‘Sam!’ hissed Kitty. ‘Stop it!’
‘Sorry,’ said Sam, with a grin that suggested she wasn’t sorry at all. ‘So if you weren’t shagging, what were you doing?’
Kitty took a huge bite of her sandwich and made a great show of chewing slowly.
Sam grabbed the sandwich from her again, jumped up, and ran a few steps along the beach. ‘You’re not getting this until you tell me everything!’
Kitty sighed, got to her feet, and joined Sam by the edge of the water. She kicked off her sandals and stepped into the waves, groaning with pleasure as the cool water hit her puffy, overheated toes. ‘Oh, this is good,’ she murmured.
‘Again,’ said Sam, waving the sandwich in front of Kitty’s nose. ‘Stop changing the subject. Tell me what’s going on.’
‘Fine, since you won’t let it go. But if this turns into Saffron Bay’s latest piece of juicy gossip, I’ll know exactly where it’s come from.’
‘My lips are sealed,’ said Sam mischievously.
‘Mr and Mrs Andrews walked into the living room to find me and Nick in an… embrace.’
‘Anembrace?’ said Sam. ‘What are you, a governess from the nineteenth century?’
‘Fine –a kiss.’
‘Now we’re getting somewhere,’ said Sam. ‘So, was it a peck on the cheek or…’ Sam wiggled her eyebrows.
‘No,’ said Kitty, flushing. ‘Not a peck on the cheek. Something more… um… passionate.’
Sam’s eyes glittered with delight. ‘Yes! I’m living for this! I love my husband dearly, but you don’t get this kind of excitement when you’ve been together as long as we have.’
‘It’s not exciting,’ said Kitty, although the traitorous thought came that it had been at the time. ‘It was a terrible mistake on both our parts.’
‘Why?’ asked Sam. ‘You fancy each other. You’re both single. What’s so bad about getting together?’
Kitty turned her face up to the warm sun, wondering how to answer. In the end, she decided she didn’t need to find an excuse for herself at all. ‘It wouldn’t be fair to Emily,’ she said.
That shut Sam up. For all her love of gossip, Sam had a heart of gold, and when it came to the children, they always came first. ‘Yeah, fair enough,’ she admitted. ‘I suppose it could be confusing for the poor thing. Once things are more settled…?’
‘No,’ said Kitty. ‘It was a one-off. That’s that.’ Even as she spoke the words, she relived last night’s moment of heady anticipation, and wasn’t sure she believed them.
‘Yeah, whatever you say, Miss.’ Sam handed Kitty her sandwich. ‘Now eat up. Our fifteen minutes is almost up, and we need to be getting back to those kids.’
Chapter 40
Nick wandered towards the village along the beach, enjoying the warmth of the evening sun and the way it cast pastel shades on the gentle swell. Seeing Saffron Bay through Emily’s eyes had given him a new appreciation for the beauty of where he lived. As if to drive the point home, a murmuration of starlings swooped across the water, twisting and swirling in unison towards the setting sun.
He kept his mind focused on practising lines in his head. He’d been up way too late the night before, learning the lines by heart so he wouldn’t end up in the horrendous situation of being asked to read them aloud. Or at least he could pretend to read them aloud while actually knowing them by heart. It wasn’t a foolproof plan, but it was the best he’d been able to come up with at such short notice and with so much else going on.
Dinner the previous evening had been endless, his parents speaking in clipped sentences, barely addressing Emily at all, despite her being at her most charming. The only comment his parents had made was about her politeness. At this point, Nick would take any wins he could get, though he hated thedisappointment on his daughter’s face as she tried and failed to make new friends. The proper conversation he needed to have was impossible because they were giving him the silent treatment, as well as Emily. And given his father was under strict instructions to get himself healthy as quickly as he could so they could return to the Caribbean, he was spending most days lounging around the house. Therefore, Nick was finding as many excuses as he could to be out of it.
The community centre came into view, and Nick wiped his sweaty hands on his shorts. Despite his best preparation, he didn’t relish the thought of an evening with Kitty. It was going to be so hard to pretend to be normal, to not touch her, to not pull her into his arms, to act like she was an acquaintance at best.
By the time Nick arrived, the others were already assembled. They’d chosen to meet in a side room, given there were only five of them. Kitty had already dished out the scripts, and they all had their heads down, reading through.
‘Ah, Nicolas.’ Jack looked up from his piece of paper. ‘I’m glad you deigned to honour us with your presence.’
‘Yeah, leave it out, Jack,’ said Nick. ‘I’ve got a fair bit going on at the minute.’
‘That may be so,’ said Jack, ‘but we can’t actually put onRomeo and Julietwithout our Romeo, can we?’
‘Give the lad a break,’ said Solly. ‘Ignore him, Nick. He’s grumpy because he’s been relegated to the position of Tybalt, Parisanddirector.’
