Page 74 of Eden's Comfort Kitchen
Livia held out her hands. ‘I’m just asking! I’m bound to be curious!’
‘I don’t really think that’s the issue here.’
‘So what happened?’
Eden raised her eyebrows, and Livia grinned.
‘OK,’ Livia said, ‘I know what happened. What I mean is, what happened after the thing that happened? Did he go straight away? Did he stay the night?I’m presuming it was at your place and not his hotel? You did both walk up there together after you left the pub, didn’t you?’
‘My place, and he stayed the night.’
‘God, I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the morning when you had to face each other. Was it crippling?’
‘It was for me. He wanted to do it again.’
‘What?’
‘He wanted to take me on a date.’
‘But that’s…wow! So what’s his problem today? Don’t tell me…oh, Eden. Don’t tell me you turned him down!’
‘Of course I did!’ Eden began to throw the used tea towels into a linen basket for washing.
‘Don’t you fancy him?’
‘Yes, I fancy him. But it’shim, isn’t it? Cam bloody Faulkner! I can’t start that sort of nonsense with him.’
‘Maybe you should have thought of that before you jumped his bones.’
‘Thank you,’ Eden said with a withering look. ‘That has occurred to me more than once since it happened.’
‘So he’s got the hump about it? Wounded pride and all that?’
‘It looks that way.’
‘And you’re scared he’s going to double down on his plan to get this land now you’ve pissed him off?’
‘I’m going to assume it’s a given.’ Eden slumped into a chair at the table. Tears were close to the surface, but she was too exhausted to cry. She’d worked so hard, fought for the survival of this place that she loved so much, that she knew her dad was proud of, and for what? To shoot herself in the foot at the final hurdle? Cam had been humouring her all along – to a degree she’d always known that – but she still believed there was a chance she could change his mind. But now there was no chance. He’d get the land because his pride had been wounded and he’d want to teach her a lesson. So that was that. How long did she have left? she wondered.
‘I suppose this means we’re going to have to find somewhere new whether we like it or not,’ Livia said.
‘I suppose so.’
Livia went over and rubbed a hand across Eden’s back. ‘Don’t feel bad. It was always an outside chance anyway – we both knew that. You tried and it didn’t work out. It’ll be all right in the end.’
Eden gave a weary nod. ‘You’re right. I just got so caught up in this, and I thought…I don’t know what I was thinking. Cam said it – everyone was thinking it – we were sunk from the first moment the land went up for sale. I should have realised – it would have saved a lot of pain.’
‘Come on,’ Livia said briskly, pulling Eden out of the chair by her hand. ‘Let’s get to the pub and get some booze inside us, and while we’re at it, we can pick Ralph’s brains for a plan B.’
The Dolphin seemed far too quiet when Livia and Eden arrived, but perhaps that was just as well when they found Ralph manning the bar alone.
‘You should have phoned me,’ Livia said as he informed them the ‘new lad’ hadn’t turned up for his shift.
‘Luckily it’s not so busy,’ Ralph said. ‘I won’t be paying him, mind,’ he added gruffly, ‘and I’ve a good mind not to give him another shift. Not turning up without so much of a whisper…not on.’
‘Don’t stress about serving us,’ Livia said. ‘We can get our own. We’ll give you a shout to see we’ve dropped the money in the till.’
‘Don’t be daft,’ Ralph said. ‘Last orders in an hour – how much can you drink by then? Not much – take what you want and we’ll say no more about it. How was the dinner sitting tonight?’
