‘Who’s that?’ Kieran asked.
‘That’s Kylie.’ Angela sighed. ‘Who has nothing in common with the Aussie singer apart from a fondness for tight hot pants. Poor old Jimmy over there’ – she gestured at an elderlygentleman nursing a whisky – ‘nearly had a heart attack when she bent down in front of him one day and he saw more than he bargained for.’
‘The toilet’s fixed.’ Ed appeared, looking dishevelled. ‘And Kylie’s barred for a month.’
Kieran smiled. ‘Well, now that calm has returned, I’d better head home and do some work.’ He said his goodbyes and felt a pang when Ruairi, with a little parental help, waved a chubby-fingered farewell.
Back at the cottage, he reopened his laptop and stared blankly at the screen. Code stared back, uncooperative. His thoughts weren’t on ClosetAura, algorithms or anything logical. They were on Beth. On the way she’d recoiled from the baby. The flash of anguish she’d tried to hide.
‘It doesn’t bloody matter,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘ClosetAura needs your brain, not a stranger with … whatever that was.’
But the image lingered anyway.
And for the first time in a long time, something tugged Kieran out of his self-absorption. Something that wasn’t coding, coffee, or a cat named after a mythical troublemaker.
Chapter Nine
‘Hon, don’t beat yourself up about it.’
Diana’s face filled Beth’s screen – freckled, fierce, and unflinchingly kind – as she balanced her mug beneath her chin. The familiar sight released something tight in Beth’s chest.
‘I recoiled from holding their baby!’ Beth whispered, horrified all over again. ‘As if they’d asked me to mind the spawn of Satan instead of … instead of…’
She pressed her palms to her eyelids, forcing the tears back. The baby had been adorable. Exactly how Beth had pictured her and Luke’s firstborn.
‘Let it out,’ Diana urged. ‘Cry. Don’t stop yourself because you think someone will judge you. I don’t judge anyone. Apart from the dickhead who got hacked off yesterday when I said I didn’t offer “extras” with his lower back massage.’
Beth snorted, the sound half laugh and half sob. Diana always found a way to anchor her when she felt one breath away from falling apart.
‘Changing the subject, what’s the deal with the pinball machine? Are you planning to get your game on?’ Diana sipped from herKnead You to Relaxmug.
Beth had told Diana about the unexpected discovery. Not a big deal, but it had piqued her interest.
‘It’s nothing. It probably doesn’t work, anyway. But if I changed the plug and got it near a socket…’
‘So when you’re not being a gastronomic goddess, you want to hide in a fusty basement and get all flippery, or whatever the terminology is for playing pinball.’
‘No.’ Beth laughed weakly. ‘I just think it might be fun.’
‘Have you mentioned it to Angela and Ed?’
‘Not yet. I probably should, but I don’t think they’ll want it in the pub. Ed said they ditched the fruit machine a while ago.’
Their conversation drifted. Beth talked about the menu launch and Diana grumbled about not having had a holiday in over a year.
‘That’s because you’re a workaholic,’ Beth teased. ‘You’d rather massage perverts than lie on a beach. And you haven’t mentioned the date you had the other night.’
Diana pulled a ‘kill me now’ face. ‘Horrendous, as usual. He had more hair growing out of his nostrils than on his head, and he bit his nails at every opportunity.’
‘Maybe he was nervous.’ Beth adored Diana but she could be intimidating, especially to someone with chewed nails and fragile confidence.
‘Ha! Confidence oozed from every pore, including the blackhead-blocked ones on his bulbous nose.’ Diana shuddered theatrically. ‘I’m done with dating. Finished.’
‘That makes two of us.’ The thought of seeing someone else after Luke filled Beth with terror. No matter how nice they might be, her history would act as a massive stumbling block.Yes, I was married. Still am, technically. But my husband left me. Why? Settle down, and I’ll drown you in an ocean of grief.
‘Beth,’ Diana said softly, ‘you’ve got that sad face again. Come on, there must be some talent in Cranley. Someone you can discreetly ogle when you’re not slaving over a hot stove.’
Beth rolled her eyes. ‘Most men I’ve seen or heard about are collecting their pensions or taken. Like Ed and Angela. Like Jinnie and Sam. With babies. The only single person around my age is Kieran. He’s the one who held Ruairi when I?—’
