Page 112 of Best Summer Ever

‘Yes,’ I shouted back. ‘We are. Go away.’

She ignored my request and opened the door.

‘I hope you’re not up to no good in here,’ said Nick, who was with her, as he looked between us. ‘That’s not what this place is for, you know.’

‘We would have been if you pair hadn’t barged in,’ I pouted and Nick laughed.

Though really, I would never have done anything more than kiss in the hut. It would have been disrespectful.

‘What are you doing here, Pen?’ I asked. ‘We were going to come down to the café for lunch later.’

She rolled her eyes at that.

‘It’s not open today, remember?’

‘Oh, bugger,’ I said. ‘I completely forgot you decided to keep the place closed on Mondays after all.’

‘Even I need a break sometimes,’ she laughed and I was pleased that she was taking at least some of the time off that she was entitled to ahead of the start of term at the beginning of September. ‘The twins are very good, but they’re not up to running the place entirely on their own,’ she added.

‘It’ll have to be the pub then. Are you up for that?’ I asked Josh.

‘I guess.’ He shrugged, then pulled on his T-shirt. ‘I have to face the rest of the village sometime, don’t I? And maybe word will have got round about me being a good guy, rather than a bloke on the make, by now.’

I was about to say that it might take longer than just the few hours that had passed since he talked to everyone back at Wynbrook, but Penny spoke up before me.

‘Well,’ she said, looking pleased with herself, ‘we’ve just had coffee in the pub and made a point of very loudly telling Sam some of what you told us last night, Josh, so rumours about you will still be circulating, but they’ll be much more positive ones now.’

‘We didn’t share the personal stuff,’ Nick added hastily, ‘about the letters and so on, but we did confirm that you’re here for good and that one day you’ll be taking over the estate from Algy and keeping it in the Alford family.’

‘Thank you for doing that, guys.’ Josh smiled gratefully and I felt my heart flip at the thought of him being around forever, as opposed to just the summer. ‘That’s brilliant.’

‘It was our pleasure,’ Penny said, blushing.

Apparently, not even a recently engaged person was immune to my current beau’s beautiful charms.

‘And knowing that I’m in for a warmer welcome than I expected,’ Josh then said to me, embracing the moment, ‘let’s head back to the cottage to wash the sea off us now and then go straight to the Smuggler’s for something to eat afterwards.’

‘All right,’ I willingly agreed.

‘Would you like us to come to the pub with you?’ Nick asked.

‘No,’ said Josh, ‘but thank you for offering. You two enjoy the beach hut, while you’ve got the chance.’

I scooped up my towel and bag.

‘And don’t do anything in here that we wouldn’t do,’ I called over my shoulder as I sashayed out.

If Josh wrung his hands once between leaving the cottage and walking into the pub, he did it a hundred times, and that was no mean feat given that the two buildings were next door to each other.

‘Stop stressing,’ I said as I caught his hand and kept hold of it. ‘You know it’s fine. Penny and Nick have already done the hard bit for you.’

‘Oh, I know,’ he said, ‘and I’m ever so grateful to them both, but I’m still nervous about what people are going to say to my face.’

‘Well, well,’ announced Sam, who was coming out of the pub to add something to the chalkboard in the lane, ‘if it isn’t the lord of the manor.’

Josh’s face dropped and I squeezed his hand.

‘Are you going to grace us with your presence?’ Sam carried on, not having noticed that Josh thought he was being serious. ‘It would be wonderful if you came in and raised the tone. There’s nothing but rum-swigging pirates and reprobates turned up so far this morning.’

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