Chapter 11
?? From Clare
Still can’t believe you bottled it on Sunday. This is your daily nag. GET REGISTERED ONLINE! NOW!!!!!
I smiled at Clare’s text and put my phone back in my pocket. Daily nag? More like five times daily!
It was the Wednesday after Clare’s visit.
I’d had the shop plastered on Thursday and Friday last week then spent the last couple of days painting ready for the floor to be fitted.
Mum had helped me paint and it had been lovely to spend two solid days with her.
I was really close to my parents but hadn’t realised how much I’d missed casually chatting to Mum about nothing in particular.
It felt so good to be back in Whitsborough Bay and surrounded by my family again.
Auntie Kay arrived at Seaside Blooms, as planned. She’d been so busy getting organised for her travels that I hadn’t seen her since the beginning of last week.
‘Wow! It looks fantastic in here now that you’ve painted.’ She turned in a small circle on the paint-spattered lino. ‘I can’t believe how big it looks. I should have done this years ago.’
‘It looked great when you had it. All I’ve done is freshen it up a bit.’
‘Thanks, sweetie. That’s very kind of you, but we both know it was looking a bit shabby.’ She moved to one of the walls and ran her hand down the smooth plaster. ‘Nice job. Who did you get to do it?’
My cheeks flushed and I quickly turned away and put my bag down on the pasting table.
‘Some bloke I found in the Yellow Pages.’ After my disgraceful attempt at flirting with Stephen Lewis, I phoned round another eight plasterers (avoiding Stevens) the next morning and discovered none of them were available for several weeks.
I then had a major attack of the guilts.
Stephen had seemed like a lovely guy and he clearly needed the work.
It was hardly his fault he was so damn gorgeous that I couldn’t put lustful thoughts out of my mind.
I bottled any verbal contact, texting him to say he had the job and he should pick up and drop off the keys with Tara at The Chocolate Pot.
‘He’s done a great job,’ Auntie Kay said. ‘And I’m loving these cream walls. So much warmer than the white.’
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Clare’s coming up again the weekend after next to draw some abstract flowers on the walls. She’s good at stuff like that.’
‘Sounds lovely. Is she okay with your move home now?’
‘I don’t think she’ll ever love the idea but I think she accepts it. Cup of tea?’
‘I thought you’d never ask.’
‘I’ve got a question to ask you while the kettle’s boiling.’
Auntie Kay followed me into The Outback. I filled the kettle in the small kitchen area and switched it on. ‘What do you think about online dating?’
She stiffened. ‘I’ve told you before. I don’t want to meet anyone so don’t start that again.’
Crumbs! Hit a raw nerve there. ‘Not for you, silly. I mean for me.’
‘Oh. Why didn’t you say so?’ Her voice had softened, but the fiddling with Grandma’s ring told me she was on edge.
I’ve always thought it was a shame that Auntie Kay was single.
Before leaving home for university, I set her up with the divorced dad of a school friend.
She spotted the set-up and traced it back to me.
It’s the one and only time she’s ever shouted at me and boy did she shout.
I asked Mum why she got so mad but she told me it was Auntie Kay’s business and she’d tell me if she wanted to. It became a taboo subject after that.
‘I thought it was obvious I meant for me.’ I threw teabags into the mugs. ‘Why would I suggest you start online dating when you’re about to leave the country?’
‘Good point. Sorry for snapping. I thought you said you weren’t ready to start dating again so soon after Jason.’
‘I don’t know if I am. It’s a scary thought after we’d been together so long, but I want to meet someone sooner or later and I don’t think it’ll happen through work. Clare came up with the online dating idea. Do you think I should give it a try?’
Drinks made, I ushered Auntie Kay to the desk chair then perched on the desk.
‘I don’t know anything about online dating,’ she said, leaning back, ‘but if you want to start dating, I know the perfect man for you.’
‘Really. Who?’ Please say he’s called Steven.
‘It’s someone you’ve already met.’
I shrugged. ‘Who?’
‘Nick Derbyshire.’
The name sounded familiar but I couldn’t quite place it.
‘You must remember him,’ she said. ‘Alma Sutton’s grandson. He came in for the flowers for his sister’s wedding.’
Oh yes! The man with the eyes like the ocean. I definitely remembered him. My pulse quickened as I pictured him in his morning suit, looking at me intently.
‘You said he was handsome,’ she said.
‘I didn’t.’
‘You did.’
‘Only because you made me.’
‘But you do think he’s handsome, don’t you?’
‘I can’t say I was paying that much attention,’ I lied. ‘If you recall, I’d just jumped on a train after dumping Jason. Checking out other men wasn’t high on my list of priorities that day.’
‘Well, he is handsome.’ She looked so proud you’d have thought she was his mum. ‘And he’s single. And he’s lovely. And he has his own business which is doing pretty well.’
‘If he’s that handsome and lovely and successful, why’s he single?’
‘Sarah! That’s a bit harsh.’ She playfully slapped at my leg. ‘Perhaps he’s like you – hasn’t found the right person yet.’
‘Perhaps.’
‘So it’s agreed?’
‘What is?’
‘I’ll set you up on a date with Nick.’
I put my tea down with such vigour, it slopped everywhere. ‘You’ll do no such thing.’
‘But you just said—’
‘I said the word “perhaps” in agreement that Nick may, like me, not have met The One yet. How you interpret that as “please set me up on a date with him” is beyond me.’ I took a tissue out of my pocket and dabbed at the spilt liquid.
Auntie Kay took a long noisy slurp of her tea. ‘We’ll see.’
‘I mean it,’ I said. ‘He seems nice enough and I admit he’s easy on the eye but I don’t want to go out with him so don’t you dare play Cupid.’
‘Okay. Okay.’ She put her hands up in surrender. ‘I won’t set you up on a date with him. It’s a missed opportunity, though.’
I narrowed my eyes and gave her the meanest scowl I could manage.
‘Fine. I’ll shut up. I just don’t get why you won’t even consider one evening with him.’
‘Because I don’t want to.’ Because he’s not called Steven.
‘You sound like a five-year-old when you say that.’ Auntie Kay held my gaze with her eyebrows raised.
Damn! How did she do it? She knew there was more to it. I hadn’t intended to tell anyone else, but she’d always been such a good listener. Oh, sod it. The accounts could wait. ‘If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell anyone else. Not even Mum…?’
‘So that’s why you won’t let me fix you up with Nick,’ Auntie Kay said when I’d finished, ‘Even though I can tell you fancy the pants off him.’
‘Auntie Kay! I do not. Can we focus back on Steven? What do you think?’
‘Honestly?’
‘Honestly.’
‘I get it. I do. I understand why you’d believe and I want to be supportive of you but I’m just not convinced by the whole clairvoyance thing.’
‘Why?’
‘Personal experience.’ Auntie Kay started fiddling with her ring again.
‘You’ve seen a clairvoyant?’
She seemed in a daze, fiddling with the ring and staring into nothing.
‘Auntie Kay? You’ve seen one?’
‘I must have seen about twenty after…’
‘After what? Auntie Kay? After what?’
She blinked and looked back at me. ‘I need to show you these accounts, don’t I?’
‘The accounts can wait. Why did you see twenty clairvoyants? What happened?’
‘Nothing. Did I say twenty? I meant twenty of us went to a spiritualist church once. Load of nonsense. Right, it’s just after eleven. I’m all yours till half twelve then I’m meeting Linda for lunch to plan our next shopping trip. Accounts. Now.’ She pulled a couple of files out of the desk drawer.
I desperately wanted to know why she’d visited twenty clairvoyants and what she thought of my search for Steven but I knew from her assertive tone that the subject was closed. If I pushed, she’d find an excuse to leave.
‘Whoopee! Bring it on,’ I said.
The knock on the door a few hours later startled me. I rubbed my eyes as I went to answer it. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach when I saw him standing there. ‘Nick? Hi.’ I’d kill her. Hadn’t she listened to a word I said about Steven?
‘Congratulations on becoming the new owner.’
‘Thank you.’
There was an awkward pause. What was the protocol for visits like this? Should I invite him in? What had she said to him? Did he think it was a date?
‘Kay said you need someone to set up your website and asked me to stop by this afternoon to chat about what you want.’
‘Did she now?’ The crafty little…
He looked beyond me into the empty shop. ‘Is it a bad time?’
‘Sorry.’ I swung the door open. ‘Come in.’
‘Thanks.’ He stepped inside. ‘I can come back another time if you’re busy.’
‘No. It’s fine. You’re here now and I could do with a break from staring at the accounts. Cuppa?’
‘Yes please.’ He followed me through The Outback into the kitchen area. ‘The shop looks good.’
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘I’m really pleased so far.’ I put the kettle on. ‘So, I’m guessing you’re a web designer or something like that.’
He smiled. Those gorgeous bright blue eyes twinkled with mischief. ‘Do you mind if I say something?’
‘Is it a nice something or a nasty something?’
‘It’s sort of an observation.’
‘Go ahead.’
‘I’m not trying to embarrass you or put you on the spot,’ he said, ‘but you looked a bit shocked to see me at the door just now. Given that you don’t know what my job is, I’m guessing that having me stop by to discuss your website wasn’t your idea.
I’m therefore wondering whether me being here is more about your auntie trying to do a little matchmaking than you actually needing help with your website. ’
My cheeks flushed deeply.
‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I have embarrassed you.’