‘Yeah. I lied a bit.’
‘Why would you do this?’ I said, voice shrill. ‘You know that going to hang out on my not-even-ex’s island is not a “new adventure”. It’s the complete opposite. How could you possibly think this was okay?’
I chuntered on for a few more frantic minutes while we inched along the queue of vehicles exiting the port gates before finally pausing long enough for Blessing to answer.
‘We aren’t going to hang around for a few days. I lied a bit about that, too.’
‘What are you talking about?’I asked, debating whether I had time to jump out of the truck and run back onto the ferry before it set off back to Wales.
‘I reckoned three months would probably be long enough. To decide whether we wanted to stay permanently, that is.’
‘Can you see that this is really not the time to be cryptic?’ I had to grip my head to stop it from spinning.
‘Okay. Fair enough. We’re relocating Sherwood Street Food to the Isle of Siskin. On a semi-temporary basis. I’ve rented us a totally cute cottage on the seafront and secured enough bookings to see us through the next couple of months.’
‘What about all our bookingsin Sherwood Forest?’
‘I sorted them. All apart from the weddings. We’ll have to drive back for those.’
‘My house?’
‘Ben is looking for somewhere. His experience with us got him the manager’s job at Scarlett’s restaurant, and his mate, Jay, wants to move in, too. Jay’s a teacher, so his income is steady and they’ll pay proper rent. I mean, if you don’t mind. They might even want to buy it, if we decide to stay.’
‘You’ve never even been here before!’
‘Yeah. When I visited home for a couple of nights, the week after the grad party, it was here. My new home.’
‘You can’t do this. You can’t decide to simply move me and our business to a whole new place. It’s ludicrous. And way beyond controlling.’ I was aghast. Appalled. Secretly… a little excited?
‘Or…’ Blessing’s voice was soft ‘…what’s ludicrous is you still spending all those hours looking at websites and accounts you supposedly blocked months ago. Still in love with a man who loves you back. Anexceptionalman. Who lives in a place you not that long ago decided to try living in for a while, because you loved it so much, and then changed your mind because of some overblown loyalty to your best friend, despite her being perfectly capable of making her own decisions.’
‘You should have talked to me about this first,’ I managed to whisper through my strangled throat.
‘Yeah, well. I couldn’t be bothered with the weeks of arguing back and forth until you eventually gave in. This was way more fun.’
‘I’ve only packed four pairs of knickers.’
‘Pip says he’ll drive us back next week in his big truck to fetch what else we need.’
‘Pip knows about this?’
‘Look.’ She nodded towards the windscreen.
I glanced forwards, blinking until I could see past my stupefaction to the gates, now only one van in front of us.
There was a crowd of people waiting, as I’d have expected on the island, where anyone coming home or deliveries made were a big deal.
What I would never have expected as Blessing pulled to a stop right in front of them was that some of those people held a banner with the words,Welcome Emmie and Blessingpainted on it, and that the others were waving, cheering and grinning at us.
I sat there for a long, shell-shocked minute. In the end, Blessing got out and started hugging people and saying hello, shrugging and smiling in response to their frequent glances over at where I remained, frozen.
Eventually, Pip broke away from the gaggle of people, came right up to the cab and opened the door.
‘Emmie. I gather you’re a wee bit surprised.’
I couldn’t even turn to look at him. ‘I slept through the ferry.’
‘I hope waking up here was more of a dream than a nightmare. Do you need a hand getting down? Or shall I come up?’
