Page 10 of Time To Learn

3

Laura

What the heck just happened?

We’re back in my Beetle—it only took me three attempts to start it this time—heading home to the farm, and Ailith is chattering a mile a minute about her new books. I don’t really pay attention to her. I’m more worried about whether I was wrong to accept the strange young man’s money, but he didn’t exactly give me a chance to decline. He’d left the bookshop faster than I could say, Bob’s your uncle.

I regret that I didn’t manage to thank him properly, though. It was a very kind gesture he made, and it put a smile on my girl’sface.

“Mummy, do you think we’ll see him again?”

Ailith’s question breaks me away from my thoughts.

“Who?” I glance ather.

“That man from the shop?” She smiles secretively at me, making me suspicious.

I shrug and turn my head back to the road in front ofme.

“I doubtit.”

“He was really nice,” she says, her voice soft. “But he spoke funny.”

I laugh ather.

“I don’t think he was Scottish, but I liked his accent,” I explain.

“Yeah, so did I. I hope we’ll meet him again. Maybe we can go to Glasgow again nextweek?”

I wrinkle mynose.

“I doubt we’ll find him. Glasgow is such a big city, afterall.”

I reach out my hand to her, squeezing it gently when she takes it atonce.

“Thank you for the ice cream,” I smile ather.

She beams at me. “You’re welcome, Mummy.” She looks back at the road when I do, the bag with her books inside placed neatly on her lap. “Mummy?” she asks me when I release herhand.

“Mmm?” I put the indicator on and look over my shoulder to check for any cars before I turn down the long, gravelled road that’ll take us to thefarm.

“He looked nice, didn’the?”

Her question throws me, and a strange mix of gratefulness mingled with trepidation, when I picture the man from the shop, fills my insides. His eyes were bloodshot, and the stubble on his face looked days old. But his clothes were clean, nice, and I wouldn’t have been a living, breathing woman if the small flip in my tummy didn’t alert me to the pure appreciation of his muscled biceps flexing against his soft-looking T-shirt. The ink on his arms was quite impressive—especially the wolf’s head on his left hand—and his light brown hair that just teased his shoulders looked soft to the touch.

“Mummy?”

I jerk when I realise it’s taking me a lot longer to answer than it should.

“Um, yes, I believe he did,” I stutter.

“He had nice eyes,” she mutters.

Blue, watchful eyes pop into my head, and I mentally slap my cheek as I stop the car in front of ourhome.

“Okay, Ailith, let’s get changed and head to the stables.”

She lets out a small whoop as she unbuckles her seatbelt. As we leave the car, I breathe a small sigh of relief—my evasion tactic seems to work for now. I take the bag of books from her hand and push any lingering thoughts about the strange, but kind, man from mymind.