Page 23

Not able to bring herself to write any words, she sent a smiley-face emoji back. A smiley face, nothing more, and yet its meaning was perfectly clear. She and Sienna were going to talk.

23

The morning went from bad to worse. Before Holly had even unlocked the front door of the shop, Greta rang in sick. Frustratingly, Caroline was off in London for the day doing a university visit with Tim and even her father was busy taking part in his first ever lawn bowls tournament, which meant Holly was on her own. From the moment she saw the clouds clear to reveal a bright-blue sky and the first bus-full of tourists roll into the village, she knew it was going to be busy and she wasn’t wrong. Normally, busy was great. Busy was what kept her business running. But busy when it was also boiling hot and there was no chance of escape, even for a lunch break, was pretty unbearable.

Even though the shop had air conditioning, it was directed over the chocolate, because, no matter how disgusting she felt, Holly was allowed to melt. The chocolate wasn’t. To make matters worse, because of the cloud cover when she’d left the house, she had worn a long-sleeved shirt and jeans, which by lunchtime were feeling less than pristine. All she wanted to do was switch the door sign toClosedand enjoy all the tourists paddling in the river, but there was no chance of that happening. Her only minute of respite came when Jamie brought her a top and she got to dash upstairs and change, before the twins caused too much destruction.

The second she turned the sign toClosed, Holly was done. Hope was staying the night at Ben’s, and all Holly wanted was to have a very long shower, then lie down on the sofa and watch a film. But that wasn’t going to happen. Sienna had already reconfirmed that she would be there at seven, not only with wine but with nibbles too.

You don’t have to; I have plenty.

Holly had sent her reply, already suspecting Sienna would not be deterred. She was right. When she showed up at Holly’s door, exactly at seven thirty, she was weighed down with bags.

‘I got a bit carried away,’ she said, taking one item after another out of the canvas totes and placing them on the counter. ‘But I realised I didn’t know what you liked. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? You’re my fiancé’s best friend, and I don’t even know what type of olives you like.’

‘I’m not actually a great olive fan,’ Holly admitted. ‘Unless it’s in bread or tapenade.’

‘I should’ve got tapenade!’ Sienna said, her face distraught.

‘Really, we have plenty of food here. This was very generous of you,’ Holly said. ‘What do you want to drink? I’ve got some wine already chilled.’

‘Whatever you have is fine, honestly. That’ll be absolutely great. As long as it’s British or French, that is.’

‘Right, yes.’ Holly went to the fridge and pulled out a half-full bottle of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. ‘It’s Australian,’ she said, not sure why she suddenly felt so guilty about the origin of her wine. ‘We’ll open one of yours.’

‘No, no, it’s fine, honestly. Some of the Australian wines are lovely. And it does one good to stretch one’s palate, doesn’t it?’

‘Okay.’

Holly pulled out two glasses and took her time pouring their drinks. Any doubt she’d had that this evening might not be as awkward as she’d feared was rapidly evaporating. If not having tapenade and buying wine from the wrong country was what Sienna found issues with, Holly couldn’t imagine what they were going to talk about.

‘There you go,’ Holly said, as she gave Sienna the drink, although she didn’t immediately take a sip.

‘It’s about the carbon footprint,’ she said.

‘Sorry?’

‘I just feel terrible about drinking things that have been shipped all the way from the other side of the world, you know, when there are things that are made closer to home. I know that France isn’t close, but you know, it’s not that I’m being a snob about the wine.’

‘Oh right, no, I didn’t think that you were,’ Holly lied.

‘Yes, you did.’

‘Yes, you’re right, I did.’

The pair let out a brief chuckle that ended as Holly took her first sip of the drink. She had to admit carbon footprints were something she never thought about, but maybe that was a major flaw on her part. After all, she wanted to leave the planet in the best possible state for Hope and any possible grandchildren.

As the two women sipped, Holly became aware of the tension weaving its way into the silence. At some point, one of them was going to have to speak. Either that or they would end up downing their entire glasses without exchanging a single word. As hard as she tried to think, though, she couldn’t figure out what to say, and why should she be the one to start the conversation, anyway? Sienna was the one who wanted to talk. That was her specific reason for coming over. But with every passing second, the silence was becoming more and more obvious and as she took yet another mouthful of her wine, Holly couldn’t bear it any longer.

‘So what did you?—’

‘Thank you for?—’

The pair spoke simultaneously.

‘Sorry,’ Holly said. ‘You speak first.’

‘I was just saying thank you for having me round like this.’