‘Ah. Right,’ he replied.
Fortunately, Lila passed them, at that moment, carrying a tray. ‘Oh, hi, Mark! I don’t know if you know, but it’s my birthday tomorrow. I’m having drinks at The Lookoutfrom about seven.You should come along! And you, Ellie. Bring your friend too.’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t want to intrude,’ Ellie excused herself, quickly. ‘We’re just visitors, really.’
‘No trouble. The more the merrier!’ Lila trilled. ‘I want to look popular, after all.’
‘Well, we might. Thanks.’ Ellie felt a little self-conscious about being asked. She didn’t know why – perhaps it was that she was still on London settings, where strangers or neighbours never spoke to you, let alone asked you to birthday parties.
‘You’ll come, won’t you, Mark?’ Lila probed. ‘Go on. Live a little.’
‘Depends. Try to come, though. Ta.’ Mark flashed Lila a shy smile. Ellie caught herself thinking that he did have a lovely smile, though it was pretty infrequent from what she’d seen so far.
Ellie cleared her throat. ‘So. How’s it going with Marilyn?’
‘Not too bad. One of the parts come in, waitin’ for the rest.’ He had a nice voice too, Ellie thought: deep, but with that pleasant Cornish burr.
‘Oh. All right. Well, let me know if you need me for anything. You know, operating a jack. Doing an oil change. That kind of thing,’ she joked, instantly feeling her words land as flat as a pancake, as Mark just looked confused.
‘You a mechanic, are you?’ he asked, seriously. Now Ellie felt that it looked like she was making fun of him, when she wasn’t: it had just been a joke, but now it had gone horribly wrong.
‘Oh. No. Just joking,’ she said with a shrug, wishing he would just disappear. A table of teenagers nearby was watching them, whispering and giggling to each other. Ellie had no doubt that she and Mark were being made fun of.
She smiled, politely. ‘Well, I should let you go.’
‘Right you are.’ Mark looked away, uncomfortably, and made for the door, stepping into the same space as she did, meaning that they accidentally bumped into each other again.
Oh, for the love of…Ellie remonstrated with herself. The table of teenagers laughed openly this time.
‘Right. See you, then,’ he muttered, and practically bounded out of the café.
Ellie, ignoring the teens, made it back to the counter and asked Lila what she had left for takeaway lunch options. The teens were probably quite nice, but had obviously found the whole awkward exchange brilliantly amusing.As it probably was, she thought as she waited for Lila to portion up some quiche and a salad for Fee. Why had she felt so awkward?Perhaps it was his terrible social skills, she thought. It was always awkward talking to people who weren’t skilled in keeping a conversation going. He’d been positively sociable the other day when they were alone in the motorhome, but today he didn’t seem to want to chat.
Her awkwardness with Mark was definitely nothing to do with the fact that he was breathtakingly gorgeous. Ellie chided herself for having the thought – objectifying the poor man – but he really did have those movie-star good looks, and even though Ellie had never seen Mark wearing anything other than dirty coveralls and muddy work boots, he was still very attractive. Today, her gaze had been drawn to his forearms again, as he’d been wearing a plain white T-shirt and a pair of jeans that showed off his tanned muscles. There was something very sexy about some men’s forearms, though she couldn’t explain exactly what it was.
She imagined kissing those slightly pouty lips, and a shiver of excitement caught her off guard.Oh God, she thought,I’ve become some kind of walking cliché.Had the operation done something to her mind? Was this a side effect of breast cancer recovery that no one ever talked about: lusting after hot but monosyllabic mechanics?
Come on, Ellie. That’s not exactly revolutionary, she berated herself. She wouldn’t be the first woman to fancy a hot guy who fixed things, and she certainly wouldn’t be the last. Still, she’d never considered someone like Mark to be her type.
She paid for Fee’s lunch and took a slice of the chocolate cake home for both of them too, thanking Lila and promising to pop in again soon.
As she emerged back into the sunny street, her heart lifted unexpectedly.Well, so what if I am a cliché?she thought, suddenly.An innocent little crush on someone isn’t going to hurt me. It’s not like anything is going to happen.
Perhaps, now, after the operation, she cared a little less about what people thought. Perhaps, now, she knew that not everything was deadly serious.
Could it be that she was enjoying herself? Humming a tune under her breath, she walked back to the beach house, carrying the food. There was something lovely about not having any plans apart from eating chocolate cake for the rest of the day.
She was glad that they’d stayed in Magpie Cove, after all.
