Page 17 of Second Chance Summer
Lit by fairy lights, the bar was now more respectably stocked with a choice of drinks. He added tonic to the generous measure of gin and chunks of ice from the bucket.
‘Enjoy!’ Sam said, almost too chirpily, pushing a bowl of roasted nuts and olives towards Lily.
‘Thanks.’
She didn’t know what to make of this transformation from grumpy local tomaître d’, and secretly thought it didn’t quite suit him. Nonetheless, hewastrying, even if a little too hard, so she’d better be grateful for that and not discourage him. Her earlier barbs must have hit home and her hopes lifted of spending her short stay on Stark a little more pleasantly than she’d expected.
‘I’ll be back in a moment,’ he said.
Half-expecting him to give a little bow, Lily watched him disappear through the door, leaving her alone in the bar.
For a minute, the silence was broken only by the rain and the occasional muffled boom of ‘the Bishop’.
Sam returned with a hastily handwritten card, which he placed in front of her.
‘Would you care to choose from the wine list? I’ve red, white or fizz. The good news is the white hasn’t travelled far, and even the red and fizz are from Cornwall.’
Pretending to deliberate carefully over the choice between three, Lily eventually plumped for a local white from the St Martin’s Island vineyard.
‘Good selection,’ he said.
‘I had an idea it would be. Thank you.’
Sam left her alone and music began to play from aspeaker on the bar: Nina Simone’s smoky tones purred out, melancholy and rich. ‘My Baby Just Cares for Me’ …
A lump formed in Lily’s throat. She wished he’d chosen anything but that; but how could he know it was the song Étienne had chosen to play at Cara’s funeral?
Her vision went a little blurry as tears welled in her eyes.
She rubbed her face with the back of her hand, wishing she’d brought tissues. Where could she find one? As she was looking around for a guest bathroom, she remembered there were the cocktail serviettes behind the bar.
Fanning her face to fight back the tears, she went behind the bar, searching for anything to stem the flow. Yes! There was a roll of blue kitchen paper. That would do. Thank God she hadn’t bothered with mascara.
‘Is everything OK?’
Swivelling round, a wad of kitchen paper bunched in her fingers, she was confronted by Sam’s anxious face. ‘Yes. I – um …’
He looked as embarrassed as she felt. ‘Are you alright?’
‘Yes. I – I could smell you chopping onions in the kitchen.’
‘There are no onions in the dinner tonight.’
Lily smiled weakly. ‘It was a joke. I’m fine. Absolutely fine. It’s the … er … song, you see.’
A deep frown. ‘Jazz makes you sad?’
‘No, I quite like it,’ she said hastily. ‘It’s just that it has some bittersweet associations for me.’ That was as far as she was prepared to go.
The song had ended and Nina had launched into ‘Sinnerman’.
Lily could see Sam was thrown off kilter. ‘I thought this would be soothing and, er, create the right ambience.’ He reached for his phone. ‘I’ll change it.’
‘You don’t have to. Really, it’s f––’
‘Fine. You said. Even so, I’ll play something else,’ he said quickly, as if he was eager to get out of her sight. He clearly couldn’t deal with emotion – not that Lily could either. ‘By the way, your starter is ready, if you’d like to come through to the dining room.’
With relief, she followed him into the dining room to one side of reception. While not large, it had the same air of rustic sophistication as her room. There were six tables, and all were laid with cloth napkins and glasses as if expecting guests.
