Page 66 of Coming Home to Sturcombe Bay
“Bendy twisty? Didn’t you use the motorway?”
“Is that what you call it? Looked like a red-belly on the satnav.”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “Why didn’t you let me know you were coming?”
“That would have ruined the surprise.”
“I might not have been here,” she pointed out dryly.
“Yeah, well . . .” He shrugged those wide, handsome shoulders. “I’d just have had to hang around.” He squeezed her hand. “I was sorry about your gran, by the way.”
Her mouth quirked into a wry smile. “Thanks.”
Her mother bustled in with a tray holding two mugs of coffee and a plate of bacon sandwiches. “Here you go.” She set the tray down on the table beside Dougie. “If you’ve eaten nothing but aeroplane food for the past twenty-four hours, you must be starving.”
“Actually, it’s usually pretty good food in first class,” Cassie remarked dryly.
Dougie just laughed. Back in Australia he usually flew his own plane, but when he flew commercial he always took the best option.
“Where are you staying?” she asked.
“I thought I’d get a room down at that little hotel along the beach there. Looks like a dinky little place — cosy.”
“Oh, there’s no need for that,” Cassie’s mum insisted. “You can have Paul’s room.”
His eyes lit up, though he had the decency to glance at Cassie to make sure she wasn’t horrified by the idea. “Well, if it’s no bother, Mrs Channing — that’s very kind of you.”
“Of course it’s no bother. And call me Helen.”
“Well, good on ya, Helen. Bonzer!” He threw up his hand to give her a high five.
“If he’s stopping for dinner you’d better stick a whole side of beef in the oven,” Cassie warned with a quirk of dry humour. “He can eat enough for three, even after a plate of bacon sandwiches.”
“Well, he’s a big lad.”
Dougie laughed with the easy good humour of one on whom nature had showered every blessing.
Cassie sipped her coffee. “Anyway, back to why you’re here. You don’t seriously expect me to believe you drove two hundred and fifty miles just for the pleasure of my smile.”
His gaze was wide-eyed and innocent. “Why wouldn’t I? Okay, okay, there is something,” he conceded with a mischievous grin that could melt a thousand female hearts — including, briefly, her own. “But it’s a good something, right? I gotta go to one of these fancy black-tie shindigs you Poms are so fond of, but it’s a plus-one and I don’t have a plus-one.”
“Dougie, you could walk down the street and have a hundred girls falling over themselves to be your plus-one in less than five minutes.”
“Oh, Cass, come on,” he protested. “I’m not that bad.”
“No — you’re that good. So what is this do?”
“It’s for the kiddies hospital — Great . . . Great Ormorond Street?”
“Great Ormond Street. How come you’ve got an invite there?”
“One of the guys I came over to meet with is one of the sponsors, so I need to show my best face. That’s why I need you. I don’t know anyone else in Pommyland, and I can hardly rock up at some fancy do with some Sheila I just pulled off the street, now can I?”
Cassie smiled, shaking her head. “Fair enough. Okay, I’ll be your plus-one. When is it?”
“Saturday. I thought in the meantime you could show me round town a bit. You know, do the tourist thing. That is, if you haven’t got other stuff to do?”
“No, I don’t really.” And it would be good to get away for a while, so she wouldn’t have to risk seeing Liam with Annabel — at least until she had got used to the idea. “Just one thing.” She held up a hand in stipulation. “Separate rooms, okay? I’m not sleeping with you.”
