Page 51 of Best Summer Ever

I wasn’t sure what to expect after that, but the evening unfolded with nary a disagreement. Though that could have been helped by the amount of Prosecco that Penny was getting through.

‘Why aren’t you keeping up?’ she asked me, when I stopped matching her after our third glass.

‘Because I have to drive tomorrow,’ I pointed out. ‘And you don’t.’

‘You do, however, have to be up early to open the café,’ Josh smilingly reminded her and that set her off again, reciting all of the new ideas she had for the menu.

She was going to be true to what Sophie always offered, but there were a few additions of her own that she had developed and was keen to try out.

‘Another?’ Nick offered, holding up his glass.

He’d just been declared the winner and had resisted the urge to gloat. Josh had almost been triumphant, but a couple of his words had been disallowed because they were US equivalents and as he was currently on UK soil, Penny and Nick had insisted those should be the ones he used instead. Personally, I wasn’t anywhere near as invested and wasn’t bothered either way. I had been surreptitiously watching Marguerite all evening. She certainly had a way with the customers and hadn’t mis-poured a single pint.

‘Not for me,’ I said, as I zoned back in to what Nick had said.

‘Nor for me either, but thanks,’ Josh added. ‘I was going to suggest we head off, Daisy.’

‘I was going to say the same,’ I quickly agreed. ‘Come on, Pen, we’ll walk you home.’

‘I don’t need anyone to walk me home,’ she laughed. She then attempted to tip the Scrabble tiles into the bag and spectacularly missed. ‘I’m fine.’

‘I’ll take her,’ offered Nick, as I gathered up the tiles from the floor.

‘Will you?’ Penny beamed, her former determination that she didn’t need a chaperone forgotten. ‘I’d like that.’

‘I’ll even get you in the door,’ Nick told her.

‘You might have to get her up the stairs,’ I added.

I hoped she wasn’t going to have a hangover on her first full day in the café. With any luck, she’d have enough adrenaline coursing through her to see off a headache and any nausea. Assuming that’s how adrenaline worked.

‘Shall I get you up the stairs?’ Josh whispered in my ear.

‘I can’t think of anything I’d like more,’ I told him. ‘Come on, let’s leave these two idiots to it.’

He didn’t need asking twice.

‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Marguerite,’ he said casually, as we passed the bar.

‘You won’t forget?’ She smiled at him.

‘No chance.’ He smiled back.

As I lay awake in the bed next to him a few hours later, I reckoned that not asking him what he wouldn’t forget was one of the hardest questions I’d ever not asked.

Chapter 12

Algy messaged around ten the following morning to say that the camera had been delivered, but I felt reluctant to rush back to Wynbrook. I also felt incredibly uncomfortable about why I was so hesitant to leave and it had nothing to do with avoiding the garden.

Josh and I had spent another wonderful night together. He was a sensual and sensitive lover, who had left me feeling more fulfilled than I’d ever been. I could have quite conveniently put my reluctance to leave the village down to an unwillingness to vacate his bed, but the truth was I was still rather preoccupied as to why he was going to see Marguerite.

I knew, of course, that it was absolutely none of my business and that I had no right to ask and I also knew, that if I did bring it up, Josh most likely wouldn’t mind in the slightest. However, there was also a tiny niggling concern eating away at the corner of what I knew to be reasonable, that having thought the worst of him once already in our brief time together, my askingcouldmake him mind and possibly even think that I was doing it again.

What if I said something about them getting together andhe thought I was asking because I was jealous (I was) or because I didn’t trust him (I did. Or at least I was trying my hardest to). I could appreciate now that Laurence’s infidelity had really done a number on me. I might have initially thought I’d walked away from our relationship unscathed, but I could acknowledge now that he’d left me with some trust issues, and feeling insecure as a result. I hoped neither sensation would last.

In the end, I decided I couldn’t risk directly mentioning Marguerite and worked my way around the situation another way.

‘Right,’ I said, as I stretched out in the bed and felt sensitive all over as Josh lightly traced a finger from my neck to just below my navel, ‘I really had better go.’

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