A Summer to Remember (24 page)

‘Hi Dominic,’ she said cheerily. ‘I’m ringing about the portrait. Would you be free this evening?’

Nina was just trying to decipher a scene that Dudley had scribbled on the back of an envelope. He’d said it was very important to the plot development, but Nina really couldn’t make out a single word. She was just putting it to one side to query later when Olivia knocked on the door and entered.

‘Oh, Nina – look!’ she said in triumph. ‘We’ve been sent canapés!’

Nina looked at the enormous box that Olivia was holding. It was tied with a silky ribbon and looked delicious enough to eat itself.

‘Do come and help me test them. We have a score card and have to choose at least half a dozen!’

Well, if that wasn’t a good enough excuse to take a break, Nina didn’t know what was.

They went through to the living room and began the onerous task of munching their way through twenty delicious canapés. There were sweet potato wedges, leek and Gruyère tarts, mini summer pasties, baby cheese straws – everything that was summery, savoury and delicious and could be popped into the mouth whilst still chatting.

‘Oh, I’m in
such
a muddle now,’ Olivia said after twenty minutes of munching. ‘They’re
all
so good!’

‘I think we should definitely have a cheesy one,’ Nina said.

‘Yes but which cheesy one? We can’t have too many of the same.’

‘The mini cheese straws are gorgeous. I’d go with them,’ Nina said, taking another one and popping it in her mouth just to make sure.

Olivia nodded and put another tick on the score card. Slowly but surely, they came up with their choices.

‘Well, that was a good day’s work,’ Olivia said, ‘and I doubt if I’ll have any room for dinner after that little lot!’

Nina was just helping tidy things away when a car pulled up on the gravel outside and, by the screeching, sliding halt it made, she didn’t need to look out of the window to know who it was.

‘Oh, Alex!’ Olivia cried, rushing to the door to greet him. Nina hovered anxiously in the living room, hoping that she could avoid him.

‘Hello, Mum!’ he said as he entered the hallway.

‘You’ve just missed the great canapé testing session, I’m afraid,’ Olivia said.

‘Oh, right,’ he said. ‘I thought you said something about Party Parade.’

‘Oh, yesh!’ Olivia said as she stuffed the very last canapé into her mouth. ‘Nina – I don’t suppose you’ve got a couple of hours to spare now, have you?’

‘Of course,’ she said.

‘Good, I’m sure Dudley wouldn’t mind as it’s all in aid of the celebrations. Now, Alex – you’ll take care of Nina, won’t you? I don’t want you speeding through red traffic lights and driving across roundabouts.’

Nina looked startled for a moment.

‘It was only the
one
roundabout,’ he told her with a little grin.

‘Yes, that great big grassy one,’ Olivia said. ‘You can still see your tyre marks across it. Anyway, no messing about. Parties are a serious business and I want you concentrating. Nina’s got a copy of the list.’

‘Okay, okay,’ he said. ‘Ready, Nina?’

‘I’ll just grab my bag.’

She met him in the hallway by the door and smiled hesitantly at him. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since their doomed trip to the coast and she really didn’t know what to say to him now.

The white Alfa Romeo Spider sat gleaming on the driveway and they both got inside and, knowing that his mother was probably watching from the living-room window, Alex didn’t do his usual wheel-spin take-off and didn’t hit the gas before the mill was out of sight.

‘How are you getting on?’ he cried as the wind tore through their hair. ‘How’s the old man’s novel coming along?’

‘Good!’ Nina shouted back as Alex took the bend far too quickly for her liking. She just hoped that there weren’t too many grassy roundabouts between the mill and the party store.

Thankfully, they got there in one piece and entered what could only be described as a warehouse. Alex grabbed a trolley and Nina took out Olivia’s list from her pocket. There were a lot of things to get and they were soon marching up and down the aisles, pulling out napkins, balloons and tea lights all in pretty shades of silver and purple, although Nina did have to keep her eye on Alex.

‘I don’t think your mother will want balloons with faces on,’ she told him when he pulled out a packet of ferocious-looking monster balloons.

It was an amazing place and Nina was dazzled by the goodies on offer, from the rows of petal confetti from palest pink to deepest red, to the irresistible table diamonds, which came in every colour from purest ice to richest violet. It was a perfect Aladdin’s cave for the eyes. It would have been so easy to get carried away and pile a heap of pretty candle lanterns into the trolley even though they weren’t on Olivia’s list, but Nina was very disciplined and stuck to her employer’s wishes.

She was just admiring a rather gorgeous chair sash in a pretty shade of lilac when her phone beeped. She took it out of her pocket and saw a text from Justin.

Haven’t heard from you since Sunday. Forgive my hasty departure. J.

Nina looked at the screen for a moment but decided not to reply. A second later, her phone beeped again. It was another message from Justin.

Bess sends her love.

Nina smiled as she saw the accompanying photo of the collie waving a hairy paw in the air. She shook her head.

‘Who’s that from?’ Alex said, trying to peer at the screen.

‘Just a friend,’ Nina said.

‘Boyfriend?’

‘No,’ she said.

‘Are you seeing anyone?’ he asked her.

She looked at him. ‘It’s none of your business.’

‘Oh, really?’

‘Really,’ she said.

‘I love it when you go all strict on me,’ Alex said, his eyes sparkling in that naughty way of his. ‘You sound just like my babysitter again.’

Nina frowned. How did he make that sound so utterly filthy, she wondered?

Her phone beeped again and, this time, there was a photo of Bess rolling on her back, her fluffy white belly exposed to the world.

The message
How’s Ziggy?
accompanying it.

She quickly texted back a reply.

Ziggy mad as ever.

A few seconds later Justin’s reply came.

Hope you’re not mad at me.

Nina sighed. She was mad at him, but she couldn’t help admitting that she missed him too. She took a deep breath and tapped her reply.

V mad.

A sad face was his response followed by:

I’ll make it up to you. x

Nina blinked. Was that a kiss? Had he sent her a kiss?

‘Nina!’ A voice broke into her turmoil. ‘You’re not listening to a word I’m saying, are you?’

‘Sorry, Alex. What?’

‘What do you think of this?’ He was holding up an obscenely short French maid’s outfit.

‘I think you’ve got the wrong kind of party, there.’

‘What a shame,’ he said. I think you’d look great in it.’

She gave him her best withering look. ‘Put it back.’

‘Don’t you think you should try it on?’

‘No, I don’t.’

Alex gave a hearty sigh. It was funny, Nina thought, but he hadn’t once mentioned their trip to the beach. She’d been half-expecting him to make another move on her, especially in the relatively dark confines of the party warehouse aisles, but he had surprised her. Perhaps he’d forgotten about the whole thing. She could easily believe that the incident meant absolutely nothing to him and that she was just another mild flirtation in a long line of flirtations that week. But how did that make her feel? Relieved, mostly, she had to admit. She really didn’t want to get into a relationship with Alex Milton, however cute he was. The Milton boys were off-limits, not only because of the position she had once held as their babysitter, but because of the position she found herself in now – one of responsibility and trust. She did not want to let her new employers down, or repeat Teri’s mistake of getting embroiled with one of the sons and having it all end disastrously. She knew better than that and she realised that she was onto a good thing with her new job.

They spent the next half hour working their way through Olivia’s list, laughing and joking as they discovered all manner of things in the warehouse. Alex really was good company, Nina thought, and he’d make some girl very happy one day – if only he could settle down with just the one, that was.

After paying for their goods, they drove back to the mill and were greeted by a cacophony of barks as Ziggy greeted them in the hallway.

‘Back to your basket, Ziggy,’ Nina said, pointing before following him through to the kitchen and putting the kettle on.

‘Wow! You’ve worked wonders on him,’ Alex observed. ‘But then again – you work wonders on everyone.’

Nina bit her lip. This sounded as if it was heading in a dangerous direction.

‘Cup of tea?’ she said in as neutral a voice as possible.

‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘I love the way you make it.’ Nina turned her back on him to avoid any more flirtation. She didn’t know how he did it but he managed to turn absolutely everything he said into an innuendo.

‘I’ll let you do your own milk and sugar,’ she told him, thinking she might manage to swerve the ‘sweet enough’ line that he was bound to deliver.

‘I’d better get back to your father,’ she said as she took a sip of tea a moment later.

‘Oh, don’t go yet,’ he said. ‘I want to talk to you.’

‘What about?’

Alex raked a hand through his hair and sighed before perching himself on a breakfast stool. ‘The truth is, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,’ he said, his expression serious all of a sudden.

‘Alex – please—’

‘No –
listen
to me,’ he said, holding his hand in the air to stop Nina’s interruption. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like you. You’re really special.’ He grinned. ‘And I think what makes you special is that you don’t even know you are.’

‘But I’m not,’ Nina said.

‘There you go, you see?’ He laughed.

‘Alex—’

‘No, let me finish,’ he said and Nina sighed in resignation, knowing she wasn’t going to be able to get a word in edgeways until he’d said his piece.

‘Ever since you’ve come back here, things have changed. You’ve been like a breath of fresh air, Nina. You’re so – so –
you
!’

She looked at his face and, although the words that were coming out of his mouth sounded horribly clichéd, he looked totally sincere.

‘There’s a real connection between us, Nina!’ Alex went on, his face earnest and pleading. For a moment, Nina was tempted to tell him that he probably felt a connection to half of the girls in East Anglia, but she kept quiet, handing him his cup of tea and taking a fortifying sip from her own. ‘And I know you felt it, too, at the beach.’

‘Alex – the beach was a mistake. I shouldn’t have—’

‘How can you say that?’ he said, his face full of anxiety.

‘It was wrong of me to go there with you,’ Nina said.

‘Why? Give me
one
good reason.’

Nina looked at him pleadingly. She just wished he’d accept things rather than asking her to go into detail. ‘Because I used to be your babysitter,’ she said, deciding that directness was the best option.

‘But that’s an advantage, isn’t it?’ he said.

‘How on earth can it be an advantage?’

‘Because you know me so well and you know how to handle me,’ he said, giving her a wink.

She shook her head again. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘this really isn’t going to work. We’re just not right for each other.’

‘Well, what about today?’

‘What about it?’ she said.

‘We had a great time, didn’t we?’

‘Of course we did. You’re a great guy, Alex. I think you’d get on with anybody. But that doesn’t mean we should be together.’

‘But we could have so much fun together,’ he said, tipping his head to one side and managing to look both devastatingly handsome and just like the young boy she’d once taken care of. Maybe that was part of the problem. She could never be romantically involved with him because she would always see him as a child – no matter how old he was.

‘Alex – I can’t. I just can’t.’

A heavy silence hung between them as if he’d understood her at last.

‘And that’s it? You’re not even going to give us a chance?’ he said.

‘Drink your tea, Alex,’ Nina said, sounding very much like the babysitter she had once been. ‘It’s getting cold.’

‘I don’t want this bloody cup of tea!’ he said. ‘I want
you
!’

Nina sighed. ‘Alex – you’re going to go right out there and find someone else in the blink of an eye.’

‘You’re wrong about that,’ he said.

‘I’m not,’ Nina said, shaking her head. ‘You’re just the sort of guy who has no problem finding a girl and, one day, it’ll be the right girl. Just believe me – I’m not the right girl for you.’

‘How can you be so sure of that?’

She looked at him for a moment, taking in the handsome sulky face, and for a split second, she really wondered if she was making a huge mistake.

‘Because I’ve met somebody,’ she said at last, the confession surprising herself.

‘Who?’ Alex said, the word exiting his mouth faster than a bullet.

‘You don’t know him,’ Nina said, thinking it best to be vague.

‘Is that what all that texting was about in the warehouse?’ he asked and Nina nodded. ‘I thought so. You had a silly big grin on your face.’

‘I did not!’ Nina protested.

‘You did,’ he told her. ‘When did you meet him?’

‘Not long ago,’ she said.

‘So it’s not serious, then?’ Alex said optimistically.

‘Alex—’

‘Okay!’ he said, raising his hands in defeat. ‘I get the message.’

They stared at one another, their eyes duelling.

‘I’m sorry,’ Nina said at last. ‘I really hope we can be friends.’ She bit her lip, truly meaning what she said. Alex was a wonderful guy and she sincerely hoped that she could have him in her life, just not in any romantic sense.