Page 117 of Best Summer Ever

‘Not until I’ve had my full five minutes,’ he said, roaring up to and over the cattle grid and turning left towards Wynmouth.

I hoped his suspension was expensive to replace.

‘Go on then,’ I said angrily. ‘Start talking. You’ve wasted at least a minute already.’

He leant over to reach for my hand, but I snatched it away.

‘What the hell?’ I growled.

‘I thought I was going to have to apologise to your parents first and then woo you back,’ he smiled, looking at me, rather than the narrow road and appearing completely unaware ofhow entirely inappropriate he was being, ‘but having talked to your mum, I’m not so sure I have to do either of those things now…’

‘What are you talking about?’ I seethed, as he shot around a tight bend with just one hand on the wheel.

‘Well,’ he said confidently, ‘I had already guessed that it really was you who had called the flat and that you were just saying it was your dad when you left that message.’

‘No,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘It was definitely Dad who called. Not me.’

‘And now I know you haven’t told your parents the reason why we’ve not been together these last few weeks,’ he blithely carried on, ‘I can only assume that’s because you’ve been working your way up to getting in touch again. You’ve just been punishing me for my little… indiscretion, haven’t you?’

I didn’t think it was possible to feel any angrier, but his stupid speech took me to never before experienced heights of frustration and fury. Had he always been such a moron?

‘So, let me get this straight,’ I said, as a car blared its horn when Laurence raced by taking up far too much of the narrow road, ‘you think that I haven’t told Mum and Dad that I saw you screwing someone else because I actually intended to forgive you for doing it.’

Laurence winced. I wondered how he would have put it, but obviously didn’t ask.

‘Why else would you have kept quiet?’

‘To avoid having to make the humiliating explanation,’ I ground out, ‘and to stop my father, Nick and Algy coming after you with pitchforks and gardening shears.’

I didn’t add that I hadn’t wanted to further upset my parentsby having them think the worst of him because heaven only knows how he would have misconstrued that.

Laurence laughed in the face of my implication that life-changing injuries could have been incurred if I had spilled the beans.

‘I know you wanted to make me suffer, Daisy,’ he said. ‘And rightly so. My behaviour was appalling and I’m very sorry for it.’

At last, he had taken ownership of what he’d done.

‘It was a stupid one-off and I can promise you, it willneverhappen again.’

‘Oh, that’s all right then,’ I snapped.

‘Is it?’

‘No!’ I bawled.

He took a moment to process that, but didn’t reach the conclusion that I had hoped he would, that is, that it was time for him to shut up.

‘And I’m also sorry,’ he carried on exasperatingly, ‘that I spent the whole time we were together trying to turn you into someone you’re not.’

‘Are you?’ I said sarcastically. ‘Are you really?’

‘Yes,’ he said, as he pulled into the clifftop car park that overlooked the beach at Wynmouth and scattered the gravel. I couldn’t believe we’d reached it already. ‘I am, because this gardening lark clearly suits you.’

It was my turn to laugh then. I was pretty certain he couldn’t think of anything worse than horticulture for a career, for me or him. I’d never once seen him with mucky hands.

‘I’m being serious,’ he said, as the car came to a sudden stop. ‘You’ve never looked better.’

I took the opportunity to jump out and strode off towardsthe steep path down to the sand. I didn’t think he’d follow me because he wouldn’t want to risk his designer leather shoes, but I was wrong.

---