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‘Have you been very stressed?’
‘It’s the summer,’ Hilda reminded her dryly, watching as she walked to the sink and washed her hands, ‘it’s my busiest time. There’s a queue outside my door in the morning when I open and it stays there until I close and my counters are stripped bare of food. It’s like exposing yourself to an attack of locusts. I’ve never known people eat so much.’
Anna laughed and sat back down at her desk. ‘Well, I think that the locusts have made your eczema worse.’ She tapped the keyboard. ‘I’m giving you a prescription for cream to rub in that patch, and make sure you keep up your emollie
nt baths.’
Hilda sighed. ‘I’m so tired by the end of the day that if I stepped into a bath I’d probably drown.’
‘It will relax you.’ Anna handed her the prescription and Hilda pulled a face.
‘I daren’t relax. If I relax, who’s going to cook for tomorrow? I just need to keep this up until the end of the summer. It isn’t long now.’
Not long now.
The happiness left Anna like air from a popped balloon.
Once summer ended the tourists would be gone. And so would Sam.
The past two weeks had been idyllic. At work they were very discreet, communicating on a totally professional level, but the moment they stepped through the doors of the house they were lovers. Crazy, wild, self-absorbed lovers. And up until now she’d been so totally caught up in the madness of the present that she hadn’t allowed herself to think about the future.
But the future was on her doorstep.
‘You and Dr McKenna have done a good job here this summer,’ Hilda said, taking the prescription and tucking it safely in her bag. ‘Been just what the village needed. It was time for young blood in the practice and Sam’s just the man.’
‘Sam’s just temporary,’ Anna said briskly, reaching for some papers on her desk and trying to ignore the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. ‘He was only ever temporary.’
Only somehow, over the past few weeks, she’d allowed herself to forget that. She’d lived so much for the moment that she hadn’t realised that tomorrow had arrived.
Hilda looked at her. ‘He’s a local lad. This is his home and this is where he should be. You know it and I know it.’ She sniffed and rose to her feet, her bag clasped in her hand. ‘And sooner or later Sam McKenna will work that out, too. He wanted to spread his wings and he’s done that. It’s time for him to stop messing around. If you want to drop by later, I’ve got the most delicious seafood lasagne. I’ll put a couple of portions aside for you. And a lemon tart.’
‘Thanks, Hilda. Without you I would undoubtedly starve.’ Anna stood up and walked to the door with her. ‘I’ll pop by on my way home.’
She watched Hilda go and then closed the door firmly.
In a daze, she walked back to her desk and sank into her chair.
How could it have happened?
How could she have been so stupid?
She’d fallen in love with Sam. Completely and utterly.
And it wasn’t supposed to be that way. They didn’t like each other. They clashed terribly. They disagreed on everything. They…
She ran a hand over her face and groaned. They were perfect together.
So now what?
She stared out of the window, across the harbour to the estuary and the sea beyond. Hilda was wrong about Sam. He wouldn’t be staying. Not once the summer was over. They hadn’t talked about it yet, but both of them knew he’d be going soon. Back to his life in London.
And she couldn’t blame him for that. He’d never pretended that their relationship was anything other than physical. It was her that had broken the rules. Broken the rules by falling in love.
So now what did she do? She obviously couldn’t ever tell him, so what did she do? Did she end it?
She watched the boats bobbing in the harbour, the wind catching the flags on the masts, and knew that she couldn’t do that.
She wanted to make the most of every minute.
