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2
Lettie woke with a start and blinked furiously. The sun had tracked down her body and was warming her thighs. For a moment, she thought she was at home, but the screeching of seagulls outside, rather than the rumble of the Underground, reminded her where she was. And a glance at her watch revealed she’d been asleep for over an hour.
‘Damn,’ she said out loud, starting to regret her impetuous flight from London. What did she think she was going to achieve by coming to Heaven’s Cove? It certainly wouldn’t bring her great-aunt back, and she should be job-hunting at home.
Sitting up, she swung her legs off the bed and smoothed down her long hair that had a mind of its own. Then she went into the en-suite, with its gleaming new shower, and did her teeth. The minty fizz of the toothpaste made her feel more awake though the face staring back at her from the mirror still looked dozy. She blinked her big hazel eyes, raked her fingers through her unruly red hair and yawned. Sea air certainly wasn’t energising, she decided, wandering back into the bedroom and spotting more missed calls on her phone.
Lettie sighed and switched her mobile from silent. She supposed she’d better let her family know where she was because they’d be wondering what on earth she was doing.
But she winced when the phone suddenly started ringing and Daisy’s name came up on the screen. This was going to be tricky. She took a deep breath and clicked on ‘answer’.
‘There you are, Lettie! What’s going on? You practically do a runner from Mum and Dad’s yesterday, then you send a text at stupid o’clock this morning saying you’re going away on holiday when you’re supposed to be babysitting tonight.’
Lettie closed her eyes and groaned softly. That was the trouble with being spontaneous. It caused all sorts of upset.
‘Well?’ demanded Daisy, before her voice softened. ‘Say something! You’re all right, aren’t you?’
Lettie hesitated. How did one define ‘all right’? She hadn’t felt all right for ages.
‘I’m fine,’ answered Lettie, knowing that was what Daisy wanted to hear. ‘I just needed a break.’
‘Why? You haven’t got kids driving you crazy. And what about work?’
‘I had some time owing,’ lied Lettie, desperate to avoid both the disappointment and unsolicited advice that telling the truth would unleash.
Starcrosses held down solid jobs for years before retiring, like her father, to watch endless repeats ofMidsomer MurdersandCash in the Attic.They didn’t hanker after new, unattainable careers, and they certainly weren’t fired for ‘inappropriate behaviour’.
‘So where have you buggered off to, then?’ demanded Daisy. ‘Spain, Italy, Greece?’
‘I’m in Devon.’
‘Devon? Why, when you have no responsibilities and can jump on a plane to anywhere, have you gone to Devon?’ spluttered Daisy, to the sound of children bickering in the background. ‘What the…? Hang on a minute. Elsa, please give the remote control to your brother and stop biting him. Honestly, you two are testing my patience today.’ She waited until everything went quiet before continuing. ‘So why are you in Devon? You didn’t mention anything about it and you should be here. You know it’s my weekly date night with Jason tonight and you always babysit.’
‘Sorry, Daisy. I’m afraid I can’t this time.’
‘What about next week?’
‘Possibly,’ answered Lettie, feeling, as usual, more like Daisy’s au pair than her sister.
‘Possibly? What is going on? You never go on last-minute holidays. Were you spooked by Mum trying to set you up with that sales guy?’
‘I could have done without it, to be honest.’
Nicholas, the son of one of her mum’s work colleagues, had been roped in to have an evening meal with her family and, as blind dates go, he’d seemed fine. Polite, clean-cut and with a good job. Just Lettie’s type, according to her family. He even looked a little like Christopher, her ex.
But all Nicholas talked about was his job selling kitchens, and he hadn’t seemed terribly impressed with her job in customer care for a firm that made a range of different types of adhesive. He’d have been even less impressed if she’d told him the truth, that she’d just been ‘terminated’.
‘Mum’s only trying to help,’ said Daisy. ‘We all are, and he was better looking than I expected, plus he’s got a career, and an Audi. You need to stop being so picky. Nigel, or whatever his name was, could be the man of your dreams.’
‘I doubt it, and I really don’t need you all to sort out my love life.’
‘You really do,’ snorted Daisy.
Lettie sighed. ‘Nicholas seemed very nice, but he was a bit boring.’
‘Boring? What do you expect from life, Lettie? Passionate romance and adventure? Let’s face facts here.’
Oh, dear. Lettie closed her eyes, ready for the sisterly onslaught.
