She should walk away.
Cassie downed the rest of her wine and moved over to join the others close to the cake.
‘This is an awesome cake,’ Dina told James. ‘Moist. But not too moist. Great flavour.’
‘Thank you.’ He smiled at her, but really not in the way he’d been smiling at Cassie today. It was hard to know why not. Dina looked fantastic. She’d poured her hourglass figure into a black velvet dress, her make-up was still perfect five hours down the line and her hair was bouncy loveliness. And she was funny and loyal and kind.
And Cassie really wanted to go to bed and forget that she’d nearly betrayed Dina this evening. She was so, so glad that nothing had actually happened between her and James.
‘I’m just going to go and chat to a couple of people I haven’t seen in a while,’ she told Dina and James, and left them to it. She took a quick glance over her shoulder when she was a few feet away from them. They looked great together. Blond James and dark Dina. Both glamorous in their party gear. They’d look incredible going to a black-tie event together, for example.
‘James is great,’ Don Brown told Cassie. ‘Great fishing companion.’ Cassie nodded. Don was the sixth person in a row who’d told her how much they liked James. Good job James had pointed out to her that his neighbours liked her too, otherwise her nose would be feeling seriously out of joint.
Dina was clapping again. Cassie had never really noticed before how loud her claps were. She must have very hard hands.
‘Time for us to sing “Happy Birthday”,’ she announced. ‘And I’m going to ask James to start us off.’
‘I think Cassie should join me.’ James beckoned her over. ‘She set all the arrangements in train and booked everything and this is her field. Credit where credit’s due. All I did was put a shirt on and turn up.’ Very sweet. Apparently he was genuinely very kind under his initially hard exterior, and very self-deprecating because the cake must have been a lot of work.
Also genuinely very tuneless. By the last ‘to you’, Cassie was laughing so much she thought she might be sick. James was laughing even more than she was. So endearing.
‘Cassie, honey.’ Laura held her arms out to her. ‘Thank you so much for travelling so far across the world for my birthday. You didn’t have to but I’m so happy that you did.’
Cassie put her arms round Laura. ‘I’m so pleased to have been able to come.’ She felt Laura sway a little. This was a late night for an eighty-year-old. ‘You ready for bed yet?’
‘I think I might be.’
‘Me too. Come on.’
‘Right here with the car keys,’ James said.
* * *
Cassie had moved firmly onto London time and was sound asleep in Dina’s spare room within under five minutes of them rolling in through Dina’s front door, so it wasn’t until breakfast time that Dina started on the post-party analysis.
‘What do you think of James in the flesh?’ Dina poured more black coffee into a mug. ‘He’s gorgeous, isn’t he? And so good to talk to. And from everything I’ve learned he seems like an all-round good guy. And he is so not interested in me.’
‘Thank you.’ Cassie took the mug gratefully. Her head didn’t feel good. At least she’d been drinking white and not red last night. With red, she always started her hangover before she was even in bed. ‘You don’tknowthat he isn’t interested.’ She took a long drink. Should she have said that?
‘I do know. I’ve given him alotof opportunities and nothing’s going to happen.’ Dina shook her head. ‘I should just accept it. And, you know, I’ve only known him for four months. I shouldn’t be this upset.’ Cassie looked into her mug and gave the coffee a little swirl. What should she say? She was pretty sure that Dina was right, because the way James had looked at her was definitely different from the way he looked at Dina. False hope was not a good thing to have. Like when you thought you were pregnant but you weren’t. As a good friend, she should definitely not tell Dina about the moments she’d had with James yesterday, but she should also maybe encourage her to face reality.
‘Maybe he just doesn’t want a relationship at the moment,’ she said.
‘Yeah. Anyway. I can’t believe we’re talking about me and my unrequited lust for James after what you told me yesterday. I’m being self-centred.’
‘No. Dina. Never self-centred.’ Cassie put her mug down. This was awful. Dina was feeling bad when she, Cassie, if anyone, should feel bad. Although it wasn’t like she’d chosen to feel that connection with James last night. Maybe it had been because they were living in each other’s houses. Very intimate. ‘Let’s do something nice this morning when we’ve finished breakfast. Have a swim and sunbathe? What’s Amy doing today?’
Cassie put her arms round Fred’s neck and looked at his familiar, dopey face. ‘I’m going to miss you,’ she told him. ‘But don’t worry. I’ll be back in a couple of months’ time.’ Donna and Maisie wandered over.
There was a bit of throat clearing behind her. She turned round, leaving an arm round Fred’s neck.
‘Afternoon.’ James was wearing shorts – he hadgreatlegs – and a T-shirt and carrying a bucket. He stopped a good ten feet away from her, which was an extremely good thing. ‘Hope I’m not disturbing you. I thought you were leaving this morning.’
‘I’m catching the ferry soon and then driving down to Boston and catching the last red eye. Just thought I’d have one last cuddle. With the alpacas.’ Honestly. Just the wordcuddlehad her thinking about last night in the field and what hadn’t happened.
‘They are great for a quick cuddle. I’ve been known to sneak one in myself. I just came to collect eggs. Hannah and Holly in particular have been laying later in the day recently and I don’t like leaving them because I did once by mistake and they pecked into them and ate them.’
‘James Grey. You’ve become a devoted chicken farmer.’
