Page 73 of Best Summer Ever

I’d never had him down as a romantic before, but knowing how much Penny loved to cook and what that book must have meant to her, there was no other word to describe his actions.

‘Yes,’ he said, looking at Penny with unadulterated love. ‘She told me a while ago that she was looking for it and I secretly joined in the search too.’

‘Oh, Nick,’ I said, feeling teary again.

‘And what was the other book?’ Josh asked, smiling at my reaction to the romantic gesture. ‘The tatty one with the pages falling out.’

‘That,’ said Penny, sounding even more emotional, ‘is a handwritten recipe book that has been passed down my family line for generations. It disappeared with the Mrs Beeton and I hadabsolutely no hope that it had survived. I hadn’t even considered trying to find it.’

‘But I had.’ Nick smiled.

‘And you found it.’ Penny smiled back, leaning over to kiss him again. ‘Incredibly, the two were still together.’

Out of every item in the world that had ever come into Penny’s orbit, I knew that book must have meant the most. She’d never mentioned the Mrs Beeton to me, but I could remember her talking about the family recipe book and the dishes her nan and then her mum had made out of it. She’d be able to make them now too.

As delighted as I was that she now had the books back, I was also feeling sad that she hadn’t talked to me about her search. It was another reminder of how we’d grown apart during the last couple of years. I knew that Laurence had done nothing to encourage me to nurture my childhood friendships, but I couldn’t blame him for us losing touch because I had been the one who had ultimately allowed it to happen.

Thankfully Josh began to strum softly on his guitar at that moment and my mind was saved from taking a more maudlin turn.

‘Come on, Penny,’ said Nick, pulling her to her feet, ‘I’ve waited a long time to do this.’

I sat as close to Josh as I could get while he played and my friends slowly danced around us. My homecoming might not have been without its hiccups, but the things that really mattered were playing out perfectly.

Penny was of little use the next day and it was just as well the café was opening later in the morning as she didn’t show herface until just before ten. I had been waiting at least half an hour for her to show, but I didn’t mind because Josh had walked down to the beach with me and we had chatted while we waited for her to turn up.

Given the increasingly intense depth of my relationship with him and the meaningful conversations we had enjoyed as a result, it seemed utterly impossible that I’d only known him for two weeks, two weeks exactly, to be precise.

‘Do you realise it’s two weeks today since you threw yourself in front of my car?’ I nudged him before Penny arrived.

‘I can’t believe that,’ he gasped, but not disputing the fact that he had been the one responsible for the near-disastrous way our paths had first crossed. ‘Just two weeks. Are you sure?’

‘Absolutely.’ I nodded, nuzzling into his tanned neck. ‘Feels more like two years, doesn’t it?’

He pulled away and looked at me.

‘I agree,’ he said more seriously than I would have expected, ‘it does feel like we’ve known each other far longer, but is that a good thing or a bad thing? It feels like a good thing for me, but—’

‘Oh, it’s a good thing,’ I interrupted, before he got himself into a tizz and started wondering if I was getting bored with having him around. ‘A very good thing.’

‘That’s all right then,’ he said, kissing me. ‘I’d hate to think you were considering moving on.’

That was the last thing I was thinking about. Well, where he was concerned anyway.

‘The only bad thing is that I still haven’t introduced you to Algy,’ I pondered. ‘And I would love you to meet him.’

I had a feeling they’d really like each other, but I couldn’tsee how I would be able to instigate an introduction without my parents getting wind of the fact that my current beau had been to Wynbrook and not been introduced to them.

I didn’t want Josh to have to endure meeting either of them now, even though Dad had been impressed that he was a Wynbrook strawberry fan. My parents had done nothing to hide their disappointment about my job situation so they doubtless wouldn’t hold off from expressing whatever opinion they had really formed about my current relationship.

I just knew that my summer fling was being as frowned upon as everything else now and that’s what Josh was, wasn’t he? A summer fling…

‘Sorry, I’m late!’ called Penny as she appeared on the path.

Her hair was all over the place and her cheeks were flushed as a result of more than sun exposure.

‘You don’t sound sorry,’ I teased and Josh gave me a nudge.

‘You’re right,’ she beamed, when she reached us. ‘I’m not sorry at all.’

---