Jude and I glanced anxiously at each other. Katrina seemed flustered; her voice was more jittery than normal. I wasn’t sure whether that was a good or a bad thing.
‘Have you spoken to your boss?’ Jude asked, taking control.
‘Yes! Just got out now. Gosh, what a morning; my feet haven’t touched the ground. What with sureties from banks and solicitors’ letters, etc.’
The sun, which had made one of its brief appearances, slipped behind a cloud and I found myself shivering.
Jude looked at me grimly. We hadn’t been in touch with any banks or solicitors. I reached for his hand. He squeezed back and cleared his throat.
‘Would that be your solicitor, Katrina?’ His voice was so heavy with fading hope that I thought my heart would break.
‘No, not ours.’ There was a pause on the line. ‘Oh gosh, Jude and Nina, I wish I could tell you more, but I can’t.’
‘So what can you tell us?’ I said, fighting to keep the frustration from my voice.
‘I can say that the auction is cancelled and—’
‘Yes!’ Jude grabbed hold of my face and kissed my cheek and in his haste we almost missed Katrina’s next words …
‘And I can tell you that the Brightside Cove lifeboat house has been sold.’
I froze. Jude’s face drained of colour. ‘But …’ His eyes narrowed in confusion. ‘I thought you liked our idea, I thought you were on our side.’
Katrina made a small whimpering noise. ‘I did. I do! But an offer came in unexpectedly this morning. It’s too good to refuse. Or rather, it’s too good for my boss to refuse. It’s this year’s budget, you have to understand,’ she said beseechingly. ‘Things are really tight.’
‘So we lose a treasured landmark, a building that has sat at the heart of this community for over a century, because of this year’s budget?’ Jude shook his head in disgust. ‘To some rich developer? How short-sighted.’
‘I know you’re disappointed, but try to stay positive,’ Katrina began, ‘you don’t know what will happen next.’
The offer would have come from Campion Carmichael, I realized with a jolt. He knew we were meeting with the council today. Jude’s little damp trick yesterday had clearly not been enough to put the surveyors off. The thought of Mr Carmichael’s smug face at getting one over on us made me feel quite ill. And the second thought – of him spending time in Brightside Cove on a regular basis – made me feel even worse.
‘I’m afraid we’ve got a pretty good idea,’ I said with a sigh.
‘Please sit tight and don’t do anything rash.’ Katrina apologized again and then rang off, claiming she had another call waiting and wishing us the best.
Jude and I sat in a despair-filled silence for a few seconds.
‘Oh, Nina,’ he groaned.
‘We could try to find out who’s bought it,’ I suggested. ‘On the off-chance it isn’t Mr Carmichael.’
‘We could,’ Jude agreed. ‘But right now I can only concentrate on one thing.’
He fixed his eyes on me and tucked a breeze-ruffled strand of hair behind my ear.
‘What’s that?’ I said softly.
‘That you’ll soon be leaving Brightside Cove for Scotland. I’ll wake up one morning and you’ll be gone and this …’ He waved a hand between us. ‘This will all be like a dream. I suppose it always felt as if it was too good to be true. Like the sort of happy ending that happens to other people.’
I swallowed a lump in my throat. He seemed to be dismissing us. Not even giving us a chance. And the sad thing was that I knew he was right. I would be at least five hundred miles away. Maybe if we’d known each other longer we’d have had a more solid foundation on which to build a strong relationship. But we’d barely even kissed. And I’d be leaving in a matter of days for the rescheduled press trip and to shoot my last scene for Victory Road. There was no time. No time for us.
There seemed to be nothing else left to say. We finished our drinks in silence and gathered our folders with our rejected plans in them and prepared to leave.
Just then the sun came out and a shaft of sunlight touched Jude’s face. His lovely face with his golden lashes and caring hazel eyes, which flashed with a strength of passion I’d never seen before, and that tiny silver scar above his ear. And I felt a sob begin to build in my chest. Forget everything I’d just thought. I couldn’t give up on him. I couldn’t walk away from the man who had begun to mean so much to me in a few short weeks.
‘Jude,’ I said in a shaky voice, reaching a hand to his chest, ‘we might have lost the boat house, but there’s no need to lose each other.’
He placed his hand over mine and slowly removed it. ‘I put my heart and soul into that campaign and I lost. And when you go to Scotland I’ll lose you too, whether you realize it or not. You’re entering the next phase of your life. You’re going to be a huge star, Nina, just as you deserve; I don’t want to be the one to hold you back. I want to be the one who sets you free.’
I thought my heart would break as he kissed my cheek and scooped up his car keys.
‘And don’t I get a say?’ I said, conscious of my knees going all wobbly.
He turned and gave me a smile tinged with regret. ‘It’s for the best, Nina.’
I said nothing. I watched him walk away and I said absolutely nothing. My mind had gone blank and I could think of no words that would make him change his mind.
It was only after I saw his van pull away from the side of the road that the words came. Isn’t that always the way? I could have kicked myself. Why hadn’t I remembered my mantra: be more Meryl? What would Meryl Streep have done? One thing was for certain, she wouldn’t have let a man she loved walk away from her without a fight. And now I had a sinking feeling that I’d left it too late to say anything.
I paused outside the door of Beaver’s Barn, key in hand. My plan was to go in and strip the beds ready for the next guests – two retired lecturers, apparently, on a walking tour of the south-west. But a wave of exhaustion hit me and I changed my mind. The Prosecco had left my mouth dry and I wanted nothing more than a cup of tea and a lie on my bed for half an hour to revive my spirits. But before I could make a move, the door to Penguin’s Pad opened and Molly flew out furiously, wearing a Christmas jumper, a pleated tartan skirt and a paper crown, the sort you get from a cracker. My heart plummeted. Today was the Christmas photo shoot. Theo had asked Archie to help out, modelling as part of a happy family with Molly and Ellis. No prizes for guessing what had happened …
‘Have you heard from Archie?’ she called, storming towards me.
I shook my head. ‘Not since yesterday.’
Actually, I thought with a niggle of guilt, I should have called him this morning, to check he was okay, but what with Phil Turner arriving and then the council meeting, I hadn’t had a moment to stop and think about Archie.
‘Me neither.’ She came to a halt in front of me, her eyes blinking with unshed tears. ‘You told me to give him a chance. Well, that worked out well. Last time I listen to you.’
She folded her arms, her ribs rising and falling with emotion.
I rubbed a soothing hand on her arm, feeling responsible for Archie’s behaviour.
‘I’m sorry, Molly. He had an email from a competitor and it seemed to upset him. He dashed off saying that something had come up and he was going to deal with it once and for all.’
‘Something’s come up?’ She fumed. ‘Something’s come up? Well, you can tell him from me that when I see him there’ll be something else coming up: my boot up his backside. I’ve had it with him. He has had his last chance. I need someone who means what he says, who keeps his promises, who is prepared to actually spend time with me. And Ellis. In fact, no that’s not true, I don’t need a man at all. I have had it with men. Knobs, the lot of them.’
It was all I could do not to burst into tears myself. What a mess. What a bloody mess.
‘You’re quite right,’ I managed to say. ‘I don’t blame you.’
‘Oh bloody hell, Nina!’ She rushed over to sit beside me and flung her arms around me. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take it out on you. It’s not your fault. It’s just I get so protective of Ellis. He’s in there sitting under the Christmas tree trying not to rip into the pretend presents that Kate has wrapped up. And he was so looking forward to having his picture taken with Archie.’
‘Oh no, that’s terrible,’ I wailed, letting my tears drip on to my lap.
‘Exactly.’ Molly’s chin was trembling with the strain of not letting her own emotions out. ‘That’s why I get so upset. He’s been through a lot in his four years and I’m constantly feeling guilty that we’re not living the life I planned.’
I cried quietly into her shoulder, feeling overwhelmed. So much had happened over the last few days, it was no wonder I was over-wrought. From landing my dream role, albeit at the price of leaving Brightside Cove, to finding out about Dad and Tim, to fighting and losing our battle for the boat house. And then letting Jude slip through my fingers. I knew exactly how Molly felt: there seemed to be no plan, no structure to my existence either. It struck me suddenly that I wasn’t the leading lady in my own life and perhaps it was time I did something about that.
The thought was so ridiculous that I felt a bubble of hysteria rise to the surface.
‘Planning is overrated,’ I said, wiping my tears away and squeezing out a hint of a smile. ‘Perhaps we should take a leaf out of Eliza’s book and just be mermaids instead.’
‘Yeah, Siren Sisters unite.’ Molly sniffed and a smile spread over her face. ‘Perhaps I’d be better off with a merman.’
‘It would certainly solve the knob issue,’ I said with a snort.
We both laughed loudly then and only stopped when we heard the rattle of an engine, followed by the sound of a handbrake being applied roughly.
‘I’d better go and see who it is,’ I said with a sniff. ‘How red is my nose?’
‘What did you say, Rudolph?’ Molly grinned. ‘I’ll come with you. Between my Christmas jumper and your red nose in early May, we should see them off quickly.’
Together we walked around to the front of the cottages into the courtyard to find Archie banging on the front door of Driftwood Lodge. His Range Rover wasn’t here, though, which was odd. He seemed to have arrived in a beaten-up old Ford Fiesta the colour of mud.
‘Shit,’ Molly muttered. She smoothed her hair down and rubbed a finger under each eye. ‘Now what do I do?’
‘Up to you,’ I said with a smile. ‘You said you weren’t going to listen to me again.’
He turned at the sound of our footsteps on the gravel and bounded over, a huge smile spread across his face.
‘You’re late,’ Molly said flatly. ‘Ellis had given up hope.’
‘I’ll make it up to him. Don’t be mad at me, please,’ he said, wincing. He dropped to his knees in front of Molly, clasping his hands together. ‘It couldn’t be helped, I promise.’
She folded her arms, doing her utmost to stay cross. ‘Not that old chestnut. Get up, you fool. I know you’re only trying to look up my skirt.’
He grinned and got to his feet. ‘Okay, Neen?’
I shrugged. ‘I’ve had better days, to be honest.’
He wrapped his arms round me. ‘Bear with me; I just need to talk to Molly in private.’
I started to move away, but Molly grabbed my arm to force me to stay. ‘You might be a nice guy but I don’t need this, Archie. Why are you in that old car, by the way?’ she added, wrinkling her nose.
He looked over his shoulder and beamed proudly. ‘I sold the Range Rover and the vintage Triumph I had restored and I sold some other things too. And I feel …’ He puffed his chest out. ‘I feel on top of the world.’
I gasped. ‘You sold your business, didn’t you?’
Archie grinned. ‘Yep. Time for a new challenge. Someone wanted it more than me, made me an offer I couldn’t refuse and I thought, Why not?’
Molly looked confused. ‘Hold on. You sold two cars and a business and all you bought was that old banger?’
‘For now, yes.’
‘Why?’
I suppressed a smile. That was our Molly, direct as ever.
‘Well,’ Archie began nervously, ‘my thinking was this: you want to learn to drive and the Range Rover is far too big for a beginner.’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t want you to pay for driving lessons for me. I thought you understood.’
‘I’m not. I’m going to give you one. A lesson! I’m going to teach you a lesson. Oh damn.’ My poor brother looked to me for help. ‘I am so useless at this.’
‘I think Archie is trying to offer you driving lessons.’ I laughed, looping my arm through both of theirs so we could all go and examine the little brown car.
‘I bought it because it matches your eyes,’ said Archie.
‘Not because it matches your bullshit, then?’ Molly retorted. Then instantly blushed. ‘I’m sorry, that was rude. I’m useless at this too. I’m seriously touched that you’d want to spend your time teaching me to drive.’
‘I can’t think of anything I’d like more.’
I looked away discreetly while Molly and Archie fell into each other’s arms and kissed. And managed to squash a mild pang of envy that mine and Jude’s encounter this morning hadn’t ended so romantically.
A downstairs window at Penguin’s Pad opened and Kate’s head popped out, followed immediately by Ellis’s below her. Kate quickly slapped a hand across Ellis’s eyes and stuck a thumb up at me.
‘Okay, okay,’ I said, tapping Archie’s back. ‘I think you’ve got me back for that nude scene in Silent Witness now. I’ve had enough of the floor show, thanks.’
‘And there’s some plastic mistletoe in here for you to canoodle under,’ Kate put in from across the courtyard. ‘Come on, I can’t hold off from letting Ellis tear into the mocked-up parcels for much longer.’
‘Oh heavens,’ said Molly, adjusting her skirt. ‘I do hope he understands that they’re not really presents or this could get very messy. Let’s get it over with.’
‘Before we go in …’ Archie reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and retrieved a small package wrapped in red paper. ‘I do have a real present. One he can open.’
Molly’s face went all gooey. ‘Oh, Archie. He’ll be chuffed to bits. Shall I put it under the tree?’
She went to take it off him, but he held on to it.
‘It’s a Mickey Mouse toy,’ he said.
‘He loves Disney!’ she beamed.
‘I know.’ Archie swallowed. ‘Nina told me. The thing is, Mickey isn’t the actual present. It’s to represent something.’
I felt a surge of joy, guessing where this was going. I was so proud of my brother; only I knew how hard it was for him to make this sort of gesture.
‘Is it me, or are you talking in riddles today?’ Molly wrinkled her nose and looked from Archie to me.
He let go of the parcel. ‘I hope you aren’t cross. Again. But I’ve booked a trip to Euro Disney in June. For you and Ellis.’
‘Oh, Archie.’ Molly’s eyes brimmed with tears. ‘Just me and Ellis?’
‘Well.’ He ran a finger round his collar. ‘I could come along too? If you like.’
She nodded, her eyes shining. ‘I like. We’d both like that.’
They kissed again and Archie said he’d be in in a minute after he’d had a quick word with me, and Molly ran back into Penguin’s Pad.
‘So.’ I pulled my brother into a hug. ‘You’ve sold up completely?’
He nodded. ‘I could have kept part of it: the guy who bought me out suggested I keep the medical cleaning side as they don’t have any experience in that industry. But I decided against it. I think I’d be constantly looking to see what they were up to with
my old business. I decided a clean break is better. And also – doctor’s orders.’ He looked at me sheepishly and held his hands up at my horrified expression. ‘The hospital picked up a heart murmur. Don’t panic. As long as I make a few lifestyle changes, I’ll be fine.’
‘That’s as may be, but I think you should tell Molly before you go any further.’
Archie blushed. ‘She knows. We were chatting and she told me that her father had heart problems, and before I knew it I was confiding in her.’
My throat thickened with emotion. Amazing. I grinned at him. I could tick him off my worry list. He was going to be fine. They were going to be fine; another match made in Devon.
‘You’d better go in and play happy families under the Christmas tree, then,’ I said, forcing a smile. ‘While I go in and book my train to London next week to go and film my final scene in Victory Road.’
‘In a sec. But first I want to say something. All my life at the back of my mind there’s been this feeling that I had to do better than Dad. I was going to behave better, look after my family better, and never run away from anything. But actually I have been running away. I’ve thrown my all into my career, used my hectic life as a way of keeping relationships at arm’s length. And I think you do the same.’
‘Me?’ I retorted. ‘That’s not true.’
‘So you’re going to make a go of things with Jude, then?’ he challenged. ‘Even though you’ve lost out on the boat house?’
‘I … well, it doesn’t make sense,’ I said, flustered. ‘We don’t really know each other that well and everyone knows that long-distance relationships are hard to maintain.’
‘One thing I’ve learned from Dad and Tim is that what life comes down to at the end of the day is love. Nothing else matters. Nothing.’ He stared at me earnestly.
‘Hold on.’ I frowned. ‘How did you know we’d lost the boat house—’ I interrupted myself with a gasp. ‘Did you …? Are you the one who bought it?’
‘No.’ He pulled a large old-fashioned key ring out of his pocket, hung with two pewter-coloured keys and handed it to me. ‘You are. Or rather we are, I bought it with part of your pension fund and some of the proceeds from the sale of my company.’
A Match Made in Devon Page 42
