The Sunflower Cottage Breakfast Club (10 page)

Diane was just locking up her café as I walked past it. She caught my eye and waved hello. I froze with fear, but managed a tentative wave back. Worry gnawed at the back of my mind: what if she could see right through me and knew who I really was? I knew that was utterly stupid, but rationality and logic hadn't been my strong suits lately.

The truth about me would come out eventually. And when it did, nothing would be the same.

*

Noah was hunched over the kitchen table when I got back to the B&B. I approached him with caution, not wanting to ruin the peace we'd managed to broker earlier in the day.

‘Hey,' I said with a nervous smile, ‘what are you up to? Planning world domination or something?'

He looked up for a moment and shook his head. ‘Nah, I'm saving that for tomorrow! I was having a root around for some of Rose's recipe books to help with breakfast tomorrow and I found this. It's nothing really, just something I scribbled down ages ago.'

‘Can I see it?' I asked.

He paused for a moment, holding the paper in his hands like it might break at any moment. ‘Nah, I'm just going to throw it away actually—'

I plucked it out of his hands and took it to the opposite side of the table. When I looked at it, I saw it was a list of some kind that included ‘breakfast club', ‘cookery demonstrations' and ‘weddings'.

‘What's this?' I asked, peering at it with my head cocked to one side.

I saw a crimson tinge creep into Noah's cheeks. ‘They're ideas I had for the B&B, that's all. They're a load of rubbish really.'

He made a swipe for the paper, but I managed to deftly flick it out of his reach. ‘They're not rubbish! A lot of them could actually work here. Tell me a bit more about this breakfast club idea.'

After giving me a cautious look to see if I wanted to make fun of him, Noah cleared his throat and began to speak. ‘Well, I thought it might be nice to make the B&B a bigger part of the community. We're a bit closed off up here on the hill and I thought a breakfast club might get some of the village residents to pay us a visit. They could have a slap-up breakfast cooked for them and spend a bit of time at Sunflower Cottage. Like I said, it's complete rubbish and probably wouldn't work anyway.'

Before I could respond, Dixie started barking loudly. Noah got up from his seat and walked towards the door.

‘I'd better go and see what she wants,' he said, his cheeks reddening. ‘Just chuck that paper in the bin; it's useless.'

As I watched him go, I sneaked the paper into my pocket. He might've switched back to the mean and moody routine, but his ideas were good, even if he didn't know it.

Chapter 10

It's fair to say that my first morning running Sunflower Cottage didn't get off to the best of starts. This was mainly down to Noah.

First, he turned on the hot water downstairs while I was having a shower, turning my nice warm water into droplets of ice.

‘HOLY HELL!' I shouted, jumping out from under the freezing jet as quickly as I could. I stumbled backwards and almost tumbled out of the cubicle, bringing my head dangerously close to the radiator.

There was a knock on the bathroom door. I didn't have to open it to know who was on the other side. I threw a towel around myself and was confronted by Noah, who looked absolutely shattered but highly amused nonetheless.

‘Are you going to be long in the bathroom? We need to get breakfast going.' His face and voice were deadpan, but there was a glint in his dark eyes that betrayed how hilarious he found it all.

I glared up at him, water dripping down my back and face. ‘I don't suppose you know why my shower suddenly turned cold, do you?'

He shrugged. ‘I might've accidentally turned the hot water on when I went to fill the kettle. Sorry. Maybe this is the universe's way of telling you that you shouldn't take so long in the shower.'

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. ‘Or maybe it's
your
way of telling me that you'd rather eat your own foot than run a bed and breakfast with me. I thought we agreed we were going to try and get on. We managed it for a while yesterday until I saw your list of ideas.'

At the mention of his list, Noah tensed up. ‘I told you that was a load of rubbish. You did throw it away, didn't you?'

I nodded, knowing I'd tucked it away in one of the bedside drawers to use later. ‘Of course I did!'

His shoulders relaxed and his face broke into a smile. ‘Good. I'll be waiting for you downstairs, Nigella!'

*

Sure enough, when I went down to the kitchen dressed in a charcoal trouser suit with my hair set in a low bun, Noah was waiting for me. He was his usual scruffy self, wearing a red T-shirt with at least three holes in it and some faded jeans. He was wearing something else, though, something I noticed right away: a smile.

‘Right, let's get cracking then, shall we? Why don't you sort out the fruit and cereals while I do all the cooking?'

Noah made his way over to the cooker, but I cleared my throat to stop him.

‘Actually…' I paused as I propped my iPad on the kitchen counter. ‘I thought
I
might do the cooking. I've been looking up recipes to use.'

He looked at me with a pretty hefty degree of scepticism. ‘No offence, Emily, but your idea of breakfast is blended vegetables in a glass. That doesn't quite cut it here. These people want a proper cooked breakfast. Have you ever done anything like this before?'

I waved a dismissive hand and said, ‘How hard can it be?' To prove my point, I walked over to the cooker and turned one of the rings on. A large flame immediately erupted from it. Noah turned the knob back the other way and raised an eyebrow at me.

‘And
that
,' he said with a smirk, ‘is why I'm not letting you anywhere near the cooker.'

He went to do the typical man thing and take control of the situation, but I stepped in front of the oven just in time. No way was I going to let him swoop in and rescue me when I was perfectly capable of cooking the breakfast myself. His body collided with mine for a brief moment, before he backed away and wiped himself down as though he'd touched something slimy.

‘You know what,' he said, holding his hands up in defeat. ‘If you want to give the guests food poisoning, that's up to you. Just don't say I didn't warn you. If you need me, I'll be over here doing the cereals.'

He sidled off to the counter and began preparing some of the fresh fruit that was sitting in the fruit bowl. I watched him cut up some watermelon, mango and pineapple, neatly placing them in patterned china bowls. I, meanwhile, handled the cooked breakfast. Or at least I tried to. My lack of expertise in the art of the fry-up definitely showed; even I knew that bacon and sausages weren't supposed to resemble lumps of charcoal.

Noah came over to poke his nose in. ‘Are you sure they're supposed to be like that?' he asked ‘They look a bit black to me.'

I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore how close he was to me as he stretched up to reach for some cereal. ‘Look, everything's fine over here. Why don't you go and see if the guests are up yet? If they are, take their orders and bring them through here so I know what everyone wants.'

‘Shouldn't you have waited until you had the orders before you started cooking?' He threw his hands up in surrender when I shot him a dark look. ‘Just saying!'

‘I'm planning ahead so I can plate up quicker,' I replied with a tight smile. ‘Now, if you don't mind, I need to know what the guests want to eat.'

He took another look at the burnt remains in the pan, a smile playing on his lips. ‘All right, Nigella – if you insist!' He snatched the iPad off the counter nearest the door and sloped off to the dining room. When he entered the room, a loud chorus of cheerful greetings erupted. I couldn't help but smile; we might be constantly at loggerheads, but you couldn't deny the guests all loved him.

He was welcomed back into the kitchen by a loud bang followed by a cry of ‘oh shit!'

‘Things going well in here then?' he asked, approaching me with caution.

‘They would be if I hadn't tipped the pan of sausages onto the floor!' I let out a frustrated groan and scrubbed a hand over my face. ‘Look, they're bloody ruined!'

He stuck the iPad on the kitchen table and bent down to help me clean up. ‘Not as easy as it looks, is it? I remember the first time I tried to cook breakfast in here; God, it was awful! Eggs were practically raw and don't even get me started on what the bacon looked like. I managed to pick it up eventually, though; my full English is famous round these parts now.'

I grinned as I put some replacement sausages and bacon in a pan. ‘Famous, eh? Now this I'll have to see. Or eat, rather. Maybe you can do it for the breakfast club, if we start one.'

He shook his head. ‘Emily, I told you that was just a daft idea I had one day. It wouldn't actually work in practice; the Moonlight Café down the road does an amazing breakfast and I wouldn't want to tread on Diane's toes. Plus, I wouldn't have the first clue about what to serve. I can do a full English, but that's it. We'd need to offer more than that.'

I stopped what I was doing and turned to face him. ‘It's a brilliant idea, Noah, and it could really work here. We could research really nice breakfast dishes to offer and make it something really special. I know how much you love Sunflower Cottage and I think a breakfast club could be amazing.'

He paused and stared into the distance as he thought about what to say next. ‘You really think it could work? Bear in mind, there'd be no blended-up vegetables on the menu!'

I narrowed my eyes and shot him a playful look. ‘Of course! You never know; the food we serve might be so good that I never drink another green smoothie again.'

Noah smiled. ‘I don't know about that! Plus, we'd have to stop arguing long enough to get the club up and running.'

I shrugged as a small smile formed on my lips. ‘Stranger things have happened, I suppose. We can talk more about it later on and see what we can come up with.'

‘I'd like that,' he replied. ‘I'd like that a lot.'

Our eyes locked briefly until I turned away to focus on the sizzling food in front of me. My heart did a funny little flutter, but I put it down to the smells ensnaring my senses.

After all, what else could it be?

*

In an ideal world, the cooked breakfasts would've gone out with little to no trouble at all. The guests would've tucked into them, enjoyed them and gone about their day as normal.

However, quite the opposite happened.

The sausages were burnt to a crisp, the eggs were rubbery and inedible, and the bacon crumbled to dust. Several of the guests expressed their disappointment, saying Rose would never have let such an awful breakfast go out to her customers. They all unsurprisingly refused my offer of replacement food and instead shuffled up to their rooms, grumbling and muttering under their breath.

I joined Noah in the kitchen, where I found him sitting at the table with a curious smile on his face. I couldn't quite work out what he was thinking. No change there.

‘Well, that was a bloody disaster.' I sank onto a chair opposite him and heaved a sigh, throwing my head into my hands. ‘This is why I'm glad I buy hotels instead of work in one.'

‘I'm not going to say “I told you so”, but I
will
say it could've been a lot worse,' said Noah. I felt his eyes on me and looked up to see him smiling. It was oddly comforting. ‘At least you didn't set anything on fire like I did. Nearly burnt the whole place down. So, you know, you really didn't do too badly by those standards.'

I managed a weak smile, but only just. ‘Thanks for trying to make me feel better, but you've got to admit that today's breakfast was a disaster! Oh well, tomorrow's another day, eh?'

I got up from my chair and moved towards the door, turning back when I realised I'd forgotten to say something important. ‘You know, I thought you were going to go mental over this breakfast thing.'

He shrugged and grinned. ‘What can I say, I'm full of surprises! I'm not always mean and moody, you know.'

We looked at each other for a moment before he pierced the silence. ‘Anyway, I'd better get off to the garage. Still got your car to fix!'

I watched his retreating frame leave Sunflower Cottage, my curiosity firmly piqued. What other surprises did Noah Hartley have up his sleeve?

Chapter 11

The next morning started with a host of good intentions. I got up early, thanks to the tinny sound of my phone alarm, and stumbled onto the landing. Although my brain wasn't fully awake, I was still ready to tackle whatever the day had to throw at me. Today was going to go better than yesterday's debacle had, that was for sure…

What the hell was that?

I heard a suspicious shuffling coming from downstairs. It couldn't be the guests; they were all in bed at this time of the morning. My mind immediately jumped to the worst conclusion:
shit, it's a burglar
. Since I was technically responsible for the place, it was up to me to tackle them. Me, who was about as intimidating as a kitten pawing at a ball of wool. Still, I had to do something. I snuck back inside my room, unplugged the bedside lamp and brandished it above my head. It wasn't the best weapon, but it would have to do. Slowly, carefully, I stepped out onto the landing, trying to channel some sort of courage and failing.

‘Hello?' My voice came out as a terrified wobble as I stood at the top of the stairs. Downstairs was shrouded in darkness, yet I couldn't help feeling like something was seriously wrong.

Another clatter. Louder this time.

‘Fuck this,' I muttered.

I stepped onto the stairs, holding the lamp above my head in shaking hands. A large black shadow appeared on the wall and my heart lurched.