“Well, quite,” Nory agreed. They were flirting, and she was very into it. Not everyone would want to flirt with a woman who had rolled in a wheelbarrow full of manure. Play it cool, Nory, you are in a sexy gardener’s cottage with no bra on. This is the closest you’ve come to foreplay in months.

“I’ve been developing a hybrid plant for the last couple of years. It’s not something I would have expected a layman to recognize, though.”

It was Nory’s turn to give a quizzical look. “Have you met my family? I knew about perennials, annuals, and evergreens before I could say the alphabet!”

Isaac laughed. “I thought you said you weren’t a flower nerd.”

“I think we both know I am a total flower nerd.”

“There we are similar, at least,” he said.

They finished their cocoa to the gentle sounds of Lettuce snoring and the popping of logs on the fire.

“Do you miss it?” Isaac asked. “The quiet of the countryside?”

“The countryside isn’t quiet! It’s just a different set of noises. I guess you learn to tune them out. In London I’m used to the constant hum of traffic, and here I’m used to the incessant music of the wildlife. I find them both soothing in their own way. Although maybe not so much in the summer; London noise can feel oppressive at three a.m. when it’s twenty-eight degrees.”

“Ha, yeah, but the payoff is that you don’t get eaten alive by midges the second you open a window!” said Isaac.

“This is true.”

They were quiet for a long moment. After being so cold, warming up was making Nory’s limbs feel soft and relaxed. She began to think about visiting home tomorrow.

“Do you ever see my brother?” she asked.

“Yeah, quite a bit. He’s a good mate.”

Nory mentally scrubbed out one of the ticks she’d given Isaac earlier for his bookshelf. If he was good friends with her brother, did that mean they shared the same attitude?

“How is he?” she asked.

“Don’t you know?”

“We don’t talk much. And I doubt I’d be the person he’d turn to if he ever wasn’t okay. I thought maybe you could give me a heads-up before I go down there tomorrow. I like to know what I’m walking into.”

“As your brother’s friend, it wouldn’t really be my place to divulge things he might have shared with me. But since I can think of nothing to cause you worry or to make me feel disloyal, I can tell you that he’s fine. You probably know your dad is taking a bit of a step back at the nursery, and that seems to suit Thom. He likes being in charge.”

“Don’t I know it!”