The Sunshine Sisters: Blossom: BOOK THREE of a TRILOGY in the popular Little Duck Pond Café series

CHAPTER ONE

‘Go on, Blossom,’ Billy urged, pointing at the cracked brown teapot on the table. ‘Give it what for. Smash it to smithereens.’

I tightened my hold on the cricket bat, psyching myself up as Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger blasted in my ears. Come on. You can do it!

The music segued into We Will Rock You by Queen. I looked at Billy and laughed with embarrassment. ‘I’m sorry but I just can’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t know. It would seem . . . bad!’

I’d just watched in fascinated horror as Billy picked up an old golf club and swiped with a surprising amount of relish at a cluster of drinking glasses on a nearby table. The noise of glass shattering and breaking all over the floor had made me wince – and feel mightily relieved I’d given the open-toed sandals a body swerve that sunny-skied morning in early May.

Now, Billy was aiming the club at a picture on the wall.

I braced myself. It wasn’t a great picture and the frame was broken and a bit mouldy-looking. But that wasn’t the point. Someone had spent time painting those sheep and those hills, and it pinched at my soul to see it destroyed.

I’d always been a bit of a wimp... too soft for my own good, as my sister Skye was forever reminding me – but this was ridiculous! I mean, the whole point of Billy booking this Smash-’Em-Up session was supposed to be so that I could take out my anger at my mother lying to me all my life – by bashing the hell out of a range of inanimate objects! Because after the shocking revelation that the man I’d thought for years was my dad actually wasn’t, Ada was still sticking to her new and rather dubious (I thought) story that it had been a one-night-stand mistake and she’d been too ashamed to tell everyone that...

Billy smashed the picture – sheep, hills and all – off the wall with a shout of glee and began hammering at it with the weathered old golf club. ‘You need to try it. It’s so therapeutic.’ He handed me the club. ‘Give it some welly! Go on, you know you want to.’

‘But that’s the point. I don’t want to. I’m not a violent person.’

‘And you think I am?’

I couldn’t actually see if he was grinning beneath the really rather sinister-looking protective head-gear he was wearing, but I knew he would be.

Billy was always smiling. And he was quite possibly the least violent person I’d ever met.

‘Sorry, I thought it might cheer you up a bit,’ he said, removing his head-gear. ‘But you’re definitely not getting your money’s worth here.’

‘I’m enjoying watching you, though,’ I said, which wasn’t strictly true. Removing my own head-gear, I grinned at him. ‘I’m pathetic. I know. Sorry.’

‘Yeah, you are.’ He gave me a gentle shoulder nudge. ‘That nasty brown teapot is begging to be put out of its misery, but will Blossom oblige with a whack of her cricket bat? No, of course not, because she’s the softest, kindest person on this planet and can’t even bear to hurt something that’s destined for the tip anyway.’ He grinned ruefully. ‘I should have booked a champagne afternoon tea for two instead.’

‘Ooh, now you’re talking.’

He patted his rounded stomach. ‘You’d have had to eat all the cake, though.’

‘As if! When have you ever turned down a slice of Victoria sponge?’

‘A rare event, I grant you,’ he conceded. ‘Probably in the same league as a total eclipse. But I’ve been good lately, avoiding cafés and bakeries.’

‘I know you have,’ I said admiringly. ‘Keep it up. Healthy BMI here you come.’

‘Sorry about the rage room idea,’ he said as we left, handing in our gear. ‘It’s not really about unleashing your anger, although apparently it can relieve stress. It’s meant to be fun. I just wanted to cheer you up.’

‘I know you did. And I really appreciate your thoughtfulness, Billy.’

He shrugged, an awkward blush rising to his cheeks at the compliment. ‘I saw a story in the paper. This bloke’s ex had taken him for everything he had and he didn’t know what to do with his anger. Someone jokingly suggested he visit a rage room as a cheaper alternative to therapy, and he enjoyed it so much, he set one up himself.’ He spread out his arms. ‘This one, in fact.’

I smiled ruefully. ‘I have been feeling pretty angry lately. What with Ada refusing to tell me the truth about my dad.’

‘I thought she said she’d had a one-night stand and didn’t know who he was.’

‘Well, that’s what she told me, but I’m not sure I believe her. I think she was just backed into a corner and had to say something.’ My smile slipped. ‘The sad thing is, I really liked Antonio when I met him. I was all geared up to spending time getting to know him. And then I find out he’s no relation whatsoever. He and Ada were just friends.’

‘You must have felt gutted.’

‘I did. The only bright spot in that dream-shattering day was meeting you by chance.’ I smiled at him.

I’d met Billy when my sisters and I were on a mission to Brighton, to track down Antonio. All my life, I’d dreamed of finally meeting my father, so I’d been utterly devastated to find that seeking out Antonio had been nothing but a blind alley.

A brush salesperson, Billy had been down in Brighton visiting a potential client, but he actually lived in Woking, which was no distance at all from Ada’s house, the old family home near Guildford where I’d lived all my life. I’d enjoyed Billy’s banter so we’d swapped numbers and met up a few times since then. We got on so well it felt like we’d known each other for years.

‘Jeez, look at that.’ Billy pointed at a sign on the wall as we passed by the little café on the way out.

I read it out loud: ‘Tea’s, Coffee’s and Hot Chocolate’s. What’s wrong with it?’

Billy gave me a look of disbelief and a second later, I saw it and laughed. ‘You don’t need all those apostrophes!’ I shook my head. ‘Billy, you are so pedantic when it comes to punctuation.’

He shrugged. ‘Can’t help it. A comma in the wrong place makes my teeth itch.’

‘I wouldn’t even have noticed that sign if you hadn’t pointed it out.’

He grinned. ‘Best one I saw was a headline in a newspaper. “Students Get First-Hand Job Experience”. Except they left out the hyphen in First-Hand.’

It took me a while then the fog cleared. ‘Ah! Students getting their first hand-job.’ I grinned. ‘Lucky them.’

‘Quite.’

*****

‘So what exactly did Ada say about the time you were conceived?’ asked Billy later, as we sat in the café of my favourite place to be (especially when I was stressed) – Argent’s Garden Centre.

‘Oh, she told me she was in a pub and met this man. They got chatting, and she liked him... and hey presto. I was born nine months later.’ I felt my shoulders slump. ‘Any mention of Ada puts me in a bad mood these days, so let’s not talk about her, okay?’

‘Especially not when you’re about to dive into that pure-indulgence cake of yours,’ said Billy with an encouraging nod at my plate.

I looked down, brightening at the sight of the large slice of feather-light sponge filled with fresh strawberries and cream. Picking up my fork, I set it down again. ‘I feel terrible eating cake in front of you.’

He grinned. ‘So you should. I’m feeling so virtuous, watching you.’

I got up and collected another fork from the counter, handing it to him with a smile. ‘Go on. You know you want to,’ I said, repeating his line to me from earlier. ‘But just one bite, okay?’

He sighed, his resolve crumbling. ‘One bite. That’s all.’ Cutting off a sliver, he popped it in his mouth and savoured it with a blissful smile. Then he put the fork down and folded his arms over his generous stomach. ‘Jenna’s last boyfriend was a bodybuilder, apparently.’

‘It’s personality that matters, not muscles,’ I reminded him. ‘Unless you’re really superficial, of course. Which I’m assuming Jenna is not?’

He shook his head dreamily. ‘Jenna is... well, she’s perfect. That’s it. That’s my description of her.’

I chuckled. ‘So a bit like Margot Robbie, Mother Theresa and Einstein all rolled into one?’

‘Erm.’ He screwed up his eyes at me, considering this. ‘Not quite. Margot’s got blonde hair and Jenna’s a redhead.’

I laughed. ‘Well, anyway, you have personality in spades. Plus you have a great sense of humour.’

He looked bashfully down at the table. ‘Well, thank you kindly, Ma’am. Although I still think being able to fit my butt into a pair of snake-hipped jeans might give me a bigger advantage when it comes to persuading Jenna to go on a date with me.’ He shrugged. ‘Of course, once she’s got over how hot I’m looking these days, after refusing all this cake, then of course she’ll start to appreciate what an all-round excellent, caring, funny guy I actually am.’

I shook my head at his sarcasm. ‘Stop being so hard on yourself, Billy. I think you’re brilliant as you are. A real catch.’

‘So you’d go out with me, then?’ he joked.

‘And ruin our friendship? I don’t think so.’

He grinned. ‘That’s not the only reason, though. What about a certain Trevor Gibson?’

‘Oh, stop it! You’ll make me blush,’ I said, feeling colour whoosh into my cheeks.

‘He sounds pretty perfect himself, this Mr Gibson.’

‘Well, I don’t know him well enough to know that. But he likes gardening. He rolled his sleeves up and spent a whole afternoon helping me to dig thistles out of Mrs Johnson’s old vegetable patch.’

‘Wow. He must really like you. Thistles are a bugger.’

‘I know. Aren’t they? And then he took me out to this amazing place for sushi and made me laugh the whole evening, so much that my mascara was all over my face.’ I smiled dreamily at the memory. ‘Trevor said he didn’t care and that I looked cute with panda eyes. And that I’d probably look even more beautiful with no make-up at all.’

Billy made loud throwing-up noises, alarming a couple on the next table.

‘Sorry, sorry.’ He leaned over to them with an apologetic smile. ‘I need to stop reacting like that to news that my friend here is all loved-up. Jealousy, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with it.’

They both laughed and the woman said, ‘When I tell George here that I love him more than Carrie loves Mr Big, that gets pretty much the same reaction.’

‘Really? I’d take it, if I were you, mate.’ Billy grinned at him. ‘Adoration like that is hard to come by.’

‘You could have a point,’ chuckled George.

We chatted for a while, then they got up to leave.

‘People like you, Billy,’ I murmured, watching the couple wander through to the plant section. ‘You have this natural way with them.’

‘Well, of course I model myself on Tom Hanks. He’s my all-time hero. A proper good egg. And handsome as well, of course. If ever I’m unsure about anything, I just ask myself what Mr Hanks would do.’

I giggled. ‘I never know if you’re joking or not.’

‘No, it’s true. And you’re not going to believe this, but Cast Away just happens to be Jenna’s favourite film.’ He shrugged with an air of bewildered triumph.

‘Oh, well, there you are, then. It’s obviously meant to be. You and Jenna.’

‘That’s what I thought.’

We looked at each other and snorted with laughter, and I offered him the very last bite of my cake. He pretended to look offended. Then he winked at me, grabbed his fork and whisked it into his mouth.

‘Crikey. You don’t need to be asked twice, then.’

He grinned, getting up. ‘Race you to the pelargoniums.’

‘Mrs Bartlett’s favourite flowers. She wants enough to fill all three borders,’ I mused as I made a beeline for them, knowing exactly where to find them. Since it opened earlier this year, I’d been a regular visitor to Argent’s Garden Centre.

‘Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask. How did the trip to Brighton go?’ said a voice and I spun round to find Gary, owner of the business, smiling at me over his glasses and a large, rather bushy plant in a pot.

I grimaced. ‘Let’s just say it didn’t exactly turn out the way I wanted it to.’

‘Oh. I’m sorry.’

Gary looked crestfallen, as if he’d put his foot in it somehow, and I hastened to put a positive spin on things. ‘It’s fine. Honestly.’

He nodded. ‘If you need to talk, pop in any time.’

I smiled, grateful for his offer. ‘I might just do that.’ Gary had become a good friend ever since I’d come in soon after the garden centre opened and asked his advice about what plants to choose for an alpine rock garden. One of my customers was keen for me to create one for her. ‘This is my friend, Billy, by the way.’

Gary quickly transferred the plant from one hand to the other, wedging it under his arm so he could shake hands with Billy and almost dropping it. Billy saved the day, darting forwards and catching the pot before it slipped.

‘Sorry. I’m Gary.’ He put the pot down and brushed off his hands. ‘Also Blossom’s friend,’ he added, pushing his glasses up his nose and ending up with a soil smudge on his cheek.

‘Good to meet you,’ said Billy. ‘I hear you’re helping with Blossom’s business plan?’

‘Well, trying,’ said Gary modestly. ‘Although I don’t think she needs much help to be honest.’

‘Oh, I do. Believe me. You’ve got . . . erm . . .’ I indicated his cheek.

‘Oh.’ He rubbed at it. ‘Gone?’

‘Gone.’ I grinned at him. His shock of brown hair, greying at the temples, was looking a little shaggy these days, but he probably never had time for a haircut. Gary lived and breathed his business. ‘Speaking of which, can we have a chat about it some time? I’d like you to look over it before I apply for that start-up business grant.’

‘Of course.’ He smiled wryly. ‘I don’t need to look at my diary. Take your pick. Just about anytime suits.’

I said I’d give him a call to arrange a time and we parted.

‘He’s a lovely bloke,’ I murmured. ‘But he works too hard to have a social life and it’s really not healthy.’

‘If he started dating, he’d have to relax a bit,’ pointed out Billy.

‘He won’t do that.’

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t think he’s interested. He was married years ago, when he was in his thirties. She was called Sunita. But she was killed in a car crash.’

‘Oh. Poor bloke.’

‘I know. It’s so sad.’ I sighed, watching Gary helping a customer. ‘You’d think he’d have moved on after ten years or so, but I don’t think he has.’

‘Love strikes when you least expect it,’ said Billy sagely.

‘Like when you first set eyes on Jenna, you mean?’

‘Exactly. Our eyes met across a crowded recycling centre – and that was it.’ He grinned. ‘I helped her heave an old hutch over the edge and we bonded over the evocative scent of rabbit droppings.’

I snorted. ‘How romantic. A love story for our times.’

He nodded. ‘Now I just have to convince her that what we have is more than just a casual acquaintance.’

‘Do you know where she lives?’

‘Of course. And more to the point, I know where she drinks as well.’ Billy tapped the side of his nose. ‘Friday nights. The Swan Hotel bar in Sunnybrook.’

‘Oh, Rori and Kurt go there a lot. And Skye and Saul sometimes.’ I smiled. ‘They keep wanting me to join them and take Trevor along so they can meet him.’

‘So why haven’t you?’

‘Trevor’s really busy at the moment. He’s bought a holiday home near the coast and he’s doing it up at weekends.’

‘What’s it like?’

‘Nice, I think. I mean, I haven’t been there yet, but he’s shown me photos. It’s a bit of a wreck by the looks of it and I think Trevor wants to wait until it’s properly habitable before he invites me along for the big reveal.’

Billy nodded slowly. ‘A love nest by the sea. Very nice.’

‘It’s not love. Not yet.’ I felt myself blush.

He grinned. ‘Give it a week and you’ll be a lost cause.’

‘Rubbish. Come on. Let’s get these pelargoniums.’

I’d brushed off Billy’s prediction. But it was impossible to ignore the little twinge of excitement I felt inside at the thought of weekends by the sea with Trevor...