Kiki sighed. In the face of her vague mutterings about spending a bit of time together outside the house, was it any wonder he’d misunderstood her suggestion? Why wouldn’t he assume she’d meant it as family trip? They’d both been so busy, they’d hardly spent five minutes together over the past few days.
The schedule they’d put together was working well, but if she wasn’t shuttling the children to and from different places, she was scrubbing toilets or up to her elbows in flour as she met the voracious needs of Mia’s guests for cakes, pastries and other sweet treats. The couple of evenings she’d had free, Aaron was invariably buried in his study catching up on work.
Kiki rubbed her arms. The delicate silk vest top she’d teamed with a pair of linen trousers showed the beginnings of her summer tan to perfection, but offered no protection against the arctic-level setting of the cinema air conditioning. She glanced down and quickly folded her arms across her chest, covering the embarrassing evidence of the chilly air. ‘Come on, darling. You’re missing the film,’ she called encouragingly through the mostly closed door of the toilet stall.
‘I can’t flush.’
She nudged open the door and shook her head at the sight of her perplexed daughter, shorts and underwear still round her knees as she stared at the wall behind the toilet. ‘Pull your pants up, sweetheart. I don’t need to see your bottom,’ she said, leaning forward to wave her hand in front of the sensor embedded in the wall.
‘Ooh, magic!’
‘Yes, magic. Now come and wash your hands.’
They eventually made it back into their seats and Kiki let her head flop back against the worn velvet with a sigh. Aaron nudged her shoulder and she rolled her head to peer at him in the gloom. ‘All right?’ She nodded. Their hands connected as he placed the popcorn back in her lap and she extended her little finger to stroke the side of his thumb. He shied away, then his fingers crept back for their own tentative touch.
Kiki held her breath, feeling the tingle from the top of her head to her neatly polished toes. The little blue fish on the screen danced before her eyes, but she couldn’t focus on the story. Couldn’t focus on anything but that tiny point of contact. So much hope, so much fear, rested in her little finger. She waited for him to move away, to prove she was making it all up in her head, but he stayed completely still. The heat from his palm, hovering near her thigh, radiated through the thin layer of peach-coloured linen. What should she do? Keep still, press harder, take his hand? The possibilities scrolled through her head.
Active choices.
Stretching her little finger, Kiki curled it over the back of Aaron’s, ready to hook their two digits together. At the very same moment, Charlie leaned across her lap, knocking the tub of popcorn flying as she stage-whispered to her brother, ‘Matty! They have magic toilets here.’
Kiki dived forward, trying to catch the popcorn, bumping heads with Aaron as he tried to do the same thing. ‘Ouch.’
‘Shh. You’re ruining the film,’ a woman hissed at them from the row in front.
‘Sorry, sorry.’ Kiki slump back in her seat, trying not to think about the bits of popcorn stuck between her toes. Her head throbbed and she raised a hand to rub the sore spot, catching Aaron on the cheek in the process. ‘Oh, God! Sorry!’ Hands over her mouth, she could only stare in horror as he clapped a hand to his injured face.
‘If you don’t be quiet, I’m calling the manager!’ The woman in front glared over her shoulder before settling back into her seat like a wet hen trying to settle her feathers.
It was terrible. Just awful. Never comfortable being the centre of attention for the right reasons, Kiki wanted to fold up and disappear under the seat. Not that she could exactly hide there when the seat would flip up as soon as she crouched down. A ripple of silent laughter clenched her stomach at the sheer absurdity of it all.
Her shoulders shook and she pressed her hand tighter against her mouth, fearful of making a sound. Aaron made a kind of half-cough, half-snort and she couldn’t help but glance at him. Big mistake. His pale eyes glimmered in the dark and his mega-watt grin shattered the vestiges of her self-control and she started to giggle. Her shoulders shook, and she might have been able to keep quiet had Aaron not cough-snorted again.
As they made their way out of the cinema to a chorus of shushing and loud tuts, Kiki decided active choices might be best left to other people.
Chapter Sixteen
Daniel knuckled the base of his spine to try and ease the ache that had settled there over the past week and refused to shift. He was exhausted, running on coffee, adrenaline and the endless good humour of his friends. But it’s done. He stared up at the front of the barn and allowed himself a smile of satisfaction. They’d left the outside of the building in a deliberately distressed-looking state, although a clear protective coating had been applied to the worst of the weathering on the boards. He loved the variety of textures and colours the elements had created over time. They also provided the perfect contrast to the sleek, minimalist interiors.
Madeline and Richard had planted beautiful grasses and bright flowering shrubs in the huge earthenware pots he’d found at a local salvage yard. They graced either side of the entrance, and flower boxes full of herbs had been attached beneath the upper-floor windows of each studio apartment. Tending the boxes would be the perfect task for any procrastinating artist, and the summer breeze would fill the rooms with the scents of lavender and lemony thyme.
‘You’ve done an incredible job, mate.’ Aaron was sprawled in a groaning heap on the gravel beside him. He’d put everything aside to throw his weight behind the feverish last-minute preparations. Daniel would never be able to repay him, or Luke for that matter. The younger Spenser brother had staggered towards the house a few minutes earlier, muttering about a week-long hot shower and his bed. Daniel couldn’t blame him. They’d worked through the night, catching a few minutes’ sleep here and there as they checked and double-checked everything was ready for today’s grand opening.
He checked his watch. The first batch of artists was due on the late-afternoon train, which would give him chance to grab his own shower and a quick nap. He just needed to double-check the downstairs studios were all properly stocked…
‘Leave it.’ Aaron pushed himself to a seated position, a knowing grin on his face. ‘Everything is done. All our lists have been ticked. Leave the ladies to tweak the curtains and straighten the already perfectly placed toiletries.’
Daniel gave him a rueful grin. ‘You know they’re going to move stuff around.’
Aaron shrugged. ‘Of course they are. They’re better at the finer points than we are.’
It was true. Mia had added the perfect accents and accessories to the rooms in her guest house, transforming them from functional to special with a light hand and skilful eye, which was all the more impressive considering her lack of any kind of interior design training. She just had a knack for seeing the complete picture. Even now, she and Madeline were giving the barn the benefit of their eagle eyes. He paused. ‘Hey, where’s Kiki? I thought she’d be with them.’
Aaron picked up a handful of gravel and let it trail out through his fingers. ‘It’s Friday morning – she’s got her thing.’
Ah, yes. Wednesdays and Fridays Kiki took herself off to Exeter to see her counsellor. Mia was relieved about it, so Daniel trusted it was a good thing. He glanced down at his friend, although Aaron didn’t seem too convinced. ‘Problem?’
‘What? No, not really. I think it’s doing her some good. Even on the days she comes back and it’s obvious she’s been crying, there’s still a lightness about her. Like she feels better for getting it off her chest. I hate seeing her upset, it rips me to shreds. I think she’s being incredibly brave, facing up to the past. It’s just… bloody Luke.’ The last was barely muttered, as though not intended for Daniel’s ears.
He crouched down beside his friend. ‘What’s Luke got to do with anything?’
A
aron shook his head. ‘Nothing. He just made some sarky remark a few weeks ago about me only liking broken girls and I can’t get it out of my head. I like Kiki. I like her a lot, but I can’t decide if it’s her, or if Luke’s claim about me having a hero complex is true. We had this thing, this moment when we took the kids out for her birthday. It was nothing, and everything. And now I think she likes me, too.’ He sighed. ‘It would be so much easier if she didn’t…’
Daniel liked Kiki, but she always had a vulnerability about her that made him tread carefully in case he hurt her feelings. His Mia had been through the mill, too, but she had a fire in her spirit. Daniel cast his mind back over the women he’d seen Aaron with over the years. He’d never really thought about it, but they were a tad on the fragile side. There’d been a girl at uni with them—all thick black eyeliner and Sylvia Plath poetry. He shuddered at the endless hours she’d spent bemoaning the futility of the world. ‘Whatever happened to Kerry Davis?’ he mused aloud.
‘Kerry? She’s doing something incredibly complicated at some tech firm in Silicon Valley. I had an email from her a couple of months back and she was about to go on maternity leave with her second kid.’ Aaron cast him a wary look. ‘What made you think of her after all these yea… oh, bollocks!’ He buried his hands in his face and groaned.
Daniel laughed and patted him on the back. ‘There you go.’
‘Just don’t say anything to Luke; he’s insufferable when he’s right. Mate, it’s screwing with my head. I feel like I’m second-guessing myself all the time around her.’
It was hard not to laugh at the anguish in his friend’s muffled voice, so he didn’t try too hard to stop it. It was as plain as the nose on his face that Aaron had it bad for Kiki, and from what Mia had hinted, her sister felt the same way. It sounded like neither of them was in a hurry to do anything about it, though. And there was no way Daniel was getting in the middle. He had enough on his plate without turning his hand to bloody matchmaking. They’d work it out at some point, or they wouldn’t, but he wasn’t about to push it.
Clapping Aaron’s shoulder again, Daniel straightened up, his laughter cut off by his own pained groan as his knees protested. ‘God, I’m getting old. Why don’t you go home and have a kip? I’m sure Madeline and Richard can keep the kids occupied until the barbeque this evening.’
They were planning their first big outdoor event to welcome their first guests to the barn as well as those who’d come to the guest house for a long weekend. A couple Aaron had befriended were bringing their children along, too, so there would be about thirty mouths to feed. The fridge was packed out with salads and side dishes and he knew Aaron and Kiki’s fridge was similarly laden. A huge gas barbeque sat under a gazebo in the garden.
The shiny beast was Daniel’s new pride and joy and he couldn’t wait to fire it up. They’d set a couple of big tubs out on the lawn ready to be filled with cold water and ice so people could help themselves to drinks. An array of old tables and mismatched chairs were scattered around, some in the shade, others where they would catch the evening sun. Luke had already declared himself DJ for the evening and had created a special playlist on his iPod. Tired as he was right now, Daniel was looking forward to it. Things were finally coming together and he might manage to go a day without dust in his hair and grime under his fingernails.
His eyes drifted to the row of old garages running adjacent to the barn. Maybe not. He still really liked the idea of turning them into a gallery-come-teashop, although how they’d find the time to run three businesses was beyond him. Unless…
‘Hey, Aaron?’
‘Whatever you want me to do, the answer is no.’
Daniel chuckled. He’d never actually asked Aaron to do anything in all the weeks he’d been helping, but he’d never refused either. ‘How’s Kiki getting on with finding more work?’
Aaron sighed. ‘Not good. The only things around were a couple of cleaning jobs the other side of Exmouth. By the time she’d paid for the petrol, it would hardly have been worth the effort. The hours were crap too—mostly evenings, which isn’t ideal with the kids and all. It’s stressing her out not being able to contribute more towards the household costs, but she needs to hang on to as much of her savings as possible. That bastard changed the passwords on all the bank accounts, so she’s only got what she transferred before she moved down here.’
Daniel shook his head. Kiki’s husband was proving himself to be every bit as awful as Mia had warned him. ‘You know her better than me. Do you think she could handle running the teashop and gallery if we cracked on with the conversion works?’ He wasn’t sure what work experience she had and he needed the business to succeed. Giving Kiki a project she couldn’t handle might destroy the little bit of confidence she’d grown over the past weeks.
‘Hmm…’ Aaron heaved himself off the ground and wandered towards the rundown buildings. Daniel joined him and they cupped their hands to shield their eyes as they peered through the dusty windows. ‘I set her up with a couple of spreadsheets to help manage the costs of the baking she’s doing for Mia and she’s an absolute whizz with them. It would be much the same, just on a bigger scale. She’s smart as a whip, was studying classics at university before she got married and dropped out. I’d say it’s been lack of opportunity that’s held her back.’
‘Well, we know she can cook.’ Aaron had pitched up the day before with a box stuffed with cakes and sandwiches to keep them going overnight. Daniel would go to his grave before he admitted it out loud, but Kiki’s baking was even better than Mia’s… and Mia’s made him want to lie at her feet and beg for treats.
‘And the opening hours wouldn’t interfere with her housekeeping job…’ Aaron mused.
‘That’s true. We could also work out a rate so guests wanting afternoon tea take it here, which would give Mia a bit more spare time in the afternoons…’
‘What are you two up to?’ Mia’s voice called from the left. They stepped back from the window, both blinking as their eyes adjusted from the gloomy interior to the bright sunshine. Exchanging a conspiratorial look, the two men turned to face her. His little spitfire stood there, hands on her hips, giving them both her best evil eye. He couldn’t fight the grin spreading across his face when she began to tap her foot. God, she’s magnificent.
‘Nothing, dear,’ Daniel said in a sing-song, innocent voice which made Aaron snort. Elbowing his friend in the side, he tried to force a serious expression as she marched towards them.
‘Please tell me you’re not going to start knocking this place apart next? If I hear one more drill whirring I might scream.’ Though her brows were drawn down, he didn’t miss the glint of humour in her chocolate-brown gaze.
‘I’m saying nothing.’ Aaron backed up to where his bike rested against the wall, hands raised in mock surrender. ‘I’ll see you two love birds later.’ He mounted up and rode down the driveway, leaving Daniel to face his fiancée alone.
‘Coward!’ he yelled at Aaron’s back and was rewarded with a jaunty two-fingered salute.
Daniel turned back to Mia. ‘So, what do you think? Everything all set for my first guests?’ He couldn’t keep the nerves out of his voice. He wanted things to go well, needed them to go well, to prove he’d made the right choice in giving up his photography career for the new venture. The thought of going back to London still filled him with terror; he wasn’t convinced even Mia would be able to prevent him sliding back into his formerly seedy lifestyle if he had to sell his soul through his art once more.
She pushed up on tiptoes to cup his face and press a sweet kiss to his lips. ‘It looks perfect. You’ve done such an incredible job and I am so proud of you.’ Sincerity shone in every word, easing the tension in his spine. His Mia believed in him, just as much as he believed in her. Their future together grew more promising every day.
Keeping her hands on his cheeks, she teased the short hairs of his beard with her fingers. ‘Are you sure you want to take on anothe
r challenge so soon?’ Her eyes drifted past him to study the garages.
He knew what she meant. The temptation to sit back and let both the guest house and the studios bed in was high. They had time. It could wait… But if they could get the place up and running, then wouldn’t the aching muscles and stress be worth it to give Kiki some extra income and the stability that went with it? ‘A few weeks more and all the disruption would be over for good. Wouldn’t you rather have it all finished?’
He watched her thought process play out across her expressive, beautiful face. There was no side to Mia and it was one of the many things he loved about her—what you saw was what you got. She bit her lip. ‘I’m just not sure I’ve got the time, Daniel. Getting to grips with the guest house is taking longer than I anticipated and with the wedding planning…’
‘I was thinking we could get someone to manage the place for us. Someone we know and trust, who bakes like a dream and needs a decent job. Someone like…’
‘Kiki?’ A wondering smile spread across her face, chasing away the clouds of worry. ‘You want to push on with opening the teashop to give Kiki a job.’
‘It’s a thought.’
She closed the distance between them and flung her arms around his neck, peppering his beard with kisses. ‘It’s a wonderful thought. I love it, I love you!’
His arms curled around her waist and he held her close, relishing the feel of her curves pressing against him. They’d hardly taken any time for themselves since they’d met, and lately it felt like the only quality time they spent together was in bed. Speaking of which… he checked his watch. ‘I was going to take a shower and then grab a couple of hours’ sleep. Can I tempt you to join me?’
Her cheeks flushed and she bit her lip in that way that always heated his blood. ‘Madeline’s gone home to help Richard look after Charlie. They’re going to collect Matty from his activity club, so I don’t have to worry about that.’
Wedding Bells at Butterfly Cove Page 15