Page 116 of A Secret Cornish Wish
The easy stuff is the job offer. It sounds great. Perfect, even. Absolutely nothing to complain about there. It’s almost too good to be true, so I spend the next few minutes trying to find a loophole or a drawback, something to make me decide to stay in Glasgow. But I can’t.
Before yesterday, my other worry would have been where we were going to live if we did move back here. But when I told Claire about my job offer, she went into overdrive.
‘Oh my goodness! That’s amazing. It would be so lovely to have you back here again. You can stay with me,’ she continued when I mentioned accommodation. ‘For as long as you like. You can have the room you’re in now, and we can clear the box room for Rosie. It needs decorating and we can do it in whatever colour she likes. I say box room – it’s easily big enough for a single bed and some furniture. One of the boys was going to have it at one stage, but they decided they liked sharing and playing their computer games and the like. So we left it like that, but it would be perfect for Rosie.’
‘Claire, take a breath,’ I said, trying to calm her down. ‘I haven’t got the job yet.’
‘Oh, you will! I know you will – it’s written in the stars. Talking of which, we’ve even got a little studio outside where you could paint in your spare time. I say studio, it was actually my dad’s shed, but it’s not really a shed, more of an outhouse. I can just see you in there creating your works of art – maybe you could sell some of them? You know how much the holidaymakers here love to buy a painting of St Felix to take home with them.’
‘I think we’re getting a little carried away now.’
‘Nonsense, you’re good and you know you are. Please say you’ll come and stay, Frankie. Alice will be off to uni soon and I’ll be so lonely here on my own with only the boys. I’d love to have some female company to even it out a little.’
So I agreed, if only to calm her down, thatifI got the job, and I decided to take it, I would temporarily come and stay with Claire until I was able to get my own place for Rosie and me.
Right, that was the easy stuff; now to something a little more complex that needed my attention.
Mack.
After Mack’s declaration in the early minutes of Sunday morning, I was lost for words for a moment or two, just sitting there and staring at him.
‘I should go,’ he said, standing up. ‘I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.’
But, as he made a move for the door, for once in my life I didn’t wait for my brain to OK something. I did as Mack suggested I should do, and followed my heart.
Seeing him leaving, I jumped up and rushed over to him, grabbing his hand. Then, as he turned back towards me, his face full of sorrow and regret, I simply kissed him.
The look of surprise mixed with joy on Mack’s face is one I think I’ll never forget. And as I think about it now, I smile.
And what happened next, as we both followed our hearts and not our heads, and way before anyone else returned to the house, is something I don’t think I’ll ever forget either.
But Mack was due to fly back to New York late this afternoon from Heathrow. He left with Rob and Nixie early this morning, with the promise of calling as soon as he got back so we could sort something out.
That was another funny thing to happen – Nixie.
Cordelia left me in the ladies’ toilet on Saturday night, staring at my reflection in the sink mirror in a state of complete shock. As I stood there, Rob’s PA, Nixie, had exited the third of the cubicles behind me.
‘Hi,’ she said, smiling at me.
‘Hello,’ I replied.
‘I hope you don’t mind but I couldn’t help overhearing just now,’ she said as she washed her hands next to me. ‘That sounds like a great offer – you should take it.’
‘Sadly, it’s not quite that simple.’
‘Why isn’t it?’ she asked, moving over to the hand-dryer but not putting her hands underneath.
‘Just lots of stuff to consider.’
‘Isn’t there always?’
‘Probably.’
‘Rob talks a lot about you, you know?’ Her beautiful set of perfect white teeth formed into a warm and genuine smile.
‘Sorry.’
‘Why are you apologising?’
