by Nell Dixon
"I know, but it still seems wrong somehow to let them get away with it," Fae protested.
John silenced her by deepening his kiss, and she surrendered to the blissful security of his love.
"I'm just glad you were here with me tonight. Happy Valentine's," she murmured.
"Happy Valentine's to you, too. Next year, let's do something a bit less stressful."
She smiled up at him. "Somewhere without cameras, lights or poltergeists."
About the Author
Nell Dixon is a Black Country author, married to the same man for over twenty-eight years she has three daughters, a tank of tropical fish and a cactus called Spike. Winner of the RNA’s prestigious Romance Prize in 2007 and 2010, she writes warm-hearted contemporary romance for a number of publishers in the US and the UK.
Also by Nell Dixon:
CHAPTER ONE
Josh slammed the drawer of the bedroom cupboard shut. A small fragment of peach satin edged with lace trim peeked out, caught in between the woodwork.
“What on earth?” Tentatively, he pulled the drawer open again and, feeling more than a little embarrassed, tucked the offending piece of underwear back inside the drawer.
Tammy had sworn she hadn’t been to her cottage in months, yet the cupboards in the master bedroom were full of her clothes. He straightened up. They weren’t the kind of clothes he remembered his oldest friend wearing, either, unless she led a different kind of lifestyle when she was down here in New Bay.
Tammy had always been a rough-and-tumble kind of girl; the type who wore jeans and plaid shirts, not the sort to wear frothy lingerie and skimpy little sun dresses. Just went to show that he shouldn’t go around making assumptions. Not that he’d ever been really good at understanding women.
Josh picked up his bag and headed for the back bedroom. He didn’t feel as if he could use the main bedroom now. It felt too much as though he would be invading Tammy’s privacy.
It didn’t take him long to unpack. Eighteen months of solid work getting his marketing business off the ground meant he wasn’t about to waste a minute of his holiday time. He had plans for some serious R-and-R over the next three weeks. First, he intended to catch some surf, and then chat to some of the bikini-clad lovelies he’d spotted sitting outside the Surf’s Up Café down at the seafront.
Josh jogged downstairs and into the kitchen. Tammy’s housekeeper had done a great job getting the place ready, considering it had been shut up for months while Tammy was in India.
He swiped an apple from the fruit bowl on the kitchen counter and took a bite. Flowers stood in a vase on the windowsill and the fridge had already been stocked with food. All he needed to get was a case of beer and he was set for a great time—bring on the parties.
* * * *
Cassidy made her way slowly back along the seafront, licking her ice cream as she strolled along. The summer sun warmed her skin as she stopped to lean on the sea wall. The beach was busy with families and groups of small children paddled in the shallows. Surfers in black wetsuits rode their boards on the waves, while younger children tried out boogie boards.
All around her, people enjoyed the sunshine and the sand. Automatically, she glanced at her wrist to check the time. A pale band of skin showed up against the honey tan of her arms and she remembered she’d deliberately removed her watch for the day. She’d hoped that without the constant reminder of the time, the day would pass less painfully.
She wondered how Ethan had spent their wedding day. Playing golf with his friends, perhaps, or shopping with Cassidy’s replacement. He might even have taken his new girlfriend away on the dream honeymoon that Cassidy had spent so long planning.
The sound of the seagulls wheeling overhead broke into her thoughts and, after jamming her straw sunhat more firmly onto her head, she resumed her stroll.
At least here in this small surfing resort she would be unlikely to run into anyone she knew. Perhaps by the time she returned to London to try to pick up some kind of thread of normality, she would be able to hold her head up high again. Ethan tossing her aside for some other woman a week before their wedding would hopefully be old news by then.
She dawdled along the seafront and tried not to think of all the tasks that lay ahead. She had to find a new job because Ethan worked in another department of the same company. A new place to live was on the agenda because she’d terminated the lease on her flat to move into his place, ready to start married life.
It was all too depressing. Cassidy didn’t know what she would have done if her oldest friend hadn’t told her to come to New Bay to stay in her vacant cottage.
Her ice cream finished, she wandered into the Surf’s Up café, reluctant to be alone with her thoughts back at the cottage. Some shade and a spot of people-watching would suit her fine for a little while.
An outside table stood empty in the far corner near the seawall under the shade of a gaily striped umbrella. Cassidy took a seat and pulled off her hat, dropping it on the table. She ruffled her hair with her hands in an attempt to restore some bounce to her smooth auburn bob.
The pretty, blonde waitress was busy taking an order from a group of surfers crowded together on a couple of tables near the outdoor service hatch. Cassidy sat back in the shade to wait her turn.
The male surfers were all wearing black or blue wetsuits, unzippered and rolled down to the waist. Pretty girls in tiny bikinis laughed and chatted as the group placed their orders.
One of the guys with his back toward her seemed strangely familiar. It was something about his stance and the untidy mop of dark brown hair. Cassidy sat up straight, willing him to turn around so she could see his face. Her heart thumped in a mix of fear and anticipation as she watched him chatting with the girls.
The waitress came toward her with a pad and pen in hand. Cassidy ordered a fruit juice, her attention still focused on the man with his back to her. Then, just as the waitress left to take Cassidy’s drink order inside the café, he turned around.
“Cassidy? Cassidy Jones?”
Her heart sank. It looked as if she had been wrong about not meeting anyone who knew her here in New Bay. Of all the people she hadn’t wanted to bump into.
“Hello, Josh, what a surprise to see you.” Josh Parker was definitely one of them.
He crossed the paved area between the tables to come and stand at her table, a bewildered expression on his face. “What brings you here? I thought you and Ethan were supposed to be headed for the Seychelles.” He looked around as if he expected Ethan to suddenly materialize beside her.
Cassidy bit her lip. It looked as if her famously work-obsessed boss hadn’t heard the news.
“I didn’t get married.” She tried not to sound terse. In her head, she’d practised how she would tell people and explain to them what had happened. Now, confronted in the last place on earth she had expected to see someone she knew, all her carefully chosen phrases deserted her. “Ethan dumped me.”
Josh looked confused. “So, you’re not married?”
Cassidy clenched her teeth. “No.”
“Oh.”
She did a mental eye-roll. For a supposedly intelligent man who’d built up a thriving dotcom marketing business, Josh could be mystifyingly dense. “Are you here on holiday?” She prayed he’d say no, that he was just a day tripper. He hadn’t taken a holiday to her knowledge for over a year.
“I’m here for three weeks. I’m staying in a friend’s cottage.” He made a vague gesture in the direction of the cliffs.
Cassidy’s heart sank. Not only was he staying in New Bay, but her cottage was on the cliffs overlooking the sea, too.
“What about you?” he asked.
“Same situation. My friend loaned me her cottage when she heard what had happened. I guess I’ll probably bump into you again. My cottage is on the cliffs as well.”
“Crazy coincidence.” Josh shook his shaggy brown hair at the strangeness of it all. “There are only half a dozen houses up there. Which one are you s
taying at? I’m throwing a big barbecue party in a couple of days’ time. You should come along.” He pushed his fringe out of his eyes and blinked at her.
“That’s very kind of you, but I’m not really up for partying at the moment.” She couldn’t think of anything she’d like less. What if there were other people from work there?
“Okay, but if you change your mind, I’m staying at the Seagull’s Nest. It’s the white cottage on the end of the row.”
He’d turned and started to walk away before Cassidy managed to transform her incredulous strangled yelp into a more sensible sound.
“But you can’t be!” she called after him.
He turned around and stared at her. “What do you mean?”
Cassidy felt giddy. She’d jumped up to attract his attention and now everything had gone a bit fuzzy around the edges. She gripped the edge of the table in a bid to stop the seafront from swaying around her. “You can’t be staying there—because that’s my cottage.” She half-fell and half-sat back in her chair.
Josh smiled, albeit a little nervously. “That’s impossible.”
It was plain from the look on his face that he either didn’t believe her or thought she was crazy.
“When Ethan and I broke up— ” she had been about to say ‘when he dumped me,’ but remembered in time to use the phrase she had spent so much time practicing. “My friend Tammy said I could use her cottage, which is the Seagull’s Nest at the top of the cliffs.”
Josh’s smile disappeared as he pulled out the chair opposite her and sat down. “Tammy offered me the use of her cottage for these three weeks ages ago. She said it would be empty!”
Cassidy stared at him. She felt sick. There was nowhere else she could go in a hurry. Well, she could go to her mother’s, but then she’d have to listen to repeated lectures on all the things she must have done wrong to make a fine young man like Ethan dump her. Joy.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
Josh frowned at her. “Do?”
“Well, I mean you can’t stay there now you know Tammy’s said I can have the cottage.” She really hoped he wouldn’t be difficult about this, but he had to see that he’d need to find other accommodation. Surely he could afford a hotel or something. She was the one who needed the peace and quiet away from everybody.
To Cassidy’s annoyance, Josh leaned back in his chair and sprawled his long legs out in front of him. “Sorry, no can do. I’m staying. This is my first break in eighteen months, it’s the height of the tourist season and everywhere else will be booked up.”
“But you can’t stay, I’ve unpacked and everything!” She wanted to scream and stamp her feet like a toddler in a tantrum. Why was he being so stubborn? He had to understand that there was no way they see could stay there together.
“I guess that explains the mystery underwear.”
Although she barely caught the half-mumbled words, her face immediately heated with indignation and embarrassment. “Have you been messing with my things?”
“I didn’t know they were yours,” he protested. “I went to unpack and found all the closets stuffed full of girly, frilly stuff. I thought they had to be Tammy’s. I put my clothes in the cupboards in the back bedroom.”
The waitress came back towards them carrying an orange juice and a plate of toasted sandwiches. Cassidy contented herself with glaring at Josh as he thanked the girl and took a bite of his food.
“But you can’t stay. You just can’t!” She started to feel like a parrot repeating the same phrase over again.
He chewed his food thoughtfully and swallowed. “I don’t see why not. It’s not as if you’re a stranger and we’d be doing our own thing anyway, so if you promise not to get under my feet then I’m sure we can work this out.”
“Get under your feet!” She wondered if anyone would notice if she shoved Josh off the top of the cliff. Get under his feet, indeed. What about him getting under hers?
“Anyway, it might be fun to have some company around the place,” he mused, an impassive expression on his face.
Cassidy wanted to pour her drink all over his untidy head. Company was the last thing she wanted. Tammy’s little picture-postcard cottage was her haven of peace and refuge, a place to take stock and figure out what she was going to do with herself now. But with Josh there, it would turn into party central.
Oh boy. Party. He’d said he was holding a party.
“I came here for a rest. To get away from everyone.” She began to feel desperate.
“No problem.” He finished the rest of his snack and beamed at her.
“So, you’ll cancel your party?” Relief flooded through her. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.
He gave a snort. “Are you kidding? I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks. Lots of my old friends are coming over especially.”
Cassidy put her head in her hands. She must have done something really bad in a former life to make fate so mad at her. Instead of becoming Mrs. Ethan James and jetting off to her new life, she was stuck in New Bay sharing a cottage with her boss— a man who appeared to be intent on inviting half the county over for a barbecue.
“Listen, as we’re going to be roomies we’ll just have to figure out a few compromises,” Josh announced in a bright voice as if everything had been settled already.
“I am not your roomie,” Cassidy muttered. “How many parties have you got planned? Or is there something worse I should be worried about?” Her voice rose a little.
Josh raised an eyebrow at her outburst. “Only two parties. One in a couple of days and one just before I go home. The rest of the time I promise you won’t even know I’m in the house.” He held his hands up in a gesture of appeasement.
She lifted her head from her hands and leaned back in her chair with her arms folded defensively across her chest.
“You promise? Peace and quiet? No all-night poker or anything.” She racked her brain for something else noisy and disreputable that Josh might possibly have planned.
A hurt expression appeared in his chocolate brown eyes. “I swear. I’ll be as good as gold. You won’t know I’m there.”
Funny, she’d never noticed his eyes before. They were dark like melted chocolate with long, thick black lashes. All the times she’d sat through meetings at work she hadn’t noticed him very much at all. Not as a person at all, really. He’d just been a figure in a suit at the head of the table who listened to the various presentations and agreed or dismissed proposals.
“Hey, dude, are you coming back to the waves?” One of the boys Josh had been talking to earlier came over and clapped him on the shoulder.
“Yeah, you go on ahead, Brad. I’ll be down in a minute.”
Cassidy blushed as the blond-haired surfer winked at her and zipped up his wetsuit.
“I’ll see you back at the cottage then, Cassidy,” Josh said.
“I expect so.” She picked up her bag ready to pay for her drink.
“I’ll get these.” Josh leapt to his feet and went over to the waitress while Cassidy put on her hat, ready for the walk back up the cliff road.
He came jogging back to her with his surfboard tucked under his arm.
“Thank you.” She was aware of the stiffness in her voice, but honestly, he wasn’t going to bribe his way out of hijacking her holiday just for the price of an orange juice.
“Would you like me to bring something back for supper?” he asked.
“I’ve made something for my supper already in the fridge.” She wasn’t about to start cooking for him if that was what he thought.
“Okay. Catch you later.” He shrugged and headed off down the stone steps that led to the beach.
Cassidy hitched her bag higher on to her shoulder and started the climb up the cliff. Down on the beach she could see Josh and his group of surfing buddies paddling out to catch the big Atlantic breakers as they crashed toward the shore.
In the distance, above the sound of the sea, she heard the faint chimes of the
church clock striking four. Cassidy blinked back a tear. She should have been wearing her designer wedding dress and greeting her guests now. Instead, all she had to look forward to was supper on a tray and her boss for company.
Astraea Press
Pure. Fiction.
www.astraeapress.com
