Page 44 of Booked for Summer

Jade could feel her face start to ache as she continued to smile into the camera on her laptop. Her mum was chatting away still, her dad rolling his eyes. Lauren had also joined the Zoom call, from the breakout room at the hospital. No doubt she’d have to leave soon to deal with another lifesaving emergency.

‘Heavens, what am I doing, rabbiting on when really we want to hear about you, Jade.’ Her mother’s expression turned soft, her smile kind. ‘How is the shop? And Nantucket? Is it everything you’d hoped it would be?’

A lump rose in her throat. ‘The island is beautiful. Well, what I’ve seen of it so far. I’ve been working a lot since I came out here but I’m free this afternoon so I’m thinking of doing something touristy, maybe checking out the whaling museum. Apparently, whales are big round here.’

‘They’re rather large wherever you are,’ her dad interrupted drolly, unhelpfully reminding her of the night Liam had made the same comment.

A different Liam to the one she knew now.

‘You need to get yourself on one of those tourist tours where they take you to see them,’ Lauren said.

I could take you out, if you like.Gah, why couldn’t she stop thinking about him?

‘Yes, I will,’ Jade said.

‘Never mind the aquatic mammals, what about the human talent?’ Lauren waggled her eyebrows. ‘Any further developments after that first night?’

Jade gave her sister a hard glare through the screen. Surely she realised she didn’t want to discuss her rash hook-up with her parents listening in?

‘Developments, what developments?’ Her mum’s eyes widened. ‘Is there something you’ve not been telling us, Jade?’

‘Nothing important.’ She tried to swallow her frustration, and failed. ‘Why is it that when we discuss Lauren it’s all about her job, but when it’s my turn, it’s about men?’

Her mum’s face fell and Jade felt a dart of guilt, which sharpened when her dad replied quietly. ‘Your mum did ask about the shop.’

Crap, she had. And Jade had deliberately not answered. ‘Yes, I know, sorry.’

‘Hey, I didn’t realise the subject of men was off the agenda,’ Lauren protested. ‘You were the one who brought it up last time we messaged. I was only showing an interest.’

Double crap. Everything she was feeling, every fear, every insecurity, had all come to a head. And instead of dealing with them, she was taking her issues out on her family. ‘You’re right, you’re all right. I’m the one who’s a frigging disaster. I fooled around with a guy on my first night, and he turned out to be my new boss, because my old boss sold the shop to him. Now this new boss is getting rid of it and I told him I was going to prove he was better off keeping it.’ The words tumbled out messily, all control gone. ‘He said I was wasting my time and I know he’s right because as well as the shop, he owns a flipping hotel chain so he’s hardly going to listen to me, but I’ll not be able to know one way or another anyway, because I’ve been trying for the last hour and I can’t work out how to use the flaming spreadsheets so I don’t know what profit the shop made last week compared to before I started.’ She wiped her eyes. ‘And if all that wasn’t enough, even though he slept with me knowing he was about to shaft me over the shop, I’m starting to not hate him.’

Her mum looked confused. ‘Isn’t that a good thing?’

‘No, it’s a frigging disaster, because what if I start to like him? Then I’ll want to sleep with him again and I haven’t come all this way to get my heart broken. I managed that pretty well at home.’

Her dad cleared his throat. ‘Maybe we should go back to discussing the shop.’

‘We’ll discuss that in a minute,’ her mum cut in. ‘First I want to know why my gorgeous daughter believes she’ll get her heart broken.’

Jade groaned. ‘Come on, Mum. I’ve had ordinary guys think I’m not good enough for them. You really think I could sleep with a not-quite billionaire and not get trampled on?’

‘Technically,’ Lauren piped up. ‘You’ve already slept with him.’

‘Yep, and I got trampled on, so I rest my case.’ Jade let out a long breath. ‘Can we change the subject? I don’t want to talk about men, and actually, I don’t want to talk about the shop either. Tell me what’s going on in Twickenham. Did you manage to sell all those raffle tickets, Lauren?’

Her sister picked up the baton and ran with it, because her saintly sister wasn’t just a doctor who saved lives, she was also a volunteer for the local homeless charity. A charity Jade had also helped with, but Lauren was the one with the ideas for fundraising. Jade was the one who got drenched waiting in the rain to work on the stall, only to find the venue had been switched to the hall and nobody had bothered to tell her.

Still, when the time came to say goodbye, she didn’t want to end the call. Her family wasn’t perfect, but she missed them fiercely. Missed talking without thinking, missed being with people who knew her, even if that included knowing her failings. Who understood her. Who loved her no matter how much she cocked up.

‘Jade.’ Her dad’s voice cut through her misery. ‘Those spreadsheets you talked about. You can’t be expected to understand them if you’ve never used one. Ask the people who worked there before. Or ask the new owner. Part of the role of a boss is to help his employees.’ He smiled. ‘If he doesn’t, it will be a reason to keep hating him.’

‘Thanks, Dad.’

‘Oh, and we never want to hear you’re not good enough ever again,’ he said quietly. ‘This guy,anyguy, would be bloody lucky to have you.’

Emotion gripped her throat and she could barely scratch out her goodbye.

When she’d closed the call, she pulled up the Reasons to Hate Liam Haven list she’d compiled a few days ago. After yesterday,bastard who disowns his unborn childhad been removed. Thankfully she still hadlied to me, andarrogant rich guy only interested in money. Revenge and money, she corrected with a flourish. Neither were attractive.

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