Camilla was dressed in a beautiful deep pink gown, which had a sweetheart neckline; it gathered in at the waist hugging her figure and flared out in a fishtail at the bottom. The bodice was decorated all over with sequins that sparkled as she moved. She felt like a film star. It was one of the most beautiful dresses she’d ever seen and she’d bought it from a charity shop in Hummingbird Lane, just off the high street, for a fraction of its original cost. Thankfully she had been the first person to see it as they put it on display. She felt that luck was definitely on her side.
She was sitting on a table with her friends: Lucy, Dom, Gracie, Finn, Carrie and Jim. They were waiting for Edie to arrive with her plus-one. Camilla suspected it could have been a man called Richard from the widows and widowers’ club she’d been attending lately, although Edie was giving nothing away. Catching a glimpse of Auntie Edie at the door, Camilla walked over to greet her when Ged, who’d been buzzing around, bumped into her as he headed for his table.
‘You scrub up well,’ he said in his Belfast twang and leaned in for a kiss.
‘You’re not looking too shabby yourself, Ged. How are you doing?’ She placed her hands on his upper arms and kissed him on both cheeks. However, his answer dissolved into background noise when her eyes met Blake’s. He was laughing with a giggling Auntie Edie as he pulled her into a bear hug. He smiled and winked at her, which made her heart flip.
He took her breath away; she had never seen him look so handsome; his thick black hair and dark beard were complemented by the tuxedo. He looked sexy and mysterious, like James Bond; she felt flutters in her heart and deep within. She hadn’t seen him since they’d had their chat; but they’d spoken on the phone a lot. Both had heavy work schedules and the preparations for this event had kept Camilla busy. She thought their second first date should be fun with friends and the charity do was the perfect place for that.
She approached Edie. ‘Auntie Edie, I’m so glad you made it. How are you?’
‘I’m very well thank you. I’m afraid Richard couldn’t make it tonight, so this handsome young Canadian man offered to escort me.’
‘Hi, Blake,’ she said, unsure whether to greet him with a kiss or not. He took the decision out of her hands by leaning in to her and brushing his lips against hers.
‘You look stunning tonight,’ he whispered into her ear. ‘I’m looking forward to starting all over again with you.’ His voice felt delicious as it tickled her ear. The words were exactly what she wanted to hear. He held out his arms to her and Edie, and both ladies slipped their arms through his as they made their way to their table. Blake ensured he was sitting between the two of them. Lucy, Carrie and Gracie exchanged knowing glances and seemed excited for their friend.
As the food arrived the conversation flowed easily. Blake was introduced to everybody and the chat involved the whole table so nobody felt left out. Blake and Finn exchanged business cards as Blake needed someone to help renovate a few properties he’d bought.
Camilla sat back and watched as her past became intertwined with her present and would hopefully develop into a wonderful future. The butterflies in her tummy fluttered every time she looked at Blake and she hoped that feeling would never stop. Whenever their eyes met she would look away quickly, frightened to become too absorbed in his because she knew that she could get lost in them so easily.
Lucy leant over to talk to Camilla when Dom was at the bar.
‘Jackson wanted me to tell you how funny he found your vlog and he showed me. Oh, Camilla, it’s hilarious. It’s had about ten thousand hits. He’s well impressed.’
‘What?’ replied Camilla. ‘Just on that one post? It’s only been on a couple of days and it really wasn’t that exciting. It was just me making a cake. I’d completely forgotten about it to be honest; I’ve been so wrapped up in organising this.’ She pointed around the room.
‘I haven’t seen it all but the part where you bash the sweets up was hysterical.’ Lucy was rifling through her phone to show her how many hits it had had. Camilla suddenly felt very hot. She had uploaded the edited version, hadn’t she?
‘Here look,’ said Lucy. ‘It was up to fifteen thousand and she could see the window cleaner’s face on the video.
‘Oh shit, it’s the wrong one,’ she exclaimed.
‘Is everything all right?’ asked Blake who’d been talking to Auntie Edie.
‘Yes, all good thank you,’ Camilla replied nudging Lucy’s phone out of the way. She’d have to swap it for the right one as soon as she got home. Blake winked at her and made her feel hot for a different reason. She smiled and was distracted by the noise of the microphone.
Ged was in charge of the fun auction and his humour stole the show. He had a gavel that they’d borrowed from the local mayor and he banged it comically during bids as he was heckled by the audience. The auction was held downstairs but was being filmed and played live on the TV screens upstairs so that all of the audience could see what was going on. The screens along the walls usually played videos of train journeys to add to the authenticity of the Signal Box Café looking like a train compartment inside.
So many kind business owners and individuals had offered up auction lots in the form of items and services, from three-course meals at Belvedere Manor, to photography sessions by Lucy’s sister-in-law Abbie, to offers of babysitting, cleaning and DIY for the day. Pretty much everything was covered and the bids were very generous. Camilla put a few bids in for a long weekend stay in someone’s holiday home in France but she was outbid by an elderly couple. She wasn’t too disappointed because it meant that more money was being raised for the homeless charity.
‘So that’s £250 from Mr Brown for the hire of a narrow boat for the day to take in the joys of the river Bram and that’s been donated by Finn and Gracie Calahan, so thank you very much for that.’ The captive audience clapped and cheered. Ged took a swig of beer and continued.
‘The next lot is from a very good friend of mine, Camilla Lockley. Where are you Camilla?’ He put his hand over his eyes as though looking into the distance even though she was on the table nearest to him. Camilla waved shyly back at him. ‘Ah there she is. Now Camilla was always destined to make cakes; in fact I heard that her mum asked for her to be called Vanilla when she was born but the midwife misheard and called her Camilla and like buttercream, the name just stuck.’ The audience laughed. ‘So as I was saying Vanill… sorry I mean Camilla has offered to make a celebration cake worth three hundred pounds in the shape of anything you want. And if you were wondering what her cakes taste like, it was she who made the cupcake towers for this evening. So as there are now none left, I can safely assume that you all thought they were delicious.’
One of the ladies from the homeless charity held up an A3-sized picture of one of Camilla’s creations and walked up and down with it. Ged continued, ‘So who will give me £50 to start?’ Four hands shot up around the room and there was a shout from one of the volunteers who was checking the upstairs tables. He held three fingers up to let Ged know how many were interested there. The price shot up by fifty pounds each time until it got to six hundred pounds.
Camilla had kept her eyes closed the whole time as she felt nervous, and then heard a voice from the bar shout, ‘One thousand pounds!’ The room fell silent for about ten seconds and then erupted into huge cheers. Many of the guests were volunteers from the charity and they were so happy. Camilla’s eyes opened wide. Her hands flew to cover her mouth. The voice was unmistakably his. The sexy Canadian twang did things to her body that nothing else could.
‘One thousand pounds going once, going twice, sold to the very generous Canadian at the bar.’ Blake raised his beer glass in acknowledgement.
Her eyes met his across the room and he smiled and winked at her. Her heart skipped a beat and she mouthed thank you at him. She was finding it unbelievably hard to tear her gaze away from him.
The clapping and cheering went on for some time, creating an atmosphere of laughter and happiness.
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br /> ‘He’s an amazing compere and should do stand-up comedy,’ said Auntie Edie clapping along with everybody else. ‘And I wouldn’t kick him out of bed either. You do well with your admirers – I’ll give you that,’ she added to Camilla who blushed instantly and choked on her wine. Thankfully Blake was still at the bar so didn’t hear the compliment. Lucy did though and she had to stifle a giggle.
Ged was approaching the end of the bids when he was handed an envelope and a bag.
‘Please can I have your attention, everyone. It’s just been brought to my attention that one of our lots has had an unfortunate accident with a pair of skis and a very snowy mountain. So, I’m afraid that we will have to cancel this lot unless we have a tall dark handsome man who would like to step in. Do we have any takers?’
The sound of heckling followed, and people shouted various names out. Blake had just returned from the bar with drinks for the table and was still standing up when Edie shouted at the top of her voice, ‘Blake Daniels will do it. He’s bloody gorgeous.’ She turned to Blake who hadn’t paid any attention to the announcement as he’d been chatting to someone at the bar. ‘You were only just saying that you would have liked to have offered a service or something weren’t you,’ said Edie. Blake tried to disappear into his chair, but Ged wasn’t going to let go.
‘Not only has our Canadian friend put in the highest bid of the evening but he has now volunteered to stand in for the poor unfortunate Callum Thomson who is in hospital with two broken legs.’ The audience clapped and cheered as Blake nodded, resigned to his fate. Ged called him over to where he was standing with the microphone and Blake put his drink on the table and joined him.
‘This is a first for me so what I’m thinking is that this could benefit everybody tonight, so I’m going to auction this one as a mystery service.’
Blake frowned but Camilla knew he could pretty much turn his hand to anything so should be able to cope with the odd bit of DIY or gardening.
Ged continued, ‘So for a bit of fun I’m going to let the audience see what it is and our friend here will be the only one who doesn’t know what he’s let himself in for. So, it seems poor Callum had offered to provide this particular service for the rest of this evening and then for a further two hours in the winner’s home at a time of their choosing. So are we ready for this?’
‘Yeeees,’ the audience replied.
‘Well that was pathetic. Now I mean are we really ready for this?’
The audience replied louder, banging spoons on the table and whooping loudly. Blake was smiling and shaking his head, obviously wondering whether he’d made the right decision.
‘Okay here goes,’ said Ged. ‘Laura, can you please show our very generous audience here what Callum was offering.’ Laura held up the picture behind Blake’s back and the audience shrieked with laughter and some of them wolf whistled. They could hear the rumble of laughter following from those upstairs as they had a couple of seconds’ delay on the screens. Camilla and Auntie Edie had tears streaming down their faces and Edie’s arm shot up in the air. ‘Fifty quid,’ she shouted. Blake tried to turn around to see what he had in store but Laura was quick and turned it away from him.
‘Hold on a minute, Edie, I haven’t even started the bidding yet but go on then. Do I hear fifty quid?’
A middle-aged lady with ginormous boobs put her hand up. ‘One hundred pounds,’ she offered, licking her lips as she studied Blake.
Two more women shot their hands up. ‘We’ll club together and that’s two hundred pounds,’ one of them said.
Ged took a couple more offers and when it reached three hundred and fifty pounds, he struck down his gavel. ‘Going once, going—’
Blake looked pleadingly at Camilla. The woman with the final offer looked scary. Camilla could imagine she was into bondage and very strong. She couldn’t picture Blake having to think of a safe word with her.
Camilla surprised herself by jumping up. ‘Four hundred pounds!’ Blake raised his hands in mock prayer as the cheering went up again.
Ged turned to the other woman who looked like she’d chewed on a lemon her mouth was so tightly pursed. ‘Five hundred,’ she shouted.
Camilla shook her head and shrugged at Blake, mouthed ‘I’m sorry,’ and, laughed as she saw him facepalming.
‘So that’s five hundred pounds going once, going twice. Congratulations, Mrs Bainbridge. I hope you enjoy your hot naked waiter.’ The room erupted into laughter again. Blake rolled his eyes and offered his hands up in mock surrender as if to say, ‘Okay, you’ve got me, but I’ll do it.’ Ged handed him the bag, patted him on the back and pointed him in the direction of the toilets.
As Blake walked off Ged spoke into the microphone.
‘Huge thanks to Blake for being such a good sport and an even bigger thanks to everyone for making this evening possible. Especially to Camilla Lockley for organising the whole wonderful event and to Lucy Cavendish for allowing us to use her fabulous venue free of charge for this evening. Special thanks to everybody who donated such fantastic lots and for the company who supplied the delicious food and those Signal Box staff who’ve cooked it so perfectly. You’ll find the details of all of the donors in the special programme you should have received on the way in.
‘Oh and one last thing: it seems we have raised fifteen thousand, four hundred and thirty pounds, which is an incredible amount to go towards our homeless shelter. So please give yourselves a huge round of applause. You’ve done brilliantly and now I’m going to shut up because the dancing is about to start. Have a great time everyone and thanks again.’ He switched off the microphone and the music started playing whilst staff cleared tables away to create some dancing room.
Camilla’s heart burst with pride at what they’d all achieved. She really felt as though she had given something back. Ged hugged her and thanked her again. They were promptly disturbed by loud wolf whistles and the Tom Jones song ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ blasting out of the speakers. Her insides flipped as Blake appeared carrying a tray of drinks. Dressed in nothing but black silk boxer shorts, white collar and cuffs and a dicky bow, his eyes were twinkling. The first thought that went through her head as she took in his tanned skin, hairy chest and muscly physique was voiced loudly by Auntie Edie who was standing by her side, eyes wide open and mouth agape.
‘Bloody hell he’s been working out!’
Camilla took the glass of champagne he was offering her and as her eyes met his she wondered what other surprises this night had in store for her.
Chapter 31
The next morning when she woke up with his arm around her, it took her a little while to adjust to what had happened. But as soon as she saw the cuff still round his wrist and discovered he still had the collar and dicky bow on too, the memories of their eventful night came flooding back. She giggled to herself and he shuffled round. Still asleep he pulled her in close to him. She kissed his forearm as it was the only part she could reach and then she drifted back off into the most contented sleep she had had for a long time.
Her mind felt completely free, no worries, no wondering about her mum’s house. She realised that material things meant nothing and if her mum was here now she would be ecstatic knowing that she was back with her one true love.
Thank goodness for Auntie Edie. She was the greatest connection to her mum as they were always extremely close, and she had worked so hard in bringing her and Blake back together. She would be forever thankful to her and whilst Auntie Edie was around Camilla felt as though a piece of her mum was too. Her mum had always been so proud of her and not long after she died one of the first thoughts that went through her head was: “Who will be proud of me now?” And then one day she realised that Auntie Edie was always proud of everything she did and that made her feel so warm inside.
She’d also realised that her best friend Lucy was proud of her. They’d grown so close over the last couple of years and worked well together on their wedding packages: Lucy being the wedding planner
and Camilla providing the cakes. Even when Camilla had the blip over the house and couldn’t fulfil an important wedding cake order, she had felt that she’d let Lucy down, and again when she left the cake on the bus. Yet Lucy had never held anything against her and had been so supportive. She knew if it wasn’t for Lucy she would not be where she was now. Lucy had held her hand and encouraged her at her own pace, just taking baby steps, first of all helping Jackson with his school cupcakes. That had been so scary for her, but Lucy hadn’t put any pressure on her and now look at her: she was back on top of her game.
Her other close friends had helped too, of course. Carrie, who had given her a home when she didn’t have one, and Ron giving her the cosy little cupcake van, which she loved so much. It was the perfect vehicle for her and everyone said it really suited her personality. Lucy and Gracie had done a wonderful job of helping her to decorate it. They had been amazing, and she couldn’t have done any of it without them. Considering she had hit rock bottom, due to horrible greedy people being in this world, thanks to her precious friends Camilla now felt on top of the world. She was ready to conquer anything and she couldn’t wait for this man of hers to wake up so she could conquer him again.
When she awoke later on, she could hear him clattering about in the kitchen so she put on her white cotton robe and followed him downstairs. The smell of bacon came wafting up the stairs and took her back to their time together when he would bring her a breakfast of bacon, pancakes and maple syrup up to bed on a Sunday morning. She felt a little self-conscious as she entered the kitchen, very aware that this wasn’t the skinny kid who’d left her behind all those years ago but a fully-fledged man and a very sexy man at that.
The Cosy Little Cupcake Van: A deliciously feel-good romance Page 22