Page 133 of My Kind of Happy

‘As long as you pay him a fair wage,’ Annabel demanded.

‘Of course,’ I promised.

‘Da-ad,’ Will clasped his stomach. ‘I’m starving.’

‘If you give me some money, I’ll take him to the shop,’ said Annabel, with a small sigh to indicate that she was doing Sam a great favour.

‘I could do with your help choosing a wedding cake,’ I said, lifting the lid of a large plastic box. Rosie had brought some samples round earlier. ‘If you like cake, that is?’

‘I love cake,’ said Annabel, shooting me a sly grin. ‘Even wedding cake. High five.’

We slapped each other’s hands and I felt ridiculously honoured.

The kids swooped down on it like gannets and Sam sent them to eat it on the pavement to minimise mess in the shop. There wouldn’t have been any mess because Scamp would have caught the crumbs before they hit the floor but I kept quiet because I was dying to get Sam on his own.

‘I’ve missed you,’ I whispered, as soon as they were out of earshot, stepping as close as I dared.

Sam looked down at his feet. ‘And I’ve missed you. Look, what happened on Sunday …’

I grinned cheekily. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already. Here, let me remind you.’

I stood on my tiptoes to whisper in his ear but he leapt back as if I’d stuck a pin in him.

‘The kids!’ He laughed awkwardly. ‘They could be back in any second.’

‘Yes, of course, sorry,’ I said, feeling slightly ashamed. I jammed my hands in my back pockets to force myself not to touch him again.

‘I really enjoyed Sunday,’ he began again.

‘Snap,’ I said feeling a surge of hope; silly me, I’d been overthinking things, he was only being stand-offish because of his children which was entirely the right thing to do. ‘Perhaps we could make it a weekly thing.’

‘Actually, it’s my turn to have the kids next weekend, so …’

‘Of course!’ I said, firmly. ‘Absolutely and according to an article I read, we should wait to introduce the children to the idea of you and someone new. So, slowly, slowly.’

‘You are sweet.’ Sam groaned. ‘This is difficult. Fearne, what I’m trying to say is I think we should probably slow things down a bit.’

‘Oh.’ I blinked at him, feeling utterly deflated. ‘You didn’t think that on Sunday. So why the sudden change of heart?’

He trailed a finger down my bare arm and this time it was me who pulled away. ‘I really like you, Fearne …’

‘But,’ I supplied for him. I plastered on a smile. ‘There’s a “but”. And if it’s all the same to you, I don’t want to hear it. So let’s leave it there. Job done. It’s OK, no hearts broken.’

He looked over his shoulder to where Annabel and Will were sitting on the pavement swapping lumps of cake. ‘It’s all happened so fast. I’m trying to find a divorce lawyer, and somewhere to live and now a new job.’

I stared at him in disbelief. ‘Have you been fired?’

My mind flashed back to the fun we’d had pretending to be on The Apprentice and doing impressions of Sir Alan and I shook them away.

Sam smiled ruefully. ‘I gave Duncan an ultimatum: either he withdrew the termination notice on this property, or I walked. I was banking on him wanting me to stay. Turns out I’m not indispensable. So I’m officially unemployed.’

‘You did that for us?’ I clapped a hand over my mouth, horror-struck.

‘I did.’ He straightened up. ‘It was a matter of principle. I know I didn’t get you the result you needed but at least I did my best. I’ve been under Duncan’s thumb for years. It feels quite good actually. I got a decent pay-off and I’m going to put some thought into my next move.’

‘But Nina doesn’t want to stay in these premises,’ I blurted out.

He blinked at me. ‘Seriously?’