Page 107 of The Little Flower Shop By the Sea
‘Yeah, I’m OK.’ Bronte hangs her bag on the peg behind the door. ‘Did you enjoy the party?’
Jake and I had returned to the party after our talk and attempted to sneak in quietly in the hope no one had noticed we’d been gone.
Except people had.
Jake had immediately been interrogated by his children. And I’d been questioned by Amber, and then Ash.
Amber hadn’t been too bad; I’d explained as quickly as I could what had happened and where I’d been, and as usual she’d taken it all on board with no drama. Ash, however, had not.
‘You’ve been where?’ he’d asked, astonished. ‘And with who?’
I try to explain again, except I was leaving out the part about the cellar. Ash was too close to Babs and Trecarlan to tell him the truth about the pictures yet.
‘And you expect me to believe that? You spend getting on for two hours away from this party, and part of that time you justhappenedto bump into Jake who justhappenedto be outside too? What do you take me for, Poppy, a fool?’
‘No, of course not,’ I’d protested.
‘What were you really up to, hmm? I know you and Jake are friends – but is that friends with benefits now?’
‘Stop it, Ash,’ I’d pleaded. ‘It wasn’t like that.’ I’d tried to placate him, suggesting that we go back to the cottage, sleep it off and then talk about it in the morning.
‘Na-ah!’ he said, pulling away as I gently tried to take hold of his arm. ‘I gotta get outta here and think for a bit. On my own.’
‘Ash!’ I called to his disappearing figure, as he strode towards the door of Trecarlan.
‘Later, Poppy!’ he called with a dismissive wave of his hand. ‘Much later.’
‘Yes, it was good,’ I lie now. ‘Coffee?’ I offer.
‘Nah, I had a Red Bull on the way up here, thanks. What ya looking at?’ Bronte asks, seeing me staring at the embroidered picture of the purple rose I’d propped up on the side this morning.
‘Oh, it’s nothing really. Just something that was found here under the floorboards of the shop. It belonged to my grandmother.’
Bronte comes over. ‘May I?’ she asks, lifting the picture. ‘Hmm… that’s cool.’
‘Is it?’ I say, surprised she likes it. ‘I didn’t think it would be your sort of thing.’
I wander back into the shop, and Bronte follows me.
‘It isn’t. But I think we have something very similar hanging up on our landing at home.’
‘You do?’
‘Yeah, it’s not the same flower, ours is pink – a carnation, I reckon. But it looks just like this one, same embroidery, same initials stitched into the petals of the flower.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes, definitely. It was Mum’s, I think. We had to pack a load of stuff up recently, ’cos Dad is going to decorate. I packed it into a box with the other pictures that were hanging on that wall.’
‘So where is it now?’ I ask, wondering how on earth the picture had ended up on Jake’s wall. Had Felicity bought it somewhere?
‘I guess it’s in one of the boxes of stuff stacked in the shed. I’ll ring Dad and see if he can take a look. He should be up by this time, but I think he’ll be nursing a pretty bad hangover. The party went on pretty late after you left with Ash. Did you know Ash took Charlie surfing this morning?’ Bronte asks as she hangs on her phone waiting for Jake to answer. ‘Charlie was well up for it when Ash called to tell him the surf was up.’
I’m pleased Ash had still taken Charlie out. After he’d stormed off, I was quite worried about him.
‘He’s not answering,’ Bronte says, pulling the phone away from her ear. ‘It’s going to voicemail. Told ya he was in a bad way last night! I’ll try again.’ But this time when she dials we hear the sound of a phone ringing outside the shop doorway.
‘Dad?’ Bronte jumps as Jake appears at the door. ‘I was just ringing you.’
