New beginnings by the su.., p.8
New Beginnings by the Sunflower Cliffs, page 8
Shani motioned for Bea to say something first. She shook her head. Shani glared at her with her best schoolmistress look, then turned her attentions to Mel. ‘You know you only have to ask and we’ll help however we can.’
Bea stifled a groan; the thought of having to spend more time with her stepmother and wedding plans was almost more than she could contemplate. ‘Yes, of course,’ she said, relenting with as much good spirit as she could muster.
A smile slid across Mel’s mouth. ‘Really? I wasn’t sure you’d want to still help me given the wedding date. Thanks. Obviously, I’ll need to pass everything by my mum first, but then I’ll let you all know what you can do for me.’
Paul widened his eyes at Bea. She tried not to smile at him, aware she’d been cornered into helping too. He hurriedly snatched his napkin from his lap and held it up to his mouth to cover his giggling.
Despite being surrounded by her closest friends, Bea suddenly felt very much alone. She stared out of the French doors and decided she needed solitude.
Mel glared at Paul, nudging him hard.
‘Ouch. That hurt,’ he whined, still laughing, but now frowning in pain at the same time.
‘Good. My wedding is no joke,’ she pouted. She looked at Bea. ‘I know we have our differences, but you’ll only have to deal with this wedding and then you won’t have to cope with my mum’s desperation to make sure I’m seen as number one daughter in Dad’s eyes.’
Bea’s eyes widened. ‘I didn’t realise you were so aware of what she does.’
‘Yeah,’ Paul said. ‘We all thought you were a bit switched off where your mother’s game-playing was concerned.’
Slamming her palms onto the table, Mel glared at Paul. ‘I don’t want you to bother if you’re only getting involved so you can take the mickey out of me and Mum at every opportunity. It’s my wedding, Paul, despite your loyalties to Bea and her obvious annoyance about the date, but this is something that will have to last me forever. Bea has a right to insult my mum; you don’t.’
‘Mel,’ Shani snapped. ‘He didn’t mean to be rude, but I don’t think you see the full extent of how badly Joyce treats Bea.’
Bea stood up. ‘That’s enough. I’m a big girl now, Shani. Thanks, but I don’t need anyone looking after me and I’m perfectly capable of standing up to Joyce, if I feel the need to do so.’ She turned her attention to Mel. ‘We’re happy to help you plan the wedding. I don’t like the idea that it’s going to be on Liberation Day, but you were aware of that when you set the date. I’m more concerned about everything Dad will be coping with, and if I can make it any easier for him, I will.’
Mel didn’t reply for a moment. Bea waited for her to speak. ‘Fine. Not exactly the enthusiasm I was hoping for from my own sister, but it’s better than nothing. You’re probably a little down now that your relationship with Tom has gone down the pan.’
‘It was hardly a relationship,’ Bea said, standing up and collecting their cups. ‘Listen you lot, I’ve got a lot to catch up with here, if I ever want a weekend out of this house again.’
Mel picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder, ‘And I’ve got a wedding to plan,’ she said, pointedly.
‘I was hoping to chill out here for a bit,’ Paul moaned.
‘You can, if you pick up a paintbrush.’
Shani grabbed her car keys. ‘I would, but I need to get off. I’ve got to try and pin Harry down.’
‘Everything all right?’ Bea touched Shani’s arm lightly ‘You’re looking a little peaky. Overdoing it at the gym?’
‘Hah, I don’t think so,’ Paul laughed. ‘She’s off all week.’
Bea raised her eyebrows. ‘Why? You never said you’d been unwell. What’s the matter?’
‘Thanks, Paul,’ Shani snapped before looking at Bea. ‘I’m fine. It was just a stomach bug.’
‘Let me know if you need anything,’ Bea said. ‘I know I’ve got my own problems right now, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know everything that’s going on with you. We should catch up sometime, just the two of us.’
‘That would be nice,’ Shani said, hugging her quickly and following Paul out of the room.
8
OCTOBER – BUDDING ROMANCE
Bea ran up to her room and changed into her old tracksuit before heading outside.
‘Smell that?’ she said to herself. ‘That’s the scent of the end of summer.’ She picked a reddening leaf from a nearby acer. ‘Such beautiful colours.’ She gazed at the acre of green expanse before her and sighed. ‘I’d better get a move on and mow this otherwise it’s going to be even more of a jungle.’ She was grateful for Tom’s recent help in keeping the lawn mown, and remembered teasing Simon about his determination to mow the lawn every week during previous summers, insisting he didn’t dare let it get out of control. Now she appreciated what he had meant.
Suddenly unable to face the mowing, Bea went into the kitchen and, after flicking through several dog-eared recipe books, found Aunt Annabel’s hand-written note on how to make lemonade. She told herself she wasn’t putting off the mowing, simply preparing a thirst-quenching drink for when she’d completed the arduous task.
The lemonade done, she placed the jug carefully into her fridge and went back outside.
‘It’s not going to cut itself,’ she groaned, aware she couldn’t justify paying someone for a task she could do herself. ‘No time like the present, I suppose,’ she said, breaking into a jog towards the old brick stables at the back of the house where she kept the mower.
Maybe her aunt had hidden her mysterious item out here somewhere? She stood on the concrete floor staring up at the rafters and trying to think of any hiding places she might have missed. After a brief and unsuccessful search that only uncovered an ancient chest containing moth-eaten books, she decided to give up looking for the day.
The mower was sitting exactly where Tom had left it three weeks before. Bea stared at it, hands on hips, as she contemplated asking him to come around and do it for her again, but since the incident with Vanessa she’d done her best to be as friendly to him as possible in a professional capacity only. After all, they did still have to work together and there was no point in giving him the idea she may want something more from him, even if it was only to help mow the lawn.
Bea filled the mower with fuel, spilling petrol onto her hand. ‘Sod it.’ Bea shook her hand and walked back into the kitchen to wash. As she replaced the towel back on the rail, she spotted a piece of folded paper on the floor and bent to pick it up. It was Luke’s latest invoice with a note pointing out extra plastering that needed replacing in the back bedroom. It must have fallen onto the floor when she’d opened the door, letting in a draught. She called him.
‘Sorry, I only saw your note last night and it was too late to give you a ring.’
‘About the plasterwork?’
‘Yes,’ she said, thinking how sexy his deep voice sounded on the phone. ‘I know you’re coming to the end of the work now and to be honest I can’t afford to do much more. In fact, I’m going to have to…’ Bea held the phone away from her ear. Were those voices outside in her driveway? ‘Simon?’ she whispered, before realising Luke was calling her name. ‘Sorry, I was distracted.’
‘Is everything all right?’
Bea sighed. ‘Yes, I…’ It was bloody Simon. What the hell was he doing here, again? She ran over to the French doors and pushed them open wider. ‘Hey, what do you think you’re doing? Get off my property, now.’
Simon carried on talking to someone she didn’t recognise.
‘Bea?’ Luke shouted, concern in his voice.
‘Sorry, Luke, I’ve got to go.’ She ended the call before he was able to answer, furious with Simon.
‘And this is my ex-wife.’ Simon smiled as if he’d just introduced her as a tiresome teenager.
‘Yes, and this is my house,’ she said, holding her hand out to the man in a bespoke grey suit. ‘And you are?’
‘I’m the estate agent your, er, ex-husband contacted for a valuation on this property.’ He glanced down at his black leather clipboard and then smiled awkwardly at her.
Bea raised her eyebrows and stared at Simon. ‘Why?’
Simon sighed. ‘Beatrice, we both know the bank will send someone to value this place in your favour. I’m not an idiot. I remember your aunt talking about Mr Peters, the bank manager who she dealt with for the last two hundred years or whatever. I’m bringing in someone to make sure I don’t get cheated out of my share.’
‘You bastard. If Mr Peters was so easily influenced I would have raised the money to buy you out by now.’
Simon’s triumphant expression made Bea grit her teeth in irritation. ‘So, you’ve been trying to sort out our little problem, then?’
Bea glared at him.
‘Good to know. Only seven months until D-Day.’ He looked around the garden. ‘I’m perfectly entitled to bring in an independent valuer. So, if you don’t mind finding something else to do, we’ll get on.’ He moved towards the house.
‘Oh no, you don’t.’ Bea grabbed Simon’s arm. ‘You can come inside,’ she said to the estate agent. ‘You, Simon, can bloody well wait out here.’
She led the agent into her kitchen, trying to remember that it wasn’t the poor man’s fault Simon had involved him in their problem.
‘Don’t worry, I’ll only be a few minutes.’ He forced a smile, making Bea feel slightly guilty at dragging him inside so hurriedly.
‘See?’ Simon said, tapping his watch at her ten minutes later. ‘That didn’t take too long, now did it?’
Bea turned her back on them and began walking towards the stables, stopping abruptly when she heard another vehicle coming down her driveway.
‘Oh God, here comes the cavalry,’ Simon sneered, shaking his head as he pointed at Luke. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here. Bye, Bea, see you in court.’
She frowned and turned to see Luke striding across the gravel. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked, ignoring Simon’s pained expression as he passed.
Bea’s stomach flipped over. He seemed so concerned for her. ‘I’m fine, thanks… just another confrontation with my adorable ex-husband.’
‘What the hell did you ever see in that man?’ Luke said, in the direction of Simon’s disappearing car.
Bea shrugged. ‘I thought he wanted the same things as me,’ she said, wondering if she had ever really known Simon at all. ‘And believe it or not he can be great fun.’
‘Hmm, maybe he’s changed a lot.’ He smiled.
Bea laughed. ‘Or maybe I’ve woken up and can finally see the real Simon that he used to hide so well. Would you like a drink?’
‘No.’ He shook his head, his untidy curls settling in a way that made Bea want to push her fingers into them. ‘You hung up so abruptly that I wanted to make sure everything was okay.’
‘That’s kind, thank you. But I’m fine now he’s gone.’
Luke gazed at her. ‘While I’m here, I just want to check on something the men mentioned to me about the hallway,’ he said, heading into the house.
Bea smiled to herself as she returned to the mower and pushed the heavy machine around the side of the house, across the gravel driveway and onto the lawn.
Red in the face at the exertion, she thought back to Simon telling her how to start it. Pushing forward the bar and holding up the handle, she leant forward, grabbed the handle and gave it a strong tug. Nothing. Bea breathed in, took hold of it once more, and pulled as quickly and as hard as she could. Again, nothing.
Bea gritted her teeth in frustration. Several attempts and two broken fingernails later, she wondered how anyone could manage to hold up the brake bar while at the same leaning forward to yank the end of the rope with enough energy to make the machine burst into life. It was simply impossible. Maybe it was broken.
Bea kicked the mower, achieving nothing more than the satisfaction of inflicting a dent onto its rusting bodywork, and was battling with herself whether to find a hammer to smash the useless machine to bits.
‘Having problems?’ Luke asked, as he ambled over to her.
Bea could feel her face reddening. So much for independence. ‘I can’t get this useless thing to work,’ she stammered, fully aware the exertion had left her unattractively puce in the face.
He grinned at her. ‘Let me have a try.’ Luke raked a hand through his messy, wayward hair and stepped over to the mower.
Bea pushed her hands into her pockets and waited to see if he had any better luck with the useless machine.
Luke roughly rolled up the sleeves of his denim shirt, revealing tanned, muscular forearms and started the mower on his first attempt.
‘I thought it was broken,’ she explained, feeling ridiculous for making such a fuss.
‘There’s a knack to these things,’ he said, shrugging. ‘Years of practice as I was growing up certainly helped. Tell you what, why don’t I do this for you, and you can make us both one of your excellent coffees?’
‘I’ve got something much more tempting than coffee,’ she said, thinking about the lemonade cooling in her fridge. When she noticed Luke’s surprise at her comment, she hurriedly changed the subject. ‘Do you realise how much lawn there is?’ Bea asked. ‘It goes up the other side of the driveway too, as well as down past the orchard.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Tell you what then, I’ll do the main lawn areas now, and leave the less obvious areas for another day. How does that sound?’
Bea couldn’t believe his offer, but had no intention of turning it down. She loved pottering in gardens, sowing seeds, dead-heading, and even planting, but the prospect of mowing, especially the part where it had to be repeatedly emptied, left her cold. ‘Well, if you’re certain you don’t mind, it would be a great help. Thanks.’
She almost skipped into the house, and when she was sure he couldn’t see her from her vantage point behind the dining room window, took a sneaky look at the handsome, bearded man with the untidy hair and deep, mesmerising blue eyes. He was like a bear. A sexy, big bear. It was wonderful to enjoy appreciating his powerful physique more fully for once. She watched his long legs pacing back and forth in straight lines across her wide, overgrown lawn and felt a warm glow inside.
She was relieved Tom’s promise to show her the paperwork had been delayed by an unexpected project keeping them apart at work for the last few weeks. She wasn’t going to consider Luke guilty until she saw proof that he was. Bea hugged herself. Luke was so different to Simon and Tom; it wasn’t like her to be attracted to someone so rugged. She smiled.
Bea calculated it would take him well over an hour to finish his task, enough time for her to sort through her wooden seed box in the potting shed.
‘I saw a door open on one of the stables,’ he announced from outside the door, what seemed like moments later. She stopped tidying away the spilt compost from the worktop and looked up at his damp chest. ‘I presume the mower is kept in there.’ Bea nodded.
‘Thanks so much for doing that. I’ve been dreading tackling the mowing for weeks.’ She brushed the peat off her hands as he looked around the walled-in garden, wondering what had taken his eye.
‘Are those Jersey lilies?’ he asked, pointing to a clump of pretty pink flowers with tiny red crosses on their petals.
‘No, I’m not sure what they are.’ Bea pointed to the larger pink lilies nearby. ‘Those are Jersey lilies, amaryllis belladonna. My godmother always thought the Guernsey lilies were prettier; they’re smaller, daintier.’
‘I like those first ones, they’re unusual. Would you like me to take a picture of them and ask my uncle if he knows what they are? He’s a horticulturalist, or something like that.’
‘If you like, thanks.’ He took a picture using his mobile. ‘I suppose I should know what each of these plants are called if I’m going to look after them properly. Do you want to come in the house to freshen up a bit?’
Luke followed her to the house and she watched as he bent down to remove his boots. He washed his hands and face at the sink and Bea handed him a towel to dry himself before fetching the lemonade from the fridge. She wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or relieved that he chose not to remove his top. He sat opposite her, leaning his bare forearms on the bleached pine of the table. Bea had to force herself not to stare at the golden hairs covering his skin.
‘I’ll come and do the rest of your mowing another day, if that’s ok?’
‘Only if you’re sure you don’t mind. I was hoping to employ a gardening firm to come and sort it all out, but I can’t afford to.’
‘Well, it’s one hell of a garden to look after.’ He didn’t take his eyes off her as he spoke, and Bea was unable to tear her gaze away from him.
‘Luke, as well as the garden, I also want you to know how grateful I am for the work your men have done here,’ she said. ‘Their standard is so high, and I’ve heard horror stories about workers beginning a job and disappearing halfway through, sometimes for months.’
‘I know what you mean,’ he nodded. ‘It’s a pet hate of mine, which is why we don’t take on work unless we know we can complete it without messing clients about.’ He sat back and stared at her for a while. ‘On the phone you were going to tell me something about the work, but you didn’t actually say what it was.’
‘I’m not sure how much more I can afford to do here. I’ll do as much as I can, and I owe it to my aunt to keep her garden perfect.’ She was unsure how to continue with the conversation. ‘Lemonade?’ she asked, indicating the crystal jug in the middle of the table. ‘I thought you might appreciate this more than coffee after all your hard work.’
‘Looks good.’ He took a sip of the cool drink, the bitterness making his eyes blink.
Bea stifled a giggle. ‘Mmm, I think this batch is probably a little tart, but it’s the coldest drink I have, unless you’d rather have water. Or there’s coffee, of course.’
