Page 22 of Best Summer Ever

‘Oh my.’ I swallowed again. ‘I love that one too.’

‘Then maybe we could watch it together sometime,’ Josh suggested. ‘If that isn’t too forward a thing to suggest…’

‘If it was,’ I said, trying to pull my soppy self together, ‘you’d have to apologise for it and then we’d be back in the old routine, wouldn’t we?’ He grinned at that. ‘Let’s see if we can get through at least one interaction without that happening, shall we?’ I ventured.

He puffed out a breath as he considered the idea.

‘That would be quite a feat,’ he said, looking so deeply into my eyes I thought he could see as far as my soul.

‘So,’ I gulped as I reluctantly looked away, ‘what can we, or should I say I, get you?’

Josh opened his mouth to answer, but Sam cut him off.

‘Oh no,’ he said, waving his hands. ‘Hang on. Before we get into that, I want to know what the old routine is. I’m confused as to why you’d have one as you didn’t even know each other’s names until a few seconds ago. Why does Josh have to keep apologising to you, Daisy?’

‘I thought you weren’t paying me to chat?’ I reminded him.

‘I’m making an exception,’ he laughed. ‘Tell me.’

Josh and I looked at each other again.

‘Well, the first time our paths crossed was when Josh stepped out in front of my car.’

He nodded in agreement.

‘Yep,’ he confirmed. ‘I did do that.’

‘Well, that definitely warrants an apology,’ Sam commented. ‘What else?’

‘He bumped into me here,’ I said, nodding towards the door. ‘Literally bumped into me on Monday when I came and asked you for this job.’

‘He did,’ Sam nodded, ‘I remember that now.’

‘But really that was a fifty-fifty situation,’ Josh jumped in. ‘It’s dark in here and my eyes were still adjusting when you sort of backed into me.’

‘So, why did you apologise?’ I pounced.

‘Because I was raised right.’ He grinned and my knees caved again.

‘Josh is right though,’ Sam said, not seeming to notice the electricity that I could feel crackling between Josh and me. ‘It is dark in here, so we can’t really apportion blame on just one of you for that…’

‘And then of course,’ Josh sighed, holding up his hands, ‘I walked in on you when you were naked, didn’t I?’

‘You did what?’ Sam gaped.

‘And that’s it,’ I said, tapping the top of one of the beer pumps. ‘Apologies all accounted for. So, come on, show me how to use this thing, Sam.’

‘Not until you’ve given me some context to the naked thing,’ he insisted.

‘Sorry,’ Josh grimaced at me, turning endearingly pink.

‘And that makes four,’ I said, counting each time off on my fingers, including when he’d burst in on me in the beach hut.

Josh grinned at that.

‘I was exploring the beach huts,’ he told Sam, while I wished the wooden floor would open up and swallow me whole, ‘and Daisy was in one of them getting changed after a swim in the sea.’

‘I see,’ said Sam.

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