Page 162 of The Making of Jonty Bloom
“I keep telling myself it’s only a week.” Jonty sighed. “But it feels so long. You’ll forget how funny I am. You’ll forget how tight my jeans are.”
Devan had asked Jonty to go with him, but he’d said no. He’d be a distraction and Devan had a lot to do. Devan had agreed with Alan that he’d work remotely as much as he could and when renovations started on the hotel, he’d take on the role of project manager, living full time in Northumberland, only travelling when Alan needed him to. Alan had agreed, that once the hotel opened, Devan could run the place for six months and Jonty could act as concierge, though he wanted Jonty to train in one of their hotels.
What Alan didn’t yet know was that Devan wanted to take a sabbatical, and travel to the ends of the earth with Jonty, though Jontywasgoing to put his foot down about some places. Even if Tay wasn’t better in a year’s time, Jonty would accept he’d done what he could. Tay wouldn’t have expected him to put his life on hold forever. It wasn’t as if he was abandoning him, just going away for a while. But not yet. And Tay might be better by the time Jonty left. He hoped he was.
“Want to take a final walk?” Devan asked.
“Yep.”
They stepped out of the cottage and as they headed down to the beach, Devan took Jonty’s hand in his.
“I’ll be back on Friday and we’ll go to Ikea again on Saturday.” Devan shuddered.
“You are the best boyfriend ever. You only lost me twice in there.”
“I’m going to get one of those things parents use to keep kids with them.”
“Reins! Yay! They can be multi-purpose.” Jonty laughed and tugged Devan towards the sea. The wind was whipping foam off the surface and the waves were huge.
“Are you sure you want to work for Mike?” Devan asked.
Lee, who worked in Mike’s Sports Shop, was leaving in a month for a winter job in a ski chalet in France and Mike had offered Jonty part time work.
“Willis kept asking me that. Mike’s a grumpy dick at times, but I can do the job. I know the beach. I know the equipment—mostly. I’ll enjoy it and it gives me time to work on the sea glass pieces.”
“I thought Mike wanted to change his mind when he heard your idea to turn part of the shop into a café.”
“He’s still going to argue, but in the autumn and winter, people will be glad of somewhere to buy a drink. I can make biscuits and scones. If he puts chairs and tables in the lee of the building, people will have somewhere to sit, and dogs and all other animals apart from snakes will be most welcome.”
“Just be careful in the water.”
“I will.”
Jonty got a shiver of pleasure when Devan worried about him.
He squeezed Devan’s fingers. “We can make this work. We have a plan. This time next year we’ll be looking forward to having vaccinations against cholera, yellow fever, TB, encephalitis…”
Devan chuckled. “Don’t forget to apply for a passport in case I feel the urge to whisk you off to Paris. And don’t forget you have a driving lesson on Sunday afternoon.”
“I could drive to Seahouses to our new place.” Jonty waited for Devan to shudder.
“My precious? I think not.”
Devan had freaked out the first and only time Jonty sat behind the wheel of the Aston.
“You were hyperventilating before I got out of the drive. Every time a car came in the other direction you shut your eyes.”
“You’re supposed to start slowly. I hadn’t expected you to ram your foot on the accelerator.”
“Twenty miles an hour?”
Devan laughed. “It was more than that.”
Devan had paid for Jonty to have twenty sessions with an instructor. He was leaving his resprayed car up in Northumberland and taking the train back to London because he didn’t want to have to drive back and forth. Quicker to take the train or fly and use an Uber.
“Remember you promised to leave the Aston in the garage,” Devan said.
“I might sit in it and pretend to be James Bond.”
