Page 18 of The Summer Escape

“Mirren. The woman I’m renting the cottage from. She’s letting us stay in her house so we can have a longer holiday.”

Silence ensued as Dee seemed to process the information. “So how long are you staying?”

“She said we could stay for the whole summer, which seemed a bit excessive, but the more I think about it, the more appealing it is. Apart from hanging out with you and Ferne, we didn’t have much planned for the school holidays.”

“Wow. That’s very spontaneous and doesn’t sound at all like you.”

“I can be spontaneous,” Beth said, not sure why she felt so offended by Dee’s remark. Especially since she really did like to meticulously plan things.

“I think it’s a good idea, anyway. So you’ll be staying in the woman’s house?”

“Yeah. I know it sounds a bit weird but she’s really nice. Her whole family are lovely.”

“How many of them live there?”

“Just her in the house. She has grown-up children. I’m not sure how many, but I’ve met three of her sons. One of them runs a tourist train, which we’ve been on twice now. He’s really sweet with Ellie. They all are.”

“Okay.” Dee chuckled. “Your decision to stay for the whole summer is starting to make more sense now.”

Beth laughed loudly. “They’re nice guys, that’s all. Kit’s probably half my age. And I think they’re all in relationships.”

“Youthink?You don’t sound too certain.”

“Oddly enough, I haven’t asked any of them about their relationship status.” An image of Trystan on the beach popped into her head. There was no way he could be single. Then again, it probably wasn’t appropriate to guess at someone’s relationship status based on how good they look when they’ve just stepped out of the sea and have golden rays of sunshine enhancing their every delicious feature.

It wasn’t just his looks that made her head swim either, but the assuredness of his posture and the glint in his eyes that hinted at a genuinely warm personality. The fact that he was incredibly good-looking was just a bonus. Not for her obviously … for his girlfriend or wife or ... He could be gay for all she knew.

“I’m very jealous,” Dee said, interrupting her train of thought. “A summer full of sun, sea and sexy men sounds very appealing.”

Leaning close to the window pane, Beth tried to look up at Mirren’s house, but the angle was wrong and it was just out of sight. “My summer isn’t going to involve sexy men,” she said, crossing the living room and sliding the patio door open to step out of the side of the house. From there, she glanced over the hedge and up to Mirren’s place. A figure was visible in the upstairs window. She could tell it was Trystan from his confident stance as he paced in front of the window. The light illuminated him from behind as he spoke on the phone.

“Did you scatter your mum’s ashes?” Dee asked, the pitch of her voice softening.

“No. Which is another reason I like the idea of staying longer. It gives me more time to psyche myself up to it. I really wish Mum had specified where exactly she wanted them scattered.”

“I imagine that since she didn’t specify anything, the exact spot wasn’t overly important to her.”

Beth sat at the table, worrying that Trystan might look over and catch her watching him. “I think she was going to show me her favourite spot on this trip. It doesn’t seem fair that she didn’t get to come with us.” She almost laughed. “At least not alive anyway.”

“It’s not fair,” Dee agreed. “But I’m glad you still made the trip. I’m sure it’ll have done you good.”

A lump swelled in Beth’s throat and she caught a tear at the corner of her eye.

“So whatareyou going to do on your birthday?”

“Oh, I have big plans,” Beth said, false enthusiasm in her voice. “I’m going to pretend it’s not happening and try and make it through the day without crying.”

“Find something nice to do,” Dee said.

“I’m hoping it’ll be a lovely sunny day and we can relax on a beautiful beach.”

“That sounds good.”

“With any luck, that will be how I spend all my days for the next few weeks.”

There was noise in the background and Dee let out a sigh that was part growl. “My little monster is refusing to go to sleep. I bet Ellie’s fast asleep already, isn’t she?”

“I think the sea air knocked her out.”