The South West Series Box Set

by Rebecca Paulinyi

  I found the fireworks!

  Jasmine replied almost instantly, which made Beth laugh to herself in the darkness of her bedroom: it was nearly midnight, and if it had been about anything else but a boy she was sure Jas would have ignored it until the next day - and probably forgotten even then, until Beth had reminded her.

  OMG. Need details!! Knew there’d be a man on the scene before long!

  Too many details to share, but fireworks were definitely exploding!

  Phone call tomorrow evening - we’ll have wine and share everything. Jx

  Chapter 15

  Ten minutes before she had to leave for work, she was surprised to hear a knock on her front door. Considering that, in order to get to her front door, you had to come through the fish and chip shop, it was not something that had ever happened before. Post for her - bills, mainly - went to the shop too, and so she had no idea who could possibly be rapping on her door so early in the morning.

  When she opened the door, her mouth dropped slightly, and she only had a second to recover before the woman pushed her way in and closed the door behind her.

  “Good morning, Elizabeth.”

  “Mum. Hi. What are you doing here?” She got over her initial shock and reached over to give her mum - who she saw was ominously equipped with a roller suitcase - a hug.

  “I thought I’d visit my daughters, since they both decided to up and move to the middle of nowhere - although you failed to tell me you lived above a chip shop.”

  “It didn’t seem relevant,” she said, glancing up at the clock on the wall. “Mum, I’m sorry, I’ve got to dash to work right now. How did you even manage to get up here, anyway?”

  “The boy downstairs knew what was good for him and let me in the door at the bottom. Are you going to complain about me seeing my daughter?”

  “No, mum, of course not. Look, why don’t you go over to Lee’s, she should be at home, and I’ll come round after work? Are you staying?”

  “That was the plan, although I guess I’ll have to check into a hotel.”

  “Stay with Lee, mum, I’m sure she’d love you to,” Beth said, inwardly not so sure she was saying the right thing. “I’d offer here but I only have the sofa…”

  “If I can ever find that cottage of hers, I guess I’ll do that.”

  Beth did her best to give her mother hurried directions as they walked down the steps, giving Sam a sharp glare behind her mum’s back.

  “I’ve got to run, mum, or I’ll miss the ferry over and be late. I’ll see you this evening - love you!”

  She dashed off without looking back, and only when she was safely on the ferry did she pull out her phone.

  Mum’s in town, sent her your way, sorry!! Be warned, she has a suitcase. X

  The shocked face symbols that came back made Beth laugh, and although she felt a little guilty for landing Lee with their mother for the day, she let the feeling float away and stood leaning against the rail, feeling the wind blowing through her hair and letting images of last night’s kiss wash over her yet again.

  ***

  It was only as she got in her car to drive to Lee’s after a busy day at work that she remembered the promised phone call with Jasmine, and before setting off, pulled out her phone to fire off a text.

  My mother turned up, so the phone call will have to be late-ish - say ten? I’ll need the wine by then! B xx

  Perfect - so long as you don’t forget any steamy details!!

  Oh, they’re ingrained on my mind ;)

  She laughed at the exchange as she drove out of Dartmouth, with the windows down and the local radio on, and sang to her heart’s content to every repetitive pop song that was played.

  ***

  “I just don’t understand what your plan is, Elizabeth,” Tina said for the millionth time.

  “There isn’t a plan, mum - thanks James, this is delicious,” she added, tucking in to the risotto James had served them.

  “It is very good, James,” Tina said, before turning back to Beth. “But there has to be some sort of plan, surely, you can’t just wander through life aimlessly.”

  “That’s pretty much what you thought I was doing before,” Beth said, with a slight irritation to her voice. “At least now I’m happy.”

  “Which is good, I want you to be happy, but I don’t want you to look back and wish you’d done something with your life-”

  “Mum!” Lee interrupted, midway through feeding Holly a spoonful of the risotto. “You can’t say things like that. Beth is doing something with her life. She’s got a job she loves, that’s a great start.”

  “That’s all well and good, Shirley, but is it a career, though?”

  “Maybe,” Beth said, shooting her sister a look of gratitude. “Maybe not. I don’t know right now. I needed a change, and that is what I did. I’m standing on my own two feet, I’m paying my rent, I’m putting food in the fridge, and that’s the last I’m going to say on the subject.”

  “Well-”

  “Mum.” Lee’s tone was sharper than before, and it had the desired effect; Tina paused, ate a forkful of risotto and let the conversation move on.

  Beth breathed a sigh of relief.

  In the kitchen, leaving the granddaughter and nearly son-in-law to entertain Tina Davis, Lee and Beth pretended to wash up, while drinking small glasses of wine and sighing about their mother.

  “She thinks I’m throwing my life away,” Beth said.

  “She thought the exact same thing about me, a year and a half ago.”

  “Yeah, but yours was just a blip on your legendary path to greatness-”

  “Beth-”

  “No, but seriously, the stakes were higher but she still felt you’d done something. With me, she’s convinced I’ll never amount to anything. And the thing is, Lee, I don’t know what I want to amount to. I don’t know what it is that I want to be successful in.”

  “But you’ll figure that out. If you’re happy, that’s all that matters. You could tell her about your writing…”

  “And have her laugh about it? I don’t think so - besides, that’s just a hobby, it’s not something that she’s going to think is worthwhile.”

  “You know she only cares…”

  “That’s usually my line, when you’re ranting!” Beth said, downing the glass of wine. “Don’t let me have any more, no matter how much she drives me crazy - I’ve got to drive back later this evening.”

  “Sure you don’t want to stay the night?” Lee said, but she laughed as she did.

  “I think I’ll be okay, thanks - anyway, your spare room is taken!”

  “Hmmm, I think I need to thank you for that one, don’t I?”

  Beth laughed and threw a tea towel at her sister.

  “Come on, or they’ll come looking for us. You dry, I’ll wash.”

  ***

  By the time she returned home that evening she was drained - not just from the night before, but from trying to be constantly cheerful around her mother who, despite her best intentions, didn’t seem to be able to avoid the occasional judgmental comment.

  Pouring herself a far larger glass of wine - despite the fact it was a work night - she settled herself into an armchair and dialled Jasmine’s number.

  It only took three rings for her to answer the phone.

  “Beth!” she half-screamed down the phone. “You’ve been gone forever already!”

  Beth laughed; “It’s really not been that long. Is work that boring without me?”

  “Deathly so. No-one goes out for lunch: apparently the done thing is to eat at your desk and keep working - clearly we weren’t in the loop.”

  “Or we just valued our sanity,” Beth said, picturing Jas with a similar sized glass of wine on the other end of the phone.

  “Well, mine’s gone out the window now that you’ve gone. They’ve not even replaced you yet.”

  “I’m not sure they’ll bother,” Beth said with a sigh. “I’m not sure they even needed me, to be honest.�
�

  She could say it out loud now, now that she had a job she enjoyed and a hobby that made her excited to have free time.

  “Anyway, enough about work.” Jas, as usual, breezed past the issues to get to what she wanted to discuss. “You’ve had fireworks, I want the details!”

  Beth laughed. “There have definitely been fireworks…”

  “I thought you were being picky, but if you’ve actually found them…”

  “So it started in the middle of the ocean,” she said, knowing Jas was hanging on every word, and proceeded to tell her every detail of their explosive kiss in the Devon sea.

  “Oh. My. God. I can’t believe you - you move away and then become exciting?”

  “Hey! I’ve always been exciting!”

  “Not kissing gorgeous men, in your underwear, in the middle of the sea, late at night exciting, Beth. Come on, that’s a whole other level.”

  Beth giggled and drank some more wine, enjoying the discussion immensely. “I guess you’re right,” she said. “It felt pretty damn exciting.”

  “I bet it did! So, are you meeting him again? Or is he remaining a mysterious stranger…”

  “Definitely meeting again. Drinks on Saturday - I’ll keep you updated!”

  After ten minutes or so of chatting about Jas’s boyfriend and their potential future break up, Beth began to yawn and made her apologies.

  “I’m exhausted, Jas, sorry - too much of my mother.”

  “Too much sexual tension with handsome men if you ask me,” Jas said. “Fine, but I expect updates next week!”

  She promised, and after finishing off the glass she left it by the sink to be washed up tomorrow, along with a few mugs and a plate from the previous couple of days. Bed was just too inviting to consider washing up at eleven at night.

  Chapter 16

  By half-five on Saturday, Beth had emptied out nearly every outfit she owned in preparation for her maybe-date that night. She thought she’d settled on an option, but half an hour of throwing clothes around later she had completely rethought it. There was a fine drizzle in the air - lots of complaints about the typical English weather had been bandied around town that morning - and the dress she’d planned to wear didn’t seem so appropriate anymore. By half-six, she had finally made a different choice and was in the process of getting dressed, pulling on the white jeans while hopping around to see the clock in the other room.

  She swore loudly, realising if she didn’t leave in fifteen minutes she was going to be late, and pulled on a black lacy top, before frantically brushing her hair and rummaging through a basket of make-up to find what she was looking for. She didn’t even look at the mess she had created in her bedroom - it wasn’t worth stressing about, it could be dealt with tomorrow. That was what Sundays were for, after all, weren’t they? Clearing up the messes from the rest of the week!

  A quick bit of red lippy and a slightly smoky eye, and she felt ready to face the world - and the attractive, mysterious Caspian who made her blood sizzle.

  Well, as ready as she was ever going be.

  In the end, she was five minutes early; with her hood pulled up high and her coat buttoned up over the outfit that had taken so long to pick, she entered the bar at The Fort, a little inn that was a ten minute walk from her front doorstep, down a little side street of Dartmouth. With a mist hanging in the air, the lights in the window looked particularly inviting, and with one last, reassuring deep breath, she stepped over the threshold.

  He was there, even though it was five to seven, sat on a bar stool with his feet solidly on the ground. She watched him for a moment, sat in a dark blue shirt and black jeans, with his collar open. One hand was wrapped around a pint, and the other tapped on the wooden bar beneath it.

  There was a man sat next to him, but two spare stools the other side, and so she decided to play along with the charade of meeting by accident; she took the seat on the other side, with the man in between them, and ordered a glass of wine. She felt, rather than saw, his eyes on her, and as the barman poured her a generous glass of rosé, she felt his hand on the small of her back, and heard his voice not far from her ear.

  “I’ll get this, and the same again for me please,” he said, his voice smooth and deep and able to melt Beth right into the seat.

  “Fancy meeting you here,” Beth said, taking a sip of the slightly-sweet rose, angling her knees a little to face him.

  “A coincidence indeed,” he said, handing over his card to pay for the drinks. “You look lovely this evening.”

  Beth knew she was blushing, but didn’t look away. “Thank you,” she said. And then the first thing that came into her head popped out - and she couldn’t even blame the wine yet for letting words just spill from her mouth with no thought. “You look good with your clothes on too,” she said, grinning.

  “You’ve seen me with my clothes on before, but I’ll take it as a compliment.”

  “You should.”

  “So, Beth. Elizabeth.”

  “Ah, you remembered the ancient name, Caspian.”

  “And you remembered mine.”

  “Hard to forget…” For so many reasons, she thought, taking another sip of her wine as she felt his knee bumping against hers; even through the fabric of both their jeans, she could feel him there.

  “You moved to Dartmouth a few weeks ago from…”

  “Exeter, so not that far.”

  “And why Dartmouth?”

  “A feeling,” she said honestly. “A total feeling of peace when I looked out over the water. It helps that my sister works in Totnes, so I wasn’t going completely out of my comfort zone.”

  “Do you always make such massive decisions based on feelings?”

  “How come you get to ask all the questions?” she asked, shooting him a look over her wine glass. “I’ll answer that one, but then it’s my turn. No, I don’t always. It was the first time in a long time I’ve made a decision based on a strong feeling, and I’m very glad I did.”

  He nodded, drinking a mouthful of his beer but not asking anything else.

  “Where do you live?”

  “Strete,” he answered. “Just outside of Dartmouth. Although I’m away for work quite a lot of the time.”

  “What do you do?”

  “How many questions do you get?”

  “More than this.”

  “I’m a publicist,” he said. “Mainly for publishers, but a few other clients as well.”

  “Where do you go away to?”

  “London, Birmingham, occasionally Edinburgh, every now and then New York… I do a lot of my work over the internet, but sometimes it’s just got to be me in person.” His knee brushed against hers once more, and she couldn’t resist pressing hers back into his a little more firmly.

  “A powerful man - what makes you live down here the rest of the time then?”

  “Honestly? My mum.”

  Beth took that in for a minute, taking another drink from her glass before realising that, without having eaten dinner that evening, the wine was definitely going straight to her head.

  “My relationship with my mum isn’t quite as close as that,” she admitted. “I don’t think I would cope well with her round the corner.”

  “No?”

  “Oh I love her, don’t get me wrong, but she can be very… judgy. She was down here this week, in fact, and as much as she tried to keep it pleasant, she couldn’t help but tell me all the mistakes I was making with my life.”

  “You don’t look like you’ve made a mistake to me.”

  “I don’t feel like I’ve made a mistake. I’ve been more happy in the six weeks or so that I’ve been here than I have been in years.”

  He raised his glass to her, and she lifted hers to tap against it. “Sounds like you’re winning to me.”

  “I thought you were the winner,” she said with a grin, thinking back to that brief kiss he had taken as his prize.

  “I’m not sure I’m as happy as you are.” He paused, and finis
hed the beer in front of him. “I’m sorry, I don’t normally share quite so freely.” Their knees had been pressed together for so long now that it felt natural, and Beth couldn’t resist trailing her fingers across the black fabric covering his knee, just for a moment, as she spoke.