The Sunflower Cottage Breakfast Club (19 page)

Noah's mum became a larger presence during my third week in Luna Bay. Although she unsettled me, she seemed keen to build bridges with him and they met up twice: once for dinner and once for a walk round the village. For Noah's sake, I tried to ignore the glacial smiles she threw my way whenever he wasn't looking. She was just trying to protect Noah, I said to myself. There wasn't anything sinister about her whatsoever. Sure she reminded me of Maleficent a bit, but that was normal.

Wasn't it?

*

After two weeks in hospital, Rose was finally allowed home.

She was about as far away from the ideal patient as it was possible to be. She was fiercely independent by nature and wouldn't let us do anything for her.

‘I can make my own tea, thank you very much!' she huffed when Noah brought her through a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits. ‘I've got a broken leg; I'm not in my dotage just yet!'

Noah and I exchanged weary looks as he tried to explain to her as gently as possible that she had to let us look after her until she was better. She wouldn't hear anything of the sort and hobbled off to try and do the washing-up. After smashing not one but three bowls, she conceded defeat and put her feet up with her tea and biscuits. She claimed she wasn't happy at all about not taking back the reins of Sunflower Cottage from Noah and I, but didn't seem to mind when
Homes Under the Hammer
came on.

*

Before we knew it, it was time for the second breakfast club.

‘Think we'll get any more members?' I asked as I sat on Noah's lap in the kitchen. ‘Or will it just be the fab four?'

He shrugged and reached over to kiss me. ‘Who knows? Diane was right; word spreads like wildfire round here. If they liked it last week, hopefully they'll have told their friends to come along this week. And if
they
like it this week, they'll come next week too. If not, we might just be cooking breakfast for ourselves!'

My heart sank as I realised something. ‘Next week's my last week in Luna Bay. I'll be going home a few days after next week's breakfast club.'

Noah squeezed my shoulder. ‘Don't think about that, eh? Next week is a long way off and we can have loads of fun together until then.'

I nodded, trying to ignore the little timer in my head that seemed to be counting down the minutes and seconds until I had to leave.

‘Speaking of the fab four…' I paused for a second as I jiggled around on his lap to make myself comfortable. ‘What do you know about Alice? I noticed her sitting apart from the others last week and she looked really sad. She told me she was an actress on Broadway before she came back to the village; don't suppose you know anything else?'

Noah's mouth turned down at the corners and he shook his head. ‘No, don't think so. I've seen her round the village before, but she keeps herself to herself mainly. Seems nice, though.'

I nodded, resolving to find out more about Alice when she came for breakfast. No matter what it took, I wanted to find out just why she looked so sad.

Whoever said word spread like wildfire in Luna Bay wasn't kidding. More people turned up than we could possibly have imagined. Whether out of genuine interest or because they'd heard about the evil businesswoman wanting to buy up Sunflower Cottage, more than twenty people turned up to sample our culinary delights.

‘Jesus,' I murmured, looking at them all packed like sardines into the dining room. ‘Look how many people are here! Must be half the bloody village.'

Noah peered round to look and raised his eyebrows. ‘That's a lot of breakfasts to cook. Do you reckon we're up to it? There's a lot more people here than last week.'

I swatted his chest with my hand. ‘Of course we bloody are! OK, so it's a few more people than we thought, but we'll be fine. We've come a long way since we incinerated the bacon and made the eggs explode. Besides, we can't have done that bad a job. Look: everyone who came last week is back again.'

‘Excuse me, I think you'll find that was
your
handiwork not mine!'

He dug me in the ribs and I turned round to retaliate, suddenly aware of just how close we were. I took in a deep breath, inhaling his scent as I did so. It was an earthy, woody smell that ensnared my senses and made me want to do unmentionable things to him.

‘Come on,' I said briskly, tapping him on the chest. ‘We have a breakfast club to run.'

*

There's a real buzz that comes from making someone happy with food you've cooked. Watching them tuck into something you've lovingly prepared gives you a natural high that can't quite be beaten with anything else.

I found this out for myself as I took my turn to prepare the breakfasts for the breakfast club.

The sausages sizzled, the bacon crackled and the pancakes rose beautifully. I even managed to make a good hollandaise sauce for the eggs Benedict. Noah helped with plating up and was an excellent host, if the murmurs I heard from the dining room were to be believed.

Oh, and the smells! They drifted up from the pots and pans and circled my heart, making me see for the first time how glorious food could be. Tasting it was one thing, but creating it was quite another. Gone were the days of exploding eggs in the microwave and turning bacon into shapeless lumps of charcoal; the only thing happening in Sunflower Cottage's kitchen was culinary magic.

I was just starting the washing-up when the doors swung open. Noah came in and greeted me with a warm smile.

‘The breakfast club would like to pay their compliments to the chef,' he said, wrapping his arms round my waist. ‘And so would I later.'

I giggled as he kissed my neck and patted his chest to stop him. ‘Control yourself, will you! I've got to go and greet my adoring public.'

I swung the door to the dining room open and was met with a standing ovation, cheers and whoops.

‘Thank you, thank you!' I took a mock-theatrical bow. ‘So, did you all enjoy it then?'

A resounding ‘yes' resonated from the gathered crowd, who then took their seats and finished off what was left on their plates. I scanned the crowd for Alice, who was at a table by herself, tucking into some chocolate pancakes. I made my way over to her, unsure of whether to sit down or not.

‘Is this seat taken?' I asked, gesturing to the empty one beside her.

She shook her head and I sat down. ‘So you came back then? Must've enjoyed your breakfast last time!'

‘It was amazing,' she replied with a quick smile. ‘Lovely thing to look forward to at the end of a busy week.'

I paused for a moment, wanting to choose my next words carefully so as not to sound like I was prying. ‘How come you're not sitting with any of the others? You're over here all by yourself.'

She shrugged as she finished off the remainder of her pancakes. ‘I like to keep myself to myself. Been that way since… Well, for a while.'

‘Since what?' I asked. ‘I… I don't mean to sound nosy, but I just noticed you were all by yourself and wondered if everything was OK.'

‘Everything's fine,' Alice snapped. ‘I'm going to go and get some more orange juice now.'

She stalked off and I followed her, unable to comprehend why someone was so keen to isolate themselves.

‘Not to be rude,' I said, ‘but everything doesn't
seem
fine. You just seem so… alone. Why don't you go and introduce yourself to some of the others? There's a lot more people here than there was last time.'

Alice put down the orange juice jug and turned to face me, her face set in a frown. ‘You want to know
why
I seem so “alone”? It's because I am! I lost the love of my life a few years ago and… well, I haven't wanted to let people in since then. Is that a good enough explanation for you?'

I took a step back, the wind knocked out of my sails. ‘Alice… I'm sorry, I had no idea.'

She stiffened as her hands curled round her orange juice glass. ‘No, nobody does really. I… I haven't really talked about it since I came back to Luna Bay. I'm sorry for snapping at you; you didn't deserve that.'

I shook my head and waved a dismissive hand. ‘Don't worry about it. For what it's worth, I've gone through some pretty major upheaval recently too. It makes everything around you seem big and scary, doesn't it? I can't pretend to know what losing the love of your life is like or how painful that is. But I
do
know what it feels like to have my world shaken to its foundations. I'm not saying you have to, but maybe you should try letting some people in again. The world can be a pretty lonely place sometimes, especially when you have a broken heart.'

Alice gave a slow nod. ‘You might be onto something there…'

*

I went back to the mountain of washing-up and tried not to think about Alice and her broken heart. Noah came in to give me a hand after seeing all the members out.

‘Well, we did it! Today's Sunflower Cottage Breakfast Club was a pretty big success, I'd say.'

‘Seemed like everybody enjoyed the food and nobody's come down with food poisoning yet, so that's a bonus!' I laughed and tried my best to avoid looking at him. I overly invested myself in doing the dishes to distract myself from all the unmentionable things I wanted to do to him.

Noah came over with some plates he was carrying and put them on the side.

‘Go and sit down; you've worked hard enough today. I'll do these.'

I shook my head, a heat rushing all over my skin from feeling his gaze on me. ‘No, no, I'm fine really. You go and…'

He plunged his hands into the soapy water and placed them on top of mine, swallowing up the rest of my sentence. My heart lurched forward and I couldn't keep a single coherent thought in my head. That was the effect Noah had on me; he sent my neat and ordered thoughts spinning out of control. It scared and thrilled me in equal measure. I became rooted to the spot, staring up into Noah's deep-brown eyes and slowly losing myself in them.

‘Fancy something to eat?' he asked. ‘I don't know about you, but I'm starving!' He went to the fridge and got out the ingredients for the New Yorker breakfast.

‘Me too, I could eat a scabby horse! You do the frying, I'll do the pancakes.'

I moved around the kitchen like a maniac, getting out the pancake ingredients and whipping up a batter as fast as I could. Flour, eggs and sugar went everywhere, dusting the counters and making it look like some sort of bomb had exploded in Sunflower Cottage.

‘Can I get in to put the batter in the frying pan?' I asked.

Noah shuffled to the side and let me get to the cooker, where I poured some of the mixture into the frying pan. It bubbled and sizzled and hissed, much like the tension in the room.

I wasn't sure what made me reach my finger into the bowl, scoop out some mixture and smear it onto Noah's stubbly cheek. But the resulting look was pretty hilarious.

‘So it's gonna be like that, is it?' A wicked grin spread across his face and his eyes sparkled with dark delight.

He strode over to the bag of flour before I could stop him and flicked some in my face.

‘Oh, you've done it now!' I shrieked and scooped out more mixture, slinging it in his direction. It hit its target, landing square on his nose.

Noah continued his flour-based assault, flicking larger and larger amounts at me as I tried to escape from him by running in a circle round the kitchen table. My pancake mixture wasn't long in running out, so I had to look for another weapon to use. The closest thing to hand was the box of eggs, so I quickly grabbed them and prepared to strike. I hurried to what I thought was a safe spot – the little alcove to the right of the cooker – but only ended up backing myself into a corner.

‘Shit!' I muttered. ‘Not the best hiding place I could've chosen!'

Noah approached me; his bag of flour was at the ready and he had a huge grin on his face.

‘Nowhere to run now,' he teased, his voice quavering with anticipation.

He reached into the bag and produced a huge handful of flour. At the same time, I reached for an egg. There was a moment of hesitation from each of us as we wondered who would strike first. Who would be brave enough to make the first move?

In the end, it turned out to be both of us.

I was a fraction quicker, cracking the egg and spilling its contents onto his head. Noah didn't just dump the flour on top of me, though; he rubbed it into my hair, making me feel like a small, Scottish version of a snow beast. My clothes and skin were absolutely caked in it. His hands slowed down and came to rest on my face.

‘Well, that was fun, wasn't it?' He looked at me and a tiny little chuckle escaped him, so soft I almost didn't hear it.

Slowly, he brushed some flour away from my cheek and placed his hand on the nape of my neck.

Every inch of me quivered in anticipation. Although I'd tasted his lips on mine so many times, I still ached to do so again. I'd never experienced this before; had never been so hungry for someone.

‘You're beautiful, you know.' He smiled as he ran his fingers through my flour-covered hair. ‘Even if you do look a bit like a Yeti at the moment.'

I giggled uncomfortably, looking away from him until he put a finger under my chin to bring my gaze upwards. I tried to formulate a coherent response, but nothing came. My words had been well and truly stolen away by this beautiful man. Anything I could say would be irrelevant; no words could do my feelings justice.

Luckily, they didn't have to. Noah leaned in to me and kissed me softly on the lips. His arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me tight to his body. He ran his fingers through my hair and we clumsily stumbled backwards until we hit a wall. Noah let out little breathy moans of pleasure as his kisses deepened and his hands began to wander across my frame. He kissed me as though savouring every moment our lips were connected.