Page 63 of Second Chance Summer
‘What? Oh, shit.’ He pulled a face. ‘I’d lost track of time. Sorry. Forget it.’
‘No, Étienne! I can alter my flight home. If you can get here, you and the girls could have Samphire Cottage because we’ve almost finished renovating it.’
‘You’vebeen renovating a cottage?’
‘Only the odd lick of paint and some styling. And don’t worry about flights – I’ll talk to Sam and Richie. Between us all we’ll get you here. I want you to comesomuch and actually it would fit in with some new plans. I’ve been invited to open … to help with a craft fair next Saturday so I was planning to stay on a few more days.’
‘You’re opening a craft fair?’ Étienne echoed, his brow creasing in concern. ‘This all sounds like serendipity, but Lily, are you absolutelysurewe’re not causing you trouble by disrupting your plans? What about work? The business?’
‘The business? Oh, that can wait for a couple of days. I’ll phone Richie and sort it.’
He peered at her. ‘Lily, are yousureyou’re OK?’
‘Why?’
‘Because …’ he began, before murmuring, ‘Nothing. Don’t worry. If you’re certain we won’t add to your stress, we’d love to come. Now, I need to eat this doughnut and get back to the blood and guts in A&E.’ He held up the doughnut, squeezing it so the jam oozed out.
‘Do you mind not doing that, please?’ Lily muttered.
He gave a wicked grin. ‘Send me the details when you can, but please don’t pile pressure on yourself over this visit – you sound as if you’ve enough on your plate already. I won’t tell the girls until it’s all arranged. They’d be totally wild with excitement and refuse to sleep at all.’
Lily ended the call and heaved a sigh. She was ecstatic at the prospect of seeing the twins, yet her elation was tingedwith dismay. Étienne was astonished she was putting anything other than the business first. Perhaps, she thought with sadness, he didn’t trust her to keep her word.
Well, this time, she would. She’d move heaven and earth to make sure Étienne and her nieces found some way of reaching Stark – and she would also show the islanders that she was far from the person portrayed on TV.
Nothing would stand in her way.
There was more serendipitous news later that afternoon that made Lily feel she was obviouslymeantto stay. One of the islanders had been offered a last-minute medical appointment on the mainland and was only too keen to take her place on the Friday flight.
Sam had put the word out to Elspeth via the radio the previous evening. By now, everyone on Bryher – and probably beyond – would know she was staying longer. Any illusion of privacy was blown out of the water, but that couldn’t be helped. She was, after all, going to be the star guest at the craft fair.
Étienne had managed to get spaces for him and the girls on a late afternoon plane from Exeter for the following Friday, so they were sorted. She only needed to ask Sam if they could stay at the retreat, but first she needed to text Penny to confirm she’d be able to attend the craft fair, and then call Richie.
He was lounging in her office chair, his West Bromwich Albion mug on her desk. Lily decided not to say anything about him having commandeered her office temporarily.
‘Hello, you look very well,’ he said cheerfully. ‘The seaside is doing you good. Sea air is a tonic for all ills, my nanna says.’
‘Your nanna is a wise woman,’ Lily replied. ‘Actually, I’ve been busy painting.’
Richie beamed. ‘Oh, how lovely. Watercolours?’
Lily laughed. ‘Um, a bit – though yesterday it was emulsion.’
Richie pouted. ‘Emulsion … okayyy. Was it some kind of experimental art class?’
‘In a way,’ Lily said, feeling rather guilty for teasing him. She didn’t think he’d understand if she admitted to helping paint the cottages. ‘I didn’t call you to tell you about my artistic efforts. There’s been a slight change of plan.’
‘Slight?’ His expression turned wary. Lily knew she was throwing him a succession of curve balls. Well, it would do him good. She’d been too predictable over the past few months.
‘Yes, Étienne wants to bring the twins over for a long weekend, but it means I need to stay on until next Monday. I’ve already amended my flight home. Another islander wanted to swap as it suited them better so that’s fine. I don’t think there’s anything you can’t handle, is there? I can do all my scheduled meetings over FaceTime.’
‘Oh …’ He was clicking the top of his lilac biro anxiously. She knew that look. ‘I’ll double-check. The director of our ad agency is coming in to present the Christmas campaign but we can take the meeting if you like.’
‘Are you sure?’ she asked.
‘We can handle it and brief you later … only I thought you’d like to know as you usually want to be in the thick of those meetings.’
Lily loved meeting – and grilling – the ad agency creatives but she couldn’t be in two places at once, and while the prospect of missing the next one gave her a flutter of anxiety, she squashed it down. ‘I’m sure you and the team can deal with it very well. I have total confidence in you.’
