Nina looked around in admiration. The walled garden was going to be fabulous and she so admired what Faye was doing, but she mustn’t let it distract her now from her mission; the mission that she’d had in mind ever since she’d seen the way Faye had looked at Dominic, and the way she’d seen him looking at her, too.
‘I was talking to Dominic before,’ Nina said as casually as possible.
‘Oh, yes?’ Faye said, looking up from her work once again, her eyes softening at the mention of his name.
‘You know he’s doing these portraits?’
‘Yes. How is he getting on?’
‘Oh, fine,’ Nina said. ‘I mean, I don’t think it’s what he really wants to be doing.’
‘Of course not,’ Faye said. ‘He shouldn’t be wasting his talent on a bunch of vain women who have nothing better to do with their time. He should be out there,’ she said, pointing across the garden to the countryside beyond, ‘painting great big East Anglian skies and fields like Constable and Gainsborough – not stuck in a room doing portraits.’
‘Actually, there is one portrait he really wants to paint.’
‘Is there?’ Faye said with a frown.
Nina nodded. ‘Yours,’ she said.
There was a pause and Faye seemed to be weighing up the possibility that that was true.
‘Really? He said that?’ she asked.
Nina swallowed hard. This wasn’t going to work, was it? She wasn’t at all sure she was doing the right thing here and she felt certain that she was going to be found out and struck down by lightning for her wickedness. But she couldn’t bear to see this sweet young couple torn apart when they were so obviously right for each other. She had to give this a try.
‘He just didn’t know how to ask you,’ Nina went on. There was no going back now, she thought.
‘But he hasn’t spoken to me for months – not properly, anyway. Why would he suddenly want to paint me?’ Faye didn’t look convinced.
‘Why don’t you go along to The Folly and find out?’ Nina said. ‘What harm can it do?’ She bit her lip, trying desperately not to hiccup at such a vital moment. She felt quite sure that it was just a case of getting Faye and Dominic back in the same room together, really talking, without the distraction of a family meal or interruptions from the likes of Alex to get in their way.
‘Goodness,’ Faye said with a little laugh. ‘You think he wants to see me again? I mean – really see me?’
‘I think you should find out, don’t you? Even if it turns out he doesn’t want to paint you, I think you should talk,’ Nina said, thinking it best that she should cover herself.
Faye nodded. ‘What exactly did he say to you?’ she asked.
Nina gave a little shrug. ‘Oh, just that—’ she paused. What exactly was she going to say? ‘Just that – well, you know how much he loves painting.’
Faye nodded vaguely.
‘And you’re so – well – so paintable.’
‘He said that?’
‘Not exactly,’ Nina confessed, ‘but I just know he was thinking it.’ She swallowed down a hiccup and looked at Faye. How could a painter not want to paint that face, she thought? With her large expressive eyes and rosy skin and her long shiny locks, she was picture-perfect and Nina was quite sure that Dominic would see that if only he had the opportunity to look at her uninterrupted.
‘Gosh, Nina,’ Faye said. ‘I’m really not sure about this.’
‘What do you mean?’ Nina asked in panic. She’d thought Faye would down tools and run to The Folly at a moment’s notice.
‘It feels strange, you know?’
‘But I thought you still liked him,’ Nina said.
Faye looked at Nina for a moment. ‘Of course I do,’ she said. ‘I haven’t been out with anyone else – not seriously anyway – since we broke up, and I can’t imagine a future without Dommie in it.’
‘Then go to The Folly,’ Nina said gently, trying desperately not to sound too pushy. ‘What have you got to lose?’
Faye wiped her hands on the front of her pale cut-off jeans and started fiddling with her hair. ‘Right now?’
‘Well, I think he’d be happy to wait until you’re ready,’ Nina said with a little smile. ‘Shall I ring him and find out for you?’
Faye nodded, seemingly having lost the power of speech.
‘Great,’ Nina said, ‘I’ll give him a quick call. Wait right there.’
Faye wasn’t going anywhere and, as Nina ran back to the house with Ziggy in tow, she hoped with all her heart that she was doing the right thing.
Once back in the privacy of Dudley’s study, she took a deep breath and rang Dominic.
‘Hi Dominic,’ she said cheerily. ‘I’m ringing about the portrait. Would you be free this evening?’
Nina was just trying to decipher a scene that Dudley had scribbled on the back of an envelope. He’d said it was very important to the plot development, but Nina really couldn’t make out a single word. She was just putting it to one side to query later when Olivia knocked on the door and entered.
‘Oh, Nina – look!’ she said in triumph. ‘We’ve been sent canapés!’
Nina looked at the enormous box that Olivia was holding. It was tied with a silky ribbon and looked delicious enough to eat itself.
‘Do come and help me test them. We have a score card and have to choose at least half a dozen!’
Well, if that wasn’t a good enough excuse to take a break, Nina didn’t know what was.
They went through to the living room and began the onerous task of munching their way through twenty delicious canapés. There were sweet potato wedges, leek and Gruyère tarts, mini summer pasties, baby cheese straws – everything that was summery, savoury and delicious and could be popped into the mouth whilst still chatting.
‘Oh, I’m in such a muddle now,’ Olivia said after twenty minutes of munching. ‘They’re all so good!’
‘I think we should definitely have a cheesy one,’ Nina said.
‘Yes but which cheesy one? We can’t have too many of the same.’
‘The mini cheese straws are gorgeous. I’d go with them,’ Nina said, taking another one and popping it in her mouth just to make sure.
Olivia nodded and put another tick on the score card. Slowly but surely, they came up with their choices.
‘Well, that was a good day’s work,’ Olivia said, ‘and I doubt if I’ll have any room for dinner after that little lot!’
Nina was just helping tidy things away when a car pulled up on the gravel outside and, by the screeching, sliding halt it made, she didn’t need to look out of the window to know who it was.
‘Oh, Alex!’ Olivia cried, rushing to the door to greet him. Nina hovered anxiously in the living room, hoping that she could avoid him.
‘Hello, Mum!’ he said as he entered the hallway.
‘You’ve just missed the great canapé testing session, I’m afraid,’ Olivia said.
‘Oh, right,’ he said. ‘I thought you said something about Party Parade.’
‘Oh, yesh!’ Olivia said as she stuffed the very last canapé into her mouth. ‘Nina – I don’t suppose you’ve got a couple of hours to spare now, have you?’
‘Of course,’ she said.
‘Good, I’m sure Dudley wouldn’t mind as it’s all in aid of the celebrations. Now, Alex – you’ll take care of Nina, won’t you? I don’t want you speeding through red traffic lights and driving across roundabouts.’
Nina looked startled for a moment.
‘It was only the one roundabout,’ he told her with a little grin.
‘Yes, that great big grassy one,’ Olivia said. ‘You can still see your tyre marks across it. Anyway, no messing about. Parties are a serious business and I want you concentrating. Nina’s got a copy of the list.’
‘Okay, okay,’ he said. ‘Ready, Nina?’
‘I’ll just grab my bag.’
She met him in the hallway by the door and smiled hesitantly at him. She hadn’t seen o
r heard from him since their doomed trip to the coast and she really didn’t know what to say to him now.
The white Alfa Romeo Spider sat gleaming on the driveway and they both got inside and, knowing that his mother was probably watching from the living-room window, Alex didn’t do his usual wheel-spin take-off and didn’t hit the gas before the mill was out of sight.
‘How are you getting on?’ he cried as the wind tore through their hair. ‘How’s the old man’s novel coming along?’
‘Good!’ Nina shouted back as Alex took the bend far too quickly for her liking. She just hoped that there weren’t too many grassy roundabouts between the mill and the party store.
Thankfully, they got there in one piece and entered what could only be described as a warehouse. Alex grabbed a trolley and Nina took out Olivia’s list from her pocket. There were a lot of things to get and they were soon marching up and down the aisles, pulling out napkins, balloons and tea lights all in pretty shades of silver and purple, although Nina did have to keep her eye on Alex.
‘I don’t think your mother will want balloons with faces on,’ she told him when he pulled out a packet of ferocious-looking monster balloons.
It was an amazing place and Nina was dazzled by the goodies on offer, from the rows of petal confetti from palest pink to deepest red, to the irresistible table diamonds, which came in every colour from purest ice to richest violet. It was a perfect Aladdin’s cave for the eyes. It would have been so easy to get carried away and pile a heap of pretty candle lanterns into the trolley even though they weren’t on Olivia’s list, but Nina was very disciplined and stuck to her employer’s wishes.
She was just admiring a rather gorgeous chair sash in a pretty shade of lilac when her phone beeped. She took it out of her pocket and saw a text from Justin.
Haven’t heard from you since Sunday. Forgive my hasty departure. J.
Nina looked at the screen for a moment but decided not to reply. A second later, her phone beeped again. It was another message from Justin.
Bess sends her love.
Nina smiled as she saw the accompanying photo of the collie waving a hairy paw in the air. She shook her head.
‘Who’s that from?’ Alex said, trying to peer at the screen.
‘Just a friend,’ Nina said.
‘Boyfriend?’
‘No,’ she said.
‘Are you seeing anyone?’ he asked her.
She looked at him. ‘It’s none of your business.’
‘Oh, really?’
‘Really,’ she said.
‘I love it when you go all strict on me,’ Alex said, his eyes sparkling in that naughty way of his. ‘You sound just like my babysitter again.’
Nina frowned. How did he make that sound so utterly filthy, she wondered?
Her phone beeped again and, this time, there was a photo of Bess rolling on her back, her fluffy white belly exposed to the world.
The message How’s Ziggy? accompanying it.
She quickly texted back a reply.
Ziggy mad as ever.
A few seconds later Justin’s reply came.
Hope you’re not mad at me.
Nina sighed. She was mad at him, but she couldn’t help admitting that she missed him too. She took a deep breath and tapped her reply.
V mad.
A sad face was his response followed by:
I’ll make it up to you. x
Nina blinked. Was that a kiss? Had he sent her a kiss?
‘Nina!’ A voice broke into her turmoil. ‘You’re not listening to a word I’m saying, are you?’
‘Sorry, Alex. What?’
‘What do you think of this?’ He was holding up an obscenely short French maid’s outfit.
‘I think you’ve got the wrong kind of party, there.’
‘What a shame,’ he said. I think you’d look great in it.’
She gave him her best withering look. ‘Put it back.’
‘Don’t you think you should try it on?’
‘No, I don’t.’
Alex gave a hearty sigh. It was funny, Nina thought, but he hadn’t once mentioned their trip to the beach. She’d been half-expecting him to make another move on her, especially in the relatively dark confines of the party warehouse aisles, but he had surprised her. Perhaps he’d forgotten about the whole thing. She could easily believe that the incident meant absolutely nothing to him and that she was just another mild flirtation in a long line of flirtations that week. But how did that make her feel? Relieved, mostly, she had to admit. She really didn’t want to get into a relationship with Alex Milton, however cute he was. The Milton boys were off-limits, not only because of the position she had once held as their babysitter, but because of the position she found herself in now – one of responsibility and trust. She did not want to let her new employers down, or repeat Teri’s mistake of getting embroiled with one of the sons and having it all end disastrously. She knew better than that and she realised that she was onto a good thing with her new job.
They spent the next half hour working their way through Olivia’s list, laughing and joking as they discovered all manner of things in the warehouse. Alex really was good company, Nina thought, and he’d make some girl very happy one day – if only he could settle down with just the one, that was.
After paying for their goods, they drove back to the mill and were greeted by a cacophony of barks as Ziggy greeted them in the hallway.
‘Back to your basket, Ziggy,’ Nina said, pointing before following him through to the kitchen and putting the kettle on.
‘Wow! You’ve worked wonders on him,’ Alex observed. ‘But then again – you work wonders on everyone.’
Nina bit her lip. This sounded as if it was heading in a dangerous direction.
‘Cup of tea?’ she said in as neutral a voice as possible.
‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘I love the way you make it.’ Nina turned her back on him to avoid any more flirtation. She didn’t know how he did it but he managed to turn absolutely everything he said into an innuendo.
‘I’ll let you do your own milk and sugar,’ she told him, thinking she might manage to swerve the ‘sweet enough’ line that he was bound to deliver.
‘I’d better get back to your father,’ she said as she took a sip of tea a moment later.
‘Oh, don’t go yet,’ he said. ‘I want to talk to you.’
‘What about?’
Alex raked a hand through his hair and sighed before perching himself on a breakfast stool. ‘The truth is, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,’ he said, his expression serious all of a sudden.
‘Alex – please—’
‘No – listen to me,’ he said, holding his hand in the air to stop Nina’s interruption. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like you. You’re really special.’ He grinned. ‘And I think what makes you special is that you don’t even know you are.’
‘But I’m not,’ Nina said.
‘There you go, you see?’ He laughed.
‘Alex—’
‘No, let me finish,’ he said and Nina sighed in resignation, knowing she wasn’t going to be able to get a word in edgeways until he’d said his piece.
‘Ever since you’ve come back here, things have changed. You’ve been like a breath of fresh air, Nina. You’re so – so – you!’
She looked at his face and, although the words that were coming out of his mouth sounded horribly clichéd, he looked totally sincere.
‘There’s a real connection between us, Nina!’ Alex went on, his face earnest and pleading. For a moment, Nina was tempted to tell him that he probably felt a connection to half of the girls in East Anglia, but she kept quiet, handing him his cup of tea and taking a fortifying sip from her own. ‘And I know you felt it, too, at the beach.’
‘Alex – the beach was a mistake. I shouldn’t have—’
‘How can you say that?’ he said, his face full of anxiety.
‘It was wrong of me to go there with you,’ N
ina said.
‘Why? Give me one good reason.’
Nina looked at him pleadingly. She just wished he’d accept things rather than asking her to go into detail. ‘Because I used to be your babysitter,’ she said, deciding that directness was the best option.
‘But that’s an advantage, isn’t it?’ he said.
‘How on earth can it be an advantage?’
‘Because you know me so well and you know how to handle me,’ he said, giving her a wink.
She shook her head again. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘this really isn’t going to work. We’re just not right for each other.’
‘Well, what about today?’
‘What about it?’ she said.
‘We had a great time, didn’t we?’
‘Of course we did. You’re a great guy, Alex. I think you’d get on with anybody. But that doesn’t mean we should be together.’
‘But we could have so much fun together,’ he said, tipping his head to one side and managing to look both devastatingly handsome and just like the young boy she’d once taken care of. Maybe that was part of the problem. She could never be romantically involved with him because she would always see him as a child – no matter how old he was.
‘Alex – I can’t. I just can’t.’
A heavy silence hung between them as if he’d understood her at last.
‘And that’s it? You’re not even going to give us a chance?’ he said.
‘Drink your tea, Alex,’ Nina said, sounding very much like the babysitter she had once been. ‘It’s getting cold.’
‘I don’t want this bloody cup of tea!’ he said. ‘I want you!’
Nina sighed. ‘Alex – you’re going to go right out there and find someone else in the blink of an eye.’
‘You’re wrong about that,’ he said.
‘I’m not,’ Nina said, shaking her head. ‘You’re just the sort of guy who has no problem finding a girl and, one day, it’ll be the right girl. Just believe me – I’m not the right girl for you.’
‘How can you be so sure of that?’
She looked at him for a moment, taking in the handsome sulky face, and for a split second, she really wondered if she was making a huge mistake.
A Summer to Remember Page 19
