Georgie let herself out of the house, walked to her car and sat staring at the steering wheel trying very hard not to cry.
She was going to miss Poppy so much. And it was so sad that Poppy couldn’t speak to Declan right now. How was Poppy going to cope if Daniel carried on not sleeping?
She needed to find someone to keep an eye on Poppy, because she really had to go back to Bristol.
It was obvious who she should ask. Clearly not Declan. Poppy’s parents had just left for a month-long cruise. Beth was in Bath. Ankita was back in London at the moment. Poppy would be hugely embarrassed if Georgie told any of the villagers about this.
She got back out of the car and went into the pub to look for Raf. He didn’t know the details of the secret but he did know that Poppy had read it and that there’d been a huge fallout, and he was a very kind person so he’d never say no to keeping an eye on Poppy.
Only Noah and, oh joy, Barry, Delphine and a couple of their cronies were still there. Georgie nearly bottled asking for Raf but then she thought about Poppy.
‘Is Raf around?’ she asked.
She actually couldn’t hear Noah’s answer at first, over all the ‘Looking for your boyfriend?’ chat. Eventually she heard him. And excellent. Raf was playing tennis and probably wouldn’t be back for about an hour. So she could sit in the pub and endure more chat. Or she could visit her mother. Or she could go for a walk in the drizzle.
In the end, she decided to sit in her car and ‘catch up on some admin’ on her phone. Or, in reality, pointlessly surf the internet. She also called Ankita for a quick chat, and, without telling her the details, asked if she could maybe stay with Poppy for a couple of nights because Declan was away. Ankita said she’d do her best to get there soon.
Hopefully Raf could keep an eye on Poppy until then.
Within about fifteen minutes Georgie was cold. Within another fifteen minutes she was unbelievably freezing and caught between not wanting to switch the car heating on and contributing to global warming or pollution but also not wanting to develop frostbite.
She didn’t want to go for a walk and maybe miss Raf’s return, so in the end she heaved a sigh, got out of the car and went back to the pub and asked for a cup of coffee before sitting down in a corner.
Barry and Delphine gave up on hassling her after about five minutes and she did manage to go through her inbox, genuinely becoming quite engrossed in the task.
So when Raf did arrive back she only noticed him because Delphine called, ‘Lover Boy’s here, my darling.’ And then, to Raf, ‘She’s been waiting for you. I think she wants to get back together.’
Lover Boy,who Georgie couldn’t help noticing was looking very good in his tennis kit, smiled at Delphine but the smile didn’t make his eyes go crinkly like his real smiles did.
‘Hello, Georgie,’ he said, with blatant reluctance.
Georgie jumped at the sound of his voice and up-ended her still half-full coffee cup.
‘Napkins?’ He managed to say it with only the merest hint ofFFS.
‘Yes, please.’ The dregs of a cup could make a surprisingly large puddle on your lap.
As he handed them to her, she said quietly, to avoid anyone else hearing, ‘I really need to talk to you.’
‘I’m a bit busy.’
‘You should listen to what she has to say,’ said Delphine. She had superhuman hearing for a woman of her age. ‘What if she’s pregnant or she wants to propose?’
‘Unlikely,’ Raf said.
‘Please,’ whispered Georgie.
‘You have to,’ said Barry. ‘She’s literally begging you.’
Seriously. Was there some weird sound-magnifying effect in this pub?
‘Why don’t you go and have a cup of tea in the barn?’ said Noah. ‘This lot’ll just have to wait if they want anything that I can’t manage.’
‘Okay, thanks,’ said Raf, looking extremely ungrateful. ‘We won’t be long.’
‘I need your help with Poppy,’ said Georgie as soon as they were through the pub door into Noah’s house.
‘Has something happened?’
