Page 97 of The Cornish Cream Tea Holiday
She got lost in a sea of kitchen utensils: potato peelers and mandolines, grapefruit and cheese knives, egg timers and garlic presses. She found a sleek barbecue set with rubber, easy-grip handles, the blades and tongs shiny steel. She thought she could give it to Ben, perhaps leave them on his doorstep like she had done with the dog biscuits, as another peace offering.
‘Planning on becoming the grill queen of Bristol?’ Esme asked. Alex was behind her, holding several reels of different coloured rope, the threads intricately braided.
Thea grinned, eyebrows raised, and he gave her a mulish look.
‘These will come in very handy,’ he said.
‘For what?’ she asked lightly.
‘All sorts.’ He refused to elaborate.
‘I’ve told him that if he leaves them lying around, I’m just going to braid them all together,’ Esme said.
‘Why would he leave them lying around the library?’ Thea laughed.
‘What’s with this?’ Esme asked quickly, pointing at the barbecue set.
‘I thought I’d get it for Ben,’ she admitted. ‘For his barbecue on the beach thing tomorrow.’
‘You think he won’t have the right tools?’ Alex asked, incredulous. ‘He’s a builder, isn’t he? Having the right tools for any given job will be his first rule.’
Thea sighed. ‘You’re right. I just …’
‘You need to talk to him,’ Esme said. ‘He doesn’t want apair ofInfinite Grip Tongs, he wants you to lay all your cards on the table.’
Thea nodded and put the barbecue set back. She eyed a stone ornament of a cat reading a book, thinking how lovely it would look beneath the Old Post House window, then reminded herself she didn’t have it yet. She followed Alex back to the wall of rope, where there were at least ten different colours and thicknesses, and tried to concentrate while he explained his reasons for purchasing each one and Esme disappeared to look at garden lighting.
Once Alex had paid for his haul of goodies, they crossed the narrow street to Cornish Keepsakes.
‘If you come out of here with fewer than three candles,’ Thea said to Esme, ‘I’m going to be both disappointed and shocked.’
‘I wouldn’t want you to be either of those things,’ Esme said as they went inside, then set about smelling every one. There was no sign of Meredith, just a very tall teenager standing behind the counter, his black hair glossy in the sun coming through the window.
Thea was examining a cream tea hamper, wondering if they could carry it back to the cottage between them, when her phone rang.
She took it out of her bag and turned to face the shelf while she answered it. ‘Hello?’
‘Thea? It’s Nish.’
Thea’s swallow turned into a cough. ‘Hi, Nish,’ she managed. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m good! I was wondering if you were free to meet? How about down by the harbour in an hour? I’d be there sooner, but I’m coming from Bodmin.’
‘The harbour in an hour sounds great,’ Thea said faintly, wondering if it would be rude to ask for a clue. Before she could decide, Nish had said goodbye and hung up, so she turned anxious eyes on Esme and Alex and told them the news.
Her two friends exchanged a look.
‘Right then,’ Esme said. ‘Nothing else is going to help you right now, except book chat. There isn’t a bookshop we can browse, because that’s the whole point of all of this, so we’ll have to make do with talking about them.’
‘If you say so,’ Thea said. She was struggling to do anything other than replay Nish’s words in her head, seeing if she could divine any answers from her tone and the exact phrases she’d used.
She let her friends lead her out of the gift shop, into Sea Brewfor a coffee, and then down to the harbour, where the breeze was fresher and the seaside smells reminded her what she would be winning if the news she got in the next hour was what she was hoping for.
She and Esme were arguing about which Sally Thorne book was best,The Hating Gameor99 Percent Mine, when a familiar figure appeared in her eyeline and all words deserted her.
‘I toldyou,’ Esme said, ‘you can’t beat the kiss in99 Percent Mine, even thoughThe Hating Gamegot all the attention and the film adaptation.’
‘Thea?’ Alex prompted.
