Callum frowned. ‘Are you sure about that?’
‘I never once mentioned to him anything about Norfolk or Linston End. It really is chance that he’s here.’
‘Well then,’ Callum said thoughtfully, and interested to know what this Blake character was like, ‘let’s go and help them moor up.’
They reached the jetty just as the day boat came alongside and a voice said, ‘Another gin joint and once again Lawyer Girl walks into it.’
‘I think you’ll find it’s you walking into my gin joint,’ said Jenna. ‘But I told you this morning we’d bump into each other again, didn’t I? Throw me that rope.’
While Jenna tied the stern line to one of the metal rings on the jetty, Callum took the other rope from Laura, then helped her out. Her son hopped out unaided. ‘You could have told me this morning that you were staying directly opposite,’ he said to Jenna.
‘I thought I’d surprise you.’
‘You have. Completely.’ He turned to introduce his mother, and after she’d shaken hands with Jenna, she smiled at Callum and asked him how he was.
‘You know each other already?’ said Blake.
‘Yes, Callum runs the boatyard where I hired the boat.’
‘Is it behaving itself?’ Callum enquired.
‘Perfectly.’ She looked at Jenna. ‘Blake said he’d run into a friend from work this morning; how extraordinary that your paths should cross like this so unexpectedly.’
‘I was just saying much the same thing,’ said Callum. He held out his hand to Blake, wanting to establish his credentials from the get-go. ‘I’m an old friend of Jenna’s. She may have mentioned me to you.’
‘Indeed she has,’ said Blake, shaking his hand. ‘I hear you go way back.’
‘We do,’ said Jenna quietly, two red spots colouring her cheeks.
Sensing how awkward she was finding the situation, and not wanting to make it any more difficult for her, Callum took the initiative. ‘Come on up to the house and join the party,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Jenna and I had just been sent on a mission to fetch some drinks, so we can help you to something and then we’ll find Alastair.’
He led the way and Laura fell in step beside him, leaving Jenna and Blake to follow behind. He could hear Blake explaining why his surname was different to his mother’s, that after her divorce some years ago, she’d reverted to her maiden name. As he listened, Callum fought hard not to feel jealous. Jenna had made it clear that she wasn’t interested in Blake, that he was just a work colleague and friend, but of course, even if she couldn’t see it, there was so much more to it than that. Blake may have played it cool when he’d been consigned to the friend-zone, just as Callum had yesterday while alone with Jenna, but he’d bet his precious boatyard on Blake hoping that state of affairs would change. The look of happy surprise on Blake’s face when he’d recognised Jenna on the jetty had told Callum all he needed to know.
He wondered now if he should have been honest with Jenna yesterday, laid his cards on the table once and for all and made his true feelings known. He hadn’t because he’d been worried about the risk of permanently ruining their longstanding friendship. But what if he had lost his opportunity? And now he had Blake Darnell to contend with. To make matters worse, he seemed a decent guy.
*
They sat down for dinner in the pavilion just in time to enjoy the sight of the sun setting. Alcohol had loosened up most of them and the atmosphere was bordering on upbeat.
Alastair had insisted that he, Danny and Simon were in charge of serving dinner and had carried everything down from the house, and with the food now on the table and everyone helping themselves, Sorrel had the strongest of feelings that there was something very deliberate about the way Alastair was co-ordinating the evening.
For a start, she had been banned from the kitchen on the grounds of her having done far too much to help already. ‘You’re here on holiday,’ Alastair had said to her, and to Frankie as well, ‘just sit back and enjoy yourselves.’ It felt more like a reprimand than a well-meant invitation to relax, and made her sympathetic to Simon’s conviction that they were all steadily, but very surely, being pushed to the sidelines. One by one Alastair was ticking them off as no longer fit for purpose as his friends, and his family. That’s what they’d been to him and Orla all these years: family.
But now he had a new family – Valentina and her stepchildren. Watching the way Valentina monopolised Alastair made Sorrel sick to her stomach, made her want to do what she’d warned Simon not to do, which was to drink too much and say out loud all the unsayable things buried deep inside her.
But tarnishing Alastair’s saintly reputation would never do. Nor, she realised, would she want to hurt Simon in doing that. He was hurting enough as it was. Thankfully he appeared to be heeding her advice and was behaving a lot less belligerently than before. Maybe that was why the mood around the table was less fraught than previously. Or maybe they were all behaving better because they had additional guests amongst them who had nothing whatsoever to do with the battle lines that had been drawn up since Valentina’s arrival.
When everyone had helped themselves to food, Sorrel noticed Valentina giving Alastair a small nod and a smile. His response was to tap his knife against a wineglass. An immediate hush fell on the table and everybody turned to look at him. Simon groaned. ‘You’re not going to give a speech, are you, Al?’
‘No, but I am going to make an announcement, something really important. Today Valentina and I decided where we hope to live together.’
He had their full attention now.
‘Valentina,’ he said, ‘why don’t you tell them; after all, it’s thanks to you this opportunity has arisen.’
‘Darling, no, this is your moment, you must tell them.’
The smile on his face widened. Sorrel’s hand itched to slap it clean off his face.
