Escape for the Summer (11 page)

Anyway, now Angel and Gemma had quit their flat and were out of Tooting on their wild goose chase to Cornwall. Andi hadn’t really any choice but to throw her lot in with them and come too. She had contemplated contacting her father for some help but the thought of his silent disappointment seeping down the phone line had frozen her finger every time she almost called him. Andi had spent the past twenty-nine years feeling as though she was a big letdown to her father. No matter how hard she tried, she was never able to please him. She hadn’t achieved the A-level grades he’d expected; she hadn’t followed in his footsteps to Magdalen College in Oxford; and her job, although steady, wasn’t something he could boast about at embassy soirées. If she asked him for help he would probably loan her some money, but Andi knew she’d be paying it back in more ways than one. Sharing a caravan with Angel and Gemma was definitely the lesser of two evils. At least she could keep an eye on Angel. Surely her sister couldn’t get up to much in a quiet Cornish seaside town?

The car breasted the top of a hill, then coasted downwards – and suddenly they were in Rock. The road dropped away steeply to the turquoise ribbon of the Camel Estuary twinkling in the sunshine and braided on each side with egg-yolk yellow sand. Moored boats danced on the tide, Padstow glittered across the water and a RIB zipped by, leaving a paper-doily wake across the shimmering surface. To her left and right, chunky Range Rover Sports, BMW X5s and Porsche Cayennes lined the streets while impossibly skinny women with golden tans, tortoiseshell hair and huge shades meandered along the road. There wasn’t a clapped-out banger or scruffy person in sight. Suddenly conscious of her own lank hair and soggy jeans, Andi sank back into the seat.

Talk about hitting Rock Bottom. She was practically ready to dig.

Andi
knew
she was no good at positive thinking. Here she was, arriving in one of the most beautiful seaside towns in Britain, and she was still moping. She couldn’t possibly have any more tears left to shed, surely? She had to get a grip and try to make the most of being here. She was bound to find some kind of a job; in the meantime, she could work out a way of getting her money back from Tom, a way that didn’t involve threatening to chop off his bollocks as Angel had so temptingly suggested. She could live cheaply here and get herself together for a bit.

“We’re here! We’re here!” Angel chanted, her eyes big blue saucers of excitement. Turning around she cried, “Look, Andi! There’s Ocean View! It’s hardly changed!”

Sure enough, there was the beautiful old house where, until their mother had died, the Evans sisters had spent every summer. Ocean View was one of Andi’s favourite places in the world. Rented by her father for the whole summer break, long before the royals and the Hooray Henrys discovered Rock, it was a higgledy-piggledy New England style affair, all weathered clapboard and turrets and widow’s walk. Perched high on the hillside, surrounded by ancient cedar trees, it overlooked the sparkling Camel Estuary and gazed dreamily towards the Atlantic. Over the years various owners had added to it and decorated it, but in Andi’s imagination it remained as it had always been, a rather tatty and beloved family haven filled with powdery sand and children and happy sunshiny memories.

“We have to stop!” Angel ordered Gemma. Already she was pulling on her shades and gathering her things up into her bag. “Let’s get a coffee in The Wharf Café and see what’s going on!”

Gemma didn’t need asking twice. “Callum could be about. I saw on Twitter he’s been spotted there and his Facebook Fan page says he was at the Ski School yesterday. Let’s check it out.”

Somehow she squeezed the car into a minuscule gap between a Lotus and a convertible Mini. Andi stumbled out of the car and onto the pavement, her legs coming back to life in a gush of pins and needles. Since Gemma drove as if the motorway was her own personal game of dodgems, Andi felt like kissing the tarmac, Pope style. She had survived the journey! Maybe this was positive thought number one?

“You guys go ahead,” Andi said when her sister tried to nudge her towards the café, all funky chrome and glass and where Andi knew her final ten pounds in the world would not last long. “I want to stretch my legs.”

Angel looked doubtful. She’d practically been on suicide watch since Empty Bank Account day. “Are you sure?”

Andi nodded. “I’ll catch up with you in a bit.”

Angel and Gemma headed off into the town, fake designer shades firmly perched on top of their artfully tousled hair, and Andi wandered back up the main street to the newsagents. Unlike her sister, whose nose had been buried in
Heat
for most of the journey, she had a burning and very square urge to buy a copy of the
FT
. She might not be working at the moment, but she still liked to keep up to speed with everything. Like the Safe T Net flotation, for example. From what she’d read it had gone phenomenally well and for a ridiculous amount of money too. Aston Martin man was now worth the kind of crazy money Bond villains used to ransom the world for. One gazillion dollars! Mawahahahaa!

Right now Andi would be happy with twenty quid...

The shop was quiet and cool. It was late afternoon and everybody was either on the beach or waterskiing. Andi browsed the newspapers for a while before selecting the local one, (with the vague hope that she might find a job) as well as the last copy of the
FT
. She was just reaching out to scoop it up when a man beat her to it.

“Oh, sorry! Did you want that?” he asked, turning to her. Eyes the same turquoise hue as the sparkling water outside met hers and he smiled apologetically.

Andi found herself thinking that if life was one of Angel’s pink books with shoes on the cover, this was the point where her stomach should turn into melting ice cream and her heart should start to flutter at his shy lopsided smile. Then she’d notice the sharp planes of his face and the perfect bone structure of his skull beneath the moleskin-short haircut, before her eyes drifted down to take in a muscular, tee-shirt-clad chest and strong legs below board shorts. Yes, in the world of Angel’s books Andi would probably fall head over heels in love. But because this was the real world and right now she liked men about as much as Superman liked Kryptonite, all she could think was
Step away from my
FT
, buster!

“Please, you take it,” he said, offering her the pink sheets. “My brother-in-law asked me to pick it up but he’s supposed to be having a break from work. To be honest, I’ve no idea why he needs the
FT
when he’s on holiday. Kicking drugs must be easier than quitting the world of business!”

Andi laughed in spite of herself. “To be honest I don’t need it either. Please take it.”

The man shook his head. “If Mel catches Simon working while he’s supposed to be on the family holiday she’ll probably file for divorce! You’ll be doing my nephews a favour.”

The paper was held out. Andi touched the pink pages tentatively.

“Really?”

He nodded. “Really. Or else it will all be your fault when they get divorced and the boys have a broken home.”

Andi couldn’t have that on her conscience.

“I’d better have the paper,” she agreed.

Leaving
FT
man flicking through a copy of
Closer
– this issue with a red-faced Callum South plastered all over the front – Andi made for the till, only to discover that her purse was totally empty. For a few dreadful seconds she ransacked every possible pocket and hiding place where a shy tenner could lurk, but no luck. Her final ten-pound note, all the money she had in the world, had vanished – and Andi had a good idea where to. Angel must have swiped it and her change when she borrowed Andi’s purse to buy her magazines.

Andi felt as though she was under water. It really had all gone to hell in a handcart now that the sum of her worldly goods could be spent on
Heat

“I’m sorry,” she said to the shopkeeper, feeling dangerously close to tears all of a sudden. “I seem to be out of cash.”

“We have a cash machine here, my love,” the shopkeeper said helpfully. “And we take cards.”

Andi thought she’d probably have more luck going down to the beach and coaxing blood out of the pebbles than getting her Visa card to play ball.

“I’ll have to leave it,” she said, her throat tight. “I’m really sorry.”

Abandoning the paper on the counter, Andi dashed out of the shop. Once outside in the bright sunshine she blinked rapidly and tried to slow her jagged breathing. This was just a blip. Things could only get better – or at least she bloody well hoped they could. Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and started to walk down the main street towards The Wharf Café. Once she’d found her sister and wrestled her money back, Andi was going to buy herself a big glass of wine and drown her sorrows. And if that failed she could always hurl herself in the estuary.

“Excuse me! You forgot this!”

It was the man from the shop. He caught Andi up and was brandishing the
FT
at her.

“I didn’t pay for it,” Andi said awkwardly. “I forgot my money. You’d better take it back.”

He smiled and she noticed how his eyes crinkled at the corners. He must smile an awful lot. “Don’t look so worried; I haven’t nicked it. I bought it for you.”

Andi stared at him. Why would he do that? Why was he being kind? Was he some sort of nutter? It would be just her luck to meet the local loony only minutes into her stay.

“I promise I’m not a crazy stalker,” the man said hastily, accurately reading her expression. “It’s just that I can see how much you want that paper and how upset you seemed when I nearly took it. Look, if it makes you feel awkward, how about we share it? There’s a little boatyard up the road that has a café. It’s not posh, I’m afraid, but we could get a coffee and you can read the paper. Then I’ll take it home.”

“I can’t let you do that,” Andi said, flustered. “Besides, I thought your sister would file for divorce?”

He laughed. “I doubt she means it, Mel’s been bossing Si around since they were teenagers. She’d be lost without him to nag. Still, I’m prepared to take the risk. How about you?”

He paused expectantly. The paper hovered above her fingertips. Then, as though it had a mind of its own, Andi’s hand took it.

“Phew!” he said, miming mopping his brow. “My ego was in serious danger there! I’m Jonty, by the way.”

“Miranda,” she told him. “But everyone calls me Andi.”

“So,  Andi, what do you say? Will you let me buy you a coffee?”

She paused. Down the hill Gemma and Angel would be posing in The Wharf Café, Angel tossing her hair extensions and waiting for a celebrity or millionaire to wander past. Andi supposed she could join them and ruin things by sitting there like a black cloud or she could go for a quiet coffee with this kind stranger, her knight in shining newsprint.

It was one coffee, that was all: one coffee, which she couldn’t even afford to buy herself. Coffee and a read of the financial pages. So why on earth not?

After all, what had she got to lose?

Chapter 11

“How brilliant is this?” Angel asked, raising her coffee cup at Gemma. “Here’s to our summer! Cheers!”

“Cheers,” Gemma echoed, chinking her cup against Angel’s. She took a sip of ice-cold Chardonnay and could have wept with happiness. Honestly, it hardly seemed real that only this morning she’d woken up to the rumbling of traffic and beneath a leaden sky and now she was sitting on a roof terrace with nothing but the cry of the gulls in her ears and a light southerly wind lifting her curls.

Although it was a midweek afternoon the terrace was rammed with people, all of whom had that rosy glow that came with endless days spent on the water and middle-class wealth. Bright Seasalt-branded bags sat bulkily below the metal-legged tables, Mulberry satchels were slung casually over the backs of chairs and an array of prints by Joules, Cath Kidston and White Stuff prints were jumbled together in a laughing and glamorous patchwork. Tanned feet, as smooth and as brown as butterscotch, were thrust into expensive deck shoes and Gemma instantly wished she wasn’t wearing her stinky old Skechers that had seen better days. She’d forgotten how Rock had its own look, a curious blend of the shabby but expensive, and she suddenly felt self-conscious in her elasticated-waistband jeans and George hoody. Everybody looked so ridiculously glam and thin! She seriously had to diet.

Gemma pushed her packet of hand-cut salt-and-balsamic-vinegar crisps away. She really needed to get her eating under control and this was the time to start. For a moment her hand hovered over the packet before she caved in. It had been ages since lunch and they didn’t have any food for supper. Until she went to Bodmin’s branch of Asda, these crisps were all she had. It would be silly to waste them.

As she munched away Gemma noticed that although Angel also stuck out like a sore thumb in her tight white jeans, glittery pink vest and sky-high wedges, she seemed totally oblivious. Sipping wine and scrolling through the contact list on her iPhone, Angel was every bit as at home among the moneyed, nautical set as she was trawling the boutiques of Kensington. Fake tanned, false eyelashed and sporting a full face of make-up, she was glammed up to the nines and pretending not to notice the admiring glances thrown her way by practically every guy in the place. Project Rich Guy was clearly go.

Gemma sighed. She may as well as have been wearing Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. That was what being fat did for a girl. If only she could chance upon Callum South’s production crew, or even the man himself. This was the key to solving all of her problems, she was sure of it. Unlike Angel, Gemma had no hopes that Prince Charming was about to roar by on his Sunseeker and sweep her off her feet. She was so heavy she’d probably sink his boat. No, for Gemma the path to fame and fortune was not going to come from being beautiful. She was going to have to get herself noticed in a different fashion. She was going to have to be creative.

Angel drained her skinny latte and set it down with a resolute thump.