“I know you have trouble believing. Unlike Katy. But if you try, you’ll get more back. If you don’t believe, you block the pathways. Resistance isn’t good here. Try to be a bit more open.” She looked me direct in the eye. “That’s a good motto for life. Go after what you want, trust your gut. The spirits aren’t here to tell you what to do. They’re here to shine a light on something you already knew.”
“Apart from the scone recipe.”
Sage blew out a sharp breath, then grinned. “Apart from that.”
I checked my watch. “I should go. I’m off to a festival with Eliza this weekend. We’ve got a big deal we’re hoping to close on.”
I wasn’t sure exactly which big deal I was referring to.
“But I’ll come and see you again soon.”
“I know you will,” Sage told me.
CHAPTER 18
The morning sun was already fierce despite the early hour, and sweat gathered on the back of my neck. I’d worried all the way here that we wouldn’t be on the list, because communication with Roka’s people hadn’t been stellar. However, there were no hiccups, we got our VIP lanyards, and our luggage was being stored at Roka’s base until our glamping tent was ready.
Now, as we strolled through the rapidly filling grounds of the festival, I tried to act normal, as if New York hadn’t happened. We hadn’t spoken about it since, had spent hardly any time outside work with each other since, but being with Eliza again brought it all back into full focus. Every time our arms came into contact, an electric volt shot through me.
“So,” I said, trying for casual. “Did you give your dad a full debrief on the New York trip?”
Eliza adjusted her tortoiseshell sunglasses, and her tongue snaked along her top lip.
I wasreallyglad she didn’t know what that did to me. I tensed my jaw and let the reverberations rattle through me.
“Only what he needed to know. Business stuff. Same with Margot?”
I didn’t think she was going to tell him we snogged.
“Same.” I kicked at a discarded paper cup, sending it skittering across the dusty ground. “Margot’s still treating it as if we’re playing at business. Has she been around much lately? At yours, I mean?”
The way Eliza’s shoulders tensed told me everything I needed to know. “She has.” Her tone was clipped. “She makes very good fried eggs in the morning.”
My spine went stiff. Margot had never made me fried eggs at any time of day. Why was she mothering Eliza? She had a mother. If anybody needed mothering, it was me and Katy. Plus, since when was Margot a domestic goddess? I had so many questions, but they weren’t for now. Instead, I changed the subject.
“How’s the renovation going? Still a building site?”
“Totally. Honestly, I can’t see progress, even though my builder keeps telling me it’s being made.” She glanced my way. “It’s why I’ve not been in as much this week. I kept having to go round to make decisions on radiators and plumbing.” She paused. “But it’s preferable to hearing Dad and Margot going at it. I walked past their room the other night, and I’m not sure I’ll forget the sounds coming from it in a hurry.”
I nearly choked on my bottled water. “Christ, Eliza.”
“I know! It’s traumatic. I was grumpy with my builder this week, but I just want to get it done and be able to get back to my life. Living with my dad is complicated. Especially when he keeps trying to advise on this project.”
My ears pricked up. “He does? In what way?”
Eliza blushed, then shook her head. “Nothing. He always thinks he knows best; you know how it is. He’s the experienced head, even though he trusts me.”
Our chat stopped when we stumbled into the fairground part of the festival, with a dodgems track right in front of us.
Eliza put a hand to her mouth. “Remember we used to go on these every summer in London at that terrible funfair? You were so little, you nearly got strangled by the seat belts?”
I grinned. “You don’t forget something like that.” The painted cars here were just as battered as the ones from our youth, the same tinny music playing, the same smell of hot rubber and electrical sparks filled the air.
“You think we should ride again?”
Eliza nodded. “Obviously.” Within moments, she bought tickets from a booth to her left, and then we jumped onto the circuit, a bloke with a straggly ginger beard pointing us to a vacant car.
“Last one if you’re happy to ride together. Otherwise, you have to wait for the next trip.”
