Chapter 6 #2
‘It’s not early when you’ve got a small child,’ Anya told her with a laugh before she glanced over at Chloe. ‘And besides, we’ve got work to do this weekend if we want to have enough stock made for our stall at the Christmas Fayre next Saturday.’
‘Don’t remind me!’ Chloe said with a groan. ‘I still can’t believe I let you talk me into doing it.’
‘Rick’s worked really hard organising the fayre so the least we can do is support him,’ Anya retorted, her tone unusually sharp.
Chloe held her hands up, her expression immediately contrite.
‘I know, I know, I’m just grumpy being up so early.
’ She and Anya exchanged smiles and the moment of tension was over.
Chloe nudged Frankie’s elbow, her familiar grin back in place.
‘And it was worth it to see Harry’s photo of your handiwork in the family WhatsApp this morning! ’
‘Oh, God, yes, you really left your mark, Frankie!’ Issy said as she circled around the serving counter to come and hug her. Amusement danced in her eyes as she continued. ‘Liam woke me up, he was laughing so hard when he saw the photo!’
‘What photo?’
Quick as a flash, Chloe whipped out her phone and began to scroll through her messaging app. ‘Ha ha, Ma’s seen it and she’s demanding to know what’s going on. Ed is never going to live this down.’
A sense of dread was already filling Frankie’s stomach when Chloe handed the phone over to her.
The dread turned to something different as she took in the image of Ed, naked from the waist up, only a towel sinched around his slim hips to preserve his modesty.
He must’ve only just stepped out of the shower from the water glistening across his tanned, sculpted chest and shoulders.
It took Frankie far longer than it should’ve done to notice the source of everyone’s amusement.
The bottom half of Ed’s slicked-back dark hair was stained a nasty orange-red shade that reminded her of rusty metal.
The can had promised the dye was permanent, but Frankie hadn’t really expected it to work.
Finding her attention straying back to Ed’s semi-naked torso, Frankie forced her eyes to skip lower to the string of messages beneath the photo.
The text directly below the photo said, ‘Luk hu’s hume’.
The responses below were a variety of laughing emojis, bright red exclamation marks and WTF demands for details.
There was then a short paragraph of text from Kat providing a brief explanation of what had happened followed by another string of replies, all aimed at Ed himself and none of them polite.
Frankie cringed as she handed the phone back to Chloe. ‘My God, does the whole village know already?’
As she sensed her discomfort, Chloe’s eyes widened. ‘No, of course not! This is strictly family only.’
‘So only a quarter of the village, then,’ Frankie observed in a tone as dry as the Sahara.
‘There are rather a lot of us,’ Chloe conceded with a grin before her expression grew serious. ‘Honestly, Frankie, this won’t go any further. We’re not gossips and we’d never put you in an embarrassing situation.’
Frankie wanted to believe her, but stuff like this had a nasty habit of leaking out. ‘I’ve just been enjoying the low profile here. These are our last few days to complete filming and I can’t afford any outside distractions, that’s all.’
Issy put an arm around Frankie’s shoulder. ‘Harry would’ve never shared it if he’d realised it would distress you. We’ll message everyone and make sure they delete it right now.’
And then everyone in the family would think Frankie was a proper diva making demands on them. ‘No, it’s fine. I’m making a fuss over nothing.’
‘No, you’re not. Come and sit down.’ Issy steered Frankie gently over to the corner table and urged her to sit. ‘I’ll get you a coffee and Chloe will get onto everyone, won’t you, Chlo?’
‘Consider it done,’ Chloe agreed, slipping into the seat beside Frankie, her thumbs already flying over the keypad on her phone.
‘What’s wrong?’ Kat asked.
‘Nothing, it’s fine,’ Chloe said before Frankie could say anything.
‘Frankie’s a bit worried about word getting around about what happened last night – understandable after that awful business on the Tube last year.
I’m just messaging everyone to delete the photo Harry took and to make sure they don’t say anything to anyone outside the family. ’
Frankie didn’t think it was possible to feel worse until she spotted the stricken expression on Kat’s face. ‘It’s really not a big deal,’ she assured them. ‘It’s not like I think any of you are going to sell your story to the tabloids or anything!’
Anya reached a hand across the table and grasped Frankie’s fingers. ‘But that’s happened to you before, so of course you’ll be anxious about this getting out.’
The level of calm understanding and acceptance from them helped to soothe some of the panic inside Frankie. ‘I’m sorry to make a fuss about it.’
‘You’re not, though,’ Chloe said as she set her phone aside. ‘What’s just a laugh to us could spell massive trouble for you. We get it.’
Frankie looked around the table at the solemn, sympathetic expressions on the other women’s faces. ‘Thank you.’
Chloe’s phone buzzed and buzzed against the table. She scanned over the messages popping up. ‘Everyone’s deleting it now.’ She set her phone back down then patted Frankie’s arm. ‘Your secret’s safe with us.’