Page 41 of Booked for Summer

Jade caught Emma’s eye and the woman gave her a sympathetic smile. ‘Claire is bound to attract a lot of interest.’

‘Of course she is,’ Mary bristled. ‘The entire female population of Nantucket have read at least one of her books, and most of the men, too, though some of them just for the naughty bits.’

‘They weren’t naughty,’ Jade protested. ‘They were hot. Beautifully, orgasmically, hot,’ she added, eyeing up the bottles of wine she’d stashed by the till while trying not to think how much those descriptions also matched the real-life sex she’d had recently. Did posh Nantucket readers frown on alcohol while listening to a book talk, or did they enjoy glugging it down and discussing raucous sex scenes?

‘That, too.’ Mary sighed and patted at her short, greying hair. ‘I used to tell my Doug to read her latest, thought he’d get some ideas, but he’s such a slow reader he never reached the parts about tying me up and spanking me. Maybe if he had, we wouldn’t have divorced.’

Jade spluttered with laughter. She hadn’t expected that from the buttoned-up looking librarian. But she should have, she realised, because she’d been guilty of exactly what she hated others doing, making a judgement based on how someone looked.

‘Did you know Claire was friends with Ashley?’ Mary continued, unaware Jade was looking at her in a totally different light. ‘I’m sure that’s partly why she agreed to come and do a talk. She’ll want to help kick Liam Haven where it hurts.’

Jade had an unwanted vision of Liam holding the plastic knife she’d splattered in red paint and telling her he often thought of her holding his balls.

‘Hiya!’

She shook the image away and turned to greet the tall, dark-haired lady who’d just swanned into the shop looking, frankly, exactly how Jade wanted to look. Cool, sophisticated, elegant.

‘I’m Claire?—’

‘Our marvellously talented local author.’ Mary immediately set on her. ‘Are you a wine drinker? We have red and white. Oh and I brought two bottles of a really nice rosé. Jade will fetch you a glass. Maybe you’d like to try one of each?’ she added with another of her rumbling laughs.

Jade cleared her throat. ‘Um, thanks, Mary. I’ve got it from here.’ Ignoring Mary’s huff, she smiled brightly at Claire. ‘Let me take your jacket.’

‘Don’t worry about Mary,’ Claire whispered once Jade had dragged her out of the older woman’s clutches. ‘She just likes to be involved in everything.’ She smiled. ‘It was great to get your invite, thank you. It’s been a while since I did a talk. I used to do them at the resort, but since Ashley left I’ve not been asked.’

‘Ashley was the manager of the Haven Resort, right?’

‘Yes.’ Claire’s gaze swept across Jade’s face and she laughed. ‘Oh dear, I can see from your expression you’ve heard all the gossip. The Liam Haven haters believe he’s a cross between Satan, Casanova and Gordon Gekko. Now then, where can I freshen up?’

Jade showed her upstairs to the bathroom, wishing she’d had more chance to quiz her further. Deciding she needed a tiny break from Mary, she perched on the bed and took a moment to scroll through the messages on her phone before heading back down.

There was another one from Lauren on the family chat group.

You need to phone home soon, Sis. We want an update on the shop and everything else you’ve been up to. And I mean EVERYTHING xx

Guilt washed over her. She’d deliberately not phoned her mum back since their quick chat the other day, because what could she say? She didn’t want to worry her, and she couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing her yet again. She’d hoped if she waited, she’d be able to turn the bad news story into a good news one.Guess what, Mum, the shop was bought out and the new owner (who I absolutely didn’t sleep with) was going to get rid of it but by running a massively successful marketing campaign I managed to persuade him to change his mind.

She stared back at her phone and typed:

I’ll phone soon– just been sooooo busy xx

Just as she was about to put it away, her phone pinged with an email notification from [email protected]. Frowning, she clicked on it.

Jade

I hear you’re hosting a ‘meet the author’ event in the shop this evening. Hope you’ve removed all sharp, and not so sharp, implements.

Yours sincerely

The Boss

Damn the man. She didn’t want to smile, but she couldn’t help it.

She clicked on reply.

Dear Boss

All knives removed. Replaced with handcuffs and whips.

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