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Millie felt her heart give a sharp nip. If Jen had asked her that question yesterday, she would have delivered a completely different answer. As it was, the last thing she wanted to gossip with her sister about was Zach Barker.
‘Sorry to disappoint you, but there’s nothing to report.’
‘Really? That isn’t what Ella said. She told Claudia that you had gone off for a day exploring the rainforest together. Come on, Millie, spill the details to your old married sister. James’ idea of romance is taking me to the village cricket match to make the teas! Tell me about Zach. He’s Claudia and Tim’s estate manager, isn’t he?’
‘Yes, he’s on secondment from Claudia’s manor house in the Cotswolds where she has her cookery school. I’m surprised you didn’t meet him when you were over there presenting that course for Claudia last Christmas. It’s true, he has shown me some of the island whilst I’ve been here, but we’re just friends, Jen. Nothing else.’ Millie heard a deep intake of breath and knew she was about to be on the receiving end of a lecture about moving on from Luke and that enjoying a holiday fling with no strings attached was the best therapy for the broken-hearted, so she added ‘Actually, his girlfriend has just arrived from the UK, so I don’t think I’ll be seeing much of him before I fly back home on Monday.’
‘Shame,’ Jen giggled. ‘I checked out his Facebook page and he’s hot!’
Millie felt a dart of regret shoot through her. Wasn’t that exactly what her first impression had been of Zach Barker? Along with his infuriating sarcasm and ability to materialise whenever there was a chance to witness Millie at her least elegant?
‘There must be plenty of other handsome guys on holiday in St Lucia. Doesn’t Ella have a son? Isn’t he a journalist on the local newspaper? Doeshehave a girlfriend?’
‘Jen…’
‘All I’m saying is you can’t go through life without taking a chance on love. I won’t let you do that. Lola and Odette do not want to visit an aging spinster aunt who spends all her time knitting and sewing and rustling up the odd Victoria sponge, ruing the time that has passed her by.’
Millie had no intention of satisfying her sister’s demands by telling her about the date Lottie had arranged for her the previous week with Jake, one of the waiters at the Purple Parrot where she worked. She wasn’t sure which bit of juicy information her sister would enjoy the most; the fact that Jake had left to use the bathroom facilities and not returned, or the fact that he had subsequently been arrested for a string of thefts from unsuspecting holidaymakers. If she hadn’t been put off dating by the fiasco with Luke before that, then she most certainly had been when she had learned about Jake’s fate from Lottie. She was now a fully paid-up member of the Love Cynic Club.
‘Jen, I’m here to work! You might think all I’ve got to do is lie around all day on a sun lounger, sipping cocktails and soaking up the sunshine, but actually I’m spending every single minute shopping for ingredients, testing and tweaking recipes, not to mention the terrifying task of delivering a bespoke cookery course to the standards required by a celebrity TV chef. If you want to know the truth, I’m absolutely exhausted.’
‘You’re holding back on something, Millie, I can tell from your voice. I understand if you don’t want to share whatever it is over the phone, but I’m coming down to London as soon as you get back. I’ll treat you to afternoon tea at Fortnum’s and we can have a girly heart-to-heart. Won’t take no for an answer.’
Millie chatted to Jen for a few more minutes, asking about Odette’s swimming lessons and Lola’s birthday cake which predictably, had a ballerina theme. She had loved reconnecting across the miles, but she didn’t feel any better than she had before she had called. In fact, she could now add a large dollop of homesickness to her expanding list of ailments.
‘Okay, I’d better let you get to bed or you’ll be too tired to control the happy hordes of five-year-olds tomorrow. Send my love to Mum, and to James and the girls.’
‘I will. Love you, Millie.’
‘You too.’
Millie sat back in her chair, tipped her head back, and stared at the sky. After a few seconds of contemplation, she was sure she saw a shooting star amongst the millions of others scattered across the inky blue canopy overhead. She quickly made a wish, but watching the cosmic spectacle from a seat in the Grand Circle alone didn’t offer the same pleasure as it would have if there had been someone to share it with.
Jen was right. Lifewasbetter when there was someone special by your side.
A heavy mantle of fatigue descended. It had been a long and stressful day, and even though it was barely nine o’clock she decided that in her current mood of melancholy there was nothing else to do but to curl up in bed and partake in a bout of self-indulged weeping.
Chapter Twelve
Millie woke early and for a few blissful seconds she wallowed in the luxury of the morning’s birdsong. The sun bleached through the muslin curtains and from the slice of pale blue between the drapes she could see it was going to be another blissful day in paradise. Then reality hit and she groaned out loud. Why had she thought it was a good idea to leave the clearing up until today?
She leapt out of bed and straight into the shower to blast away the cobwebs. She was relieved to see it was only six-thirty so she had plenty of time to erase the evidence of the previous day’s culinary exploits before anyone arrived to see her laziness.
She wasn’t entirely sure whether Imogen and her friends would be coming over to the Paradise Cookery School that day – what would have been, in normal circumstances, the final day of Claudia’sChocolate & Confetticourse.
When they had left in their hire car the previous day, she had simply left the choice up to them, assuring Imogen that she and Ella would be there from ten o’clock onwards. They could either have a full day’s tuition on making chocolate éclairs and profiteroles as per the original itinerary Claudia had planned, or they could make a mountain of cupcakes and decorate them with a variety of exotic toppings – an activity that Gracie could join in with. Or, if they all had better things to do, like organising the whole wedding ceremony singlehandedly because of the situation with the disappearing wedding planner, and preferred to give the last day a miss, then that was fine too.
Millie had to admit she was disappointed the course hadn’t run as smoothly as she had hoped but, thankfully, that had nothing to do with her or Ella’s organisational skills. She knew Julia had emailed Claudia to personally apologise for what had happened. Claudia had immediately offered to refund the course fee, but Julia wouldn’t hear of it, singing Millie and Ella’s praises as not only fantastic pastry chefs and course presenters, but awesome human beings for coming to their rescue with the replacement wedding cake and creating the favours.
Millie checked her phone but there were no messages. She refused to admit to herself that what she was secretly hoping for was a text from Zach explaining exactly what had happened the previous day when he had been summoned to the airport to collect Clio.
Did his lack of contact mean that they had resumed their relationship? Or had he simply met Clio in order to reiterate his assertion that he wasn’t interested in getting engaged – the reason Clio had terminated their relationship in the first place. Millie was totally confused at her sudden reappearance, especially as the last thing Zach had told her about Clio was that he had heard through the grapevine that she was engaged.
So what was going on?
Millie heaved a sigh and slid her toes into her sparkly flip-flops. If she thought about the Zach and Clio situation any longer there was a risk her head might explode, so she prescribed herself a morning of scrubbing the kitchen floor and workstations as therapy for her dalliance with confusion. She flicked on the radio and, with the reggae rhythms to aid her progress, she was finished by eight o’clock.
She ground a handful of roasted coffee beans, made herself a cafetière of the best coffee in the world, and took her mug out onto the veranda. Three more days to enjoy the wonderful view, the tranquillity of the villa and its grounds, and the friendships she had made during three weeks’ sabbatical from her job at the little patisserie in Hammersmith. She stared at the scene in front of her, trying to fix every tiny detail in her mind’s eye so she would be able to conjure up the image on those drab, grey, drizzle-soaked days that London was so apt to produce.
