Page 8 of Riding the Waves

“She wasn’t being sarcastic,” Lizzie said with a dramatic sigh.

“I don’t even know how to be sarcastic,” Scarlett said.

“You seem pretty good at it from where I’m standing,” Amy shot at her.

“Really?” Scarlett asked.

Beside her, Emily winced and shrank into herself.

“I won’t be spending the summer working here,” Amy said, taking steps towards the door. She turned back to glare at Scarlett. “And you certainly won’t be looking after my children.”

CHAPTER 4

Introducing the boys to Scarlett had gone way better than Damian had imagined. It often took Marty a while to warm up to people, but he seemed at ease with her almost immediately. By the time she had to leave, he’d timidly given her a hug, which seemed like a great sign.

After she’d left for a meeting with Lizzie and Emily, Damian took the boys for a swim in the sea, then over to the beach cafe for takeaway burgers. They were eating them in the shade of an umbrella beside the surf shack when Amy arrived. So much for her keeping her distance and not interfering with him looking after the boys.

Not that it was really a big deal. It was the shock of her plans that had got to him more than anything. A bit of time to mentally prepare for having her around would have made the situation easier.

His heart beat erratically when he waved to get her attention. This was the real problem of having her around – he felt like a lovesick teenager in her presence. But when she caught sight of him, her glare was so full of contempt it was like a bucket of ice water to his libido. Which probably wasn’t a bad thing.

“Everything okay?” he asked, walking over to her.

“No,” she hissed. “Everything isn’t okay.” She forced a smile for the benefit of the boys before pulling Damian away from them.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“I’ve just come from meeting the people who I was supposed to be working with in Salcombe.”

“Did it go well?”

“Not really. I take it you know the owners of Hope Cove Press?”

“You’re working at Hope Cove Press?” His eyebrows shot up, then he let out a sigh as it all clicked into place. It was Amy who Scarlett had been rushing off to meet. They were such a small outfit that he was surprised they’d be taking on more staff. Actually, it didn’t make any sense that they were taking on someone just for the summer, but given the anger radiating from Amy, it didn’t seem a good time to question it. “What happened?”

“It went terribly,” she retorted. “I won’t be working for them after all.”

“How come? They’re a great bunch.”

“That’s not the impression I got.”

He squinted in confusion, because Lizzie and Emily were two of the warmest people he knew. “So you’re not going to work there?” he asked, deciding the why of it wasn’t overly important. “Are you going back to Oxford then?”

“No.” Her hands were balled to fists at her sides. “I’m going to stay here and look after our children.”

“I already told you I have childcare lined up.”

“Not any more you don’t,” she said through clenched teeth. “There’s no way in the world I’d let that rude teenager look after the boys. What were you even thinking when you asked her to look after the boys?”

“Scarlett?” He gave a quick shake of the head. “She isn’t a teenager. She’s a married woman with a degree and her own business. I asked her to look after the boys because I know she’s great with kids.”

The skin at Amy’s neck had gone all blotchy. “I spent five minutes with her, and in that time she referred to our children as brats approximately ten times.”

“Oh,” he said as it dawned on him what was going on. “Scarlett doesn’t make a good first impression.”

“She thinks the boys are brats.”

“I’m fairly sure she meant it affectionately.”

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