‘Don’t know what you mean.’ She felt the twitch of a smile around her mouth.
‘You’re being odd. Smiling and humming as if you’re actually enjoying yourself! And let’s be honest, most of the time you look ...’
‘I look what?’ She laughed despite the accusation that she knew was coming.
‘Not so smiley.’ Connie opted for tact. ‘And when Gordy and Nora came in with Amber the dog and asked for bacon sandwiches with brown sauce, followed by carrot cake with the usual two forks,you took them a couple of flapjacks and waltzed off as if nothing was amiss! Gaynor had to whip the plates off the table and get the order right. Luckily Nora doesn’t mind much, being the girl’s girl that she is, but Gordy looked like he’d dropped a quid and found a feather!’
‘I didn’t realise!’ She giggled.
‘That’s exactly my point!’ Connie stared at her, her face screwed up. ‘Oh my God!’ Her cousin put down the loaf she was wrapping in clingfilm. ‘Youlikesomeone!’
‘What?’ She felt a flutter of panic at her accurate summation.
‘You heard me.’ Connie continued to study her. ‘You’ve got that look, as if you’re daydreaming about something, or more specifically someone.’
‘Ah, is it the same look Needle has when he asks you to go out on his boat?’ Deflection was, she figured, her best form of defence. How could she begin to explain the ridiculous, fanciful and unfounded feelings she had for a man she’d only seen twice? She was not that person!
‘Oh my God!’ Connie repeated as she stepped out from behind the grill and called out, ‘Gay, can you keep an eye for a minute, Tawrie and I are just going to the benches.’
‘Sure, love!’ Gaynor gathered up the dirty cups that littered a tabletop and in this moment of quiet, Tawrie let her cousin grab her by the arm and drag her out to the seats by the quayside.
‘Sit!’ Connie pointed and she did as instructed. Her cousin sat by her side. ‘From the top. Go! And I want it all, every detail, every second, all of it.’
‘You’re so bossy! Always have been.’
‘Stop stalling, come on, spill!’ Connie clicked her fingers.
The truth was she kind of welcomed the chance to talk about him, wanting her cousin’s feedback or at least validation of the complex feelings that filled her up.
‘It’s weird, Con, I only saw him for the first time yesterday.’
‘Where?’
‘Right here, actually.’ She jerked her head to the cobbles behind them.
‘Who is he?’
‘His name’s Edgar, Ed.’
‘Wanker name.’ Connie pulled a face.
‘I don’t think so, I think it’s lovely.’ She smiled at the thought of their chat at Hele Bay Beach earlier.
‘Lovely?Who are you?’
‘I know!’ She closed her eyes briefly, acknowledging that this dizziness was most out of character. ‘And then I saw him again this morning; he was on the beach when I came back from my swim.’
‘A stalker?’ her cousin gasped, the glint in her eye suggesting this was just as juicy.
‘No! Nothing like that. He was just out and about and we chatted ...’
‘Okay, well I’m going to have to stop you right there. You know the rules: no tourists, no holidaymakers, no day trippers, they’re never worth it. Never! Nine times out of ten they’re tethered to a missus back home and are looking for either a shag or a free stay for their next holiday. Sometimes both. And if you let yourself get involved, it’s only you that’s going to get hurt.’
‘Do you think I just arrived here yesterday? I know all that, of course I do, but have you ever seen someone and it’s likebam!’ She punched her palm. ‘You just ... I don’t know, like ...’
‘No, Taw. I never have.’
‘Not even with Gary?’
