Page 12 of Sun, Sea & Strawberry Shortcake
This is the life!
In a spirit of wicked abandonment, I unhook my bikini topand allow it to float away...
‘Chrissakes. What the hell areyoudoing here?’
My eyes spring open and I lurch up at the sound of thefamiliar voice floating over the garden fence.
Joanna?
CHAPTERSIX
I stare at Joanna, my mind swimming in confusion.
Why is she here?Did she follow us? What’s shedoing standing in next-door’s garden?
She looks similarly astonished. Angry, even. I’ve never seenher composure slip like that. She’s normally so serene and smiley.
The next second, her calm demeanour is back in place. ‘Yourbubbles have stopped bubbling.’
‘Sorry?’ It takes me a second to catch on, I’m feeling sodiscombobulated by her sudden appearance. Then I glance down and realise thewater is now perfectly still and she can seeabsolutely everything.Grabbing for my bikini top, I somehow manage to lose my balance, sliding offthe seat and sinking into the middle of the hot tub. Water floods up my noseand I emerge seconds later, coughing and spluttering, my hair plastered to myhead. I quickly cross my arms to preserve my remaining ounce of dignity – justas Hudson emerges from the cottage with two glasses.
‘Joanna?’ He spots her and laughs. ‘Bloody hell, is thatwhere you’re staying? Next door to us?’
Joanna smiles sweetly. ‘I know. I couldn’t believe it when Iheard someone in the garden and I realised it was Ruby. Such a happycoincidence!’
‘Well, hardly a coincidence.’ He shakes his head indisbelief. ‘But I never dreamed we’d end up staying in the cottage next door toyours.’
I cast a suspicious glance from one to the other, as they talkon about it being such a small world but what a lovely surprise,blah-blah-blah. Ahappycoincidence?She’schanged her tune! Her annoyedreaction when she first spied me lounging in the hot tub has been replaced –now that Hudson’s here – with a gushing pleasure at such a delightful turn ofevents.
And now Hudson is handing hermyglass of champagneand inviting her to come round.
‘Lovely. I’ll grab some snacks and be with you in a mo.’ Sheraises the glass at me with a smile and vanishes.
‘You don’t mind, do you?’ Hudson murmurs, handing me theother glass.
‘No, but how... I mean, what’s shedoinghere?’ I hiss. ‘Did shecopyus?’
He smiles sheepishly. ‘No, no.Wecopiedher,actually.’
‘We did?’ I’m more confused than ever now.
He shrugs. ‘She showed me where she was planning to go andit looked so lovely on the website – all the views of the sandy bay and the seaand the cottages – that I immediately thought it would be the perfect place foryou and me to take a break.’
‘Right. But how did we end up in the cottage next door tohers?’
‘Genuinely a weird coincidence.’ He grins. ‘But it doesn’tmatter, does it? I mean, she’ll be doing her stuff and we’ll be...well, we’ll be having fun just the two of us.’
Hearing the ring of the front door bell, I quickly put mybikini top back on and give him a slightly reluctant smile. ‘That sounds good.’
The lovely thing about Hudson is he can always coax me outof a grump into feeling good again. The smile he gives me as he goes to letJoanna in makes me tingle in interesting places, and I tell myself that we haveall the time in the world to make up for this intrusion into our first nighthere. How hard will it be to chat to Joanna for an hour or so over a glass ofchampagne? And once I’ve done my duty, she’ll go back next door and I’ll haveHudson all to myself...
Entering the garden, Joanna looks around her with anappreciative smile. And as I’m pushing the wet hair out of my eyes, she walksover and perches chummily on the edge of the hot tub to talk to me. ‘Aren’t youlucky, Ruby? This is all so lovely.’ She takes a tiny sip of her champagne andcrosses her slim legs, looking impossibly fresh in a short, lemon shift dress,chic white sandals and glam Jackie-O sunglasses.
‘It’s great,’ I agree, sniffing subtly and resisting theurge to wipe my runny nose with my hand. (It’s still dripping after my unexpectedplunge underwater.)
‘My cottage is quitebijoucompared to this,’ shesays in a confiding manner, ‘but then I guess it’s just for one.’ She smiles andraises her glass at Hudson as he approaches us, having poured himself a drink.‘What a pityIhaven’t got a handsome man around to keep my champagneglass topped up.’ She gives a little tinkling laugh (that sounds really falseto me) and Hudson joins in, enjoying the joke far too much for my liking.
I sniff a bit louder.
