Pippa rolled her eyes and shook her head. ‘Fancy helping me pick out some paint and wallpaper for Declan?’ Mina screwed up her face. ‘We can talk.’ Pippa baited her, feeling as if she wouldn’t mind unloading some of the weight on her shoulders after all.
Mina slipped her arm through Pippa’s. ‘Where we off to? Old Po’s?’
‘Yup.’
‘Fantastic. I love that shop. It’s like time stood still in there. It’s exactly the same as I remembered it being from when I was a kid. I think it even has the same cobwebs.’
Pippa laughed and threw her head back. Spending time with Mina was just the tonic she needed.
***
It turned out theycouldn’t talk freely in Old Po’s as nosey Mrs Calloway was in there wagging Old Po’s ear off.
Pippa and Mina settled for subtle greys and calming modern blues. They grabbed what they could carry and Pippa made arrangements to collect the other decorating supplies before closing time.
Weighed down with tins of paint, sandpaper and paintbrushes, they walked the cobbled steep streets, heading for Katherine’s café and the flat above it.
‘Okay, spill your guts!’ Pippa spluttered a laugh at Mina’s comment. ‘Not literally.’
Pippa caught her breath. ‘Ugh, where do I begin?’
‘Just start with why you haven’t worked in the pub today.’
Pippa sucked in a big breath. ‘It’s because I was walking on the beach yesterday with Oliver and the dogs—the first time in days might I add—and he said something that made me so mad, I had to get out of there before I said something I might have regretted.’
‘Which was?’
‘He alluded that Ava was his sleeping partner.’
Mina’s eyes and mouth opened wide. ‘Oliver is sleeping with the American?’
Pippa looked at her friend, her brow furrowed as she shook her head. ‘No Mina.’ She banged the heel of her hand on her forehead. ‘I forgot to tell you—sorry. Oliver is buying the pub, but he can’t afford it on his own, so he’s securing a sleeping partner to fund part of the money for it.’
‘Ah, okay. And you think the sleeping partner is Ava...why?’
‘Because he saidshewhen he was talking about the partner yesterday. He more or less told me he either has to sell his family home or he’d have to use the sleeping partner he’d secured. But he was wary because he wasn’t sure she wouldn’t change things in the pub.’
Mina’s mouth dropped open and she covered it with her hand. ‘OMG Pippa, it didn’t click until you told me that, but I saw Mr Herbert’s car parked outside Oliver’s house on my way to your house.’
‘And Mr Herbert is who?’
‘He’s the new owner of Bricks and Mortar.’
‘Who is that?’
‘It’s the estate agents from the high street above Seagull Bay.’
They’d reached the side door at Kathrine’s café—Declan’s front door to his new flat. Pippa put the supplies she was carrying down.
‘Do you think this means he’s decided to sell his house and not have the American as his sleeping partner?’ asked Mina.
Pippa instantly felt nauseous. Had her appalling behaviour on the beach swayed his decision? She decided she must go and speak to him as soon as the lunchtime shift had finished. For the time being, she’d channel all of her nervous energy into decorating Declan’s flat.
***
As Pippa neared thepub, she thought she’d better let Ginger out before she went into the pub to speak to Oliver before he locked up after the lunchtime shift, because due to her selfishness, her poor father and aunt would have had to work today.
She let herself in through the side door and quickly jogged up the stairs. Opening the front door, she was expecting Ginger to jump up her, excited to see her, but he didn’t. ‘Ginger, here boy.’ She looked around the door to where she hung up his lead, but it was still on the peg.
