Chapter One Jenna – Land’s End, Cornwall 874 miles apart #2
‘Me too.’ Despite Cam’s smile, he sounded wistful, as he occasionally did.
Jenna didn’t know much about his private life, except that they both loved Jane Austen and Belgian craft beer but hated jazz and sushi.
They enjoyed watching storms, walking in the rain and observing wildlife, which was just as well considering the wild landscapes surrounding them.
Most of all, they shared a genuine passion for helping dedicated end-to-enders achieve their goal in the toughest of circumstances.
‘Talking of May, have you realised what today is?’
Confusion was followed by a flutter of panic in Jenna’s stomach. ‘Um. Er – oh God, it’s not your birthday, is it? Argh. Sorry. I forgot.’
He chuckled. ‘How could you forget when you don’t know when it is? No, today is actually the anniversary of our first Teams meeting.’
‘The first anniversary? You mean we’ve been doing this for a whole year? Wow. I hadn’t realised, I’ve been so busy organising.’ The time really had flown by, which just showed how much she’d enjoyed their chats.
‘Jenna. I’ve been meaning to say something. That we should – maybe – we should meet.’
‘Meet? That would be good. Long way though, from John O’Groats. Are you going to be in the area? If you’re coming down then drop in to the office?’
‘The office? I – well, yes, of course.’
‘Let me know though, so I make sure I’m on shift.’
‘Yes. I – er – will and – I was wondering whether if I was in the area, I could maybe take you out to dinner. I mean, to a pub or whatever. As a thank you for all the hard work you do.’
‘Dinner? The pub? Sure,’ Jenna responded distractedly – the noise outside was growing louder.
‘I know all the guys here would love to meet you. It’s bizarre we’ve worked together for so long, but not actually met.
I mean, I feel I’ve known you for years and I’m sure you’d love to see “Mile Zero Towers” – not that it is a tower, more a whitewashed building, but the views are amazing, though probably not quite as good as yours, but pretty spectacular. ’
‘I’m sure the view is great.’ Cam fiddled with his pen. ‘And I’d love to meet your colleagues, but I was kind of hoping, if it’s not too weird, and only if you do want to . . .’
A boy appeared next to him on the screen, a huge camera slung round his small neck. ‘Uncle Cam! Quick, the orcas are back in the Firth. Right outside the house. Come quick! I’ve got your camera.’
‘Lachlan, hold on. I’d love to but I’m in a meeting – for work.’
Jenna stifled her laughter.
‘Oh, you must be Jenna. Uncle Cam’s always going on about you. My mum says it’s “Jenna this and Jenna that”.’
‘Lachlan, mate, can I finish my meeting?’ Cam sounded desperate and Jenna pressed her lips together. ‘I’ll be out in five minutes and we can get the drone up.’
‘Yes! Sorry, Jenna!’
The freckled face, a mini version of Cam, filled the screen and then was gone.
Jenna laughed, then assumed a mock-serious expression. ‘You were saying, Cam.’
‘Yes, I was, but maybe I—’
‘Surprise!!!’
‘Oh, oh my God!’
Jenna’s head jerked forward in shock, almost making contact with the screen. Someone had clapped her on the back and chaos erupted in her small office.
There were shrieks of delight, party poppers popped, streamers rocketed over the laptop and silly string exploded on to her hair, the keyboard and across Cam’s shocked face on screen.
‘What the – what’s this?’
Someone twirled her chair around. Her colleagues were packed into the office, grinning and laughing.
‘Congratulations!’ they shouted.
‘Er. Thank you . . .’
Her best friend, Kerry, suddenly caught sight of Cam behind her and clapped her hands to her mouth. ‘Shit. You’re on a call, aren’t you?’
‘Yes, I am.’ Still shaky with shock, she swivelled back. ‘Sorry, Cam. Bit of a surprise here.’
‘Oh, hello, Cam!’ Kerry called with a wave. ‘If it’s only Cam, he won’t mind. He’s practically one of the gang, aren’t you? He can celebrate with us. I know he’ll want to congratulate Jenna.’
‘I – er—’ Cam’s eyes were like a rabbit in the headlights. ‘I um – would love to congratulate Jenna. Is it your birthday – a special birthday? Twenty-five? Thirty?’
‘Thirty?’ Jenna said, feeling awkward. ‘No, that was last year. No . . .’
‘Jenna’s getting engaged!’ Kerry bellowed. ‘She wanted to keep it all low key, but we don’t. It’s Friday, so we – and Nate – booked a room at the pub and it’s going to be a big celebration.’
Jenna turned back to her friends.
‘Oh, I see. Right.’ She felt overwhelmed.
She’d no idea Nate had been planning anything so big – or so public.
She’d only accepted his proposal a few days previously, and only then on the proviso they waited for a year at least before planning the wedding.
It was typical of Nate, though, to want to organise everything and get things ‘tied up’, as he’d put it when he asked her.
Jenna was the cautious one while Nate was all in, so while this big party had come as a shock, it probably shouldn’t.
‘Look,’ she said, as cheerfully as she could. ‘This isn’t fair on Cam. He was here for a meeting. I promise I’ll be out any moment!’
‘It’s fine. We’d almost finished anyway.’ Cam was smiling broadly.
Her colleagues left, chattering excitedly in the main office next to hers.
‘OK. I never expected that. Clearly. But that’s part of the job, to expect the unexpected . . . um . . . you were saying something about meeting up?’ She peeled a strand of silly string from the screen.
‘Yeah. If I’m in the area. Be great to meet the team. Now you’d better go and celebrate.’
‘Thanks,’ Jenna said, still in shock that Nate had had a hand in organising the party without consulting her.
‘And Jenna, congratulations to you and er—’
‘Nathan.’
‘You and Nathan,’ Cam echoed. ‘I’m sure you’ll both be very happy.’