Page 13 of Sun, Sea & Strawberry Shortcake
‘What are you doing about food tonight?’ Hudson asks her.
‘Oh, I’ll go up to the hotel, I think, and have dinnerthere. Or actually, it’s such a lovely evening, I might just order in pizza andenjoy the garden.’
There’s a brief, slightly awkward silence and I find myselfsaying, ‘You can joinusfor dinner if you like, Joanna. I’m making achilli con carne and there’ll be easily enough for three.’
‘Oh, no.’ She shakes her head. ‘No, no. I’d hate to musclein on your first night here.’
‘You wouldn’t be. We’d love to have you,’ says Hudsoncheerfully. ‘Wouldn’t we, Ruby?’
I plaster on a smile. ‘Absolutely. I’d love that. Yes.Great.’
‘Well, perhaps I could be persuaded.’ Joanna smiles and myheart capsizes in my chest like a punctured dinghy. ‘I must admit, I do love agood chilli con carne,’ she adds. ‘As long as it’s made the proper way, ofcourse, with a good red wine and steak mince. Wouldn’t you agree, Ruby?’
‘Oh, um, absolutely. No bargain basement minced beef for me.Crikey, no way.’ I shake my head at the appalling thought, while making a mentalnote to get rid of the packaging.
Hudson follows me as I drip my way inside, wrapped in mytowel, and he offers to help me make the food. But I muster a cheery smile and wavehim away.
‘No, no. You get out there and entertain our guest. She’llprobably need a top up.’
‘Are you sure?’ He gives me an anxious look.
‘Absolutely. Now, go, or she’ll think we’re up to funnybusiness in here.’
‘If only.’ He grabs the champagne, grinning back at me as heheads out into the garden to join Joanna.
I run upstairs to dry off and after pulling on jeans and aT-shirt and a slick of rosy lip gloss, I head back down to the kitchen and geton with making the chilli, peeking out at the pair of them every so often (butcovertly, obviously). I’d hate Joanna to think I was spying on them because Iwas feeling insecure!
The pans and crockery I found when I rooted through thecupboards are perfectly fine for our needs, although the coffee cups are way toosmall. There’s a few packets of instant noodles left by previous occupants thatare still in date, which is a bonus, as well as a jar of coffee and half apacket of digestive biscuits. (Although on further inspection, the few granulesleft in the coffee jar are welded together and I’ve no idea how long thebiscuits have been lying there, opened.)
I down the rest of my champagne and top up my glass. Then,feeling reckless, I open one of Hudson’s expensive bottles of red wine andslosh it generously into the pan, sprinkling in more chilli flakes with wildabandon.
Take that, Joanna Vickers! My food is always memorableand this will be no exception!
The resulting chilli could pretty much blow your head offand Joanna’s shocked face when she takes her first mouthful is an image I willtreasure. I have to supply vast amounts of cooling Greek yogurt to calm hermouth down. But Hudson, who likes a lot of spice, thinks it’s perfect so I feelcompletely vindicated.
As we’re finishing dinner, Hudson gets a call. It’s clear it’ssomething important, to do with business, and he walks away from the table tochat.
He’s frowning when he gets back, looking distracted. Butwhen I ask what’s happened, I get the usual vague reply when I ask about somethingto do with his work. ‘Oh, nothing. It’s fine. Just a... well,a minor problem. Disruptions to a job.’
Hudson always says he doesn’t like to bore me with talkabout his business, At Home with Holmes. I think it stems from a bad experiencewith a former girlfriend, who – when she finished with him – gave boring worktalk as one of the reasons. (Although from what he’s told me about her, I havea feeling she just wantedallthe talk to be abouther!) Butsometimes his reticence to tell me about work irritates me because I’d actuallylike to know... to feel I was a part of his whole world,instead of being left in the dark about the business.
It’s silly, I know, but it niggles even more now, knowingthat he discusses every little detail with Joanna. Which means she knows farmore about the company’s business than I do!
‘Would you like me to help?’ Joanna pushes her raspberrycheesecake away, half-eaten. ‘We could go next door if you like and talk itover?’ She smiles at me. ‘Then Ruby can just relax instead of having to sit andlisten to us talking shop.’
Hudson glances apologetically at me. ‘Wedoneed toget it sorted.’
‘You can work here.’ I stand up and start clearing thedishes off the kitchen table. ‘I’ll just potter about clearing up.’
Joanna looks around her with a faint frown. ‘It’s not reallyconducive to work, though. With the dishwasher crashing into our thoughts.’ Shesmiles at Hudson. ‘I have a lovely Colombian coffee I’ve been saving for aspecial occasion. Fancy trying it with me?’
Hudson grins. ‘You know me too well. Two things I can’tresist. Good red wine and great coffee.’
Joanna stands up. ‘Okay. I’ll nip back and put the coffeeon. Come on over when you’re ready.’ And she whisks off.
Hudson comes over and puts his arms around me, looking intomy eyes. ‘I’d hoped our first night could be rather more romantic than this,’he murmurs, looking genuinely gutted. ‘But this job needs seeing to.’
Yes, but so do I!
