Grandma paused for a second. “You’re right. I’ll bake her a nice chocolate cake and take it over there this afternoon. Do you think Samantha or Edward might do an invitation for me?”
“You don’t need a paper one. A verbal one would suffice.”
“Do you think Samantha or Edward might do an invitation for me?”
I dipped my chin, smiling. I was not giving her the answers she wanted today. “Samantha would probably be better to ask,” I replied, referring to the female half of the husband-and-wife team who lived on the estate and acted as our butler and general housekeeper. We kept a skeleton staff compared to most other aristocratic houses, but since Grandma chose to live in a cottage and I lived in a rather small wing of the main house, there was no need to keep a full-time household staff.
Samantha and Edward were more than enough for us, subsidised by a larger cleaning group who came in once a month to deep-clean.
“I shall finish my tea and go back to the cottage to bake.”
“You can do it here if you’d like,” I offered, finishing my juice. “I’m going for a run anyway.”
Grandma waved her hand dismissively. “No, don’t worry about it. I don’t like your oven. It’s a hinky bastard.”
How could an oven be a hinky bastard?
What even was a hinky bastard?
I shook my head and pulled my phone out of my pocket. “All right. Any chance you could, er, bring me some of that cake?”
“No. It’s for Ellie.” She peered over at me. “If you see her and introduce yourself like the gentleman I raised you to be, I might make you your own.”
“Fine,” I grumbled, grabbing my earbuds from the table where I’d left them in their case yesterday. “But I’m only doing it if I happen to run into her. I have no intentions of seeking her out specifically to introduce myself. I find that if you go out of your way to do things like that, people get the wrong idea about you.”
“What? Are you worried she might think you’re actually a nice person and not a giant grumpy sod?”
“Exactly.” I put one earbud in. “I have a reputation to keep up, don’t you know?”
“Ah, yes. The one where you’re a miserable, brooding, cold-hearted git.”
“That’s the one.” I put the other bud in with a little smile. “I’ll see you later, Grandma.”
• • •
I bent over and rested my hands on my thighs, letting my head drop forwards. God, I hated running. I’d been doing it almost daily for twelve years, and I still couldn’t bring myself to like it.
Yet I did it.
I blamed Fred, my best friend. Rooming with him in university had been a mixture of wild partying and hard running the next day, but it’d been an effective way of working off a hangover.
So was beans on toast, for that matter.
That wasn’t why I still did it. It was somewhat of a habit now, to wake up, have a glass of orange juice, and head out for a run. Any work that needed doing was always to be done after it, and that was my only hard line. I would wake up at three in the morning to fix an issue, but this hour was entirely my own.
It was therapeutic. There was something comforting about the repetitive motion of my feet pounding against the ground that brought me back out here on a daily basis. Some people paid thousands of pounds a year for therapy, but that had never worked for me.
Talking about my past didn’t change it.
At least here I could pretend like I was running away from it.
I looked up. I’d taken the same path as yesterday, and Greygarth Lodge was only a few feet away. It was irritating that there was someone staying there—I hadn’t grabbed any water before I’d left and usually, I’d just nip inside and get some, but that wasn’t an option now, and it was already getting hot.
That was the last time I let Grandma disrupt my morning routine.
I walked the ten or so feet to the dock. It stretched out to the lake and had a couple of small rowing boats hooked up to it, and the little shed that was hidden in the nearby trees contained fishing rods for renters to use during their stay. It cost a little extra and was strictly catch and release, but it was an addition my father had brought in before…
Well.
Before.
I shook that all off and sat on the bench. It was in the shade, so I could cool off a little before I finished running back to the house.
It really was beautiful out here.
I turned at the sound of footsteps and paused when I saw the redheaded woman who was staying at the lodge. What was her name? Ellie?
“Sorry,” she said softly, holding out a bottle of water. “I saw you stop, and it didn’t look like you had one. It’s pretty warm out here already.”
“Oh, thank you.” I took the bottle from her and uncapped it, the seal breaking with a satisfying crackle. I drank half of it in one go, then screwed the lid back on and wiped my hand over my mouth. “I needed that.”
Ellie smiled softly, tucking her shoulder-length red hair behind her ear. “I thought you might. Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you.” She dipped her head and turned away.
“Max,” I said.
She paused, looking back at me. “I’m sorry?”
Shit.
“My name. It’s Max.” I stood up and held out a hand with a tight smile. “My grandmother isn’t amused I didn’t introduce myself to you yesterday, so…”
“Oh.” She bit her lower lip, smiling, and moved so she could put her hand in mine. “I’m Ellie.”
“I know. Grandma hasn’t stopped talking about you since you made the booking. She’s… a fan.” I couldn’t help the dryness of my tone.
Something flashed across her blue gaze, but the glimmer of darkness disappeared just as quickly as it had shown up. “She mentioned it.” Ellie took a step back and clasped her hands against her stomach. “Well, it was nice to meet you… Max. I’ll leave you to it.”
My name rolled off her tongue easily. Too easily. Why the fuck did that sound so good?
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” She turned away, and this time, she walked all the way back to the lodge without looking back.
I didn’t take my eyes off her. I couldn’t. It was almost a compulsion—a weird one, but a compulsion, nonetheless.
Ellie Aarons was annoyingly attractive.
I shook my head and turned back to the lake, clutching the bottle of water she’d given me. I’d done what I’d promised Grandma I would do, and that would be my last bloody interaction with her.
I had no reason to spend any time with her unless it was a greeting in passing.
I had even less than no reason when I considered how attracted I was to her.
There was a reason I kept to myself—and temptation like Ellie was exactly it.
CHAPTER FOUR
ELLIE
Daydreamer
Some days worked, and others didn’t. Unfortunately for me, I had far more days that didn’t work lately.
Instead of getting frustrated, I simply shut the top of my laptop down and walked away. I was here for a reason, and that was to find inspiration. Sitting at a desk in a setting as beautiful as the Lake District wasn’t going to provide me what I needed.