Page 16 of Best Summer Ever

He gave an involuntary shudder and I realised Nick had been right. Dad really had felt the impact of finding his friend injured on the ground.

‘Perhaps it has,’ echoed Mum, biting her lip.

‘Well,’ I said, ‘we’ll have to set our minds to trying to come up with a solution for that, won’t we?’

‘Yes,’ said Mum, as she picked up her teacup. ‘We will.’

The rest of the day thankfully passed without me upsetting either her or Dad. I made sure I took responsibility for the dinnerandthe dishes and then I turned in extra early. The night before, I had struggled with the mean confines of the single bed and that, combined with sorting through my worldly goods and my childhood bedroom, had left me feeling pretty much done in.

I had tentatively considered taking a tour of the garden the next day and looking in on the new cut-flower garden, but the weather had turned so utterly miserable, I didn’t feel like it when I got up. It didn’t strike me then what a relief that was or why I felt grateful for the rainy reprieve. I put my desire to put it off down to the weather and still being tired out from the mammoth sort-out I’d had the day before.

I had made a point of being up before Mum and Dad went to work and having checked their arrangements for lunch – they were eating with Algy again and invited me to join them – I then set out to the closest town along the coast to drop off the charity bags I’d accumulated and free up the space in my car again.

With my first shift in the bar happening the next day, I felt the urge to get all of my ducks in a row. If this was going tobe a stress-free and straightforward summer spent helping out around the cottage, keeping Algy company and working in the pub, then I wanted to be as ready for it as I possibly could be. I was determined not to let anyone down, get in the way or generally be a nuisance of any kind.

I was also keen to keep fully occupied because every moment I was currently without a task, my mind still frustratingly drifted back to the visual Laurence and his co-worker had treated me to and I could live without that. I could live withoutallthoughts of him, full stop.

I wondered how he had taken the news that he’d been found out and how his face must have looked when he read the note I’d left. He hadn’t turned up pleading forgiveness or offering an explanation, so he was either as happy as I was that the relationship was over or he really was too scared to come to Wynbrook because he assumed that I’d told Mum and Dad. Given that I was so relieved to be single again, it was maddening that thoughts of him were still lingering, but it was early days and I firmly told myself they would soon pass.

‘So,’ said Algy when I arrived at the manor kitchen after my charity shop trip and found him, Mum, Dad and Nick about to tuck into Shepherd’s pie and seasonal veg, ‘your mum tells me you’ve moved back into the cottage, Daisy, and that you’re single now.’

I felt everyone’s eyes on me and wondered if they’d been speculating and sharing information in my absence. The answer to that was obvious, I supposed.

‘That’s right,’ I said brightly, while I inwardly cursed Laurence’s lingering. ‘I am. I’ll just go and freshen up.’

I escaped to the cloakroom, which was next to the bootroom, and strained my ears to listen for further chat. The walls were so thick, it made eavesdropping impossible; however, when I returned, Algy looked flustered.

‘I think I rather put my foot in it,’ he said, with a grimace.

‘No, you didn’t,’ I told him, offering him a reassuring smile.

‘And I wasn’t gossiping,’ Mum quickly said.

‘I know that, Mum,’ I said, turning the smile towards her. ‘It was perfectly reasonable that you had to explain what I was doing back here.’

‘Iwas gossiping a bit,’ Nick then joined in.

‘Now that I can believe,’ I tutted and felt grateful to my friend for relieving the undercurrent of tension that I never wanted to feel in Wynbrook.

‘Nick wondered if we knew the reason behind why you’d given Laurence the old heave-ho,’ Algy elaborated.

‘I can believe that, too.’ I said, rolling my eyes.

‘But it turns out, no one does,’ Algy added, looking expectantly at me, along with everyone else.

‘Well,’ I sighed, ‘we just ran out of steam, you know. The relationship had run its course and—’

‘So, hereallydidn’t break your heart?’ Algy queried, looking concerned. ‘Because I’d be more than willing to see him off with a pitchfork, if that was required.’

Dad chuckled at that.

‘I’m quite certain Laurence would never break Daisy’s heart,’ he said confidently.

‘No.’ I smiled at Algy. ‘No broken heart, so no theatrics with a pitchfork required. But never mind my unbroken heart. What’s happened to the weather, Nick? You predicted sunshine for today, didn’t you?’

‘I did,’ he grumbled, holding up his plate so Mum could fill it. ‘I’m hoping this rain is just a blip in an otherwise sunny forecast.’

‘That’s the joy of living near the coast,’ Algy said sagely. ‘A storm can whip up out of nowhere in a heartbeat.’

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