Page 14 of The Cornish Cream Tea Holiday
Ben rolled his eyes. ‘Fine. Stay there, then.’
‘Do you want a tea?’ Thea called after him.
‘Coffee?’ he called back. ‘White, no sugar.’
‘Coming right up!’
As Thea followed him downstairs and busied herself making their drinks, she realised she was humming.
Ben came back with some slender planks of wood and a small toolbox to go with his belt. Thea brought the drinks up to the bedroom and, not wanting to either crowd him or abandon him, sat on the bench at the end of the bed and tried to appear entirely relaxed. She was searching for something to say when Ben broke the quiet.
‘Your sunburn doesn’t look too bad after yesterday.’
‘Aloe vera saved the day.’
‘And your ankle’s better?’
‘Much,’ Thea confirmed. ‘Though I did dream about hash browns. With fried eggs and crispy bacon, a couple of grilled tomatoes. Some baked beans in a little pot, so the sauce doesn’t mingle with the egg yolk.’ She sighed.
‘Not had breakfast, then?’
‘No, sorting out the bed was top of my list.’
‘Right. Well, it’s still early.’
‘It is, and there must be a café around here that could satisfy my breakfast needs.’
‘It’s more a place for artisan coffee shops,’ Ben said, and she thought he sounded slightly scathing.
‘There must besomewhereI can get a good holiday fry-up.’
‘There is,’ Ben said, but didn’t tell her where that might be.
Thea chewed her lip while he measured and assessed and started to secure a piece of wood to the frame, underneath the broken slat.
‘Tell me about your terrible walk,’ he said eventually, the words bursting into the quiet as if he’d been dying to hear all the details.
‘It wasn’tterrible,’she said. ‘I mean, it wasn’tthatterrible. It was … I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been, despite Finn’s words of wisdom.’
‘He does tend to stick his nose in.’
‘Have you been friends long?’
‘We met soon after I moved here in February. He’s a really good guy – he and Meredith are both great, even if their friendship keeps waylaying me.’
‘With your house update?’
‘I thought saving the work until summer would be easier, so I could avoid the worst of the weather and all the problemsthat comes with, but it’s got a lot hotter, a lot sooner than I expected. I can’t seem to win.’
‘Is that why you do most of it after nine o’clock at night?’
He looked up sharply. ‘Shit. Sorry. I’m so used to being here on my own, and I …’
‘It’s fine,’ Thea rushed. ‘There were other things that got in the way of me sleeping last night, and you’re sorting that for me, so it evens out.’
He turned back to his work. ‘So what happened on your walk?’
‘I almost fell off the cliff,’ she said, and there was a clatter as Ben dropped his screwdriver and looked up at her, alarmed.
