‘Hold that order, my good man!’
Leah jumped and spun around to see which soul was brave enough to deprive her of her much-anticipated hobbit breakfast, only to find herself flanked by two grinning women. One had a high, perky ponytail that gleamed golden under the lights. She was bouncing on the balls of her feet and looking more than a little bit excited. The other woman was shorter, with huge, darkeyes and thick brown hair that cascaded over her shoulders in luxurious waves… and she wasdecidedlypregnant.
‘Connie?’ said Leah, peering at her. Yep. This was a face she recognised from their endless, glorious video chats. ‘And… Rosie?!’
They both nodded, grinning at her like a pair of Cheshire cats.
‘It’s so lovely to meet you at last!’ squealed Rosie, pulling Leah into a hug.
‘You too!’ said Leah, squeezing her back before pulling away to hug Connie. This was harder than it sounded and caused a great deal of giggling as they struggled to navigate the baby bump between them. ‘Thank you so much for all the goodies. It was such a lovely surprise. I got everything Will needed… but I kind of forgot about myself!’
‘Told you,’ said Rosie smugly.
Connie nodded.
‘And sorry I didn’t message last night,’ said Leah quickly. ‘I kind of conked out. I was just about to do it over coffee…’
She paused and frowned.
‘Hey… why exactly did you just cancel my order, by the way?!
‘Yeah, can someone fill me in here?’ said the guy behind the counter, looking amused. ‘Am I double cappuccino-ing you or not?’
‘Sorry Robbie, not right now!’ said Connie, answering for Leah. ‘I’ll bring her back a bit later, okay?’
Leah watched in bemusement as Robbie shrugged and wandered off to fill one of the cake stands.
‘Erm… why exactly are you depriving me of my much-needed second caffeine hit of the day?’ said Leah.
‘Did you bring a swimming costume with you?’ said Rosie.
Leah nodded. She always had a swimming costume with her. A lot of the hotels she stayed in with Will boasted a pooland a gym. He might never use them, but she regularly went for a midnight dip to soothe the stresses of organising the scatterbrained genius.
‘Excellent,’ said Connie. ‘In that case, you’d better change… because it’s time for us to head to the beach!’
CHAPTER 5
WILLIAM
‘Hey, hey… hey!’ laughed Will, as Stanley towed him down the stone steps onto the pebbles of North Beach. ‘I thought you were meant to be clever?! This isn’t your home!’
The big dog completely ignored him and made a beeline for the ridge of pebbles that marked the high tide line. There, he plonked his fluffy behind down, facing the sea.
‘We’re not staying here,’ chuckled Will. ‘Don’t make yourself too comfy. I need to get you back to The Sardine.’
A loud grumble from his stomach suggested that it might be a good plan to stop for some breakfast while he was there, too.
Stanley, however, wasn’t in a rush. With his eyes trained on a couple of swimmers who seemed to be intent on splashing a woman paddling in the shallows, he simply opened his mouth in a grin and started to pant.
Will gave a couple of half-hearted tugs on the makeshift lead before giving it up as a pointless exercise and sinking down onto the stones next to him.
‘You could have at least chosen West Beach,’ he grouched, shuffling around as he tried to get comfortable. ‘The sand’s much more forgiving on the old butt cheeks!’
‘You know that talking to a stolen dog about your butt cheeks is a bit of a worrying symptom, don’t you?!’
The voice from behind him made Will roll his eyes even as he broke into a grin. He should have known he wouldn’t be able to set foot in Seabury for more than five minutes before one or other of his brothers found him.
Given his current location on North Beach and his close proximity to Ewan’s knitting shop—All Things Woolly—Will would have placed money on the younger of the pair finding him first. But nope. Frankly, he should have sensed Matt’s intense big brother vibes coming a mile off.
