Page 41 of Winter at Wishington Bay
‘I’m speaking to them later on video. I’ll check if they mind then.’
‘I’m sure they won’t.’
‘No, you’re probably right but it feels best to check. Plus I can ask where the decorations are, and if there’s anything she’d prefer me not to use. You know, something that was her gran’s maybe.’
‘Honestly, Holly was so excited about you coming over. I know she was upset your trips clashed but really, with Holly, that house and everything in it is to be used. Remember—’
‘Family,’ he interrupted.
‘Exactly.’
‘Thanks for today,’ he said again.
‘You’re welcome.’ This time I went in for the hug but feeling the rigidity of his body as I did so, I suddenly realised that might have been too presumptuous. And then he relaxed, his arms wrapped around me and gave a gentle squeeze. One more of the bricks in his wall had come down.
I smiled as he pulled back, gave Bryan a little fuss and waved them off.
13
‘Nobody told me there were going to be gorgeous men at that wreath making thing,’ Corinne pouted as she looked at the pin board and the picture Carrie had printed from my phone.
‘That was just good luck,’ Eloise said, coming to stand next to us. Looking past Corinne who was sizing up Billy in the photo, she winked. ‘He was quite taken with our Soph here.’
‘Really?’ Corinne said, unable to cover the surprise in her voice as she moved on to inspecting her false nails.
I gave my throat a small clear and did my best not to rise to the bait.
‘Yes. Quite enamoured, he was. Be nice to see him again when he drops off the wreaths, won’t it, Soph? Maybe you can set that date he was asking for then.’ I knew Eloise was rubbing it in for Corinne but I wasn’t used to discussing my love life – any of my life – with too many people. And especially not with my frosty colleague.
‘He actually asked you out?’ Corinne’s heavily but perfectly made up eyes widened.
‘I don’t know why you’re so surprised?’ Eloise’s voice was prickly now. ‘Sophia’s a gorgeous looking woman.’
Corinne pulled a face that suggested she didn’t exactly agree but was deigning to give me the benefit of the doubt, for the moment. ‘But she’s like forty!’ She might as well have said four thousand.
‘I am not forty!’ I said, a little more vehemently than I planned. That particular number was certainly becoming clearer on the horizon but in the meantime I was going to hold on to my thirties. Especially in the face of smug twenty-two-year-olds.
Corinne gave a disbelieving flick of her high definition eyebrows. ‘Whatever. Anyway, it’s probably his job to flirt with middle aged women. Make people like you book up in the hope you might actually see him again. By then, of course, he’ll be on to the next lonely looking prospect.’
‘Corinne!’ Eloise snapped, but I shook my head at her as Corinne gave Billy’s photo another once over before sauntering off. She got to the window and began taking selfies, angling her phone just right, pouting her cosmetically enhanced lips and tossing her hair.
‘You all right, love?’
‘Of course. She’s just put out because she thinks she might have missed out on something.’
‘She was invited.’ This was true although we all knew Carrie had secretly been relieved when Corinne had said no. And she wasn’t the only one.
I wasn’t sure what it was exactly about me that Corinne had taken a dislike to but, from the moment I started at Ned’s, she’d made little snipes and digs at every opportunity. To be fair, she didn’t seem to be all that friendly to anyone except Carrie and Ned, because it suited her purposes for the most part. Keeping this job was the deal she’d made with her mother that would ensure her father kept her allowance nicely topped up. Doing the job well was obviously not part of that deal. Carrie, I knew, wasn’t keen on the arrangement but Ned was a lovely guy and in a tricky situation having known her family for years, so unless Corinne screwed up in a major way we all had to deal with her. There were, of course, a few people who got the full benefit of her charms.
The lunch shift at the restaurant was heaving but I couldn’t help notice Nate tucked away at a table for two by the window, his face turned towards the plate glass, watching the sea wash the beach. It was a cold and clear day, the promenade area outside busy with people walking along, wrapped up against the chill, noses and cheeks red, as dogs played fetch or ran around with other four-legged pals, skidding and dancing on the exposed sand.
‘I’ll give you my entire day’s wages if you let me take over that table,’ Corinne said in a low whisper, pulling me furtively to the side by my elbow.
‘Huh?’
She nodded not terribly subtly in Nate’s direction.
‘Him. He’s gorgeous and I already checked – there’s no wedding ring.’
