Chapter Twenty-Four
Tamara yawned and rolled over. Five a.m. The clock must be wrong. She propped herself up on one elbow and grabbed her phone. It confirmed the time. Was it her imagination or did the Petunia Pig clock face look extra smug this morning? During the long, mainly sleepless night, she’d made her plans.
Pixie always arrived at the pub first on Sundays, around eight o’clock, to spend a quiet hour catching up with paperwork before Rocky turned up to start on the roast lunches.
She swung her legs out of bed and shoved on her pink furry slippers. They had pig bobbleheads for the toes and were Toby’s Christmas present from a couple of years ago.
After she showered and got dressed, it was time to hit the kitchen and bake a peace offering for Pixie. The one possible drawback with her plan was if Christos had changed his routine of clocking in just as the pub opened at noon. She would cross that bridge if she came to it.
By half seven she’d put the finishing touches to the cake and had time to sit down with a mug of tea.
Her unique take on a Christmas yule log had turned out perfectly.
The light, airy lemon sponges were pieced together to resemble a log and rolled up with a cream filling laced with limoncello liqueur.
Along with the whipped cream exterior, it played to Pixie’s love of light, fresh, citrusy cakes.
She’d decorated the top with miniature Christmas baubles in jewel colours, and they were some of the best sugar-work she’d ever done.
A message popped up on her phone and the sight of Gage’s name made her smile.
Good luck with Pixie. Your day might even be easier than mine.
The row of horrified-face emojis he signed off with made her laugh.
The church clock started striking and she counted the chimes. Eight. Time to go. Tamara slipped an old black cardigan over her T-shirt as a concession to the frost whitening the grass outside her window and picked up the white cardboard box from the kitchen counter.
Why did distances shrink when you least wanted them to? Before she realised it, Tamara was knocking on the back door of the pub.
‘It’s open, Rocky. Why’re you . . .’ Pixie turned pale. ‘Oh, it’s you. What do you want?’
‘To give you this. Can we talk? Please?’ Tamara thrust the gift at her old friend and anxiously rattled off a description of the contents.
‘I suppose you might as well come in.’
She nervously followed and watched Pixie open the box. Her friend studied the contents with wide eyes and gave an appreciative sniff.
‘You didn’t need to do this.’ Pixie’s lower lip wobbled. ‘You should pelt me with it for being a proper cow, although it would be a shame to waste this beauty.’ A burst of high-pitched laughter betrayed her nervousness. ‘Is it okay to eat lemon cake this early in the morning?’
‘Why not? It’s almost Christmas and everyone knows that’s the season of free passes when it comes to calories.
’ She was swamped with relief. They weren’t over the hump, but at least the door hadn’t been slammed in her face.
Perhaps the United Nations should use cake as a peacemaking tool.
‘How about a coffee? I’ll make it while you cut the cake. ’
‘Coffee sounds awesome. I didn’t have time before I came here.’ Pixie turned away and headed for the cabinet where they kept the dishes.
They busied themselves as they’d done so many times over the years and shared the task of getting their unusual breakfast ready.
Soon they were sipping hot, fragrant coffee and digging into the cake.
Tamara blushed with pleasure at Pixie’s almost orgasmic reaction.
Making food for other people was all about unselfish giving and nourishing, which was exactly what their shattered friendship needed.
‘This was one of the recipes I planned to include in the December Dessert specials. Did that—’
‘Go by the wayside? Yeah.’ Pixie sighed. ‘Rocky didn’t have time for anything extra, so he stuck to the usual stuff. You must have this on sale in the café when it opens,’ she said vehemently.
‘How is Rocky? Has he had any luck finding a new job?’
‘He doesn’t need to, thank goodness.’ Pixie’s relief was obvious. ‘I spoke to the new landlady last week and they’re keen to keep him on. And with a pay raise too, so he’s over the moon. How are your plans going for the café?’
‘Really good. I should be able to open in the new year.’ Damping down her enthusiasm for the project she’d dreamed about for so long was impossible, and her friend had asked, so she got the full rundown. ‘We’re still struggling with the name, though.’
They were soon convulsed with laughter at the various pig-related ideas that had been batted around so far.
Pixie’s mouth turned down. ‘I’ve missed this so much.
I don’t mean I resent you getting this amazing chance.
If I’d simply lost you to that, I wouldn’t be so bloody miserable.
’ A tear leaked out and trickled down her cheek.
‘But not seeing you. Not talking to you.’ She touched her chest. ‘It hurts my heart. You were right to leave . . . and you were right about Christos.’
Tamara reached across and gave Pixie’s small hands a quick squeeze.
‘I sent him packing a few days ago. The estate agency where he worked doesn’t want him back, so he got a last-minute flight out to Santorini yesterday.
I don’t envy him having to explain things to his family, but it’s his own fault.
He deserves whatever grief they give him.
’ The sound of her deep, gulping breaths filled the kitchen.
‘I watched him like a hawk after you left and for maybe a week, he couldn’t have been more attentive and hard-working.
Then he reverted to his usual lazy, charming self.
’ Bitterness flooded out of her. ‘One of the new Trelawney Court women caught his eye. A wealthy, bleached-blonde divorcée. But she sized him up in a hurry, so he didn’t get far.
He started going out after closing time and rolling back in the early hours of the morning.
If I asked where he’d been, he blew me off and said he deserved some fun after slogging away here all the time. ’
Tamara metaphorically super-glued her mouth shut.
‘A young woman came in yesterday looking for him. I mean really young — barely over eighteen is my guess. You should’ve seen his face when I fetched him, and she started blabbing on to me about how they’d met in a sleazy nightclub in Newquay and were madly in love.
I suppose it would’ve put a damper on their romantic trysts if he’d mentioned living with his fiancée. ’
‘I’m so sorry.’
‘So now I’m single again, broke and soon to be jobless.
’ The fake bright smile and pulled-back shoulders couldn’t hide Pixie’s distress.
‘I’m sure Christos won’t willingly give back the money I loaned him for the deposit on the house and our plane tickets, and I’ve no interest in shelling out more money to sue him.
I don’t need your hunky boyfriend and his mates hunting Christos down to knock some sense into him either.
’ A flash of the old confident, take-no-prisoners Pixie re-emerged.
‘Of course not!’
‘I’m surprised you dragged yourself out of Gage’s bed this early on his day off.’
‘I spent last night at mine. You’ll never guess in a million years where he’s gone, and who he’s meeting up with later.
I’ve got some gossip you won’t believe.’ She wagged her finger in Pixie’s face.
‘Not to be shared, though. Not yet.’ She didn’t want to push her luck.
The whole story poured out and her friend’s reaction was priceless.
‘Tori G? Bloody hell. I mean she’s—’
‘Gorgeous. Yep, I know. It’s a bugger, isn’t it? Luckily for me, he decided a while ago that high-maintenance, demanding women weren’t his thing.’ Tamara stabbed the last forkful of cake and popped it in her mouth. ‘I don’t usually praise my own baking, but that’s amazing.’
‘Told you so.’
‘Anyway, what’s your next move? Have you approached the pub to see if you can cancel your resignation?’
Pixie shook her head. ‘That was my first reaction too, but you aren’t the only one ready for a change.
I also need to spread my wings and not just to get away from everyone’s sympathy.
’ She planted her hands on the table. ‘I’m going back to Wales.
I’ve got a cousin who lives in Cardiff and she’s asked me to stay with her for a while.
I can pick up some odd bar work or whatever while I get my plans in order.
’ She glanced anxiously up through her long, dark lashes.
‘I’ve always regretted leaving school at sixteen with only a couple of GCSEs.
I know I’ll have to start at the bottom again and a university degree might be unattainable, but I’ll never know unless I try.
’ The worry lines deepened again. ‘Do you think I’m crazy? ’
‘Absolutely not. Go for it.’ She threw her arms around Pixie.
‘We’re more alike than we ever knew. Both of us needed kicking out of our comfortable ruts.
I needed that shove to get my café and I’m sure you wouldn’t have picked hitching yourself to an unfaithful pillock.
’ Her hand flew to her mouth. ‘Sorry. That was super tactless. The plans you made would’ve been awesome if—’
‘Christos hadn’t turned out to be an unfaithful pillock? It’s okay. I can take it. At least I can now.’
‘Morning.’ Rocky breezed in and shrugged off the old khaki army greatcoat he lived in over the winter. ‘It’s great to see you again, Tamara. Please tell me you two have sorted out whatever turned you into a pair of idiots and you’re coming back to work?’
‘Yes, and no.’ She beamed. ‘We’re besties again, which is awesome, but I’m all set to open a café in the bookshop and couldn’t be happier. I’m thrilled your job is safe, though.’
‘Me too.’
‘Any chance you’ll pop back in after we’re done serving and have lunch with me like old times?’ Pixie asked.
‘Every chance.’