Page 14 of The Second Chance Supper Club

Later, as the dusky sky became tinted with streaks of rose and orange, with the tealights giving off a warm glow, Cath began to feel more relaxed.

She had to admit that the supper had gone well, with the savoury food enjoyed, lots of praise and ‘Mmms’, and virtually clean plates all round.

The guests were now chatting away, but of course it made it easier that they all knew each other beforehand.

It was Cath who was playing catch up with this social circle as the newbie in this village, but it was going okay. One step at a time.

She headed back down the garden to the kitchen to take her dessert of baked peaches out of the oven. She returned to the shed soon afterwards, carrying a tray with bowls and a dish of thick pistachio-swirled cream, along with the hot syrupy-smelling peaches in their terracotta dish.

Oh. The guests had swapped places, with Will now sitting where Nikki had been – next to Cath.

She took up her seat again, resigned to having to make conversation with him.

Despite their dreadful first meeting, he hadn’t seemed too obnoxious this evening, after all.

In fact, she had to admit that he seemed a different person to the grumpy guy she’d met in the car park.

Perhaps, he was the sort that was oversensitive about his vehicle.

On a Prosecco and foodie high, Nikki was chatting away with Dan and Andreas about her chaotic family life.

With their attention diverted, Will discreetly turned to Cath.

‘I must apologise if I was a bit sharp with you the other day …’ His tone was sincere, as he added, ‘Let’s just say I was a bit “off” that day. ’

He didn’t seem to want to elaborate, and Cath was happy to leave it at that, accepting the apology graciously. ‘No problem. We can all have bad days.’

And hey, she should know, she’d had plenty of those recently.

Cath tuned back in to Nikki then, who was telling of her boys’ latest antics involving the washing machine.

Hamish, the eldest, had finally decided to do something to help out at home, putting all the reds, whites and blacks in together, with the whole lot coming out as a greyish-pink mess, including Nikki’s best white shirt, grrr.

But how could she complain about it? They’d never help again!

Cath grinned, knowing that feeling all too well, then turned to Will. ‘Do you have any children, Will?’

‘Yes, two girls, grown up now.’ He gave a warm smile. ‘Maddie and Sophie. Mads lives in Newcastle, she’s an oncology nurse. Sophie’s at uni, down in York.’

‘Ah, that’s lovely that you have two girls. And nursing, that must be a hard, if rewarding, job.’

‘Yeah.’ His tone was suddenly clipped.

She felt she was touching on sensitive ground here.

‘And you?’ he asked. ‘Any family?’

‘A son, Adam. He’s just finished his studies at Leeds uni. He’s off away at the moment on some world travels. Latest I heard, he’s in Vietnam, having a whale of a time.’

‘Well, that sounds cool. And you’re new here to the village, I gather. What’s made you move up here?’

Cath felt a knot in her stomach. Did she really want to go into the gory details of her marital break-up at a dinner party?

Absolutely not. ‘Ah, I just needed a fresh start,’ Cath replied.

‘I knew the area a bit, have always loved it up this way, and thought why not … ?’ She missed off the part about her cheating husband.

‘It is a beautiful place,’ Will agreed, nodding gently.

‘It is indeed,’ Andreas chipped in. ‘Never looked back after our move, did we, Dan? It’s so peaceful.’

‘It’s not so peaceful halfway up the street at our bloody house,’ Nikki was laughing.

The evening rolled on with more chit-chat, and as they talked around the table, Cath had an odd sense that there was something vaguely familiar about Will.

It had hit her in the car park, too. Something about those eyes, a deep brown with touches of hazel-green, and when he actually smiled as he was doing right now, they looked so much nicer than the cool hard stare she’d received that day.

In fact, they were almost sparkly. Ah … that was it: Marti Pellow!

He looked a bit like Marti Pellow from …

oh, what was that band now? They were one of her favourites back in the day.

The Eighties, it must have been. That was it, Wet Wet Wet.

God, she used to fancy him like crazy in her teens.

Her mind suddenly flew back to Susie’s text, about being ‘the hostess with the moistest’. Wet, Wet, Wet . It was all she could do to stop herself from laughing out loud. She pursed her lips and then dipped her head to take a sip of wine, letting a small chuckle slip into her glass.

And as she looked up again, those hazel-brown eyes were smiling back at her, filled with a hint of curious amusement.

Something dipped, like a butterfly flutter, in her stomach, something she hadn’t felt for a very long time.

Surely, she didn’t fancy him just because he had nice eyes?

It’s Mr Bloody Grumpy from the car park , she reminded herself, giving herself a stern telling off.

She was steering clear of men and relationships forever.

No point jumping from the frying pan into the damned fire.

It must be the wine. She’d better ease off it, right now.

The end of Supper Club rolled around with the midnight hour.

It was time for coats on, with ‘thank yous’ and hugs in the hallway, and kisses on the cheek for the hostess from Dan, Andreas and Nikki.

Will hung back rather reticently, which Cath found herself relieved about.

Despite her crazy thoughts on how attractive his eyes were, going from him shouting at her in a car park to all kissy-kissy was a step too far for one day.

‘It’s been a wonderful evening, Cath, thank you so much.

I’ve loved every minute of my night off,’ smiled a fizz-filled and grateful Nikki.

‘It’s been really lovely. Thank you, Cath.

’ Will was polite, and offered a farewell handshake.

Is this now a truce? It felt as though they’d drawn a line under the car park incident at least, and thank heavens for that.

She needn’t be afraid of bumping into him again in Kirkton, which had crossed her mind every time she’d needed to visit the local supermarket.

‘Our turn to host next,’ called out Andreas, as he crossed the cottage threshold into the cool starry night air. ‘We’ll have you all back soon to our little nest above the shop.’

‘Definitely,’ added Dan. ‘Mind you, we’re going to have to plan carefully to match up to Cath’s fabulous hospitality.’

‘Ooh, the challenge is on.’ Andreas grinned.

Dan gave a cheeky wink. ‘You do know he has one of those nude-Greek-statue aprons. I’m just warning you! We got it in Halkidiki in a tacky gift shop last holiday.’

‘It’s my favourite item of clothing. Don’t spoil my fun,’ Andreas countered, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

‘Well, don’t let me stop you …’ Nikki cackled. ‘And another evening being wined and dined sounds bloody good to me. Just give it a few weeks, so I can get Kev used to the idea of child-sitting again.’

‘Of course.’

‘That sounds great,’ added Will politely. ‘Thanks for letting me join in with you all. The food was delicious, and it’s been a wonderful change of scene.’

Cath suddenly pictured him alone at home, somewhere up the street. The home that was missing his wife. She felt a pang of empathy.

The supper guests trooped off merrily up the pavement, leaving Cath to her empty house and the last of the clearing up.

To be fair, everyone had helped clear the final dishes and glasses down from the shed, but she’d insisted they leave the washing-up.

A yawn escaped her lips, and she realised just how tired she was, a heady mix of adrenaline, a full-on day (two weeks, more like), nerves, a drink or two, and the last couple of hours in relax mode, now kicking in.

She made an executive decision – the rest of the tidying could wait until morning.

Despite feeling shattered, it took her a while to come back down emotionally.

Lying in bed, her mind was running over the events of the day, and pulling out threads of conversation and images from this evening.

The caffeine from the last round of nightcap coffees was also playing its part. She felt far too buzzy to sleep.

The supper group were indeed rather lovely.

Hah, even grumpy Will had had his positives.

Yes, new friendships were being formed, and it was good, exciting.

Yet everything was so early on in her new second-chance life that it felt raw somehow.

These new relationships seemed fragile, she realised, like the unfolding of brand new buds.

Opening up her home – and herself – this evening had left her feeling strangely vulnerable.