With with Maddy, that much was self-evident. Feeling as though she’d been punched in the stomach, Kate realised that what she was seeing here was a couple who were, without question, a couple.
Maddy was wearing a pink bikini. She lay on her front on a green and blue striped rug, smiling at something Kerr said as he massaged suncream into her back. Suddenly twisting round and seizing the bottle of Evian at her side, she squirted water at Kerr. He in turn grabbed her, pinning her down and tickling her until she shrieked for mercy. Still rooted to the spot, Kate watched him kiss Maddy, and Maddy’s arms winding round his neck. Kerr, wearing only dark glasses and a pair of white shorts, was as tanned and athletically constructed as she remembered. His hands were roaming over Maddy’s back .. . God, it was almost impossible to take in, Kerr McKinnon and Maddy Harvey, cavorting together in the garden.
More to the point, where was Pauline McKinnon while all this was going on?
Stunned, but realising that she could hardly stroll round to the back of the house and ask them, Kate slipped away from the window and headed back down the driveway. Norris weighed a ton but she didn’t dare put him down. Spotting the lily-strewn pond, he began to whimper pathetically, but Kate ignored him. Maddy and Kerr. It was unbelievable; surely Marcella couldn’t know about this.
Feeling hotter and wearier than ever, Kate reached the bottom of the drive and unceremoniously plonked Norris down on all fours. Norris promptly lay down in the road and closed his eyes, tongue lolling and baggy jowls drooping in defeat.
So much for being offered a lift home by Kerr McKinnon. With a sigh, Kate pulled out her mobile and called a taxi company to come and pick them up.
At nine thirty on Sunday morning, Dexter Nevin was outside the Fallen Angel watering his hanging baskets when he heard footsteps coming down the road. Swivelling round on his ladder, he saw the answer to his prayers heading along the Main Street towards him.
Well, let’s face it, he was desperate.
‘Morning.’ Dexter’s mouth twitched at the look of disdain Kate shot him. Her face might be less than perfect but she had an enviable figure, he’d say that much for her; in low-slung khaki cargo pants and a tiny white cropped top, she moved like a catwalk model. Lithe, that was the word he was after.
Maybe even slinky. Shame about the stroppy manner, but beggars couldn’t afford to be choosers.
‘Morning.’ Kate’s reply was cool.
She was on her way to the shop, Dexter guessed, to pick up the Sunday papers.
‘You know, I could do you a favour.’
That stopped her in her tracks.
‘Sorry?’ said Kate suspiciously.
‘Well, we could do each other a favour.’ Dexter climbed down from the stepladder and began gathering up the coils of garden hose. ‘Nuala’s off work for a while – the clumsy article fell downstairs and cracked her collarbone. So,’ he paused and surveyed Kate speculatively, ‘how about you taking her place?’
‘As a barmaid, you mean?’
‘Of course as a barmaid. I wasn’t actually suggesting you hop into my bed.’ Dexter did his best to keep a straight face. ‘Then again, it’s entirely up to you, if that’s one of your conditions—’
‘Let me get this straight,’ Kate interrupted. ‘You want me to come and work for you, behind your bar, because your regular barmaid has a fractured collarbone. So, I’m sorry, but how exactly would you be doing me a favour?’
‘You’re bored to tears,’ Dexter said bluntly, ‘rattling around in that big old house up the hill. You spend all your time walking that fat dog of yours because you don’t have anything else to do. I’m telling you, it’s no life for a girl your age. A bit of socialising, that’s what you need. Trust me, it’d work wonders. Because moping around feeling sorry for yourself isn’t doing you any good at all.’
‘Blimey, you must be desperate,’ said Kate.
‘Of course I’m desperate.’ Dexter broke into an unrepentant grin. ‘I’ve asked practically everyone else in the village and they’ve all turned me down.’
Kate widened her eyes. ‘No. How could they? You’d think they’d be clamouring to work for someone with such a sparkling personality.’
‘Ever done bar work before?’
‘No, and I have no plans to start now.’ Bar work, ugh; Kate suppressed a shudder of revulsion.
‘Don’t you look down your nose at me,’ Dexter retaliated. ‘You’re not tall enough, for a start.’
Indignantly Kate took a step back as he advanced towards her.
‘Miss Hoity Toity,’ Dexter murmured, softening the insult with a faint smile. ‘You think it’d be so far beneath you, don’t you? It hasn’t even occurred to you that this could be the answer to all your prayers.’
Oh for heaven’s sake, was the man on drugs? Frostily Kate said, ‘I promise you, it wouldn’t.’
‘Trust me,’ said Dexter. ‘Just give it a try. Today, twelve ‘til four. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it again. But I still think you might be pleasantly surprised.’
Kate hesitated. One half of her couldn’t believe she was even considering his offer. Then again, what if Dexter was right? And she was bored to tears, with nothing to do all day long other than drag Norris out on walks he passionately didn’t want to take.
‘What about my face?’ Blurting out the question, she forced herself to meet Dexter’s gaze. ‘Aren’t you scared I’ll frighten away the customers?’
By way of reply, he stuck his fingers in the corners of his mouth and gave an ear-splitting whistle.
Moments later the bedroom window above him was thrown open and Nuala, clearly used to being summoned like a dog, popped her head out.
‘Now you see why I asked you.’ Dexter casually indicated Nuala’s spectacular black eye and dramatically bruised forehead. ‘See? Compared with that, you’re Nicole Kidman.’
‘Flattery will get you everywhere,’ said Kate.
‘Ooh, are you going to be our new barmaid?’ Hanging precariously out of the window, surrounded by a picturesque tangle of wisteria, Nuala looked delighted.
‘She hasn’t said yes yet,’ Dexter announced. ‘I’m still working my mysterious magic on her.’ And he surveyed Kate with an expression of such infuriating self-confidence that for a moment she was tempted to slap him, hard.
Instead, a vision of the rest of her day intervened, hours and hours of boredom stretching endlessly ahead, and Kate found herself saying, ‘OK, just this once. I’ll give it a go.’
‘There you are.’ Dexter nodded with satisfaction. ‘Wasn’t so hard, was it?’
Against her better judgement, Kate found herself smiling. Shaking her head in disbelief, she murmured, ‘Mysterious magic indeed.’
‘Didn’t think I had any, did you? You see, that’s what makes it so mysterious.’ As he wound up the last of the garden hose, Dexter winked at her. ‘Works every time.’
Chapter 22
Sunday lunchtimes were one of the busiest sessions of the week at the Angel. A child-friendly pub selling excellent food, it attracted customers from miles around. Following a crash course in pouring pints and fathoming out the till, Kate was so rushed off her feet she barely had time to be selfconscious about her face. Occasionally, glancing up, she caught customers she didn’t know gazing at her with a mixture of pity and horror, but the regulars had grown used to her, had seen her walking Norris around Ashcombe often enough by now for the novelty of her scars to have worn off.