Page 48 of Coming Home to Wishington Bay
‘I thought it might be nice for us to all go to dinner tonight, if you two didn’t have plans, of course?’
Gabe’s dad spoke. His accent was distinct, but his voice deep and melodious, much like his son’s.
‘Oh … yeah. That sounds great but I think Holly said she had something on …’ Gabe looked at me, giving me an out, which was sweet and I knew he was doing his best to make up for the whole rather unexpected turn of events. In all fairness, as he’d said, my grandmother had played a rather large hand in this and I knew without a doubt that wherever she was, she would be thoroughly enjoying the whole thing.
‘That’s OK. I had my days mixed up on that. I’m free tonight.’
The relief on his face was obvious. I only hoped his parents hadn’t noticed too.
‘Gabe took us to your brother’s restaurant here once before. Best food we had all trip!’
‘Ah, thanks. That’s really good to hear. He and Carrie have worked really hard at building and keeping its reputation so he’ll be thrilled to hear that.’
‘Do you think they’ll have any tables there tonight?’
Eek!
‘Oh, I don’t know, Dad. That place is booked months in advance usually,’ Gabe said quickly, clearly thinking along the same lines as me as to how we’d explain to my brother and sister-in-law that we were suddenly a couple and had been for well over a year.
‘Oh, course, course!’ He put up a hand, accepting with a smile and a shake of his head. ‘I’m sure there’s other plenty of good places you can recommend to us.’
Gabe and I exchanged a look. It was clear his dad wasn’t a man of many words but he’d brought up Ned’s restaurant, and been so kind about it. It was evident that he was keen to go.
‘Hang on, I’ll just see if there’s anything they can do.’ I knew that Ned quite often kept a table free from booking availability, just in case. He’d had a few well-known names come in from time to time as his reputation had grown and, as a shrewd businessman, he knew that people like that could help his business, but they weren’t used to being kept waiting. But what I loved, and made me laugh, about my brother was that he had a level of what he considered celebrity. And he also took into account whether they were sort of person he’d actually want in his restaurant, fame aside. He was all too aware of what a celebrity endorsement could do for the place, but he wasn’t about to lose his morals over it. And, with a bit of luck, I’d be able to give him a quick heads-up about the current ‘situation’.
‘Oh, sorry. Ned’s not here,’ the waitress said, when I rang through. Sophia was new to the area, and to the restaurant. Carrie had said she was really working out, which was great, but I wasn’t about to try and explain the whole pretend boyfriend thing to her.
‘OK. No problem. It’s Holly, Ned’s sister. Is Carrie back?’
‘No, not yet. Sorry. Can I help at all?’
OK. Fine. If I could get us in, I’d scoot off and say hi to Ned, which wouldn’t seem odd seeing that he was my brother, and give him a quick rundown. And once he’d finished laughing his arse off, we might just be able to pull it off.
‘I just was trying to see if there was any chance of wangling a table for tonight.’
‘Oh, I see. We’re fully booked for this evening.’
‘That’s OK. I thought that was probably the case.’
‘Hang on,’ she stopped me. ‘Is it for you though?’
‘Well, me and …’ What did I say here? Was I supposed to launch into this right now, or were we keeping it low key – as apparently we’d been doing to an exceptional standard since we’d started this torrid affair. ‘Me and three others, it would be.’
‘OK. That’s fine then. What time were you thinking?’
‘So you can fit us in?’
‘Yes, of course. Ned and Carrie told me that you always have first dibs on the table they hold back.’
‘They did?’
‘Yes,’ she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. ‘I assume they hadn’t told you that though.’
‘No.’ I smiled back down the phone. ‘But thank you. Could we get half seven?’
‘Done. I’m on this evening too so it’ll be lovely to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.’
‘If it’s from my brother, believe about half of it. If it was from Carrie, you’re fine.’ I laughed. ‘It’ll be lovely to meet you too. Well, it was nice to talk to you, Sophia, and we’ll see you at half seven tonight. Oh, I assume my brother is working tonight?’
