The old lady straightened up and regarded him carefully. ‘Bien, Monsieur.’
‘Um… Moi et ma fille…’ He paused, scratching his head for the connecting words. ‘Amis – Molly and Ashley…’
‘Ah!’ The old lady offered a scant-toothed smile. ‘S’il vous plaît attendez.’
With that she tottered into the house.
‘I think she wants us to wait,’ Haydon said in answer to Ella’s questioning glance up at him.
‘Here or at the door?’
‘Maybe better to wait here. She didn’t say anything about going with her.’
A minute later Ashley and Molly were walking down the path towards them. Ashley looked tired and tense, her hair pulled back into a simple ponytail and she was wearing barely any make-up, denim cut-offs and a plain white vest, but she still looked incredible. As they walked together Haydon could see now that Molly was actually a good couple of inches taller than her mum already and her colouring was darker – deep brown eyes and hair that was more caramel than golden.
‘Wow, you’re really tanned already!’ Ella called to Molly, who returned the compliment with a grin. ‘Was that just from yesterday at the beach?’
‘I always tan easily. You and your dad haven’t done too bad either.’
‘Violette said you wanted us,’ Ashley said, her gaze fixed on Haydon. It was so frank, so fierce and uncompromising that for a moment Haydon felt his courage shrivel in the face of it. She really bloody despised him and yet… what was this tight feeling in his chest every time he saw her? Why did he feel like a lovesick idiot when she showed no encouragement of this feeling whatsoever?
‘We’re going windsurfing,’ Ella broke in. ‘And we wondered if you wanted to come too? You and Bastien. If you wanted to.’
‘Bastien’s got to go to pick up some meat with his uncle.’
‘Wow, how much meat is there?’ Haydon asked. But his attempt at humour was met with nothing but a stony stare from Ashley and it seemed to go completely over Molly’s head. Not that it had been all that funny, he supposed.
‘It’s for the party. Nanette is going to cure it or something,’ Ashley said.
‘Oh, the birthday party,’ Ella said. ‘Of course. But poor Bastien.’
‘We could ask if you can come to the party,’ Molly replied, but then clamped her mouth shut again as Ashley gave her a tiny, warning shake of her head.
‘It’s for family only, I expect,’ Haydon said with forced brightness. He was beginning to think that coming here today had been a huge mistake. It was one thing Ella having fun with Molly, but it left him and Ashley together and she seemed far from chatty right now. What was he supposed to do with her all day in this mood?
‘If you’re busy,’ he began slowly as the idea formed in his mind, ‘I guess we could take Molly with us and it would leave the day free for you to do whatever you needed. I mean, if you wanted to stay home and relax or help with the party or whatever. I don’t mind at all and Ella would be happy, wouldn’t you?’
Ella nodded eagerly but Ashley dismissed the idea with a flick of her head.
‘We’d love to come,’ she said, though Haydon didn’t think he’d ever seen the statement uttered with less sincerity. If this was something she’d love to do then he couldn’t imagine her face when she was forced to do something she hated.
‘Are you going now?’ she added.
Haydon nodded. ‘Might as well if we want to make the most of the day. Is that OK with you both?’
‘We’ll need to get some things together. Can you give us ten minutes?’
He nodded again, and Ashley ushered Molly back to the house. As he watched them go, his gaze was drawn to a window where a woman stared down at him. He sent an awkward smile her way but she didn’t flinch – she just continued to weigh him up. But then he saw Ashley appear at the window and pull her away.
Weird. Everything about this was weird. Was there still time to run? Because he had a feeling today was going to be a huge mistake.
Ashley had been vaguely irritated that Haydon hadn’t done a little more research into his whole windsurfing idea because they’d arrived at the little hut where the lessons went from only to be told they’d have to book in advance. Molly and Ella had been desperately disappointed until the owner of the school suggested that they might be able to buy bodyboards from the town and take themselves out into the shallows instead. Haydon had insisted on buying one for both of the girls as well as himself, which was lucky because Ashley didn’t have spare cash to fritter on something they wouldn’t be taking home with them and would probably never come back to Saint-Raphaël to use again anyway. He’d offered to buy one for her too, but the last thing she needed was to be flailing around on the sea like a tit.
So she was left sitting on the sand alone as the others paddled about on their new boards. The sun burned through the straw hat she’d borrowed from Nanette, despite Molly telling her she looked like an old lady in it. Old lady or not, at least she wouldn’t get sunstroke. With nothing else to do she applied another layer of lotion to her shoulders and wished that she’d packed a book. But she hadn’t expected to be left alone for hours on end to read. Shrieks of laughter travelled up the beach, so at least someone was having fun. This wasn’t how the day was supposed to go.
She and Sue had gone to great pains to get everyone discreetly out of the way so Ashley could get a moment during the day to talk to Haydon properly. In their original plan Sue had suggested that Bastien and his uncle go to the butcher’s in a neighbouring town – something Bastien had sulked about but, being a dutiful nephew, had eventually had to agree to. Maurice was to take Nanette to the vineyard to stock up and Molly was meant to go with them, which then left Ashley free to see Haydon alone at his villa (assuming she could catch him in). What to do about Ella being there was something she’d decided she’d just have to deal with when she got there. But then Haydon had thrown them a lifeline by coming to call. It meant the four of them could be together, which was half the battle. She’d assumed that the girls would be out on windsurfing lessons and she’d be looking on with him, and that would be her chance to get things out in the open. She’d rushed indoors to find her mum giving Haydon a fair death stare out of the window, and when she’d told her about the new plan Sue had been in agreement that it was the best way. Simple enough? So you’d think, but so far she hadn’t been able to get Haydon alone for a single second.
Shielding her eyes from the sun, she watched as Haydon emerged from the waves with his board under his arm and made his way up the beach. The girls were still splashing away in the surf, so perhaps this was her chance. Her stomach jolted, and she put it down to nerves, trying not to think about the multitude of reactions she might encounter from him. But perhaps it had more to do with the fact that he’d stayed in remarkably good shape since she’d spent that fateful night with him, as his dripping torso and sandy hair now curled from the sea attested. Surely she didn’t still fancy him? After all that had happened? Where had this come from – now of all moments?
‘Come and have a go!’ he called.
She shook her head. ‘Come over here!’
‘Huh?’
‘Come over here!’ she shouted, gaining a reproachful stare from an elderly couple camped within the shelter of a beach umbrella a few feet away.
He shook the water from his hair, kicking sand up as he strode towards her with a broad smile, and suddenly she was filled with one overwhelming hope. That, somehow, hearing about Molly would bring them together. As in romantically. Which was ridiculous and probably the last place this was going.
Stop it, Ashley!
But he’d only got halfway up the beach when Ella began to chase after him, and then Molly followed.
Shit! Ten minutes – it wasn’t much to ask, was it?
‘Come in and have a go!’ Molly called, racing towards her. ‘It’s brilliant!’
Ashley shook her head. ‘What about all our belongings?’
‘Th
ey’re not going to go anywhere – there’s hardly anyone here. We could ask that couple to keep an eye on things and we can see easily from the sea anyway so we could run back if someone tries to take them.’
‘We wouldn’t run back fast enough.’
‘I would,’ Molly insisted.
‘I’m not a very good swimmer.’
‘You don’t need to be,’ Haydon put in, joining them now with Ella. ‘We’ll keep you safe.’
‘And who’s keeping you safe?’ Ashley asked.
His smile faded, but then he seemed to rally again. ‘The sea’s calm today. I think the guy at the windsurfing place would have said if he thought it wasn’t safe.’
Ashley had no argument for that.
‘Please…’ Molly cajoled. ‘Just give it a try.’
‘I don’t know…’
‘We feel guilty that you’ve been left on the beach all on your own while we have fun,’ Haydon said, and the girls both nodded. ‘It’d be much better if you joined us.’
‘And we’d have a better time if we felt less guilty,’ Molly said.
Ashley sighed. ‘I swear with arguments like that you’ll be a solicitor one day, Moll.’
‘Ugh, no chance. How boring.’
‘Never say never.’ Haydon laughed. ‘I bet you’d earn a lot more as a solicitor than you would in an orchestra.’
‘But I’d hate it, and you have to do what you love, don’t you? Otherwise life is no fun at all.’
Ashley was tempted to ask who’d ever told her daughter life was meant to be fun but, as she had so many other times before, she stopped herself. It wasn’t the type of wisdom she wanted to pass on. Why shouldn’t Molly have bright expectations? Why couldn’t she hold on to her dreams – just for a little while? Life would soon temper them without anyone’s help, so why should Ashley speed that process up just because she might be feeling a little peevish?
‘Come on, Mum. Just try it.’
Ashley looked from Haydon to Ella to Molly. ‘You’re not planning to sit this out at any point?’ she asked Haydon.
He shook his head. ‘I don’t think I’d be allowed to! Maybe we’ll stop for lunch a little later… if that would be OK with you?’
There didn’t seem a lot of point waiting around for a moment alone with him then if he wasn’t going to be able to lose the girls for a while, and it didn’t seem like that was going to happen. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to join them for an hour or two in the sea. It was hot, and the water did look very tempting… And then Ashley could work out a way to get him alone at lunchtime. She had no idea how yet, but she’d figure it out.
She stood up and stripped off her shorts and top to reveal a swimsuit beneath.
‘Come on then. Last one in the sea has to buy dinner!’
Restaurants with a more relaxed dress code were hard to find, but they managed to get an outside table at one which overlooked the sea where their beachwear didn’t cause too much of a stir. The menu was simple but both girls were happy to see chicken nuggets (as close as the French could manage to such basic fare) and chips on there while Ashley settled for a salad. Haydon, regardless of what kind of maturity he might want to show, joined the girls in their junk-food fix and, against her instincts, Ashley couldn’t suppress a smile to see him dipping his chips into a huge pot of gloopy mayonnaise.
‘I could eat this three times over,’ he said.
‘Me too,’ Molly returned with a grin.
‘I’m not surprised,’ Ashley said. ‘Imagine how many calories we’ve burned off in the last couple of hours.’
‘So we can have pudding?’
‘I would imagine so,’ Ashley said, taking a quick glance at the menu to check the prices again.
‘Absolutely,’ Haydon said. ‘We need to bulk up if we’re going back into the sea later, so it’s on me.’
‘You’re not supposed to eat too much just before you go swimming,’ Ashley said.
‘In that case, we’ll have to make it a long and lazy lunch, won’t we? There’s nothing to race back for, is there?’
‘Well, no, but—’
‘So let’s make the most of the day. I don’t know about you lot, but I’m having a great time on these boards. I think it turned out better than windsurfing in the end.’
Ashley had to admit that she’d ended up having a great time too. Her balance had been terrible, of course, and a rogue wave had tipped her off more times than she could count. But Haydon had pressed a gentle hand to her back and helped her keep her weight steady, and eventually she was riding the waves like a natural. Well, perhaps not riding exactly, more like floating. And it was true that they weren’t exactly going to be troubling any surfing competitions any time soon – they’d stayed in the shallows and really were messing around on the shore rather than proper impressive wave-riding – and they weren’t professionally equipped. None of them really knew what they were doing either. They’d shared the three boards between the four of them and took it in turns to paddle around while the one left standing in the shallows offered words of encouragement and laughed out loud at every little disaster that sent the others flying off their ride. By the time they’d all decided they were starving Ashley’s stomach muscles were aching. Mostly from trying to stay afloat but a little bit from laughing too.
As they’d emerged from the sea to get ready for lunch Haydon had thrown a towel around her shoulders and smiled down at her, and for a moment their eyes had locked. She’d been lurched into a confusing whirl of emotions that had been unexpected and not very helpful considering her main objective for the day.
She was surprisingly relaxed and content at that moment as they sat sipping drinks and gazing out to an azure sea, almost as if him being there with her was the most natural thing in the world – as if they’d never been parted since that first night together. But lurking in the background was the pressing need to tell him about Molly. It threatened to overwhelm everything else, and when Ashley really thought about it perhaps that was a good thing – her sensible self firing a well-needed warning shot. She’d become too relaxed that morning, too easy in his company, but as she’d spent more and more time with him it had become hard to do anything else. He was so sweet and considerate and funny and interesting. If only he hadn’t given her that duff phone number in Ibiza, who knew what might have been?
‘What do you want, Mum?’ Molly said, interrupting Ashley’s thoughts. Just as well because they were going to a place they had no right being in. He had given her a duff phone number all those years ago and that was that. Molly handed her the menu. ‘I’m getting ice cream, but they have cheesecake and everything.’
‘Oh, I don’t know…’
‘These are on me.’
She looked up to see Haydon smiling at her. The sea had tousled his sandy hair and the sun had bronzed his skin, and those eyes… those eyes of chocolate that seemed to smile even when he wasn’t…
She gave herself a mental shake. If she could have slapped herself right now without looking like a nutter she probably would have done.
‘What?’
‘I’m buying dessert. And don’t argue because I want to and I won’t take no for an answer.’
‘But—’
‘Please…’ he said gently. He reached across the table and settled a light touch on her hand. She looked down at it, and then back up at him, and suddenly he seemed to realise what he’d done as he drew it quickly away again, colour rushing to his cheeks.
Ashley glanced across at Molly to see her share a small conspiratorial grin with Ella. Could they see what was going on here? Or rather, what they thought was going on? Were they actually matchmaking? The idea snapped Ashley back to Planet Earth. They probably thought it was fun – a harmless game. This was getting out of hand, and Ashley needed to act before it all went too far; the last thing she needed was for Haydon or Molly to work things out before she’d had a chance to break it to them sensibly. She had to tell Haydon.
‘Moll,’ she said, gla
ncing around and noting there was a queue at the bar. It would be a good ten minutes’ wait for anyone wanting to get served. ‘Go and get me another Coke?’ She grabbed her purse from the table and handed her a twenty-euro note. ‘Get Ella one too and Haydon…?’
He shook his head. ‘I thought we were sorting out desserts.’
‘I’m parched – I could do with a drink first. And you said we didn’t need to rush.’ She forced a bright smile and turned to Ella. ‘Would you mind going with Molly to help carry them?’
Ella leapt up and followed Molly inside.
‘They’re getting on really well,’ Haydon remarked as he watched them go.
‘Yes,’ Ashley said. She drew a deep breath. Time was short and there was no point in pussyfooting around with this. She could only hope that they could both hold it together when the girls got back, though she suspected that her next words might signal the end of their day together. Perhaps the end of their newly blossoming friendship too. But they needed to be said, and she had to trust that what she’d seen so far of him was the real Haydon and that he’d treat her news with the sensitivity it deserved.
‘Haydon—’
‘Look who we found, Mum!’
Ashley spun around to see Molly with Maurice and Sue. Her gut clenched at the realisation that the moment she’d built herself up to all day was going to have to wait – again.
‘Ashley!’ Maurice stepped forward and kissed her lightly while Sue tried to make what Ashley assumed was a covertly apologetic face. She’d probably guessed as soon as she’d seen Ashley and Haydon sitting at the table what was going on, though she couldn’t have guessed at what stage the discussion was. Essentially nowhere now.
‘Maurice saw you all from the beach road and insisted on coming to say hello,’ Sue said.
‘I thought you were getting wine at the vineyard,’ Ashley replied.
‘We did,’ Maurice said. ‘We got back an hour ago and Aunt Violette was sleeping. I wanted lunch, so I thought we would eat by the sea. How lucky for us now you are here. May we join you?’
The Summer Getaway_A feel-good romance novel perfect for holiday reading Page 12
