Page 52

“Thank you, I am?—”

“Will you please stop interrupting? You will know when I am done, but I am not done yet,” Sophie stressed.

Gemma shrank back. She was definitely impressed with this new version of Sophie, but she was also surprisingly scared of her too.

“Sorry.”

“Thank you. Now, while I accept you needed impartial advice at the beginning, I would’ve thought that if you two had reached a stage in your relationship where you were canoodling in the kitchen?—”

“I don’t think that was canoodling, I was just...”

This time, Gemma silenced herself before Sophie could.

“If you were canoodling in the kitchen, with the possibility of me catching you, then you should have had the decency to tell me first. That hurts. That, I am cross about.” Sophie let out a long exhale, as if she had said her entire speech in one breath. “There, now I’m done. Now you can speak if you want to.”

The bubble of pride that Gemma had felt at seeing her best friend stand up for herself swelled to a whole new level. After all, her argument was elegant, well-reasoned, and above all, right.

“I’m sorry. Everything you said is spot on. We shouldn’t have been behaving like that without you knowing what was going on. I really am sorry, Sophie.”

“Me too.”

Gemma looked past Sophie to see Kent standing there. She hadn’t even seen him come out of the kitchen.

“It wasn’t exactly very managerial of us to be carrying on like that. Sophie, I apologise and it won’t happen again. Would you like me to write a no-canoodling clause into the contract?”

Sophie’s smile was small, but genuine.

“At least I know where Gemma’s clean cloth obsession suddenly came from.”

Her eyes met Gemma’s as she let out a brief chuckle, and Gemma felt her heart lift a little. A moment later, Sophie had turned and was facing Kent.

“I think you need to go get back into the kitchen now, though.”

“Do I?” he frowned. “I thought there weren’t any orders at the moment.”

“Who said anything about orders?” Sophie replied. “I need to gossip about you. Now, off you go. Quick, quick.”

CHAPTER 73

By the end of the day, Sophie had heard about every single date and dinner that Gemma and Kent had shared. She told her about the walks they went on, the conversations they had, and everything she knew of Kent outside the business, from his house in Hay On Wye, to his belief in love at first sight and his parents’ relationship.

“Wow, things are moving fast then,” Sophie said.

“Maybe,” Gemma agreed. “But it doesn’t feel like that. It all feels really natural.”

“Then that’s just perfect. I’m so happy for you. Graham is too. Obviously, I rang him after I caught you two together.”

“Obviously.”

Gemma grinned. She got it. She understood why people wanted their partners to be the first to know things. Even now, she wanted to let Kent know all about how the afternoon with Sophie had gone, even though he had only been a few feet away for most of it. Which was why, when he appeared at two o’clock to finish his shift, she looked at her friend.

“You don’t mind if I pop outside for two minutes, do you?” she said, lowering her voice. “I just want to see what the plans are for tonight.”

“No problem,” Sophie grinned. “Ahh, look at you two lovebirds.”

After Kent said his goodbye to Sophie, Gemma followed him outside.

“Did you want to meet for dinner tonight?” she asked when they were a small distance away from the cafe. “I don’t mind driving if you want to check out somewhere a bit further afield. There are a couple of local vineyards that serve great food. Or… or we could get takeaway, and you could come to mine.”