Page 92 of Best Summer Ever

‘But?’

‘But if you hadn’t come, I would have been devastated.’

‘You would?’ I swallowed.

That was a pretty intense feeling for a relationship that wasn’t supposed to be heading anywhere other than towards its end, as the summer petered out over the next few weeks.

‘I would,’ he confirmed. ‘And I can’t help wondering what that suggests about how I feel about you, Daisy.’

Given that my heart had leapt at the thought of him being so upset about my potential no show, I was starting to wonder what that said about my feelings for him too.

‘Hey!’ I heard someone shout and laugh, and I knew there was going to be no time to explore those feelings that evening. ‘What are you two doing down here?’ It was Nick and Penny. ‘This was supposed to be our romantic spot, remember?’

‘It’s a big enough beach,’ said Penny, who sounded blissfully happy as she hiccupped. ‘We can share!’

Chapter 21

Had I been in any doubt about how my feelings for Josh were developing, they were presented to me in crystal-clear clarity as a result of my reaction to our final conversation before I headed home that evening.

I had asked him if he would like to join me at Wynbrook for Sunday lunch with my parents and Algy, and yes, I knew that had the possibility of being a rather full-on first meeting, but he turned me down anyway, not because of the potential intensity but because he had already made other plans.

‘Marguerite has hired a car,’ he told me, ‘and she’s asked me to go with her and look at this place she’s thinking of renting if she decides to stay on.’

‘Oh,’ I said lightly. ‘Right.’

‘She said to ask you if you would like to come along too but I assumed you’d be getting ready to launch the business next week—’

‘So you said no on my behalf?’ I cut in, perhaps a little too sharply.

‘No,’ said Josh, stringing the word out, ‘I just said I thoughtit was unlikely that you’d say yes because you’re so busy, but that I’d ask you anyway.’

‘I see.’

‘So, do you want to come?’

‘I can’t,’ I said. ‘You’re right, I do need to get more work done.’

‘So youaretoo busy to come then,’ he said, sounding amused.

‘Yes,’ I conceded again. ‘I am.’

I hated the fact that I didn’t like the thought of him and Marguerite spending the day together, especially when I knew I had absolutely nothing to feel jealous or suspicious about. I also knew that I couldn’t blame my uncharitable emotion on Laurence’s behaviour. This was all me. Jealousy wasn’t a pleasant reaction to experience, but it did give me a very definite heads-up about how I had started to feel about Josh.

As a result of my snippiness, we parted on rather less emotionally intense territory than I had thought we’d been heading towards when we were on the beach.

‘He’s leaving soon,’ I reminded myself, as I glanced at him in the rear-view mirror as I drove out of the village. ‘You’ve just escaped one relationship with your heart intact, Daisy, so don’t now risk getting it completely broken by someone who’s supposed to be nothing more than fun in the sun. Especially now you’re in love with your new job…’

It hadn’t been my intention to put some distance between me and Josh that week, but with everything I had to do ahead of opening Wynbrook Blooms on Wednesday, that was how the situation panned out.

‘Wow, Daisy,’ said Nick, when I dropped some jars of flowers at the fruit farm early Wednesday morning. ‘These look stunning.’

‘And they smell as good as they look,’ I said, shoving one under his nose.

‘They do,’ he agreed.

‘By the way, thanks for marking up the chalkboard.’

There were clear directions on the board outside the barn about where to find the walled garden and between us, Dad and I had hung up wooden arrows pointing the way from the fruit to the flowers, so hopefully customers would soon catch on.

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