Page 27 of A Summer Scandal

Barty and Cal exchanged a knowing glance, and Keris shook her head at Vi. ‘Ignore them, Violet. It works forme.’

Their conversation rolled on around her, easing her troubles, making her laugh with stories about the town and its people.

‘Glad kills me how she calls everyone by their full name all the time,’ Keris said. ‘It’s like she’s calling the register.’

‘She always fancied herself as a headmistress,’ Cal said. ‘Mayoress is as close as it gets.’

‘LadyMayoress,’ Barty corrected with a benign smile, a good way through his second triple rum. ‘I quite like a powerful woman,’ he mused, as an afterthought almost to himself.

Keris covered her face with her hands. ‘Make him stop, Vi.’

Barty knocked his drink back and reached for his fedora from the empty stool beside him. ‘I’ll go one better. Leave you whippersnappers in peace.’

Cal stood up even though his pint was fresh on the table. ‘I’ll walk back with you,’ he said.

Barty batted the air. ‘You’ll do no such thing,’ he said. ‘I’m a man in my prime.’

Keris smiled at Cal, who picked up Barty’s coat and held it open for him. ‘You’re twice the man I’ll ever be, Barty. Let me, you know I’m only doing it to look good for the ladies.’

Barty didn’t argue further. ‘Don’t let anyone drink his beer,’ he said, nodding towards Cal’s glass. ‘He’ll be back in five minutes. We’ll jog.’

They watched the two men leave, laughing about something as they moved out of earshot.

‘He’s pretty special,’ Keris said, her eyes lingering on the door.

‘Hmm. Is there anything …’ Vi said, tentative despite the wine. ‘You know, are you two …?’

Keris frowned, and then laughed. ‘I meant my grandpa,’ she said. ‘Did you think I meant Cal?’

Vi half nodded, a little embarrassed. ‘You two seem close.’

Spearing the lemon in her gin with her cocktail umbrella, Keris nodded. ‘Everyone’s close to Cal.’

‘I’m not sure I get what you mean,’ Vi said.

Keris screwed up her nose, as if thinking how to put it.

‘He’s a funny one. We dated a few times, years ago.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Disaster, but you know how most of the time you date someone, it doesn’t work out, and you never speak to them again if you can help it?’

Vi nodded. Her experience with men was pretty limited, but she couldn’t imagine ever being besties with Simon after they went their separate ways.

‘It’s not like that with Cal,’ Keris said. ‘And I don’t mean just me. He doesn’t kiss and tell, and women can’t seem to decide if they want to be his mother, his lover or his sister. I ended up in the sister camp, but either way everyone ends up still loving him.’

Vi frowned, perplexed. Calvin Dearheart was probably the best-looking man she’d ever seen in the flesh.

‘I’m surprised no one’s snapped him up by now, though,’ she said, then wished she hadn’t because it made her sound interested, which she wasn’t.

‘Oh, someone did.’ Keris nodded. ‘He’s married.’

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘He’s married?’ Violet couldn’t keep the shock from her voice.

Keris looked unsure. ‘Well, he was. He married Ursula when they were barely twenty-one, and then she got some modelling job in America and took off without him.’

‘But they’re still married?’

‘Now you ask, I’m not sure,’ Keris said. ‘It was a long time ago and she never came back, so either way it’s dead in the water.’

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