Penny laughed. “I never thought I’d see the day, Taya Eldridge.”
Taya grunted. “Honestly, neither did I. But we met for lunch last week, and we agreed that we have a special connection and we’re both mature enough to keep our work relationship professional while dating. At least, I hope we are.” She sipped her coffee. “So, what do you think? Is it crazy to date my boss?”
“It’s not crazy at all,” Bea said. “It’s wonderful. You’ve been single for so long and now you’re finally in a good place professionally and romantically. New opportunities, new adventures… it suits you.”
“You’re glowing,” Evie said.
Penny’s eyes glistened. “I’m really happy for you, sweetie.”
“It’s a trial run, nothing serious. I’ll be focusing a lot on my career. and he’s very busy with work as well. Neither one of us wants to dive into anything too deep right now. But we went out for dinner on Friday night and I have to admit, it was absolutely delightful. I haven’t enjoyed myself so much in a very long time. We talked for hours, laughed more than I thought possible, and had so much in common.”
“You’re both so glamorous. Evie and I saw him from a distance when we were at the resort the other day for a facial,” Bea said. “You suit each other."
“And so tall,” Evie added.
Taya laughed, pushing her hair back from her face with long, manicured fingers. “I’m not tall. You’re just a bunch of shorties.”
“I prefer vertically challenged,” Bea pouted.
“Gravitationally sensitive?” Evie asked, a finger pressed to her lips.
“Perfect,” Bea agreed.
Taya shook her head. “However you want to term it, I happen to agree that we suit one another. But I would never have thought so when I first met him. I thought he was a slick, sleazy businessman who only cared about profit margins and couldn’t see the beauty in my inn. But I couldn’t have been more wrong about him. He’s compassionate, caring, creative and highly aware of every aspect of the business. He’s been so careful to include me in every decision about the direction we’re taking the inn.”
“I think the inn looks amazing,” Evie said as she sliced off a piece of cake with her fork. “You’ve both done a fantastic job with it.”
“It’s in very good hands, so I’ve been perfectly relaxed. Even if they’re making changes that I would’ve grimaced over previously. Well, almost relaxed… I do occasionally experience pangs of anxiety. I get over it fairly quickly when I remember that it’s no longer my responsibility and I don’t have to be there at five a.m. the next day to open the doors and get the bread into the oven because the chef called in sick.”
“You seem happy, so I’m happy,” Penny said.
“How’s the wedding planning coming?” Taya asked as she sipped her cappuccino delicately.
Penny shrugged. “Fine, I guess.”
“What does that mean?” Bea asked.
“It means I’m ignoring the wedding plans beautifully,” Penny replied.
Evie laughed. “Oh, sweetie, you’ve got to actually plan it, or it won’t happen.”
“I know,” Penny replied with a groan. “But I’m so busy with the refuge at the moment. The grant we got from the government has been fantastic—we can afford to keep the lights on. The problem is, now we’re expected to do a lot more. We have people calling us from all over the place with animals to take in. I’m loving it, of course. But I don’t know how to manage it all. I’ve got so much paperwork to do and not enough hands…” She held her hands up, waved them around as if to show off there were only two of them.
“I can help,” Bea offered.
“Thanks,” Penny replied. “But you have your own business to run, and I need to make some decisions before anyone can really step in. Plus, Rowan keeps taking jobs overseas, so he’s gone all the time and I miss him. I don’t know how this is going to work — we’re both too busy to get married.”
“Is he going to keep his job as a journalist?” Taya asked. “Because Coral Island isn’t exactly a hub for international travel. It takes ages to get to an airport on the mainland, let alone to a city where you can fly internationally.”
“I don’t know what he’s going to do. We need to sit down and have a serious conversation about a few things … and soon. It’s frustrating with us both working so much. We hardly have time for a romantic date night, so when we do see each other, we don’t want to spoil the time together talking about serious things. Of course, we’ll have to, since we’re getting married and there are things we need to figure out.”
“Trust me, it’s better to talk about the big issues before you’re married rather than after,” Beatrice said. She wished she and her ex had spoken openly before they were married. It might’ve discouraged her from going forward with the wedding if she’d known more about him and his perspective, although she doubted it.
She’d been determined to find someone to settle down with after the love of her life had broken her heart. She’d recently lost her mother and was so overcome with grief, Aidan hadn’t known how to help her and instead had accepted an offer to play professional football in Brisbane.
There wasn’t likely to be anything that would’ve stopped her jumping into her marriage with complete abandon the way she did after all that heartbreak. It was as though she was drowning, and Preston was a life preserver. She could ignore the pain in her heart and instead focus on him and becoming his wife. It’d been the perfect excuse to push her family away as well, since seeing them only reminded her of what she’d lost.
Bea noticed that the young woman, Charmaine, seemed to be listening in on their conversation. She was seated at the next table and held a dog-eared book in her hands, but her face was slanted in their direction.
