Page 17 of Best Summer Ever

I knew that, but I had been panicking that a different kind of storm had been about to whip up around the speculation of my break-up.

‘Shame the rain came today and not tomorrow,’ I said, looking out at the sky, still a dark grey sheet.

‘Shame it came at all,’ Dad and Nick said together and grinned.

‘Why’s that, love?’ Mum asked me, as she held out a hand for my plate.

‘Pen has sports day to marshal tomorrow,’ I explained. ‘She was hoping it might be rained off.’

We each of us gave a shudder.

‘I can’t think of anything worse than sports day,’ said Algy. ‘I hated it.’

It turned out, none of us had been keen.

‘I was never any good at running,’ I laughed, ‘but I didn’t mind the swimming gala.’

It had always frustrated me that I could swim faster than I could run.

‘Thankfully you had the capacity to run home when you needed to,’ Algy said with a smile, making me the centre of attention again. ‘Not that I meant…’

‘Come on,’ said Nick, ‘never mind about that, let’s get this lunch down us before we have to get back to work.’

There was a brief dry spell when it was time to leave and Nick walked with me as far as my car, which I’d driven up in.

‘I’m sorry if that was awkward,’ he said. ‘I didn’t mean to put you on the spot about you and Laurence breaking up. I just wanted to make sure you really are okay.’

‘I’ve already told you I am,’ I reminded him. ‘So why would you think I’m not?’

‘Just a feeling,’ he said, giving me a one-armed hug. ‘And you did say you were feeling raw and had stuff to process, as well as that you were all right.’

I felt grateful for his concern, but also relieved that I hadn’t shared with him and Penny what had really been the final nail in my relationship coffin with Laurence. There was no way Nick would have been able to keep Laurence’s infidelity to himself. He’d tell Mum and Dad, then want to round up a posse with Algy and his pitchfork and personally chase Laurence out of town. I imagined the pair of them leaping to my defence dressed as cowboys on horseback with lassoes.

‘Well,’ I said, shaking the amusing image off, ‘to be fair, it has only been two days, so I’m bound to still be feeling a bit out of sorts, aren’t I?’

‘I guess,’ Nick conceded, letting me go.

‘But really,’ I smiled, ‘I just want to focus on enjoying the summer. You, me, Pen, on the beach and in the pub.’

‘Chance will be a fine thing,’ Nick laughed. ‘I’m going to be flat out here and Penny’s going to be run off her feet in the café. I don’t think she’s realised how busy it gets…’

At least I wasn’t going to be swamped in the Smuggler’s. There was a fine line between busy and stressed and I felt no urge to cross it.

‘I’m sure we’ll be able to have some time together,’ I rallied.

I wasn’t willing to give up on the summer idyll just two days in.

‘I’m sure we will,’ Nick agreed. ‘But in the meantime, and as you’ll have more free time than Pen and me, perhaps you should think about indulging in a summer fling.’

I looked at him and blinked.

‘Where did that idea spring from?’ I laughed.

Nick shrugged.

‘Just a thought.’ He grinned. ‘Don’t people say that the best way to get over someone, is to get under someone else?’

‘Stop right there,’ I laughed. ‘Besides, who would I fling with? Not that I would consider it, but everyone around here is already spoken for.’

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