Page 19 of A Fresh Start at Bramble Cottage
To Vicky’s surprise, Debbie blushed scarlet and turned away to fuss with putting a couple of pasties in a paper bag. What was that about? She glanced from one to the other. Of course it was none of her business if there was something between them — she really couldn’t care less.
Tom grinned teasingly as Debbie handed over the bag of pasties. “I’ll be sure and tell Bill you sent them with your love.”
“No! I mean . . . uh . . .”
He laughed. “Okay, I’ll keep schtum.” As he tapped his card on the reader he leaned over the counter and dropped a kiss on her cheek. “But don’t keep him waiting too long. He’s liable to turn all the milk sour.”
He nodded briefly to Vicky, and strolled out of the café.
So... Debbie and Bill? Vicky felt herself breathe again — she hadn’t even realised she had stopped. Debbie and Bill... that was sweet. But clearly there was a problem there.
The café was beginning to quieten down a bit. Vicky cleared a few more tables, carefully loading the dishwasher as she turned that conversation over in her mind.
It seemed that Debbie’s marriage had been something of a disaster — but Bill the stockman apparently held a candle for her. And just mentioning his name could make Debbie blush. Was there a chance for a happy ending there? Maybe one or both of them just needed a little nudge...
“Excuse me, miss, could we have another pot of tea here, please?”
* * *
“So I’m like, No! And she’s like, Yeah! So I’m like, But he’s got freckles. And she’s like, So what? And I goes, Has he got them on his dong? And then she’s like completely shot, like she didn’t even know I was joking or nothing.”
Vicky laughed in what she hoped were the appropriate places. Jayde had been nattering since she had picked her up from the train station. It was always difficult to follow these stream-of-consciousness monologues, delivered at machine-gun speed and frequently featuring people she’d never heard of but was apparently supposed to know.
She was fond of her stepsister, but she could be very tiring at times. Now she launched into another of her pet subjects.
“You know you really ought to lighten your hair — go proper blonde instead of that nothing colour. I could do it for you while I’m here, and film it for my channel.”
“No, thanks.”
“Oh, go on. I need some new content and that’d be great. That’s the trouble with you — you’ve not got no ambition.”
Vicky smiled to herself. Jayde’s ambition consisted of wanting to be an ‘influencer’. She was certainly working hard at it. She had her own YouTube channel, TikTok, whatever thelatest thing was, and eagerly checked the number of subscribers at least half a dozen times a day.
Of course it left her no time for a boring old nine-to-five job. Fortunately her maternal grandmother seemed quite happy to subsidise her lifestyle.
But that accusation that she had no ambition — Vicky had to acknowledge that it was probably fair. The trouble was, she didn’t know what she wanted to do, and so she had drifted.
Maybe her mum had been right — she should have chosen a more sensible career-orientated degree than medieval history. She hadn’t fancied teaching, and her dream of being a writer seemed destined to remain just that — a dream.
“Is it much farther?” Jayde had been nosing in the contents of the glove compartment. Now she sat back and glanced out of the window. “This is like the back end of beyond. Is there anything to do in this place?”
“Not much. I did warn you. There’s a pub — in fact a couple of pubs, I think. I haven’t been in any of them yet. And there’s the beach, of course.”
Jayde rolled her eyes. “I meando— like clubs and things.”
“No — nothing like that.” Vicky smiled to herself. “It’s only quite a small village. There’s a mini-golf.”
Jayde sighed. “Oh, well. I’ll just have to make the most of it, I suppose.”
“Why did you come down, if you think it’s going to be such a bore?”
“To top up my tan on the beach.”
“You can do that in the back garden,” Vicky pointed out.
“You get a better tan on the beach. Besides, I wanted to check out this neighbour of yours. And I need some new content for my channel. I was going to go to Ibiza, but I’m a bit low on funds at the moment. And flying’s just a nightmare, what with all thequeues at the airport. Anyway, I wanted a few days away. I’ve split up with David.”
“Again?”
