Page 65 of Winter at Wishington Bay
‘I do like him.’
‘But?’
‘But what?’
‘I don’t know, but there’s definitely a “but” because otherwise you’d already have another date set up.’
‘It wasn’t really a date.’
She gave a small shrug as though that was irrelevant anyway, and she was probably right.
‘I think he’d be good for you, love. God knows you could do with some fun.’
‘I have fun!’
‘Not nearly enough.’
‘I just—’
‘Hey,’ Nate caught my arm and I jumped as I felt electricity fizz through me as I turned. Ned was escorting him to the front of the restaurant, chatting easily while at the same time ensuring Corinne attended to the tables she’d yet again been neglecting since the man had walked in the door today.
‘Hi,’ I said.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.’
Eloise gave me a momentary enquiring look before turning to Nate. ‘That’s all right, love. How’s you? Feeling a bit more at home here now?’
‘I’m good, thanks. And yes, I think so. How are you?’
‘Fine, thanks, Although I’d better go and get this,’ she said, silencing her pager. ‘Lovely to see you as always, Nate.’ She patted his arm and headed back towards the kitchen to collect her order. Ned shook Nate’s hand, reminded him to come in as often as possible and headed off in the same direction.
‘How are you?’ Nate asked when we were alone.
‘Fine, thanks. Did you enjoy your meal?’
‘It was fantastic, as always.’
‘I’m glad you enjoyed it.’You certainly seemed to be enjoying the service, a small, petulant voice in my head added. I gave him a quick smile and turned away, doing my best to ignore my inner monologue. I’d done my best to ignore Corinne’s over the top flirting today but her tinkling laugh occasionally caught my attention, which, from the look on her face whenever I turned, had been part of the plan. The third time I kept my head lowered and just looked up surreptitiously, then gave myself a good mental kick for being baited at all.
‘So… Corinne said it’s the Christmas light switch on in the village tonight.’
I bet she did, the little voice whined again. I remembered back to what Corinne had said the last time Nate had been in, about him meeting her the following week. When he’d awkwardly said that he’d been waiting for me outside the restaurant later that day, rather than her, I’d stupidly assumed that had perhaps meant something. His protestations that she was a bit full on had felt genuine at the time but today he’d seemed far more open to them. And even after Ned had spoken to her yet again about neglecting other customers and reining in the flirtatious behaviour, I noticed she was still strutting around like the cat that had got the cream. I flicked my glance up to Nate, and got the distinct feeling I was looking at that proverbial cream right now.
‘Yes, it is,’ I said, unnecessarily tidying the booking ledger in front of me.
‘Are you going?’ Nate prompted.
‘Oh, I expect so,’ I replied in what was hopefully a casual and carefree manner.
‘It’s just that I saw you with that guy the other day,’ he cleared his throat. ‘So I just thought maybe—’
‘Ooh, are we talking about Sophia’s gardener?’ Corinne swanned up, butting into the conversation.
‘He’s your gardener? I thought you only had the flat?’
‘He’s notmygardener. He’sagardener. It’s his job.’
‘I suppose there’s something to be said for the outdoorsy type, but I prefer a man whose mind is his main tool.’ Her eyes drifted up to meet Nate’s but he kept his gaze up and was looking at me.
