Snowflakes on Silver Cove: A festive, feel-good Christmas romance (White Cliff Bay Book 2) (25 page)

Suddenly remembering Libby’s advice about not answering the phone on a date he quickly fished his phone out of his pocket to turn it off. He was about to divert the call to the answer machine when he noticed the caller was Libby.

Frowning, he hesitated. She knew he was on the date with Cerys; she wouldn’t call unless something was wrong.

‘Erm…sorry, I won’t be a moment,’ he said, getting up and walking out the restaurant. He quickly answered the phone.

‘Lib, are you OK?’

There was a very manly laugh. ‘You arse,’ said a very familiar voice that definitely wasn’t Libby.

Confused, he looked at the phone, but the ID clearly said Libby. He put the phone back to his ear again.

‘Hello?’

‘It’s Nick, I knew you wouldn’t pick up if you saw my name ringing, so I’m using Libby’s phone whilst she’s popped to the loo. What the hell are you playing at, lad, you send a woman to do your dirty work for you?’

George looked through the window at Cerys drumming her fingers impatiently. ‘What?’

‘You afraid you would lose again tonight so you sent Libby to win for you? That’s cowardly. And we all thought, “Aw sweet lovely Libby, sure we’ll let her play, what’s the worst that can happen?” Bloody woman has only gone and cleared us out. Every single match between the four of us is sitting in front of her place right now. She’s bloody lethal. Next time you can’t make it, you just send your apologies, don’t send the bloody poker genius to play on your behalf. You keep her at home where the woman belongs. Ooh, look lively, lads, here she comes.’

George shook his head in confusion. ‘Libby’s playing poker with you?’

‘Yeah, don’t pretend you don’t know, George. Next you’ll be telling me that you didn’t know she played poker…oof.’

He heard Libby’s voice in the background. ‘Is that George? Why are you phoning him, give me the phone…’ There was a scuffling noise and then she came on the phone. ‘George, I’m so sorry, I had no idea the idiot would call you…’

‘Libby, why are you playing poker?’

‘Oh…I didn’t want you to get into trouble with the boys…’

He smiled fondly.

‘…How’s it going?’ she asked.

‘Good…’ He looked at Cerys through the restaurant window. ‘Well, OK, I guess.’

‘Look, I’m going to go home to bed now, the boys are bad losers and I’m tired. Come by when the date’s over, we can dissect it together if I’m still awake.’

‘I better go too.’ George looked back at Cerys again, wishing he could just stay on the phone to his best friend rather than go back into the restaurant.

‘Yes you should, enjoy the date, George. Even if she isn’t the person you’re going to spend the rest of your life with, just put it down to practice for your big date with Giselle.’

Libby was right; regardless of the outcome, tonight would be a good thing.

‘I’ll see you later then, Lib.’

He hung up and went back in and Kamal looked at him as he walked past, shaking his head regretfully.

‘Sorry about that… bit of a family thing,’ he said, sitting down, disappointed to see that his plate had been whisked away whilst he had been gone.

‘It’s OK.’ She smiled tightly. ‘Shall we get dessert?’

He nodded, wearily. This really was going to be the longest night of his life.

L
ibby put
her phone back in her bag and glared at Nick. ‘Why did you phone him for? He’s on a date and it doesn’t look good that he answered his phone in the middle of it.’

‘He’s on a date, bloody hell,’ Nick spluttered into his beer. ‘Well, the silly arse shouldn’t have picked up the call then.’

‘Good for him,’ Big Dave said, still grinning stupidly, as he had been all night.

‘Can’t believe he would cancel our poker game for a date with some girl,’ Matt said, surreptitiously trying to steal some matches back from Libby’s pile. She slapped his hand away. ‘It… is with a girl, isn’t it? Not that I’m judging, I wouldn’t care if George was gay, just… it’s been a long time since he’s been with a woman, I was beginning to wonder if maybe…’

‘It’s a girl, a beautiful red-head who looks like Venus apparently. Cerys somebody,’ Libby said, sipping the last of her drink and standing up.

‘Cerys Andrews?’ Nick said, his eyes bulging.

‘I think so.’

‘Oh God, poor chap, we’ve all been there, haven’t we, boys?’

Matt and Big Dave nodded solemnly.

‘She’s like a mermaid, beautiful, like a gift from the gods, but that’s how she lures men in, and then she strikes.’

Libby sat down again. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Halfway through my first date with Cerys, I had actually planned my untimely demise in several different ways. The most appealing being cutting my ears off so I wouldn’t have to hear her and then letting myself bleed to death. She is quite possibly the most boring person I’ve ever met. When she suggested a second date, I made up some ghastly disease and she soon lost interest after that,’ Matt said.

‘You got out easy, I suffered three dates with her before I got out,’ Big Dave said, shuddering as he remembered. ‘Don’t forget her Mr Perfect complex. After my first lunch date with her, I went straight to the barber’s for a haircut and a shave. I’d booked an appointment with some beauty salon to have my back and chest waxed and spent five hundred pounds on new clothes. I mean, I work on a farm, what use to me is the latest Ralph Lauren shirt, but I was under her spell. Oh, poor George doesn’t stand a chance.’

‘Five dates,’ Nick said, grimly. ‘I slept with her, the most unpleasant experience of my life. “Put your hands here, don’t do that, do this, harder Nick, not that hard, go gently, kiss me, touch me here, stop that, harder Nick, for fuck’s sake harder, HARDER, that’s pathetic, what are you doing, for goodness’ sake, stop fucking around…” I was a gibbering wreck by the end.’

‘Oh God no,’ Libby said, suddenly scared for George, that just as he was venturing out of his shell he would be sent scuttling back into it. ‘I should probably warn him.’

Big Dave smiled kindly. ‘Libby, we have to let him make his own mistakes. This way, when someone perfect for him comes along, he’ll appreciate it all the more. I think it’s best he’s left to sort this one out for himself.’

Libby sighed. She knew he was right. George was a grown man; he would have to stand on his own two feet eventually.

‘Look, it’s been a pleasure playing with you gents,’ she said, standing up and eyeing the big pile of matches smugly, ‘but for now I’m off to bed.’

Nick grumbled and Matt shook his head in a mixture of admiration and annoyance.

She turned for the door and watched as Judith marched through it and straight to the bar. She clearly meant business. Seb and Amy paled guiltily. This wasn’t good at all.

F
inally the bill came and
, remembering the advice that Libby had given him, George put his card on the bill to cover it.

Cerys noted this gesture but just smiled.

When Kamal came back with the receipt he also gave a small tray with the traditional two white chocolates and one dark chocolate.

‘White chocolate is my favourite thing in the world,’ he said.

‘I quite like white chocolate too,’ she said, popping one of the pieces in her mouth and offering him the other white piece. He took it, begrudgingly. She quite liked white chocolate?
Quite
liked it? He had just said it was his favourite thing in the world and she had taken a piece because she quite liked it. But it was just a bit of chocolate. He wasn’t going to spoil his date because of a piece of chocolate.

When they stood up though, she smiled almost as if she was amused by something, which was an encouraging sign.

She giggled. ‘I never realised how short you are before.’

He frowned as he looked down. ‘Cerys, you’re wearing six-inch heels.’

‘But I always wear heels, George; it looks silly that you’re shorter than me.’

‘Looks silly to who?’

‘Other people.’

‘I’m sure “other people” have better things to worry about than whether I look shorter than you. Besides, I’m not actually shorter than you, am I, I’m five foot nine. How tall are you?’

‘The same, but in my heels I obviously look taller. You could wear heels too.’

‘What, stilettos?’ he laughed.

‘No, boots or shoes with a heel. There are many actors who wear heeled boots. It looks good on a man.’

‘You could wear flats,’ he suggested.

‘George, I’m not wearing flats. I look good in heels, don’t I?’

He looked down at her legs. Her legs did look fantastic in heels. Libby never wore heels, well not stilettos like these. He had to admit Cerys did look very sexy wearing them.

‘Yes, you do.’

‘Well then,’ she said, as if the case was closed.

‘Cerys, I’m not wearing heels.’

She sighed. ‘How about if I bought some for you, some nice fashionable ones, would you wear them?’

‘No.’

‘George, will you at least think about it? I think we look silly, that’s all, I don’t want people to laugh at us, do you?’

He couldn’t imagine people standing and laughing at them just because he was now a few inches shorter than she was, and if they did he didn’t really care. ‘No, but…’

‘Just think about it.’ She suddenly kissed him, running her hands round the back of his neck, and all thoughts of wearing heels or arguing with her about it went from his head. He was standing in a restaurant being kissed by a beautiful woman. This date was suddenly looking up.

She pulled away. ‘You really do kiss well. So you’ll think about it?’

He opened his mouth to protest but changed his mind. ‘I’ll think about it.’

She smiled, smugly.

‘Let’s go back to yours,’ she whispered in his ear in such a way that left no room for misunderstanding. Though if there was any doubt in his mind about what she meant, that was quickly dispelled when she grabbed him through his trousers, and stuck her tongue down his throat.

This was not good, he hadn’t had time to read the stuff that Libby had given him. He didn’t want this at all. But the longer he kept putting it off, the worse it would get. If he didn’t sleep with Cerys now, if he went and hid under his bed like he wanted to, the next time he was with a woman, he would be even more scared.

He nodded reluctantly, his heart hammering with fear as they stepped outside and the wind whipped over the cliff tops.

S
eb closed
the office door behind him and faced Judith. And for a while, no one spoke. But here was the opportunity he wanted, to tell her he had fallen in love again. He just hadn’t figured out which words to use yet. Words jumbled through his mind as he tried different variations.

In the end Judith helped him out.

‘Do you love her?’

He stepped forward away from the door, and reached out to take her hand. ‘Yes, I do. This isn’t just some little fling, I love her.’

Judith snatched her hand from his. ‘You lied to me. I asked you if you loved her and you said no.’

‘I know. I didn’t want to hurt you. I promised you there would never be anyone else after Marie and…’

She frowned. ‘When did you promise me that?’

‘About ten minutes after Marie had died. You made me promise that I would never love anyone else.’

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Seb, is that what’s been holding you back, some silly promise I made you make minutes after my daughter had died?’

‘Well, there have been many reasons why I’ve been holding back: being scared of falling in love again, of losing Amy, fear of hurting you. I kept thinking about the heart attack. I couldn’t bear the thought of that happening again…’ He trailed off. What if Judith had another heart attack now? Not only was he in love with someone else, but it was Amy of all people. Judith looked OK – angry certainly, and hurt, but she didn’t look like she was about to keel over.

‘That had nothing to do with you, I told you that – that I’d been feeling ill for a few days, that the doctors said it was high blood pressure, that I needed to sort out my diet, take more exercise. It wasn’t anything to do with you going out on a date.’

‘But you were so angry about it.’

‘Of course I was. I was still grieving. I guess I always will grieve over Marie, miss her. I can’t expect that from you.’

Seb’s heart leapt angrily, and he had to swallow down the anger from his voice. He was not going to get into another row with her. ‘That’s not fair. I will always love Marie, that will never go away for me. But do you not think it’s possible to love two people at the same time? I’m not going to suddenly forget her just because I’ve found someone else.’

Judith sighed wearily and she leaned against the edge of his desk. He quickly moved to her side; she looked so old all of a sudden. He took her hand again, and this time she let him.

‘I know you loved Marie,’ she said. ‘I know you still do, but… I guess I find it hard to watch you carry on with your life when she can’t.’

Seb looked away. It wasn’t fair, none of this was. He moved to his cupboard and grabbed a bottle of whisky and poured himself a glass.

‘You can pour one for me too,’ she said behind him. He felt his eyebrows shoot up in surprise, but he did as he was told and turned back to hand her the glass. She took a big gulp.

‘Marie would have wanted you to be happy again, and so do I.’

He found himself taking a big swig of the whisky now. ‘You’re saying you’re OK with it, but… you hate Amy.’

‘I hated you when Marie first brought you home. I didn’t want her to go out with you, but I changed my mind. I love you now like a son. I don’t think I’ll ever love Amy, but… I don’t hate her. Not any more.’

He hardly believed this was happening. ‘What about marriage and children, what happens if… when it gets that far?’

‘Then I’ll buy a big hat.’ Judith smiled, sadly. ‘I want a happy future for you, Seb. Our lives shouldn’t stand still just because of what happened. Marie wanted to travel, to see the world. After her father died, we spoke about doing that together, but we never got round to it. Life is short and precious and I want to do what we spoke about before it gets too late for me. I want to see every little tiny pocket of the world, so I may not be around to see the wedding anyway. It’ll probably be a good thing if I’m not around for a while, if I’m not lurking over your shoulder.’