Page 71 of Best Summer Ever

I left the question hanging and went to retrieve the pair of shoes I needed and another back-up pair, just in case. I also stuffed some clean clothes and toiletries into a bag so I wouldn’t have to come back to the cottage until the end of Tuesday at the earliest. Assuming Josh was willing to accommodate me for that long. If he wasn’t or couldn’t, then I was certain Penny’s sofa would.

‘We didn’t know,’ Mum said, when I went back downstairs again. ‘We didn’t know you were working in the café.’

‘Of course you didn’t,’ I smiled, ‘I hadn’t had the chance to tell you and Sam didn’t mention it because he didn’t know when you had lunch in the pub either. What did you have, by the way? The crab dishes are always popular.’

I didn’t wait for them to answer because they both still looked so surprised, they probably couldn’t have formulated a response if their lives depended on it.

‘Right then,’ I said. ‘I’d better get off. I won’t be back tonight or tomorrow, but I’ll keep in touch with Algy about the cat camera. Bye!’

I purposefully left the back door open and practically skipped down the path to my car. It felt good to have the upper hand for once, even if that hand hadn’t been honestly dealt.

Just as I had known it would be, Sunday was bonkers busy, even more bonkers busy than Saturday had been. I had thought I was going to hate working through another hectic day, but actually the constant queue and unrelenting requests for cold drinks, lollies and ice creams left me no opportunity to dwell on what I’d said to Mum and Dad.

I’d barely pulled into a parking space in the village after our conversation before the guilt had kicked in about misleading them. I knew they’d said some pretty hurtful things to me, but it didn’t follow that I then had to be deceitful as a result, did it? I could have chosen a more righteous path, but I’d walked along the easy one instead, even though ultimately it had given me scant satisfaction.

‘Yay!’ said Penny, as she punched the air in triumph after she’d switched the open sign to closed early Sunday evening and firmly turned the key in the lock. ‘We did it!’

‘That we did,’ I agreed, as I slumped onto a chair and slid my shoes off. ‘I’m not quite sure how, but we made it.’

‘And we’re going to do it all again tomorrow,’ she beamed. ‘Though not for quite so long.’

‘You’re mad,’ I said, as someone knocked loudly on the door and I wondered why on earth she was opening the café on days when it would usually be closed, even if it was only going to be for a few hours. Her new dream job was nothing like mine. Not that I had yet worked out what mine was, of course. ‘Totally cuckoo, Pen. Do you know that?’

‘Yep!’ she laughed, still looking deliriously happy as she went to open the door again.

‘Don’t let them in,’ I admonished. ‘We’ve only just closed!’

She ignored me and opened the door and I was pleased she had because it was Josh and Nick – Nick was carrying a basket and blankets and Josh had a huge cool bag and his guitar slung over his shoulder.

‘Our saviours,’ I praised, realising that yet again, I hadn’t eaten properly for almost the entire day.

‘We thought you might be hungry,’ Nick said. ‘Even though you’re working in a café.’

‘Nick thought you might be hungry,’ said Josh, unwilling to accept the credit for the food Nick had found the time to prepare, even though he’d been working too. ‘I thought you might be in the mood for some music.’

I was thrilled that he was keen to carry on playing his guitar now he’d had the benefit of George’s encouragement and the success of performing in the pub.

‘Yes, to both,’ said Penny, looking thrilled. ‘Thanks guys.’

‘And I thought you might also fancy a swim,’ Josh said to me.‘So I snuck into the beach hut and picked up the costume and towel you left there a few days ago, Daisy.’

‘That,’ I said, holding out my hand for the costume so I could get changed in the café loos, ‘was an inspired idea.’

Josh kissed me lightly on the lips and even though I was exhausted, I felt my libido spring into life.

‘And I thought that you, Penny,’ said Nick, his voice trembling a little for some reason as he reached into the basket he had put down and pulled something out, ‘might like this…’

He handed Penny a brown paper-wrapped parcel. It was tied with a blue velvet ribbon. She looked from the parcel to him and back again.

‘I hope it’s the right one.’ He swallowed. ‘I think it is. I went to pick it up after work last night.’

‘I thought you had a date last night,’ I said, releasing Josh and then realising that I might have just ruined what had the potential to be a romantic moment.

Some matchmaker I was…

‘I did.’ Nick grinned. ‘Well, not a date date. I did meet someone, but only to get this.’ He nodded at the parcel Penny was holding. ‘I’ve had a real job tracking it down and then there were some very specific details to check before I committed to buying it.’

Penny gasped and her eyes widened as she quickly tugged at the ribbon and then pulled away the paper.

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