, depending on what she wants.’

‘If you’re going to the shop to get supplies, why don’t you give Melody a call yourself rather than me relaying what she says to you? Do you want her number?’ Tori said, cringing a little inside that she was interfering. But it was only a little and really it was for the good of the puppies.

‘I have her number,’ Jamie said. ‘I’ll, umm… give her a call. I’ll be back here shortly.’

He moved off towards the house, obviously thoroughly despondent at the thought of calling Melody, and Tori couldn’t help a little smile spreading on her lips. She put the puppy down next to Beauty and went off into the cottage to look for any other meat she could give Beauty and Beast until Jamie came back.

She had just finished making sure the dogs had fresh water and dishing up two big plates of all the ham and pork slices she’d bought for her sandwiches when there was a knock at the door.

She went to answer it, expecting to see Jamie, but Aidan was there instead.

‘Oh, hello.’ Warmth flooded through her as soon as she saw him.

He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek and then, when he went to pull back, he changed his mind and kissed her gently on the mouth and all those wonderful feelings for him bubbled to the surface. It had to be more than just sex for him, she had to believe that.

‘I believe you have an animal problem,’ he said.

‘Multiple animal problems actually.’

He frowned in confusion as she let him into the cottage.

‘We have puppies,’ Tori said, leading him out the back towards the shed.

‘Beast had puppies? With Beauty?’

‘It sure seems that way.’

She peered round the shed door and Aidan did the same and there was Beast, playing the doting father perfectly as he lay next to Beauty, admiring his children.

‘Oh wow,’ Aidan said, softly.

‘There’s eleven of them. Jamie thinks that Beauty might struggle to feed them, even if we keep her well-fed. He’s going to call the vet and Melody, who might be able to help us – she used to help breed puppies.’

Aidan moved slowly into the shed, letting Beast and Beauty sniff him before he crouched down to look at the puppies.

‘Wow, Beastie, look what you did,’ Aidan said, stroking Beast behind the ears. Tori placed the plates of meat down near their heads and Beauty and Beast gobbled them up.

‘Should we bring them into the cottage?’ Tori asked.

‘We can, if you’re happy with that?’

‘I’m happy with it. I’m spending every night with you anyway. We’re practically married already,’ Tori teased, and then wondered if she should talk to him about their relationship. Was it too soon to ask about their future?

‘Yes, apart from the wedding ring and the happy ending,’ Aidan said.

Tori didn’t know what to say to that. There was a tone to his voice that she just couldn’t pick up. Anger, disappointment? Or was it something else?

‘And you don’t want that, do you?’ Tori asked, quietly. ‘When we first met you said you didn’t want any kind of relationship.’

He turned to face her. ‘So did you. Or have you changed your mind?’

Oh god, she couldn’t tell him that she was thinking of marriage and happy ever afters with him already, it had only been a few days.

She swallowed. ‘Do you see it going that way?’

He focussed his attention on one of the puppies, picking it up gently in his large hands. ‘I have no idea where this is going. I think we probably want very different things.’

‘What is it that you want?’ Tori asked.

She watched him cradle the puppy in his arms and she suddenly wondered what he would look like cradling his own baby in his arms. A stab of longing flashed through her as she thought about a tiny dark-haired baby that was half hers and half his. She quickly pushed that thought away. What was wrong with her? She’d never been particularly broody before but that was because she had been so anti-relationships. Closing herself off to any relationship meant closing herself off to the possibility of having a family of her own too. But now, staring at this wonderful man, she suddenly wanted all of that: marriage, children, the happy ever after with him.

He looked over at her, staring at her as he tried to form the words in his mouth.

‘I want…’ He reached out to touch her face. ‘I want to carry on exactly as we are now, having lots of fun and lots of great sex, and not ruin this with talks of the future. Because if we talk about this now, one of us will end up getting hurt and then it will be over before it’s even begun.’

She swallowed down the huge sense of disappointment flooding through her.

‘So just keep things casual?’ she said, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice.

‘Yes,’ he said, almost urgently.

‘Meaningless?’ she asked.

He flinched. ‘Whatever this is between us, I’ve never thought it was meaningless. Is that what you think? Because if you do, I think we better end this right now.’

There was a noise at the door and Tori looked round to see Jamie arrive.

‘I’ve brought reinforcements,’ Jamie said, grinning hugely, clearly with no idea what he had just walked in on. A few seconds later, Melody arrived, a big smile on her face too.

Tori smiled slightly at the sight of the two of them together.

‘Ohh, look at the puppies,’ Melody said, moving slowly into the shed, stroking Beauty and Beast and then picking up one of the puppies. Beauty still seemed too tired to care. ‘God, this one is so small.’

‘Can you help them?’ Tori said.

‘Yes, absolutely. We can hand-feed the three smallest ones and supplement the others with what Beauty is giving them until she is back on her feet. We’ve already been to the vets and they’ve given us special puppy milk and bottles and syringes just in case the bottle teats are too big. The vet’s going to come round later to check on them all. We’ve got some special puppy sheets too for when they need to go to the toilet, we have loads so enough to keep us going for a while. Jamie bought it all,’ Melody said, looking at Jamie adoringly.

‘We’re going to move them into the cottage, so we can keep an eye on them more easily,’ Tori said.

Aidan put his puppy down. ‘I have some tarpaulin in the back of the car. I’ll put that down in the lounge and cover it with some old sheets and blankets. We’ll have to build some kind of makeshift pen once the puppies get a bit older, or they’ll be getting everywhere, but they don’t seem very mobile at the moment.’

He left the shed, and for a moment Tori wondered whether she should go after him, but she wanted to talk to him alone, without any chance of Jamie or Melody overhearing. She turned back to Jamie and Melody and watched them for a moment as they held the puppies. Maybe a tiny bit more meddling wouldn’t go amiss.

‘Is there any chance you two could stay here tonight to help feed the puppies and keep an eye on Beauty? I have to help Aidan with the heartberries, I know he’s worried about the storms that will probably be here in the next day or so. He thinks there’s a possibility the heartberry field will flood early and we’d lose half the crop, so we’re trying to get as much as possible done at night. I probably won’t be back until nine or ten tomorrow morning and I can take over the day shift.’ Tori laid down the bait, hoping they would take it.

‘I can stay here,’ Melody said.

‘I can too, we can take it in turns to do different shifts,’ Jamie said.

‘You can sleep in my bed,’ Tori said, suppressing a smile when they both blushed. Clearly that was taking the meddling a step too far. ‘I mean, take it in turns to sleep in my bed.’

They both nodded, and Tori nearly cheered with joy that her plan had worked. Nothing might come of it, but it couldn’t hurt to force them to spend a night together, even if it was strictly platonic.

She just needed to sort out her own love life now.