‘No no no,’ Robin whispered, but Will shot her a look and kept reading.
‘You’ve saved the day R, and nabbed the cute guy too. I need to know all the details – hotness out of ten? Debrief later. Kiss kiss.’ He said the last words with heavy sarcasm, his confusion turning towards anger as Molly’s text laid the truth bare. Will dropped his hand to his side, still holding the phone, and looked at her. ‘Publicity campaign?’
‘That’s not – that’s just a joke; Molly’s joke.’
‘And how about keeping number four out of Tim’s evil clutches?’
Robin closed her eyes. She couldn’t bear seeing the disappointment on his face. ‘Tim has plans to buy Tabitha’s house, and probably convert it into flats.’ It came out as a scratch, and he took a step closer to her, only a few feet separating them. She swallowed. ‘I mean, you would have to agree to the sale, of course, but – but none of us wanted that.’
‘So?’
‘So Molly came up with this idea – she thought that … that if she showed you how great Campion Bay is, tried to convince you to stay on as our neighbour, then you wouldn’t sell to Tim. But I liked you from the beginning Will, none of this – none of … of what’s happened is because of Tim, or the house.’
Will stared at her for such a long time that she thought he hadn’t heard. She was still in her sodden clothes, and she began to tremble. She wrapped her arms tightly around herself, trying to stop the shivering.
‘So all the people going out of their way to be friendly to me, that was to stop me from selling Tabitha’s house?’ He rubbed his forehead.
Robin nodded. ‘But it doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have been friendly anyway, you have to believe that. We like you, Will. Me and Molly, Ashley, Stefano and Nicolas – you fit in here.’
‘Oh yes,’ Will said, ‘the restaurant. The bottle of wine, the offer of mate’s rates at Molly’s beauty parlour. And the cupcakes from Ashley? Your personal tour of the area today? All so I wouldn’t relinquish the house to your pal Tim and leave you in the middle of a building site?’
His expression was accusing, making her feel even colder. ‘No,’ she said forcefully. ‘Not today – none of that, or offering to help you with the clear-out, or the … the cheese on toast, or … Will, please.’ She moved closer to him, but he took a step back towards the door.
‘You must think I’m really gullible,’ he said, his voice quiet but edged with anger, this time directed solely at her. ‘You must take me for a complete idiot. And do you know what? Maybe I am, because I believed all of it – I believed in Molly’s charm and in Stefano’s over-the-top hospitality, but above all I believed in you, Robin. I believed that what we had – what we almost had – was real.’
‘It was,’ she said, clasping her hands in front of her. ‘What happened at the golf course, what I feel – what I’ve felt all along, is real. Do you really think I’d make that up? Didn’t it feel like I was wholly there with you? Because I was, Will.’
‘If you’ve made Will fall for you,’ he said, repeating Molly’s damning words. ‘Well, congratulations, Robin. I was falling for you, I trusted you, and I was beginning to think about what my future might look like in Campion Bay. But that was the whole plan, wasn’t it? You couldn’t leave me to make up my own mind about Tabitha’s house; you had to force my hand. It turns out I don’t know you at all. It turns out I am the idiot you hoped I was.’
‘Will, no – please, that was never part of it.’ She stepped towards him but he threw her phone on to the bed and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Robin leaned against the bed and then slid down it, sinking to the floor, her bare feet finding a puddle she’d made when she’d rushed in for her towel moments before, before everything had come crashing down around her.
It couldn’t have been any worse. Molly’s cheeky message, complete with in-jokes, had reduced her feelings for Will to a box-ticking exercise: get the guy, save the seafront. Well done, Robin Brennan, fist-bump! And Will reading it to her, his tone changing as he’d realised he was the subject of the message, the subject of a calculated charm offensive, the Campion Bay spies updating everyone on the tender moment they’d shared in an instant.
She could see how it looked; she couldn’t blame Will for being angry. She wouldn’t blame him if he never wanted to see or speak to her again. But, as she sat in a puddle on her bedroom floor, she also knew she wouldn’t give up on him.
She had known Will Nightingale only a short while, but already he was someone she would fight to hold on to. Even before today, when he’d kissed her and made her feel whole again for the first time since she’d lost Neve, she’d been prepared to give in to him, to tell him everything and see where it took them.
She knew she could trust him. That was the most important thing and the most bittersweet, because he couldn’t say the same about her.
She picked up her phone and reread the message, torturing herself with the reality of the situation. She wasn’t sure if she could come back from that, if she could make Will see that she had never meant to hurt him, that Molly’s scheming had been irrelevant because as soon as she’d met him she had wanted him to stay in Campion Bay anyway.
Loud footsteps sounded on the stairs, followed by the skitter of paws on the floorboards and the front door closing. She pulled herself up on heavy arms and looked out of her bedroom window. She watched Will walk past quickly, angrily, his mouth set in a hard line. He hurried up the stairs to Tabitha’s house and went inside, the door slamming and making her windows rattle.
Robin was facing another huge challenge. She didn’t know if it would be as big as refurbishing and opening the guesthouse, or as difficult as trying to wade through her grief and the darkness of Neve’s death and come out, blinking, on the other side. But she had done both of those; she had survived and, in the case of the guesthouse, triumphed. She pushed herself up to standing, dusted down her jeans, and switched on the fairy lights around her headboard.
It was going to be almost impossible to get Will to trust her again, to return to where they had been in the moments before Molly’s text message came through. It might test her to the limits and it might all be in vain, but the one thing that Robin was certain of, the thing that forced her out of her slump by the bed and into a long, hot shower to clear her head, was that Will Nightingale was already too important to her not to try.
If you enjoyed Fully Booked, we’re delighted to invite you to return to Campion Bay.
The next instalments in this heart-warming new series, Do Not Disturb and Wish You Were Here, are available to pre-order now!
Click here to pre-order DO NOT DISTURB now 978-0-00-821926-0
Coming in March 2017
Click here to pre-order WISH YOU WERE HERE now 978-0-00-821927-7
Coming in April 2017
Looking for more adventures from Cressida McLaughlin? You’ll love THE CANAL BOAT CAFÉ: the perfect feel-good romance, available as a four part e-serialisation and a full novel.
Summer Freeman returns to the waterside village of Willowbeck to rescue the Canal Boat Café, her late mother’s picturesque narrowboat, which has run into choppy waters. A family friend, Valerie, has been trying to keep things afloat, but the coffee machine is jammed, the cake offerings are paltry, and not all of the locals want to see the café succeed.
Help comes from the boat next door, in the shape of handsome wildlife photographer, Mason, and his naughty Border Terrier, who are showing more than a passing interest in Summer and her adorable Bichon Frise, Latte. But is Mason being honest about himself? Or does he have something to hide?
As her life and the community of Willowbeck begin to entwine, Summer finds herself setting sail on a new adventure. Will the anchor of a steady life on land be too strong, or can Summer learn to cut loose and embrace life afloat?
Click here to buy THE CANAL BOAT CAFE now 978-0-00-813604-8
* The Canal Boat Cafe was first published as a four-part e-serial *
And don’t miss Cressy’s Primrose Terrace series, a heart-warming romance featuring Westies, Spaniels, Retrievers and Terriers – every dog will have its day!
The full Primrose Terrace novel, titled A CHRISTMAS TAIL, is available to buy now!
Catherine ‘Cat’ Palmer realizes that bringing an adorable puppy into work is a bad idea when it gets her the sack. Deciding it’s the perfect opportunity to launch her dog-walking business, Cat enlists the help of flatmates Polly and Joe. After all Primrose Terrace, the street where they live, is full of home-alone hounds.
Getting to know the owners and their precious pooches isn’t all plain sailing, but soon Cat is making friends, particularly with sexy Mark and his Collie, Chips. With her talent for misadventure, Cat’s new life starts to show some cracks, and when one of the street’s loveable schnauzers gets ill, it looks like this Christmas could be turning into a dog’s dinner. But Cat has never given up on anything in her life – and this is one Christmas that’s definitely worth saving …
Click here to buy now 978-0-00-813602-4
* A Christmas Tail was first published as a four-part serial set in Primrose Terrace *
About the Author
Cressy was born in South East London surrounded by books and with a cat named after Lawrence of Arabia. She studied English at the University of East Anglia and now lives in Norwich with her husband David. When she isn’t writing, Cressy spends her spare time reading, returning to London or exploring the beautiful Norfolk coastline. She is also the author of A Christmas Tail and The Canal Boat Café, both available in four-part serializations and as complete novels.
If you’d like to find out more about Cressy, visit her on Twitter and on Facebook. She’d love to hear from you!
/CressidaMcLaughlinAuthor
@CressMcLaughlin
Also by Cressida McLaughlin
Primrose Terrace series
Wellies & Westies
Sunshine & Spaniels
Raincoats & Retrievers
Tinsel & Terriers
A Christmas Tail – The Complete Primrose Terrace Story
Canal Boat Café series
All Aboard
Casting Off
Cabin Fever
Land Ahoy!
The Canal Boat Café – The Complete Story
About the Publisher
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United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
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http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
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http://www.harpercollins.com
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