Page 46 of Coming Home to Wishington Bay
‘Such a beautiful spot,’ his mum said, sighing as she looked out across the wide plain of sand. ‘I can see why Gabe loves it here so much.
‘It’s that kind of place,’ I agreed, honestly, as I topped up everyone’s glasses.
‘Thanks, love. We used to worry about him, you know. He works so much. Although you’re the last person I need to talk to about working hard, aren’t you?’
‘I guess.’
‘But it’s so good you’ve taken the summer off.’
‘Yeah, it is.’ I covertly pulled a face at Gabe over my glass as I took a sip, still trying to get some sort of answer out of him but he’d not said a word since his mum had started talking. ‘Honestly, when he told us he was finally dating seriously again, and that it was Gigi’s granddaughter, I nearly cried.’
The liquid in my mouth went in every direction other than the one it was supposed to. At the present moment, it was dripping out of both my nose and mouth, collecting attractively on my chin as I floundered around and eventually pulled a corner of my shirt up to mop my face, while simultaneously giving a twenty-a-day smoker a good run in a coughing competition.
‘You all right?’ Gabe’s large hand was on my back and as I slowly stopped seeing spots, I raised my eyes to his. My look gave him his answer. ‘I’m just going to take Holly inside for a moment, help her get cleaned up. You two stay here for a minute, enjoy the view. We won’t be a sec.’
His hand was at my elbow but as soon as we were out of sight, and immediate earshot of his parents, I spun round.
‘Don’t be mad! You said yourself sometimes a little white lie can be best.’ His voice was a whisper.
‘Yes! But not when I’m the lie! What the hell were you thinking? You need to tell them,’ I whisper-argued back.
‘I can’t. Not now. It’s only for a day or two here and there. They’re only over for a short time and I can tell them you already had plans and so on so you don’t have to spend time with us. Please, Hol. Help me out, here. I don’t want to spoil their holiday now. Just while they’re here. They know my brother’s really unhappy. If they think I am too, it’ll break their hearts.’
‘I’m not sure lying to them is going to make them all that thrilled.’
‘Ten minutes ago you were fine with it.’
‘Ten minutes ago I wasn’t your imaginary girlfriend!’ I hissed back.
‘You were a lot less trouble when you were imaginary, that’s for sure.’
‘Well, we can fix that pretty quickly.’
He caught my arm as I made to go back outside, and turned me back to face him. ‘I’m sorry. I should have told you all this before, I know that now. But honestly, I didn’t think it would ever come up! I had no idea my parents were planning to come over and when they’ve done one of their flying visits before, you’ve obviously never been here.’
‘Obviously,’ I repeated.
‘I didn’t mean that as a dig. I—’
‘Everything all right in there?’ his mum called from the doorway.
‘Yep, two ticks,’ Gabe called back, tugging me gently a little further away from the door.
‘Please. I’ll owe you big time. Just for the few days you’re here.’
‘Aren’t they going to find it weird that we go back to our separate beds each night, for a start?’
‘They won’t even know. They’re staying in the city and will hardly be here. I’ll meet them up there a few times after work and they’ll go back home happy and able to concentrate on my brother’s disaster zone of a love life. One son at a time. That’s all I’m asking.’
‘Why me?’
‘That’s down to your grandmother. According to her, you were the perfect choice. You’re beautiful, and intelligent. Being a real person, I didn’t have to make up a backstory as you obviously already have one, and best of all – you were never here.’
I raised an eyebrow.
‘That last bit came out wrong. Again. But you get the gist. And like I say, it was Gigi’s idea.’
‘Yes but Gigi isn’t here. You are. If she were, believe me, I’d be having some serious words with her too.’
