‘No, I’d like to. That’s if you’re sure?’ she asked quietly. ‘I don’t want to be a pain. If you’d prefer to be alone with Freddie after what’s happened, then I—’

‘We’d love you to come,’ he said quickly before he lost his nerve. ‘Really. If you don’t come, I’ll dwell on it all evening, and I need someone to read the recipe out to me. I’ve never made pizza dough before. Have you?’

‘Can’t say I have,’ Bella replied with a laugh. ‘But how hard can it be? I doubt it’s as hard as getting a class full of nine-year-olds to decorate cookies without spraying icing all over themselves and the person next to them.’

‘Now, that does sound like hard work. I can just about cope with one kid; a class of twenty would drive me mad.’

‘Some would say I am already. Running the giving tree with everything else that’s going on.’

‘Or just a lovely person.’

She looked up to meet his gaze, a blush gathering on the apples of her cheeks. Nick felt a flash of vulnerability.

‘Do you have a chef’s hat?’ she asked out of nowhere and he laughed.

‘I’ve got two, actually. One for me and one for Freddie but you can borrow mine. I’m not sure it would suit me anyway.’ She looked at him as if imagining the hat on his head and the way she smiled caused him to falter. ‘And we’ve got mushrooms, pineapple and fresh tomatoes depending what you want on your pizza.’

‘I’m not sure I’d want all of that together, but I can’t wait,’ Bella replied, and Nick found that he couldn’t either, even with the threat of prison hanging over him.

Was it possible his heart wasn’t quite as broken as he’d led himself to believe?

Chapter 18

Nick’s cottage was the exact opposite of her own. Where hers was neat and tidy, Nick’s was messy and more like a boy’s den, though she could see that the kitchen was clean and orderly, and the washing machine had a load sitting in front of it waiting to go on.

Her parents’ help in moving on from Evan had been invaluable, but Nick had been self-reliant through his struggles. Wiping all trace of Evan from the house had been just what she’d needed. It must have been so much harder for Nick. Where she could throw all the photos of Evan into a box and hide it, if he did that, he was losing pictures of Freddie too. Being forced to live with the face of the woman who broke your heart must have been torturous. No wonder Nick had floundered for a while. But she’d noticed lately that Freddie was wearing beautifully cleaned school uniform and unrumpled shirts, and Nick too had seemed more together.