“Yes, you do. I always give you some.”
“And I eat it because I know you think you’re being generous. Anyway, what’s that to do with anything?”
“I gave him some, too.”
“And Green Eyes over there—” Gabe waved towards the man’s retreating figure through the window. “Did he eat it?”
Amber pouted, rose and took their plates. “It doesn’t matter now.” She swallowed hard. “I’ve ruined it.”
“Amber!” said Maddy and Gabe in unison, rising to follow Amber to the till.
As Gabe paid, Maddy put her arm around Amber. “You’ve done nothing to ruin it. Green Eyes is obviously, well, a little different to most people.”
“He is, isn’t he?” said Amber, her interest piqued once more. “I think that’s what I first noticed.” She shook her head as she glanced through the window at the retreating broad shoulders. He’d stopped for a few minutes to check his phone. “No, who am I kidding? Gabe was right.” She sighed. “Just look at him.”
Both Maddy and Amber watched Green Eyes flick the lights of his sleek Jaguar and open the door, without glancing around.
“He certainly looks as if he’s in his own world. Sort of single-minded, focused,” mused Maddy.
“Um. And when he’s focused on you, it’s like…”
Maddy’s gaze shifted and settled on Gabe. “It’s like the best thing in the world.”
Amber smiled to herself to see Maddy and Gabe exchange looks. She loved love; it was that simple, particularly when it came to her family. And slowly her brothers and sisters were finding it. Lizzi, Rachel, Max and now Gabe—all married. That only left her two brothers, Rob and Cameron—neither of whom she could see settling down any time soon—and her. And her inability to spot a bastard looked like she’d end up the spinster aunt, doting on her nieces and nephews with only regrets and ‘what-ifs’ to fill her lonely evenings and nights.
Then she caught sight of herself in the mirror, red hair escaping her plait in curls around her face, blue eyes bright, and she smiled at her reflection, her optimistic nature refusing to be suppressed. So what if Green Eyes had got away this time? There would be others. And she’d make sure next time that he wouldn’t get away so easily. There would be no repeat of the coriander incident.
2
“Amber!” called Jim Connelly from the back deck of Belendroit. “Someone to see you!” It wasn’t until the second call that she heard him. She rose from her cross-legged position, gave one last squint at her painting, and dabbed her paintbrush on the canvas.
“Amber!”
She tore herself from the painting of the iridescent shell, lodged in the rippling sand exposed by the receding tide, and turned to look up at the house. She waved. “Coming!”
The cocker spaniels, Stanley and Boo, jumped up and ran around, Stanley barking nervously at the sudden movement. She fondled his velvety ears, calming him, before following Boo, who was already trotting up the beach to the house.
“Someone here to see you!” repeated her father, louder, more strident this time.
She frowned. Her father sounded unusually agitated. “I’m coming!”
Who on earth could it be? No one rattled her father. Certainly none of her friends. They might infuriate him, or puzzle him, but not unnerve him. Besides, she’d be seeing them later at the pub, and it couldn’t be one of the family, otherwise he wouldn’t have sounded so formal.
She stomped up the steps in her charity shop Doc Martens, careful not to trip on her undone laces, and kissed Jim on the cheek. “Who is it, Pop?”
Jim shrugged, his bushy eyebrows beetling into the center. He glanced nervously over his shoulder. “I havenoidea. He didn’t say, and somehow”—he shrugged—“I didn’t like to ask him.”
“Really?” It wasn’t like her father to be intimidated by anyone. And anyone who was likely to intimidate him was unlikely to be asking for her.
“Are you expecting anyone?” Jim asked in a tense voice that was trying to be quiet, but not succeeding.
“No.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I’ll just…” She began to walk into the house, but her father put a hand on her arm, stopping her abruptly.
“Shall I come with you?”
“If you think you must, but…” This was getting silly. “No, it’s fine.I’mfine. I can look after myself.”
Jim shot her a warning look full of meaning.
