I’m crouched on the floor and Lucy’s staring down at me from her perch on the stool, an intense expression in those ethereal-looking, black-rimmed eyes. A feeling of nausea hits from nowhere. Grabbing the cake slice, I scramble to my feet and move away from her, over to the window.
‘Gosh, it’s hot in here.’ I fumble with the catch and finally get the window open. I stand there, staring out, gulping in air. ‘It must be because the oven’s been on.’ I glance back, forcing a smile. ‘I suppose a day of seventy-degree heat isn’t the best time to be baking for England!’
Her continuing silence is more menacing than any insults she could hurl at me.
With hands that tremble slightly, I snap the lid on the box and head for the door. How can it be that after all this time, whenever Lucy is in the same room, my heart is always in my mouth, just waiting for her to pounce?
As I pass, she grabs my arm, just above the wrist, and I stop in my tracks and turn to face her.
She smiles and hops off the stool. ‘I’m sure it will be a success. Your café, I mean. Now, let’s get back in there, otherwise there’s a danger we might miss out on some juicy gossip.’ She links my arm and squeezes it lightly and we walk out to the treehouse.
Paloma, leaning on the windowsill, smiles at us from on high.
We must look, for all the world, like old friends happily catching up on the years in between …
Chapter 12
When I wake up, I realise it’s Sunday and I give a thankful yawn and stretch. Even with a café opening frighteningly imminent, and dozens of jobs still to tackle before then, surely a small lie-in on a Sunday is allowed?
Then two things occur simultaneously to flatten my prospects of a well-earned snooze.
Someone bangs on the front door.
And I remember it’s Lucy’s boot camp day.
Groaning, I pull the duvet over my head, hoping Paloma will take the hint and jog off to the assembly point on the village green without me. But no such luck. After a blissful few seconds of silence, my phone starts to ring.
Ten minutes later, we set off on the short walk to the village green.
A rumbling noise in the distance makes me grip Paloma’s arm. ‘Thunder.’
‘Really?’ Paloma shakes her head and gazes up at the sky. There are still patches of blue in between the grey clouds. ‘I don’t think so.’ She grins. ‘Is this an excuse to get out of training?’
I shake my head, my eyes trained on the suspiciously murky horizon. ‘It was definitely thunder. And no, it’s not an excuse.’
It’s been hot and humid for days now and on the news last night, they were predicting a storm. That’s another reason – actually the main reason – I wanted to just hibernate indoors today.
Storms really freak me out.
‘If there is a storm brewing, it looks pretty far away to me,’ says Paloma, and I feel my shoulders relax. She’s right. It looks miles away. I need to forget about it and concentrate on the more immediate crisis – surviving Lucy’s boot camp.
‘The exercise will be good for you,’ my dear friend adds, far too cheerfully for my liking.
She looks as fresh as the proverbial daisy in her dark blue and cute pink top baring her very flat midriff, whereas ‘bedraggled dandelion’ feels like a more apt description for me – not great when I’m having to psych myself up to face the Vile Twins, Lucy and Olivia, and no doubt have my upper arms ‘jiggle tested’ at random.
I haven’t had time to iron my shorts and T-shirt – or my face, for that matter. There’s a big red crease down my left cheek where I must have been lying on my arm. A bit of make-up would have worked wonders, but Paloma wouldn’t let me. We didn’t have time, apparently. We needed to join the keep-fitters. Get into the community spirit. Show that Lucy Slater what we were made of.
My answer to that was a rebellious grunt.
When we arrive, the first person I see is Theo Steel, looking Olympics-ready in proper running gear. My heart lurches when I see who he’s talking to: Olivia. She’s looking up at him with a little coquettish smile, twirling a lock of blonde hair as he regales her with some story, using his big hands expressively. My teeth gnash together. Olivia couldn’t look more perfect in a skimpy jade green top and little black Lycra shorts that show off her tiny peachy bum. As I watch surreptitiously, Theo Steel leans closer to her with one of his big, sexy smiles, and drapes his arm casually around her shoulders …
‘What’s wrong?’ asks Paloma. ‘Have you spotted Lucy? You look like an alpha male tiger who’s just set eyes on an arch rival.’
I clear my throat awkwardly. ‘No, it’s – um – Olivia. I’m worried she’ll come over and start telling me off for not having lost a stone since she last saw me.’ I bend down to retie my shoelaces and hide the weird flush that’s crept into my cheeks.
If Theo Steel wants to mess around with Olivia, that’s entirely up to him. It’s absolutely none of my business. I won’t even look at them. They are of no interest to me whatsoever …
Paloma laughs. ‘Stop glaring at her. You really don’t like her, do you?’
I feign nonchalance. ‘Who? Olivia? Never really thought about it to be honest.’
A surprising number of people are already assembled on the green – probably around fifty or sixty of them – and from what I can make out, they seem to fall into one of two categories. There are the ones standing round in little groups, looking stiff and awkward, probably because the last time they went out so skimpily dressed was on the beach in Magaluf. And
