One Hot Summer: A heartwarming summer read from the author of One Day in December. Kat French
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Название: One Hot Summer: A heartwarming summer read from the author of One Day in December
Автор: Kat French
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
isbn: 9780007577637
isbn:
‘I love this,’ Alice said, tapping her fingers against a shot of a converted vintage grain lorry. ‘Where could I get a lorry from?’
‘Let’s not run before you can walk,’ Niamh cautioned, but her eyes shone with excitement that mirrored Alice’s as she closed the file. ‘Let’s start with the tree house and see how it goes.’
Alice knew it was sage advice and went to close the laptop lid, and then had second thoughts and flipped it open again.
‘Alice …’
‘Shh. I’m not going to search for wooden igloo’s again, promise.’ Her fingers flew over the keys and pressed enter.
‘What are you looking for then?’
Alice clicked on the first link that came up. ‘Robinson Duff.’
‘The country music star?’
It was hard to decide between looking at the screen and looking back up at Niamh. She chose the latter.
‘You’ve heard of him?’
Niamh blew her dark fringe out of her eyes. ‘Heard of him? Jesus, yes. Hasn’t everyone?’
Alice scanned the screen, her eyes slowly widening. ‘Everyone but me, it seems.’ Image after image of Robinson filled her screen; publicity shots, paparazzi shots, and fan pictures of him on stage playing to packed stadiums. Wow. Her mouth formed the word, even though no sound came out. ‘He’s pretty famous, isn’t he?’
‘I have his latest stuff on Spotify.’ Niamh reached for the TV remote and clicked through the on screen apps. ‘Just a sec …’
Music filled the room, followed by a voice that Alice recognised easily as that of the man she’d drunk rum with last night. It was a song she was vaguely familiar with from the radio, just as she’d been vaguely familiar with his name when he’d first said it. He must think her totally clueless to have not known precisely who he was from the get go. She certainly felt it now.
‘He’s the cowboy.’
Niamh nodded, humming along to the track. ‘Cowboy through and through.’
‘No, Niamh. He’s THE cowboy. The one who’s living in my house.’
To say Niamh looked shocked would be an understatement. She stopped humming abruptly, her brown eyes rounding to at least twice the size they usually were. ‘Robinson Duff is living in Borne Manor?’
Alice nodded. ‘Right this very minute, and for the foreseeable future.’
‘Have you heard him sing yet?’ Niamh’s fingers curled around Alice’s forearm. It was difficult to tell if she was actually breathing.
‘Not a dickie bird.’ It felt somehow disloyal to tell anyone, even Niamh, what Robinson had said about his career. She hadn’t realised last night quite how big a deal it was for him to give up on singing.
‘What the hell is Robinson Duff doing here in Borne?’ Niamh whispered, shaking her head in childlike wonder.
‘Beats me, but I’m pretty sure he wants to fly under the radar, so don’t tell anyone else, okay?’
Niamh drew a dainty cross on her red polka dot PJ top with her fingertip. ‘Cross my heart.’
By lunchtime, it was apparent that Niamh’s crossed heart wasn’t to be entirely trusted. Alice returned from the supermarket to find most of the residents of Borne cottages clustered on deckchairs and upturned buckets outside her caravan, and Pluto darting excitedly in and out of the trees.
‘Darling girl, you’re back!’ Stewie boomed from his fully reclined deckchair as she got out of the car and opened the boot. ‘Let me help you with those bags.’ He nudged the skinny goth teenager to his left in the ribs with his blue suede cowboy boot hard enough to shake him off his bucket onto the grass. ‘Hop to it, Ewan, there’s a lad.’
Ewan shot Stewie daggers as he clambered to his feet, wiping wet grass from his behind as he slouched over towards Alice.
‘Err, I’m okay, actually, thank you, Ewan, there’s not much,’ Alice murmured, looking at Niamh through narrowed eyes. ‘What are you all doing here?’
‘It’s your caravan warming!’ Niamh jumped to her feet and threw her arms wide, an equally wide and unconvincing da-da! smile on her face. ‘Surprise!’
Stewie followed her lead and offered up jazz hands, and Hazel, Ewan’s mother, nodded vigorously. Ewan, for his part, slumped back down onto his bucket and nodded once, lifting one shoulder in a half-assed way. For him, that counted as a show of enthusiasm.
‘Right,’ Alice said slowly, looking from one to the other. ‘So you’re all here to see me, yes?’
Three pairs of eyes flickered guiltily towards Borne Manor and its newly resident superstar, and then resolutely back to Alice. Hazel stood up from the caravan step, a jingle of bangles and beads as she shook out her floor-length skirt, the tiny mirrors around the hem clicking like a belly dancer’s hip scarf.
‘I thought you might like me to perform a blessing ritual,’ she said, rolling her shoulders gamely and closing her eyes.
Alice cleared her throat. ‘Err, I’m good, thanks, Hazel.’
Hazel opened one eye. ‘You’re sure?’
Alice unlocked the Airstream and opened the door. ‘Well, it’s not much, but you’re all welcome to come in,’ she said, knowing full well that none of her guests were remotely interested in seeing inside her new home. Niamh knew it well enough already, and the other three could barely drag their eyes away from Borne Manor in the distance.
‘Tea?’ Alice called out of the window when none of them moved to come inside.
‘Whisky?’ Stewie suggested instead, straightening his jet-black Elvis-style wig.
‘Out of luck, I’m afraid,’ Alice said, noticing the stonkingly huge John Wayne-style gold belt buckle he’d added to his outfit. Cowboy boots. Elvis wig. Country buckle. It was perfectly clear that Stewie’s attire had been chosen to make an impression on someone, and it sure wasn’t Alice. Hmm.
‘I hope no one takes sugar, I’m all out,’ she said, opening the overhead mug cupboard.
‘Shall I pop over to the manor and grab some?’ Hazel said, leaping up, only to find herself rugby tackled back down onto the step by Niamh.
‘I’ll go, I know where it is.’ Niamh smiled through gritted teeth, locked in battle trying to hold Hazel down.
Alice stepped into the doorway and watched her neighbours as they had what a fair number of people might term an actual fight on the Airstream step. СКАЧАТЬ