The Sunflower Cottage Breakfast Club Read online

  I found this out for myself as I took my turn to prepare the breakfasts for the breakfast club.

  The sausages sizzled, the bacon crackled and the pancakes rose beautifully. I even managed to make a good hollandaise sauce for the eggs Benedict. Noah helped with plating up and was an excellent host, if the murmurs I heard from the dining room were to be believed.

  Oh, and the smells! They drifted up from the pots and pans and circled my heart, making me see for the first time how glorious food could be. Tasting it was one thing, but creating it was quite another. Gone were the days of exploding eggs in the microwave and turning bacon into shapeless lumps of charcoal; the only thing happening in Sunflower Cottage’s kitchen was culinary magic.

  I was just starting the washing-up when the doors swung open. Noah came in and greeted me with a warm smile.

  ‘The breakfast club would like to pay their compliments to the chef,’ he said, wrapping his arms round my waist. ‘And so would I later.’

  I giggled as he kissed my neck and patted his chest to stop him. ‘Control yourself, will you! I’ve got to go and greet my adoring public.’

  I swung the door to the dining room open and was met with a standing ovation, cheers and whoops.

  ‘Thank you, thank you!’ I took a mock-theatrical bow. ‘So, did you all enjoy it then?’

  A resounding ‘yes’ resonated from the gathered crowd, who then took their seats and finished off what was left on their plates. I scanned the crowd for Alice, who was at a table by herself, tucking into some chocolate pancakes. I made my way over to her, unsure of whether to sit down or not.

  ‘Is this seat taken?’ I asked, gesturing to the empty one beside her.

  She shook her head and I sat down. ‘So you came back then? Must’ve enjoyed your breakfast last time!’

  ‘It was amazing,’ she replied with a quick smile. ‘Lovely thing to look forward to at the end of a busy week.’

  I paused for a moment, wanting to choose my next words carefully so as not to sound like I was prying. ‘How come you’re not sitting with any of the others? You’re over here all by yourself.’

  She shrugged as she finished off the remainder of her pancakes. ‘I like to keep myself to myself. Been that way since… Well, for a while.’

  ‘Since what?’ I asked. ‘I… I don’t mean to sound nosy, but I just noticed you were all by yourself and wondered if everything was OK.’

  ‘Everything’s fine,’ Alice snapped. ‘I’m going to go and get some more orange juice now.’

  She stalked off and I followed her, unable to comprehend why someone was so keen to isolate themselves.

  ‘Not to be rude,’ I said, ‘but everything doesn’t seem fine. You just seem so… alone. Why don’t you go and introduce yourself to some of the others? There’s a lot more people here than there was last time.’

  Alice put down the orange juice jug and turned to face me, her face set in a frown. ‘You want to know why I seem so “alone”? It’s because I am! I lost the love of my life a few years ago and… well, I haven’t wanted to let people in since then. Is that a good enough explanation for you?’

  I took a step back, the wind knocked out of my sails. ‘Alice… I’m sorry, I had no idea.’

  She stiffened as her hands curled round her orange juice glass. ‘No, nobody does really. I… I haven’t really talked about it since I came back to Luna Bay. I’m sorry for snapping at you; you didn’t deserve that.’

  I shook my head and waved a dismissive hand. ‘Don’t worry about it. For what it’s worth, I’ve gone through some pretty major upheaval recently too. It makes everything around you seem big and scary, doesn’t it? I can’t pretend to know what losing the love of your life is like or how painful that is. But I do know what it feels like to have my world shaken to its foundations. I’m not saying you have to, but maybe you should try letting some people in again. The world can be a pretty lonely place sometimes, especially when you have a broken heart.’

  Alice gave a slow nod. ‘You might be onto something there…’

  *

  I went back to the mountain of washing-up and tried not to think about Alice and her broken heart. Noah came in to give me a hand after seeing all the members out.

  ‘Well, we did it! Today’s Sunflower Cottage Breakfast Club was a pretty big success, I’d say.’

  ‘Seemed like everybody enjoyed the food and nobody’s come down with food poisoning yet, so that’s a bonus!’ I laughed and tried my best to avoid looking at him. I overly invested myself in doing the dishes to distract myself from all the unmentionable things I wanted to do to him.

  Noah came over with some plates he was carrying and put them on the side.

  ‘Go and sit down; you’ve worked hard enough today. I’ll do these.’

  I shook my head, a heat rushing all over my skin from feeling his gaze on me. ‘No, no, I’m fine really. You go and…’

  He plunged his hands into the soapy water and placed them on top of mine, swallowing up the rest of my sentence. My heart lurched forward and I couldn’t keep a single coherent thought in my head. That was the effect Noah had on me; he sent my neat and ordered thoughts spinning out of control. It scared and thrilled me in equal measure. I became rooted to the spot, staring up into Noah’s deep-brown eyes and slowly losing myself in them.

  ‘Fancy something to eat?’ he asked. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m starving!’ He went to the fridge and got out the ingredients for the New Yorker breakfast.

  ‘Me too, I could eat a scabby horse! You do the frying, I’ll do the pancakes.’

  I moved around the kitchen like a maniac, getting out the pancake ingredients and whipping up a batter as fast as I could. Flour, eggs and sugar went everywhere, dusting the counters and making it look like some sort of bomb had exploded in Sunflower Cottage.

  ‘Can I get in to put the batter in the frying pan?’ I asked.

  Noah shuffled to the side and let me get to the cooker, where I poured some of the mixture into the frying pan. It bubbled and sizzled and hissed, much like the tension in the room.

  I wasn’t sure what made me reach my finger into the bowl, scoop out some mixture and smear it onto Noah’s stubbly cheek. But the resulting look was pretty hilarious.

  ‘So it’s gonna be like that, is it?’ A wicked grin spread across his face and his eyes sparkled with dark delight.

  He strode over to the bag of flour before I could stop him and flicked some in my face.

  ‘Oh, you’ve done it now!’ I shrieked and scooped out more mixture, slinging it in his direction. It hit its target, landing square on his nose.

  Noah continued his flour-based assault, flicking larger and larger amounts at me as I tried to escape from him by running in a circle round the kitchen table. My pancake mixture wasn’t long in running out, so I had to look for another weapon to use. The closest thing to hand was the box of eggs, so I quickly grabbed them and prepared to strike. I hurried to what I thought was a safe spot – the little alcove to the right of the cooker – but only ended up backing myself into a corner.

  ‘Shit!’ I muttered. ‘Not the best hiding place I could’ve chosen!’

  Noah approached me; his bag of flour was at the ready and he had a huge grin on his face.

  ‘Nowhere to run now,’ he teased, his voice quavering with anticipation.

  He reached into the bag and produced a huge handful of flour. At the same time, I reached for an egg. There was a moment of hesitation from each of us as we wondered who would strike first. Who would be brave enough to make the first move?

  In the end, it turned out to be both of us.

  I was a fraction quicker, cracking the egg and spilling its contents onto his head. Noah didn’t just dump the flour on top of me, though; he rubbed it into my hair, making me feel like a small, Scottish version of a snow beast. My clothes and skin were absolutely caked in it. His hands slowed down and came to rest on my face.

  ‘Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?’ He looked
at me and a tiny little chuckle escaped him, so soft I almost didn’t hear it.

  Slowly, he brushed some flour away from my cheek and placed his hand on the nape of my neck.

  Every inch of me quivered in anticipation. Although I’d tasted his lips on mine so many times, I still ached to do so again. I’d never experienced this before; had never been so hungry for someone.

  ‘You’re beautiful, you know.’ He smiled as he ran his fingers through my flour-covered hair. ‘Even if you do look a bit like a Yeti at the moment.’

  I giggled uncomfortably, looking away from him until he put a finger under my chin to bring my gaze upwards. I tried to formulate a coherent response, but nothing came. My words had been well and truly stolen away by this beautiful man. Anything I could say would be irrelevant; no words could do my feelings justice.

  Luckily, they didn’t have to. Noah leaned in to me and kissed me softly on the lips. His arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me tight to his body. He ran his fingers through my hair and we clumsily stumbled backwards until we hit a wall. Noah let out little breathy moans of pleasure as his kisses deepened and his hands began to wander across my frame. He kissed me as though savouring every moment our lips were connected.

  ‘I’ve been thinking,’ he said, drawing his lips away for a moment. ‘We should make the most of the time you’re here. I know you’re probably worrying about what’s going to happen after you leave, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Until then, we should just try and have the best time possible. What do you think?’

  I felt a little embarrassed that he’d been able to read my mind so well. ‘You’re right; I am worrying about that a little bit. It’s just because we’ve only got a week left together and then… well, we don’t know what’s going to happen. I just don’t want either of us to get hurt, that’s all.’

  Noah pulled me in closer and I rested my head on his chest. As I listened to the steady rhythm of his heart, my head began to compile a list of reasons why letting things go further with him was a bad idea and why I definitely shouldn’t kiss him again. However, my heart told me to say bollocks to the list and go for it.

  So that was exactly what I did.

  Chapter 20

  There comes a time in everyone’s life where they throw off their cares and embrace what makes them truly happy. I’d always thought such a thing would never happen to me, mainly because I’d believed all I needed was my career.

  Until, that is, I came to Luna Bay.

  I wasn’t sure what it was about the little seaside village, but it allowed me to open up and realise there was more to life than work. My laptop remained unopened under my bed, my inbox went unchecked and I ignored every phone call and voicemail from Paul. I finally felt as though I knew what it was like to be happy, properly happy. My old life in Glasgow seemed a million miles away; I certainly wasn’t the same person who’d come to Luna Bay three weeks previously. Gone were the corporate suits and the high, tight buns; in were the floaty summer dresses and long, loose hair that blew about in the gentle breeze. Even the issue of my biological dad faded into the background. All I wanted to do was enjoy every moment of my remaining time in Luna Bay. The world and everything in it could wait.

  And then there was Noah, who seemed to enjoy finding new ways to make me smile. We ran the B&B together, looked after Rose and went on various outings round Luna Bay. Oh, and there was kissing too. A lot of kissing. Both of us were aware we were on borrowed time, but it didn’t seem to matter. We were far too wrapped up in each other to care.

  Lucy and Jake were regular visitors to Sunflower Cottage. They’d come over early in the evening and the four of us sat out on the terrace, watching the waves roll by and feeling like the luckiest people in the world to be somewhere so beautiful.

  ‘I can’t believe you go back to Glasgow in a week.’ Lucy leaned forward and poured us some more ice-cold lemonade from the large glass jug. ‘Do you really have to go back?’

  ‘I’m afraid so,’ I replied, taking a sip of my drink. ‘My whole life’s there: my family, my job, my friends. OK, most of my friends.’

  I revised my answer after receiving a dark look from Lucy.

  ‘What about Noah? Are you going to keep seeing him even though you’re up in Scotland?’

  The question made a pang of sadness stab at my heart. Of course I’d thought about what would happen after I went back to Glasgow, but I’d deliberately put it out of my head so I could enjoy my time in Luna Bay.

  ‘I don’t know, Luce. We’ve touched on it a few times, but we’re not sure. Two hundred miles is a hell of a distance, though, isn’t it? He wants to focus on “enjoying the time we have”. Makes me sound like I’m about to pop my clogs or something!’

  Lucy’s laugh was partially drowned out by some seagulls crying nearby. ‘I’m sure he doesn’t mean it like that! He’ll be gutted when you leave, though. We all will.’

  Feelings and thoughts I didn’t want began to gnaw away at me. My head and heart clamoured for my attention, each trying to state their case for me to listen to.

  Instead I ignored both of them, picked up my lemonade and said, ‘Well, a week’s time is still a long way off. I’ve got one more breakfast club to do before then as well, so I have that to look forward to. I still haven’t managed to find out any more about Alice. When I asked why she was sitting on her own, she snapped at me then went off to get some orange juice. Can’t seem to figure her out. Anyway, any idea when Jake’s going to propose? It’d better be before I head back!’

  Lucy shook her head. ‘Nope, I don’t have a clue. I’m beginning to think he’s gone off the idea! I’m dying to ask him about it, but I can’t do that without telling him I found the engagement ring. He’ll be gutted if he finds out I know he’s planning to propose. So I’ll just have to sit tight and wait for him to get down on one knee!’

  Noah and Jake coming out to the terrace with steaming hot plates of food cut our conversation short.

  ‘I’ve got some good news for you,’ said Noah, placing a large bowl of pasta in front of me. ‘Cilla the Clio’s finally back! One of my mates from the garage brought her up to Sunflower Cottage; she’s in the drive for you.’

  I smiled and began twirling some of the thick pappardelle pasta round my fork. It seemed as though my departure from Luna Bay was imminent; my car was back and there was nothing to stop me from going back to Glasgow.

  Well, maybe one thing…

  *

  The day everything fell apart started off well enough.

  I woke up next to Noah’s gently snoring frame and turned over to cuddle into him. He stirred for a brief moment then allowed an arm to lazily drape over me. I let myself relax into his warm, inviting body and listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. While the whole world carried on around us, we were tucked away in our own little cocoon, away from everything. I couldn’t imagine being alone with anybody else.

  Unfortunately, the incessant beeping of the alarm ruined the moment. I turned and gave it a whack to stop the noise, but the fact still remained: we had to get up.

  I tapped Noah’s shoulder. ‘Come on, we have to get up and do the breakfast.’

  ‘Do we have to?’ he murmured as he made himself comfortable. ‘Why don’t we let them sort it themselves for once? We can call it a self-service breakfast.’

  ‘I’m afraid not.’ I pulled back the duvet and swung my legs out. ‘Come on, they’ll be starving!’

  I went to get up but an arm round my waist pulled me back down onto the bed. Noah blew a raspberry onto my neck then hauled me onto his lap so he could kiss me.

  ‘Are you absolutely sure there’s nothing I can do to persuade you to stay in bed with me all day? I’m willing to do pretty much anything.’

  The grin on his face was irresistible and, for a second, I contemplated giving in to him. In our little valley of pillows and blankets, we’d found a heaven neither of us had ever experienced before. The world that lay beyond the bedroom door, f
ull of responsibilities and worries and cares, felt like it was a million miles away.

  ‘We can come back later, I promise.’ I put my hand on the back of his neck and pulled him in for another kiss. ‘Come on; hop to it, Hartley.’

  Noah was in the shower and I was halfway down the stairs when the doorbell rang. I froze for a moment, unsure whether to answer it or not. It was still really early in the morning and new guests weren’t allowed to check in until ten. For a second, I thought about shouting for Noah to go and answer the door, but decided not to. I was all the woman I’d ever be and had a bloody loud scream on me if things went pear-shaped.

  I opened the door to find my mother standing on the doorstep. She walked up to me, arms outstretched and a bright, beaming grin on her face. I stood, mouth open, watching her approach, with no idea how I was going to react. She was the last person I’d expected to see in Luna Bay, given her history with the place.

  ‘There’s my wee girl!’ Her Scottish accent sounded stronger in Luna Bay and somewhat out of place. ‘Come here and give me a hug!’

  She didn’t give me a choice in the matter and pulled me in close to her, squeezing me so tight I felt like my lungs were being crushed.

  ‘Mum, what the hell are you doing here? Where’s Dad?’

  The mention of the word ‘dad’ made her megawatt smile shrink a little, but only to the trained eye.

  ‘Oh, he’s at home! You know you can’t tear him away from the golf course. Anyway, enough about him. How are you? I see you took my advice and got yourself some decent clothes! And who’s this handsome young man?’

  She turned her attentions to Noah, who was looking for a convenient hole in the ground to swallow him up.

  ‘I’m Noah Hartley,’ he said, shaking her hand. ‘Nice to meet you.’

  ‘What a gorgeous name! I’m Pamela, Emily’s mum. Call me Pam; I won’t have any of that Mrs Reed nonsense. She was my mother-in-law and an old dragon at that!’

  I stood aghast, scarcely able to believe my mum had shown up in Luna Bay.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ I repeated. ‘I’m down here on business, Mum, and to try and find out about my biological father. Now’s not a great time to tip up and visit me.’