‘You’re asking me out on a date?’
‘If you want to call it that.’
‘What else would you call it?’
‘Spending time with a friend.’
‘Is that what I am?’
‘I think given time you could be.’
‘This is so strange.’ Cat set her cup down and laughed.
‘Is it? I thought it was fairly straightforward.’
‘No, I mean three weeks ago I would never have believed you and I would be doing this. When I first met you I thought … well …’ Cat rolled her eyes and laughed.
Luke sat back and grinned. ‘Me too.’
‘Spit and fur?’
‘Something like that. And would you like to enlighten me on my particular qualities?’
‘Arrogant, always right, interfering.’
‘And now?’
Cat thought for a moment. ‘Oh, I don’t know. Kind, I think. The way you looked after Debbie. Thoughtful … the flowers. A good sense of humour. I’ve really enjoyed this evening.’
‘I think you’re okay too.’ He smiled. ‘So what’s it to be? Are you up for that drink and wander along the beach sometime?’
‘Yes.’ Cat nodded. ‘Why not.’
Cat sat in front of her PC, checking through her electronic diary. Monday morning and by now Em was well on her way to Norfolk. Two weeks with her old friend Margaret and thenback to begin her part-time work at the museum. Adrian was delighted she was joining him and glad to have someone with so much local knowledge on board. Cat hoped her great-aunt would use this as an opportunity to permanently break ties with Rosalind and her cronies. Having finished checking her appointments for the week, she moved the cursor to Thursday and typed in an evening appointment: drink and beach walk with Luke. Yes, a visit to The Smugglers followed by a walk along Carrenporth sands would be an absolutely perfect way to end the day.
Shutting all thoughts of Luke away, she focussed on getting the hotel’s best suite ready for a very special guest. Half French-half Italian, Étienne Di Marco was one of Ruan’s oldest friends from his university days in the early eighties.
Both were about to graduate when Étienne’s grandfather had a fatal heart attack. He had already planned to stay with Ruan for the summer but with this upheaval in the family Ruan had expected him to be called back to his home on Lake Garda. However, his father insisted he stay and enjoy his ‘last summer of freedom’; one which, according to Ruan, had been one of the most memorable summers of his life, involving surfing, beach barbeques and numerous house parties.
Étienne’seventual marriage to Isabella Baccari united two powerful hotel families. Over the years he had kept in regular touch but although Ruan and Cassie holidayed with them on several occasions, he and Isabella only ever came to stay at Tarwin House twice. Despite regular invitations, in the years that followed, Ruan reluctantly accepted his friend’s apologies, citing pressure of work and various other excuses. But at last, her father appeared to have achieved the impossible, managing to persuade his old friend to travel to Cornwall to stay for a few weeks.
Étienne, now Chief Executive of the Di Marco Casa d’Oro Hotel Group had lost his beloved Isabella to cancer only six months before. Cat hated to think of him living his single existence at the family’s flagship hotel, the Fiore Del Lago in Desenzano on Lake Garda, spending his days surrounded by reminders of his dead wife. Sadly, there had been no children, which meant he did not even have the comfort of sons or daughters to help him through his loss. All the more important, she felt, that they make this, his first visit in well over ten years, extra special.
Later, with everything in place for his arrival, Cat waited with Ruan and Nathan just outside the main door of the hotel, watching the aging Bentley cruise smoothly down the driveway towards them. It eventually eased to a gentle halt and Harry slipped from the driver’s seat, walking around to the rear door and swinging it open. Étienne stepped from the car. Tall, tanned and casually dressed in a dark blue jacket and light trousers, his warm brown eyes surveyed the little group assembled there to greet him and he smiled. Although the thick glossy black hair she remembered from his last visit was now peppered with grey, he still remained a very handsome man.
She watched as he embraced Ruan and shook hands with Nathan, stopping for a brief chat, and then finally he stood in front of her.
‘Cat,’ he said, stepping forward and gently kissing both her cheeks, ‘so pleased to see you again after such a long time.’ He moved back to look at her. ‘My, you’ve grown. How old were you when I visited last?’
‘Fifteen, I think,’ she said, trying to remember the exact year. ‘It’s lovely to see you, Étienne. I hope you enjoy your stay with us. I know Dad has been looking forward to it very much.’
‘Me too,’ he replied as Ruan, who had been instructing Harry on where to take the luggage, turned his attention back to them.
‘I’ve organised a special dinner this evening to celebrate your arrival,’ he said, looking at Étienne, but directing the comment to all three of them. ‘Gareth and his family will also be joining us.’
This was news to Cat and she wondered if ‘family’ meant Luke had received an invitation. If Evie Hunter had anything to do with it she doubted it very much. Instead she’d be forced to suffer a few hours of Jordan, glowering across the table, annoyed at being dragged out to spend his precious time with the older generation when his busy social life dictated he should be somewhere else. Spoilt boy Jordan; all his mother’s doing. She knew the story well. A difficult birth followed by several weeks in the intensive care baby unit had seen an overprotective Evie Hunter immerse herself in the raising of Jordan to the exclusion of everyone else, including Gareth. Twenty-two years on she still treated him like an over indulged twelve-year-old.
Cat was drawn away from her thoughts as she heard her father finalising times with Étienne.
