Page 33 of A Summer Scandal

‘It’s sad that you don’t see eye to eye with her,’ she said. ‘I rely on my mum more than I can tell you.’ Della had been on the phone most days, and even though she pretended not to want to know, she was getting more and more curious about goings-on at Swallow Beach. ‘Don’t you wish things were better between you two?’

‘Now who’s being the pop psychiatrist?’

She supposed she deserved that.

‘So is this spurned fiancé likely to turn up at some point to throw you over his shoulder and take you home?’

She was too loyal to say anything unkind, but the very idea of Simon charging down here to get her was so outlandish it made Violet sigh. He’d never take the time off work, and besides anything else, it’d throw his dodgy knee out.

‘I think not,’ she said.

Now would be the perfect time to ask Cal about his own experience of marriage; she couldn’t engineer a better inroad into the subject if she tried. Yet still she didn’t, and if she’d been forced to explain why she’d have had to confess that it was because she didn’t really want to know anything that might make her conscience heavy. Cal was part of her Swallow Beach summer fairytale complete with a wicked mother; it just didn’t work if he already had his princess, even if she was half way across the globe. For now, Violet just wanted to drink wine with him and enjoy the moment.

‘The sun’s shining on my name,’ she said, nodding towards the painted rainbow on the floor. The sun had dipped low over the sea, casting a rose-gold glow over the birdcage, gilding the words painted on the boards.

‘I take it you were named after it,’ he said.

She leaned her head against his shoulder. ‘I must have been, although I didn’t know I was until I saw it.’

He whistled. ‘Your mum really didn’t tell you much at all about this place, did she?’ he said, holding the bottle up to see how much they had left. Very little, it appeared.

‘Nothing. You were all a big secret as far as I was concerned.’

She felt rather than saw his laugh. ‘I quite like being your dirty secret.’

She lifted her head. ‘Not dirty. You had your chance the other night and knocked me back, remember.’

It was the first time they’d actually talked about what had happened on the landing at the Lido the previous week.

He drank from the bottle and then handed it over for Violet to finish. ‘You know that’s not true.’

‘Er, yes it is,’ she said. ‘I asked you to kiss me and you said no.’ She tipped the bottle and finished the wine.

‘Do you always have your hair blue?’

She didn’t comment on the fact he’d changed the subject. ‘No. It’s been all colours of the rainbow.’

His eyes shifted to the rainbow on the floor. ‘Blue suits you.’

‘I looked good in pink.’

‘I’ll bet.’

‘I’ve been known to dye my pubic hair to match,’ she said, trying to keep a straight face.

He laughed. ‘Very thorough of you.’

She shrugged. ‘A girl likes to be prepared for anything.’

‘And are you? Prepared for anything?’

‘God, no,’ she said. ‘I wasn’t prepared for any of the things I’ve found out since I came here. I wasn’t prepared for the shock of my grandmother’s apartment, or the protectiveness I feel towards the pier …’ she patted the floor, ‘and I wasn’t prepared for you, either.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘Go on.’

‘Stop fishing for compliments,’ she said. ‘I won’t lie, Cal. You’ve had a strange effect on me. I think we’re good neighbours and hope we’ll be good friends for a long time, but then whenever we’re together I sort of want all of my clothes to fall off, and that’s a bit of a problem.’

Cal made a choking sound.

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