by Jill Mansell
“Well, maybe. Then again, you haven’t seen them yet.” Coral’s eyes were sparkling. “Anyway, how’s Gail?”
Talk about the perfect opener. Aware that the moment had arrived, Declan wiped his suddenly prickling palms on the sides of his trousers and opened his mouth to say, “Actually—”
“Ooh, made me jump!” Coral pulled her phone out of her jeans pocket as it broke into what sounded like a load of inebriated jazz musicians at the end of a long night. This was new too. When she saw who was calling, she said, “Sorry, can I just answer this?”
“Of course.” Declan opened the glass-fronted cupboard on the wall above the coffee machine and took down two stainless-steel cups and saucers. You knew you liked someone when you gave them a cup and a saucer.
“Hi. Yes! Oh gosh, that was quick!” Coral swung her legs as she spoke to whoever was on the other end of the line. Was it Lily? Or one of the staff at the yard? Her eyes bright, she listened for a few more seconds, then said, “OK, well, this is perfect. Just before you reach Stanton Langley, you’ll pass the Valentine Hotel on the left-hand side of the road, then less than half a mile farther on there’s a cottage with a dark-green Audi parked outside. Declan’s just been showing me everything he’s done to the place… Honestly, it’s amazing. But yes, I’ll look out for you. See you in a minute! Bye!”
Chapter 43
There was a slow, lurching sensation in Declan’s stomach, like descending fifty stories in an elevator. The tone of her voice and the light in her eyes belatedly told him that he really didn’t want to hear what was coming next.
Except he was going to have to hear it.
“Don’t worry about coffee.” Coral was already sliding down from her stool, reaching for her shoulder bag. “And no need to give me a lift into the village either. That was a friend of mine on the phone.”
Her cheeks were flushed as she fiddled with the fastening on her bag. Declan murmured politely, “Oh yes?”
Don’t say it; please don’t say it.
“His name’s Trent, and we met on the painting trip. It was just the most amazing coincidence: there were seven of us staying there, and it turned out he lives only fifteen miles away from here, in Cirencester!” Coral shook her head in disbelief. “Isn’t that crazy? And we hit it off from the moment I arrived. I just… Oh gosh, it sounds silly to say it, but it felt like fate,” she rattled on. “As if it were meant to happen. The years since Nick died have been so difficult and so lonely that I honestly never imagined I’d feel this way again. I thought I’d had my happy life, as much as I deserved, and now it was over.
“But then the feelings came back and…well, it happened. Like everyone always tells you, just when you least expect it. I went to the South of France to get back into painting and there he was. Trent. He lost his wife five years ago and felt just the same as me. But all it took was a couple of hours on that first evening, and we just knew something special was happening. It was like…magic!”
Declan nodded. He was lost for words, but Coral was gazing at him, waiting for him to speak.
“That’s…great news.” He forced himself to smile and sound delighted for her. “Fantastic. I’m so pleased.”
I’m also lying.
“Thanks. I can’t tell you how brilliant it feels.” She laughed. “It’s like being a teenager again. I’m all…fluttery!”
OK, this wasn’t helping matters at all. It simply wasn’t what he needed to hear. And now, in addition, they could both hear the car slowing to a halt outside. Ten minutes ago it had been a taxi bringing Coral back to him, the most wonderful sound in the world. Now it was the complete opposite.
“Here he is.” Coral jumped up and reached for her suitcase. “Come on, you have to meet him!”
Oh joy. But what other choice did he have? Declan followed her out of the cottage.
“You found us,” Coral exclaimed happily.
“Oh my God, look at you. Even more beautiful than I remembered.” Trent was tall, fair-haired, and as tanned as she was. He was wearing a green checked shirt, blue linen shorts, and deck shoes. “Come here,” he ordered, holding out his arms to her. “I’ve missed you so much!”
They hugged. Trent kissed her on the mouth. Declan averted his gaze until Coral pulled away and explained laughingly, “He’s joking. His flight was only two hours earlier than mine.”
“I still missed you, though.” Trent gave her waist a squeeze, then turned to Declan. “Hi there, Dec. I’ve been hearing all about you. And your lady friend, of course. Grace, is it?”
“Gail,” said Coral. “She’s lovely!”
Trent was enthusiastically shaking his hand. Now wasn’t the time to make the announcement. Declan said, “She isn’t here, I’m afraid.”
“Well, I can’t wait to meet her too. I’m looking forward to getting to know all Coral’s friends. Has she been telling you about our time in Grimaud?”
“Um, kind of.”
“Ha! Not all about it, obviously. No, but it was great. Best week of my life. Mind-blowing.” He winked cheerily. “Lucky me, eh? OK, let’s get this case into the back of the car…”
The suitcase was stowed in the boot of his very clean bottle-green Vauxhall Vectra. Trent then held open the passenger door and ushered Coral inside. Fastening her seat belt, Coral said to Declan, “We’re all having dinner at the Star tonight. You’ll join us, won’t you? I’ll book a table for seven thirty.”
“Great.” Could he bear to? Maybe, maybe not.
“We’ll see you later,” she said.
Revving the engine, Trent raised his hand in farewell. “Bye for now!”
They drove off in a cloud of dust, and Declan realized there was no way he could share dinner with them; it would be just too hard to bear after the hopes and plans he’d had for her return.
It looked like Gail had been wrong about Coral’s feelings for him after all. Or maybe it had been a fleeting mini crush that had now been well and truly eclipsed by the all-consuming, all-singing-and-dancing love affair that had swept her off her feet.
Declan sighed. Either way, he’d messed up and missed out.
* * *
As they drove away from Weaver’s Cottage, Coral silently congratulated herself on having handled the situation without doing anything embarrassing. It was fine; she’d managed it, she hadn’t made a fool of herself, and there’d definitely been none of those giveaway looks of longing that Gail had previously observed. She’d learned from her earlier mistakes and retained her dignity. Thank God.
Mind you, it was a lot easier when you had a distraction in the form of Trent.
“You OK?” As they stopped at the traffic light, he briefly rested his left hand on her knee. “What are you thinking about?”
Coral admired his profile. “I’m thinking we had a perfect vacation.”
“We definitely did. And now we’re back home. On to the next phase. I just hope Lily likes me.”
“Of course she will.” Coral’s tone was reassuring.
Seriously, though, what a difference a week could make. It wasn’t something she’d expected to happen, but it had. Trent had been a revelation. He had, by his own admission, fallen for her the moment they’d met. And yes, it had caught her by surprise, but as he said, that was just the way he was. What you saw, with him, was what you got. If you knew what you wanted, why wait? Just seize the moment and go for it.
Coral had been won over by his enthusiasm, his openness, his honesty. As a widower, he knew what she’d been through. He was empathetic. Most of all, though, he liked her and wasn’t afraid to show it, and he was available. Which meant she was allowed to like him back. After the agony of having to hide her feelings for Declan, who was so lovely but so completely unavailable, it had come as a relief. Here was someone she could allow herself to fall in love with.
OK, it was too soon to call it love, but so
far it had been a wonderful experience. She’d found herself relaxing and feeling normal again…and just loving the sensation of feeling normal. The last week had been a joyous whirl of sunshine and laughter, conversation and wine, and the gloriously pleasurable zing of growing attraction for this new man whom fate had brought into her life.
Ironically, she owed it all to Declan and Gail. If she hadn’t been panicked by Gail’s terrifyingly astute observations, she never would have ended up in Grimaud and met Trent.
Funny how fate worked sometimes. You never could tell, could you? Trent wasn’t Declan—if she were being honest, he wasn’t even close—but he was single, and he was offering her a future. Coral’s heart skittered at the thought of it; she’d taken an unexpected new direction and maybe it was the right one.
This could be the start of a whole new life.
* * *
Patsy arrived back in Stanton Langley at ten o’clock on Saturday evening. The cottage was unexpectedly tidy. Empty too. She sent a quick text and two minutes later received the reply.
Right. Not ideal, obviously, but it had to be done.
Sick with fear, she walked down to the main street and crossed the road to the Star. The sky was pitch-black, with only a sliver of moon visible above the trees behind it. The white fairy lights strung up outside the pub glittered in the darkness and made it look so much more welcoming than it could well turn out to be.
She knew they were in there. From here, she could hear the sound of music, voices, and laughter. When she walked in, would the place suddenly fall deathly silent, like in High Noon?
Her mouth was dry, and she could no longer feel her knees. The last time she’d faced Lily, the encounter had ended just about as badly as it was possible to end.
Patsy braced herself. It was time to find out if this one was likely to be worse.
* * *
“Well?” Coral said eagerly while Trent was up at the bar ordering a fresh round of drinks. “Do you like him?”
Which was one of those questions to which it would be impossible to reply no.
Luckily Lily didn’t need to. She nodded and said, “He’s really nice,” because it was so clearly what Coral wanted to hear. And Trent did seem nice; there was nothing to actively dislike about him. It was all just a bit sudden and unexpected, that was all. Like Coral, he was in his late forties and had been widowed. He worked as the manager of an electrical store in Cirencester, loved to listen to jazz music, and was a keen amateur watercolorist in his free time. He had an open face and good table manners and was cheerful and friendly. He was also quite clearly besotted with Coral.
If Lily was completely honest, it did feel the tiniest bit odd seeing him holding Coral’s hand, stroking her fingers, and slowly rubbing the small of her back, but this was only because she wasn’t used to witnessing such public displays of affection from someone who still felt to her like a stranger.
Then again, he wasn’t a stranger to Coral. She’d finally found someone she liked, and that was all that counted. It was definitely a good thing to have happened to her.
“Suspicious Minds” was playing on the music system as Trent brought their drinks back to the table, and a few of the regulars were joining in with the chorus.
“Ah, Elvis Presley. Can’t beat a bit of Elvis. Elvis the Pelvis,” said Trent, sitting down and taking a gulp of lager. He winked at Coral. “Love me tender. Can’t help falling in love.” He reached for her hand once more and gave it a squeeze. “The wonder of you.”
Yikes, and now he was gazing dreamily into Coral’s eyes. Was he about to burst into song and start serenading her? Lily exchanged a glance of alarm with Dan, who promptly leaped into the breach with “Speaking of pelvises…”
Oh God, now what was he about to say?
“Sorry, what?” Coral was looking baffled too.
“Remember Kyle, the boy we were at school with? The one who had that accident at Hestacombe Lake and broke his pelvis?”
“Of course I do,” Coral exclaimed. “That poor boy, wasn’t he in the hospital for weeks? And the farmer put a bull in the field after that so the rest of you couldn’t get down to the lake.”
Dan nodded. “Lily and I were wondering what happened to him after his family left the area. We wanted to look him up, but neither of us can remember his surname.”
“McSomething. Or MacSomething,” Lily said. “I’m not sure I ever even knew his name, not properly. It was MacLanan or McLanahan, or McClannon…or MacAllen…” She shrugged. “We tried Googling, but it was hopeless.”
“And I can’t help you,” Coral said. “I never even met him. No clue, sorry. Oh—”
Her eyes had widened. For a split second, Lily thought Kyle’s name had somehow come to her. The next moment, she realized it hadn’t; Coral was staring straight past her across the pub.
Lily met Dan’s dark eyes once more and saw the concern in them, coupled with a lack of surprise. That was when she knew who had just walked in and, in all probability, who had texted him ten minutes ago.
Well, it had to happen at some stage. Patsy couldn’t stay away forever.
Chapter 44
It was by the sheerest coincidence that the previous Elvis track had just faded away and been replaced by the opening chords of “Devil in Disguise.” Whooping with recognition, and oblivious to the awkwardness of the situation, the regulars cheerily greeted Patsy’s arrival, then returned their attention to the impromptu sing-along.
Lily looked at Patsy and Patsy looked back, her expression carefully masked as she slowly threaded her way between the tables.
“How are you feeling?” Dan kept his voice low.
Lily shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Across the table, Coral was explaining to Trent what was going on. Leaning sideways, Dan murmured, “Do you want me to kiss you again? Because I will. Right here in front of everyone.”
Lily couldn’t move; his mouth was a fraction of an inch away from her ear, which was fizzing like a firework, hyperaware of his proximity. She whispered, “Shush, stop it.”
“OK. But you never know, it might help.”
Of course it wouldn’t help. But the awful thing was, she wanted it to happen. Not here, though, and not now. In private.
Oh God, stop thinking about it.
But she knew what Dan was doing and why he was doing it. Patsy was his big sister, his only living relative, and he wanted all this to be over. He hadn’t asked her to forgive Patsy, but of course that was what he wanted.
And now Patsy was standing directly in front of her, swallowing with difficulty, her hands clasped and her fingers twisted together. You could see her knuckles whitening with the tension in her grip.
“Lily, I’m sorry. I know, I know, I can keep saying it and it’s never going to be enough, but I don’t know what else I can do.” Patsy’s face was pale, and the violet shadows beneath her eyes betrayed how little sleep she’d been getting. “I just wish there was something—”
“Don’t.” Lily shook her head as she pushed back her chair and rose clumsily to her feet. She wrapped her arms around Patsy and hugged her hard. “It’s all right. You don’t have to do anything. You made a mistake, that’s all. But I still love you.”
“Oh God.” Choking up, Patsy let out a sob like a honking goose. “Really? Really?”
“Of course really.” And now Lily’s eyes were brimming too. “You’ve been gone for two weeks. I’ve missed you so much.” It was true; it was so true. She’d wanted to punish Patsy, but in doing so she had only succeeded in punishing herself. The two of them had both been feeling terrible. Forgiving Patsy meant all the anger could melt away, the hurt and the resentment evaporate into thin air. Tightening her hold, she whispered, “I’m sorry too.”
“Oh, Lily, you haven’t done anything to apologize for.”
Well, she had, but it was nothing
to do with Patsy.
Lily exhaled with relief. She looked across at Dan and saw him smile. Forgiving Patsy for having done wrong meant she could forgive herself for kissing Dan. Or, more to the point, kissing him and enjoying it so much she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it ever since.
Forgiving herself, it turned out, was easy. Now all she had to do was figure out how to erase the memory of That Kiss from her brain…
Then it was Coral’s turn to embrace Patsy and say, “We’ve all missed you. Where have you been?”
An extra chair was pulled up to the table. Sean, working behind the bar, brought over a drink for Patsy and gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Welcome back.”
Patsy rested her hand on his for a moment and looked up at him with gratitude. “Thanks.”
At the other end of the pub, Elvis had given way to Queen, and everyone was now belting out “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Patsy shook her head. “No one’s taking any notice of me being here. I thought the place would fall silent and I’d be glared at. I expected to be public enemy number one.”
“They don’t know,” Lily said.
“Really?” Patsy clutched her chest in relief. “You didn’t tell them?”
“No one else needed to know,” said Coral.
“Oh God, thank you. Thank you so much. I was so scared. Where does everyone think I’ve been?”
“We just said you’d gone up to London to help out in Rosa’s salon because two of her senior stylists were off sick.”
Patsy nodded, because this was entirely feasible. “OK, right.”
“And where were you really?” said Lily.
“Dredging a canal in Norfolk.”
Double take time. “You what?”
“It’s one of those voluntary projects to clear up the waterways. You spend all day every day scooping gloop and weeds and rusty bikes out of a stretch of canal, and in return they put you up in a trailer and give you three cooked meals a day.”