Christmas at Lilac Cottage: (#1 White Cliff Bay) (13 page)

Penny looked around at the other shoppers who were watching the exchange in interest. She couldn’t find any words at all to get out of this situation or laugh it away.

‘Here, you put those extra-large ones in here, they’re on the house,’ Suzanna said, taking the box off her and putting it into the now bulging paper bag.

‘I… it’s only our first date, I wasn’t planning on…’

‘Of course not, dear, but you know, maybe the second date or the third. Don’t keep him waiting too long though, dear, poor love will have testicles the size of watermelons otherwise.’

Penny grabbed her bag and ran out. Maggie hauled herself off the bench and waddled over.

‘Took you long enough, what did you get?’ Maggie eyed the bulging bag.

‘Suzanna made me get some condoms and if you say one word about that I swear I’ll pin you down and shave your eyebrows, pregnant or not, Maggie Stone.’

Maggie made a zipping her lips shut gesture, but Penny could see she was trying really hard not to laugh.

‘Come on, Natalie will be waiting,’ Maggie said, nobly.

Still dying with embarrassment, Penny thought it couldn’t possibly get worse than that.

H
enry strode
around the back of the house, whistling to himself. He had never looked forward to a date before as much as he was looking forward to his night with Penny. And it came with an almost guarantee of no sex, unlike his other dates which were almost always guaranteed to end there. Bizarrely, he didn’t care. He wanted to make love to Penny, he couldn’t deny that, but it wasn’t the end goal as it had been with other women. With Penny he wanted to get to know her more than anything, he wanted to spend time with her and make her laugh like she’d laughed that morning. He wanted to share himself with her, the good stuff and the bad, the small and the big. He’d bumped into an old man in town and had an interesting chat with him and Henry wanted to tell her about that too.

He peered through her back door to see if she was around and was surprised to see her pacing nervously around the kitchen. Maybe she was just nervous about the date. She had really big hair too, as if she had been in a wind tunnel but on closer inspection it appeared it had been specifically styled that way.

He opened the door and let himself in. She looked at him with a terrified expression on her face. Was she having second thoughts about their date? He decided to ignore the big hair, as he certainly didn’t want her to feel self-conscious about it, and just start a casual conversation with her to try to distract her from her nerves.

‘I had an interesting conversation with someone in town…’

Penny groaned. ‘I’m so so sorry. I don’t know how it all started. It just snowballed out of control. They all know, everyone does. Apparently it’s the most exciting thing that’s happened in White Cliff Bay for years. I was the subject of a book club meeting for Christ’s sake. There was a plan hatched. I had no idea. And then I went to buy a toothbrush and they just happened to be next to the condom section. And I did look at them, but not for us, just because I was intrigued to see there were so many different types. The next thing Suzanna comes over and she starts talking to me about them and said that you needed extra-large and that it was best to have a range for our first time. I was mortified, but she wouldn’t let me leave without taking some. Then Maggie took me to have my hair done and look at it, I look like an eighties porn star, it’s huge and all I wanted was a trim. Before I could escape, Christine from the beauty place turns up and escorted me back to the salon, I told her that I didn’t want anything but she wouldn’t listen to my rebuttals and quite frankly she scares me, the next thing she is ripping hair from almost every single part of my body, my eyebrows, my legs, my bikini line, honestly I’m as bald as a coot down there now and it’s chilly, believe me. And as I left, Monica from Silk & Lace was already waiting for me and whisked me off to her shop and persuaded me to buy some sexy lingerie. I’ve never bought sexy lingerie in my life and I now have two pairs of lacy pants with matching bras and tiny little rosebuds on them and a pair of black satin shorts that barely cover my bum embroidered with silver snowflakes and some kind of matching camisole top. Look.’

She pulled the short and top combo out of a paper bag and put it on the table.

‘It’s the tiniest, flimsiest piece of underwear I’ve ever seen, and I’d be way too embarrassed to ever wear anything like this. But it didn’t stop there, I was forced to buy a dress with a slit right up the side, ridiculous high-heel shoes, a perfume that’s supposed to bring men to their knees. I didn’t want any of that stuff, I swear, I went into town for lunch and a new toothbrush, that’s all. And now the whole town thinks we’re going to have this night of passion and we’ve only kissed a few times and Daisy will probably find out and I’m so sorry if they’ve all been teasing you about it today,’ she said, clearly out of breath from her sudden outburst.

Henry stared at her shock. He wanted to laugh, get angry and hug her all at the same time. He didn’t know if he would ever get used to this level of nosiness but Penny had lived here her entire life and she was still clearly upset by it. His eyes cast down to the flimsy underwear on the table and he picked the top up, fingering the material. God, to see her in this would be a dream come true. Even if he had promised her that he wouldn’t take it any further than a kiss, he would quite gladly cancel their date and spend the whole night holding her and kissing her in this underwear.

He looked up. She was waiting for him to freak out too, thinking he had been subjected to all of this when in fact no one had said a word to him. Although, come to think of it, he had noticed a few looks, smiles and winks but he’d just put it down to the oddness of the town. He had to reassure her that he hadn’t been harassed like she was, but that wasn’t going to make her feel better about her near hysterical outburst.

Finally he cleared his throat. ‘I was going to say that I spoke to someone in town today who had bought some of my handmade furniture years ago and he says it’s still his favourite piece in his house.’

Penny paled.

‘You didn’t know I bought condoms or sexy lingerie?’

Henry shook his head.

Penny flushed, her pale cheeks going bright red. ‘Oh god.’

She sank to the bench and put her head in her hands, clearly not wanting to look at him.

He smiled. The easiest thing for her would be to laugh it off.

‘Where are the condoms?’

She pointed to a bag.

‘I better take care of those, wouldn’t want Daisy to see them.’ She peered through her fingers at him as he looked in the bag. ‘Wow, you bought a lot.’

‘I didn’t, the pharmacist just gave them all to me for free, she just filled the whole bag up, she was so excited that I was going to have sex after all this time and I didn’t have the heart to say we wouldn’t be.’

He nodded, trying to suppress a smile, but then he saw the twitches of a smile on her face too and he let out a loud laugh which had her smile turning into a grin.

‘I better go and get ready for our big date then. I’ll pick you up at seven.’ He moved to walk towards the door. ‘Oh honey, wear the sexy snowflake set tonight for me. It’ll make it much more fun when we’re in bed later.’

‘Ha, you wish. I’m going to wear my oldest, most grey, holey pair, that’ll teach you for teasing me.’

He shrugged. ‘That works too.’

She smiled and he closed the door between them. Tonight was going to be fun, regardless how it ended.

P
enny nervously waited
in the kitchen for Henry to come and collect her. She had managed to calm her hair down and pulled it into a loose side plait. She had worn the thigh-splitting dress but only because the only other items of clothes in her wardrobe were jeans and hoodies or a smart trouser suit which looked like she was ready for an interview. Part of her wanted to cancel the date because she didn’t want to be subject to her whole dinner being under the watchful eye of the entire town. But if they were going to do this on a regular basis then they had to get the first time out the way and hopefully everyone would treat them normally after that.

It was still fifteen minutes till seven o’clock and she was trying to read a book, but the words weren’t going in. Suddenly there was a soft knock on the connecting door and Henry walked in.

‘Sorry, I couldn’t wait to see you.’

Her stomach lurched at the sight of him. Dressed in a silvery grey suit and a white shirt that was open at the neck, he was a magnificent sight.

‘If you’re ready to go, we can leave now,’ Henry said, when she had no words to fill the silence.

She quickly lurched to her feet, unsteady on her ridiculously high heels and the dress that was split to the thigh fell open. She was completely overdressed and she suddenly wanted to sprint upstairs and change back into her favourite jeans again. She quickly pulled the dress straight, cursing that she hadn’t gone for the trouser suit instead; the last thing she wanted was for people to be staring at her legs all night. But when she looked up at Henry, her fussing hands stilled. There was a complete and utter hunger in his eyes. Chris had never looked at her like that – at best he’d looked at her with a fondness, someone he quite liked spending time with. She’d had never been looked at as if she was about to be eaten. Her confidence soared, her doubts lay forgotten.

Henry moved towards her and grabbed her coat off the back of the chair, wrapping it round her shoulders and helping her to put it on.

He moved round the front and sweetly did the buttons up for her.

‘I am quite capable of putting my own coat on,’ she laughed.

‘In all honesty, I had to cover you up or I really don’t think we’d be leaving the house this evening.’

She smiled and leaned up to kiss him, pulling on the lapels of his jacket. His arms wrapped round her in the biggest of hugs so she was so close to him there was no gap at all. God, she wanted more than this kiss, she wanted everything, to feel his skin next to hers, to taste every inch of his flesh. She had never had desires like this before, never wanted anyone with such a primal need before.

He pulled back. ‘That’s not helping us leave either. Come on, we can continue this when we get back. Maybe we skip the starters and the dessert, grab a quick McDonald’s and come straight back here.’

‘That sounds good.’

He escorted her out, opening his car door for her like the perfect gentleman.

‘I need to ask a favour actually,’ Penny said.

‘Of course, anything.’

‘Well, it’s your fault so you can’t really say no. I had a phone call from Josh earlier, it seems he broke his wrist when you threw him to the floor.’

Henry paled. ‘Oh god, no. Now I feel awful. I need to go over and apologise properly.’

‘Well, you shouldn’t feel too bad, you did do it with the best intentions, but going over there is not a good move. His mum is the most terrifying woman I have ever met. Josh told her he slipped on some ice and I really think she doesn’t need to know the truth. She’s a lawyer and I wouldn’t be surprised if she managed to slap some criminal charges or lawsuit on you for abusing her son. If you feel really guilty buy him a new computer game for his Xbox and I’m sure he will love you forever. But he will be out of action for several weeks and that provides me with a bit of a problem. I pay him to come and help me lift and move the ice blocks and carvings and I can’t do that alone. Looks like you might have a new job for the next few weeks.’

‘You want to use me for my body?’

‘Something like that.’

‘And pay me for it? I feel so dirty and cheap.’

‘You won’t be paid for it, I’m still paying Josh whilst he’s off sick and I’m not paying you too. You can do it out of guilt or the goodness of your heart, but I will cook you and Daisy dinner occasionally so be grateful for that.’

‘I don’t mind helping you, but I do feel really bad about Josh.’

‘He’s fine. His mum is spoiling him rotten and he’s enjoying the attention. He’ll be completely fine in a few weeks.’

Henry drove down the bumpy drive but, instead of turning left to go towards the town, he turned right to take them away from White Cliff Bay. He caught her questioning gaze.

‘I thought our first date should be just the two of us, not half of White Cliff Bay watching us like animals in the zoo.’

‘Oh thank god, it would have been unbearable if we had gone into town but, you know, everyone will be very disappointed that we are a no-show.’

‘They’ll probably just think that we’re decided to stay in and have hot, passionate sex instead.’

Penny laughed. ‘What are we going to do if Daisy hears all these rumours?’

‘I don’t know, laugh it off, deny all knowledge. She knows we are going out tonight so we can just tell her the town have jumped to the wrong conclusion. As much as the town like to poke their noses in, I can’t see anyone going up to a sixteen-year-old girl and saying, “Hey, did your dad get laid last night? Did you hear the bed squeaking? Do you know if he used the extra-large condoms or not?” I’d hope they’d have a bit more discretion than that.’

‘I hope so too. I don’t want to do anything to upset her. I really like her and she adores you.’

‘Ha, she tolerates me.’

‘You’re her entire world.’

‘I’m insanely over-protective and it drives her mad. Of course, I let her go out on her own, but it doesn’t stop me worrying until she gets back home.’

‘That’s understandable. I don’t suppose that feeling will ever go away. So you had her from when she was three months old? I know you said that her mum’s parents wanted to put her up for adoption.’

‘They did, but I begged them not to. They didn’t really know what to do with her when she was born – they didn’t want to raise her themselves and I think they hoped that Tina would fall in love with her and raise her properly, but she couldn’t have cared less. I think they felt guilty about putting her up for adoption and my parents fought against it too. They brought her to stay with me quite frequently and one weekend they conveniently forgot to pick her back up again. I fell in love with her so quickly, so hard, that there was never a question of sending her somewhere else. My parents helped a lot and so did Anna – she absolutely adored Daisy too, we all did – but the night feeds, the dirty nappies, that was all down to me.’

‘I admire you so much for that, so many sixteen-year-old boys would never have made that choice.’

‘It was hard work, of course it was, but there was never a choice, she was my daughter.’

Penny watched him negotiate the roads and felt her heart fill with love for him.

‘It must have affected your life though, the things that you wanted to do – travel, go to university – they would have been unattainable.’

‘I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life at the age of sixteen, there were no plans that she got in the way of. I just wanted to provide for her and give her the best life possible. I lived with my parents until I was twenty-four, which gave me a tiny bit of freedom. I was always good with my hands, always enjoyed making things, so I would have probably got a job doing that anyway. I don’t regret having her, not for one second. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me.’