‘Where are you going?’ Carrie asked. ‘Come on, get in the shot.’
‘I’m just not really comfortable with being on social media. But you three look great. Do you want me to take it for you?’ I asked, desperately trying to divert the attention.
‘What do you mean? You’re always snapping pics for your Insta,’ Carrie said as Billy waited with Eloise, his phone resting loosely in his hand.
‘Yes, but not of this,’ I whispered to Carrie, pointing to my face as I gently steered her backwards to join the other two.
‘I don’t know why you worry. You’re hardly the back of a bus!’
‘It’s not that. It’s… complicated,’ I said, feeling uncomfortable now. Things really would have been easier if I’d just told everyone the truth when I’d moved to Wishington Bay. Or at least those I’d grown close to. I’d just been so determined to separate my old life from my new one and now… now there just never seemed like a good time. But I would. One day, I definitely would.
‘It’s fine,’ Billy broke the ripple of tension. ‘Plenty of people don’t like it. It’s why I always ask first. If Eloise and Carrie don’t mind though?’ He looked to them for an answer before handing his phone to me, catching my eye as he did so. I took the photos and we all began gathering our things.
‘You OK?’ Billy’s voice was quiet as he came to stand next to me. ‘I’m sorry if I made things awkward.’
‘No, not at all,’ I said, trying to dismiss it. ‘I’m just a bit funny about things like that. I didn’t mean to seem like a diva.’
‘You didn’t at all. Although…’ he paused and I looked up, meeting the laughing eyes. ‘It’d be nice to have a picture of all of you. Us.’
I nodded. ‘You’re right, it would.’ I dug my phone from my bag. ‘Here. You’ve probably got the longest arms. You take it,’ I said, as I gathered Carrie and Eloise around me Billy squeezed in and took the selfie before showing it to the rest of us.
‘Aah, that’s lovely,’ Eloise smiled. ‘You’ll have to send that one on.’
‘We could put it up in the restaurant,’ Carrie said, a tentative look on her face.
‘Yes, that’d be great,’ I smiled back. There was a board in the restaurant where Carrie and Ned pinned up various photos of the staff, great food shots, pictures of the fishermen hauling a catch destined for the restaurant on to the beach as faint swathes of dawn colour streaked the sky behind them. I loved this board. And I loved that Ned and Carrie did it. As we’d explained to Billy, Ned’s restaurant might be award winning but it was first and foremost a family restaurant. And I was part of that family. Which made me feel even worse about the fact I was keeping a secret from them.
‘Will you send that to me?’ Billy asked. ‘I promise not to post it anywhere.’
‘It’s just the corporate stuff I’m a bit hesitant about.’ I had no concerns that any of my old friends would be following a gardener. Unless they were on television, of course. Although even that didn’t make any difference to some. The fact that someone got their hands dirty for a living was enough for them to decide they ‘weren’t our sort of people’. Having spent the afternoon in Billy’s company, I realised now how much they – and I – had missed out on by taking this attitude.
‘So?’
‘Oh! Yes, right. I… I guess I need your number?’
‘Nicely done,’ Carrie nudged him and winked in a very unsubtle manner.
I shook my head at her, laughing as I handed my phone over for Billy to enter his number.
When I took it back, I found the photo, pressed share and then searched my WhatsApp contacts for the new addition. Finding him, I pressed send and a moment later a small chime rang out. Billy opened the message.
‘Perfect. Thanks.’
‘It’s been so lovely to meet you, Billy,’ Carrie said as she and Eloise both hugged him. ‘Thanks for making it such a brilliant time.’
‘You’re very welcome. I’ve had a great time too.’
‘And you must stay and eat when you drop those off,’ Carrie said, checking her watch as she did so. ‘I’ve already told Ned about it when I rang him to tell him to come and collect us and he completely agreed. On the house, of course.’
Billy’s ruddy cheeks coloured more. ‘Oh, Carrie. You can’t do that.’
‘Already done.’
He inclined his head in a thank you.
‘And a guest, of course. If you want.’ Again, the look she slid across to me was not understated.
‘I’m working on that part.’ He grinned back and I felt my cheeks begin to colour, almost matching his own outdoor complexion.
‘Looks like Ned’s here,’ I said, recognising the car as I turned away a little and glanced through the leaded casement window.
‘Saved by the bell.’ Billy looked down at me and I met the gaze, shaking my head a little.
‘When’s a good time to drop those extra wreaths off?’
‘Oh, anytime. And the offer to eat is an open invitation – just take it when you’re ready.’
‘Thanks. That’d be great. You think it’d be quiet here in the winter but we’re actually pretty busy at the moment and have a couple of people out with flu.’
‘It might give you more time to decide who you’d like to bring, too?’ Carrie said. If she’d have pointed at me with a huge foam finger, it would have been less obvious.
Billy gave us all another quick hug before heading out towards the front entrance of the hotel. Ned was waiting in the car and Carrie popped the boot, allowing us all to lay our creations inside. The baby seat was in the front with their son sleeping happily, tucked cosily inside it. The three of us climbed in the back seat and strapped in, before giving Billy one last wave as Ned drove away.
‘Good time?’ Ned asked as he pulled out on to the main road.
‘Very,’ Carrie said, leaning forward and tucking the blanket round the baby a little more. ‘Quite… productive.’
Ned glanced back momentarily in the rear view mirror. ‘Sounds like there’s a story there.’
‘And we’re all eagerly awaiting the next chapter.’ Eloise joined in the tease.
‘Billy that I told you about on the phone?’ Carrie continued. ‘He’s dropping off the wreaths he’s making for us in the next few days. We’re hoping it gives him time to work on who to bring for his free dinner.’
‘Sounds fair enough. So what am I missing?’ he asked, looking round as he stopped at a set of red traffic lights.
‘He took rather a shine to our Sophia, here.’
‘Oh, did he now?’ Ned’s eyes lit up with mischief.
I pointed my finger at him. ‘Don’t you start.’
Ned laughed as the lights changed and we headed home towards the bay.
The wind had blown the previous day’s heavy cloud through by the next morning but from my window I could see people walking their dogs on the beach, wrapped up with hats, scarves and mittens. Standing in my cosy flat with the winter sunshine streaming in, I could imagine it was glorious out there. Well, glorious in a freeze your bits off kind of way. Checking the clock, I guessed that it should be a good time to go in and clean Holly’s house. Nate had mentioned he usually took Bryan out in the morning, and by the state of the little dog last time they obviously spent a fair bit of time on their walk. Nate had been friendlier at the restaurant than at our initial meeting – until he’d shut down again – but I wasn’t about to assume that made me or the noise of me vacuuming any more welcome in his space. Best to stick to my original plan of keeping out of his way as much as possible. I felt the tingle of colour on my face as I remembered the fizz I’d felt at his touch. Yes. Definitely a good idea to keep out of his way. Ramming my woolly hat with its oversized bobble down onto my head so that my eyes just about peeked out, I finished bundling up against the cold, grabbed my bag and jogged down the stairs, hoping to start building up some warmth. As I stepped outside, the crisp, sharp air made me gasp a little as I turned back to lock the front door.
I gave another gasp as I turned towards the street and bumped my forehead straight into a strong, broad chest that definitely hadn’t been there a minute ago.
7
‘Oh, I’m so sorry. I—’ I looked up and stopped. The chest belonged to Nate McKinley and he was now standing there, looking down at me. Worst of all, he was smiling. I mean, as he was going through a difficult patch, it was great to actually see him smiling. It’s just that it was such a good smile that, from my perspective, it made it really, really bad.
‘My fault. Narrow pavements. Big guy. I don’t fit very well.’
Actually, I thought he fitted in pretty damn perfectly, looking at him now with his beanie hat pulled down over his ears, an expensive-looking down jacket keeping him cosy, long, solid jeans-clad legs and hiking boots. Clearly, I needed to get a grip.
‘It’s fine. Are you off for a walk?’ I asked, distracting myself from the unexpected smile by bending down to play with Bryan who was decked out in a coat that looked to be made by the same brand as Nate was wearing.
‘Have you got a new coat?’ I said, giggling as Bryan rested his paws on my knee and snuggled his head into my neck for a cuddle, his whole body whipping to and fro with excitement. From the corner of my eye, I saw an elderly couple approaching us on the pavement. Scooping Bryan up, I moved all three of us into the quiet road for a moment to let them pass.
‘Bit chilly today, Soph!’ the chap called, making a ‘brrr’ motion as they passed, his wife giving me a wide smile and patting my arm with her gloved hand as she passed.
‘Certainly is, Albert. Keep wrapped up!’ He waved a hand in agreement and carried on.
I stepped back onto the pavement, pulling at Nate’s sleeve to get him to follow me as a car appeared round the corner.
‘I’ve not seen this before,’ I smiled, cuddling Bryan to me, his lead hanging in a loose loop from Nate’s wrist. ‘Have you been treating him?’
‘I didn’t want him to get cold. How do you live like this?’
I rolled my eyes at him. ‘Don’t be such a drama queen. It’s not that cold.’ As I said this, a funnel of wind shot out of one of the alleys and wrapped itself round me, producing an involuntary shiver.
‘Nah. Positively balmy.’
I gave him a look and tried not to smile.
‘You did realise it would be winter when you came here, right?’
‘Yes. Of course. I’m just not sure I thought it through properly.’
‘Well. I’m afraid I can’t do much to fix the temperature,’ I said, bending down to place Bryan back on the floor, much to his disgust, judging by the look he gave me and the fact that he was now attempting to climb back up my boot. ‘But I can make sure you have a clean, tidy and warm house to reside in. By the time you finish your walk, I should be done. I’ve got some homemade soup to put in the fridge for you to heat up for lunch too so hopefully that will help.’
‘We’ve done our walk. I just strolled up to the restaurant to see if I could catch Ned as you’d said he’d be in this morning.’
‘Oh. I thought you… I…’
Nate adjusted his beanie and tilted his head slightly, waiting for me to finish.
‘Did you catch him?’ I changed tack, having lost my original direction.
‘Yeah. Really nice guy. I think my brother’s got a really good friend there.’
‘He has, and I know Ned feels the same about Gabe.’
Nate nodded and the shadow from yesterday flitted across his face again.
‘You’ll always be his big brother though,’ I ventured, tentatively.
‘Yeah. Whether he likes it or not.’ He smiled but there was no heart in it.
I moved us off of the pavement again briefly to let more pedestrians through before stepping back up.
‘What’s that supposed to mean? Do you think Gabe would have gone to any of this trouble to get you over if he didn’t want to? I mean, I know he’s pretty easy-going but he’s no pushover.’
‘My mum can be pretty persuasive, and I know she’s been worried about me. Gabe feels a bit guilty he’s over here so anything he can do that might please Mum, he’s going to do it.’
I stared at him for a moment, then gave an eyeroll that was so big I could practically hear my eyeballs rattle in my skull and then turned away, in the opposite direction to Nate’s house. Two seconds later, a large hand caught my arm.
‘Where are you going and what was the massive eyeroll for?’
‘One, I’m going to do a bit of shopping. I’ll come and clean when you take your walk later if you can give me a time. And two, the eyeroll was because what you said was total and absolute rubbish, and the fact that a clearly intelligent man like you can’t see that just makes it even more ridiculous.’
‘Is that right?’
‘Yes,’ I said, meeting his eyes defiantly. ‘It is. Gabe was desperate to be here with you but he said you’d made it clear you wanted to be on your own and would only agree to come when he was on holiday. You also made the same thing perfectly clear to me the first day I met you. So your brother did the next best thing. He gave you his home to be alone in and made sure you were surrounded by people that love him, and ergo, care about you. I’m not entirely sure what your problem is, but your brother not loving you definitely isn’t one of them!’
He watched me for a moment.
‘Ergo?’
I felt my mouth drop open and quickly closed it as cold air raced down my throat.
‘Seriously? All that and the only thing you took from it was “ergo”?’
‘No. Not the only thing.’
‘Well, that’s a relief.’ My mother had always told me that ‘sarcasm was not attractive, dear’. But right now I wasn’t trying to be attractive – especially not when I was freezing my arse off. Nate McKinley was, undoubtedly, gorgeous. But he was also hard work, complicated, and only here for a short time.
I made another attempt to head off in the direction I’d turned to when the large, gloved hand caught hold of me again.
‘I feel like a bloody yoyo. Will you stop doing that?’
‘Well, stop going in the wrong direction then.’
‘I’m not.’
‘You are. The house is that way.’ He pointed down the bay, in the opposite direction to the way I myself was pointed.
‘Yes. And I’ll go there this afternoon. As I said. In the meantime, you can work in peace and I can go and get my shopping.’
‘What about my lunch?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘You said there was soup for lunch. If you don’t come until later, it’ll be too late.’
I stared at him for a moment. ‘How are you and Gabe even related?’ I said, wrestling the tub from my bag and thrusting it at him. ‘There. There’s your soup. You’re welcome.’
Bryan’s lead tightened a little and we both looked down to see him trying to snuggle across Nate’s boots so that, even despite his posh new warm coat, he could lay down with the least amount of tummy on the cold pavement.
‘You should get him home before he gets too cold. What time shall I come to clean?’ All the friendliness of yesterday had evaporated and I felt a knot in my stomach. I knew I’d made a promise that I’d try and cheer Nate up while he was here in order to repay Gabe and Holly for their friendship, but it was just too damn hard. Nate was clearly used to people waiting on him, having the best things in life, and not appreciating any of it. Stupidly I, like many I suspected, had been taken in by that smile. He might have some sadness still darkening his mood, but looking like he did, there was no way he’d be lonely for long. So long as the woman in question wasn’t terribly bothered about manners…
‘Now.’
‘Pardon?’
‘You were on your way when I bumped into you, weren’t you?’
‘Yes. But that was when I thought you were going to be out.’
He moved to shift his weight and then stopped as he noticed Bryan resting comfortably across the top of his boots. He
lifted his gaze from the dog to me. ‘I’ll lift my feet up when you vacuum and everything. I promise. And I make a mean hot chocolate. I think we’ll both need a bit of thawing out by the time we get there.’
See? I wish he wouldn’t do that. Just when I was wholly convinced he was a total arse, he’d go and say something endearing. It was really, really annoying. I lifted my head. The arrogance was gone, replaced by that sense of… almost as though he were unsure. Out of his depth. But how could that be right?
‘You made it quite clear that you’d prefer me to do the housekeeping when you were out the last time I was there.’
‘Actually, no. You put those terms in place. Not me.’
‘You didn’t argue.’
‘You didn’t give me a chance. You’re kind of formidable when you’re riled up.’
‘I was not riled up!’
‘Yeah. You were. Kind of like you are now. And when you shoved this at me.’ He held up the soup container.
‘Well, you’re rude! And unappreciative.’
Oh, my God. I was stood on the pavement having an argument with a man I barely knew, hurling insults at him. I could hear my mother’s voice now – ‘like a common fishwife!’
‘Nothing I haven’t been called before but I’d like to apologise this time, because I never meant to be either.’ He removed his hat, ran a hand over the short, dark hair and yanked it back on. ‘Please come back to the house with me. I don’t care if you clean or not but I’d really like to share this with you.’ He nodded at the container.
The sincerity in his voice and eyes took all my bluster away.
‘I made it for you.’
He grinned. Almost laughed. Almost. ‘I’ve got a pretty healthy appetite but this looks like it could feed a whole family. Please?’ he asked again.
I felt a pull inside me and nodded.
‘Thank you.’
I shook my head and hoiked my bag higher onto my shoulder.
Winter at Wishington Bay Page 5