A Summer to Remember. Sue Moorcroft

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      He lowered his coffee cup, looking struck. ‘Maybe Lee told me that once. Does it make a difference?’

      ‘I think so. I feel closer to her than my few cousins on Dad’s side, which allows me a glimmer of insight into why your family closes ranks around Lee.’ Clancy still had to push aside a pinprick of hurt though. ‘It’s more about Lee than it is about me.’

      ‘Yeah.’ But he was frowning again. ‘But you’re just as entitled to a safe haven.’

      ‘Oh.’ The pinprick of hurt blossomed suddenly into warmth. ‘Thank you.’ Feeling in charity with him, she broke out a packet of chocolate Hobnobs, which led to more coffee making as neither of them really had enough of the first cup left to allow dunking. Nelson jumped up hopefully when he heard the packet rustle but lay down again with a sigh when none of the bounty came his way.

      Clancy resumed her seat and tried a less contentious subject. ‘I saw Genevieve at the B&B. It sounds as if her insurance company are playing ball OK. She’s moving into the B&B soon, isn’t she?’

      He shrugged. ‘Think so.’ He dunked a Hobnob and popped it into his mouth whole. After he’d chewed and swallowed he added, ‘She ended things between us.’

      ‘Oh!’ Clancy paused. So much for less contentious subjects. ‘I’m sorry.’

      ‘Thanks,’ he said moodily. ‘I think we were moving through the relationship at different speeds, but there’s something about being dumped, isn’t there?’

      ‘Yes.’ Her stomach gave the familiar lurch when she thought of Will. Will and Renée. ‘And when it’s a nice person who does the dumping, you wonder what that says about you.’

      His gaze flew to her face and he cursed under his breath. ‘Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t mean to—’

      ‘It’s OK.’ She buried her face in her coffee mug. Moving away from everything she knew had provided lots of distractions. Will had moved on in a brutally permanent way and so must she.

      Aaron selected another Hobnob. ‘Actually, Genevieve quoted you. Something about women not being defined by men.’

      ‘I did say that, but I was talking about myself, not her.’ She began to add something about his love life being none of her business, but then stuttered to a halt when the memory of their kiss in the garden flashed into her mind. That had been a tiny bit of his love life, and it had certainly been her business. Did he ever think of that when he was at De Silva House? Ever look at the nook just beyond the garden arbour …? ‘I hope nothing I said influenced her decision,’ she ended.

      Something flickered in his eyes, as if he were reading her mind. After a pause, he said, ‘I don’t think so. I was feeling that Genevieve was trying to manoeuvre me into asking her to move in. I didn’t want that – or not yet, anyway. When you came up with the B&B information, it got me out of that situation and apparently I let my relief show.’

      Clancy’s face heated up. ‘If I interfered, it was totally unwittingly—’

      He waved her words aside. ‘I’m not blaming you. Gen began demanding answers and I handled it badly. I was honest, I suppose, but not particularly gentle. She asked me if I loved her and I sort of became paralysed. So she ended things. I hate that me not wanting to commit definitely – or indefinitely – caused her pain but I can’t force feelings I don’t have.’ He dunked another biscuit.

      Clancy froze. His words had jolted her heart into an uncomfortable rhythm. ‘You feel bad because you can’t care for her as much as she wants you to?’ she clarified.

      ‘Basically.’ He popped the biscuit into his mouth.

      She felt clammy. ‘Why should you share your home with someone if you don’t want to?’

      He nodded as he swallowed. ‘That’s it. I live alone because I like it that way.’

      A sigh slipped out from somewhere deep within her heart. ‘That must be how Will felt too. Have you got someone else?’ She was probably getting all up in his business even voicing the question but he was being pretty open with her.

      His hand froze over the biscuit packet, his black eyebrows up in his hairline. ‘No! I haven’t cheated.’

      ‘That’s a significant difference.’ Now Aaron had provided the key to the puzzle she felt compelled to share what it unlocked. ‘Will does love someone else. Her name’s Renée. He’s loved her for years but she married a friend of his so he presumed it was hopeless. Then she came back into his life as an employee of an IsVid client. She was single again and his old feelings flooded back.’ She stopped to ease the tightness in her throat with a gulp of coffee. ‘He didn’t know how to tell me … so he kept quiet. I thought it was from malice but what if he couldn’t tell me out of affection? I found out about Renée in a particularly horrible way, but he couldn’t help how he felt about her and he couldn’t help how he felt about me.’ She suddenly realised that Aaron had abandoned the biscuits in favour of holding her hand.

      ‘That’s crappy for you,’ he said feelingly.

      ‘For him too,’ she acknowledged for the first time. She’d punished Will for something he couldn’t help; was punishing him still.

      Aaron seemed at a loss for an answer. When they’d sat in silence for several minutes, she got a hold of herself and introduced a new subject, one unlikely to lead to as much heart-searching as the last. ‘Do you know a couple of teenagers called Harry and Rory?’ Her voice came out reedy and she battled to make it sound normal as she explained how she’d met them. ‘They had me really worried when they didn’t come straight back up to the clifftop.’

      Aaron grinned ruefully, accepting her change of topic. ‘Harry Drew’s my second cousin’s son. He’s a live wire all right. I expect they hid out on Secret Beach to give you a scare.’

      She screwed up her forehead. ‘The beach at the foot of Zig-zag Path? I ran back to look and I couldn’t see them.’ She remembered the minutes of worry that she’d have to take action when it felt as if a wrong choice could mean the difference between life and death.

      ‘That’s Zig-zag Beach,’ Aaron said. ‘If you go off The Leap, which most of us have tried at some time, between where you land and Zig-zag Beach there’s a tiny cove that disappears at high tide. We call it Secret Beach. You can swim to Secret Beach from Zig-zag Beach if you don’t want to go off The Leap – which is about as high as those boards the Olympic divers go off, so not recommended for poor swimmers or anyone of a nervous disposition.’

      Glad to focus on a nice safe emotion like indignation, Clancy withdrew her hand from his large, warm one. ‘The little gits! I was running backwards and forwards like an idiot.’

      ‘Yes, they’re pranksters. They have too much time on their hands.’

      They chatted about the village for a little longer, then Aaron rose, clicking his fingers and interrupting Nelson’s snooze on the sofa, which he’d crept onto when no one was looking.

      She accompanied them to the door. ‘It’s a shame everyone focuses on the negatives of this village. No village hall, no pub, nothing for youngsters. But it’s beautiful! You have the sea on your doorstep, the salt marshes either side, flint and chalk cottages, pretty gardens and СКАЧАТЬ