Millie Vanilla’s Cupcake Café

Arthur straightened. ‘I’m positive it will all be fine. When the tourist season begins there’s trade enough for everybody.’

‘That’s the problem, Arthur. I’ve got to get to the next season.’

‘Things that tight, eh?’ He looked shocked.

Millie didn’t trust herself to speak. She nodded.

‘Oh, my dear, I’m so sorry.’

‘Arthur, I don’t know what I’ll do if I don’t have this place. I can’t do anything else.’

He patted her hand again. ‘I’m sure it won’t come to that. Look, I’ll get my thinking cap on, shall I? See what I can come up with.’

‘Oh, Arthur, would you? Thank you.’

‘Best be off. Don’t want to leave Daisy too long.’ He stood up.

Now it was Millie’s turn to look shocked. ‘Oh, Arthur, I feel awful, I haven’t even asked after her!’

Arthur’s face clouded. He tucked his scarf around his neck. ‘I’m still waiting for test results. Never an easy time, is it?’

Millie rose and gave him a hug.

He shook her off. ‘Now, dear girl, don’t be too nice to me. That’s when the waterworks start. I’ll be off.’ And, with a quick wave to Zoe, he’d gone.

‘What were you two whispering about so secretly?’ Biddy asked, obviously miffed at being left out of the conversation.

Millie said the first thing that came into her head. It wasn’t a complete lie. ‘Oh nothing much. Think Arthur’s worried about vet’s bills and poor Daisy being so ill.’

‘Hmph, he needs to man up,’ Biddy said, sourly. ‘Eyes too near his bladder. Always said so.’

Millie ignored her, collected Arthur’s plate and mug and went into the kitchen. All romantic thoughts of Jed had fled.

Chapter 13 (#ulink_ff590170-da20-514b-ad30-6ce1e44f5f82)

If Millie needed a diversion from worrying over the café, she got it on her early morning dog walk across the beach two days later.

Trevor saw him first. With a delighted bark, the dog belted across the flat wet expanse of sand.

The sun was shining in Millie’s eyes, so she could only see his silhouette but she’d know his walk anywhere. Confident, covering a lot of ground in a short space of time. Summed the man up, really.

Jed. He was back!

She ran up to him, but wasn’t in time to stop Trevor from jumping up and covering his jeans in wet sand.

‘Hi, Millie. Thought I’d join you,’ he yelled over a volley of barks.

‘I’m sorry,’ she gasped, horrified. ‘He really shouldn’t jump up at people like that.’ She bent to grab the dog’s collar and missed. She straightened. ‘Oh, Trev, get down!’

‘It doesn’t matter. These are old.’

Millie, eyeing the cut and the material, quietly disagreed. They looked thoroughly designer to her. Not that she had much experience to go on. ‘He really shouldn’t get into the habit of jumping up at people.’

Jed fussed the dog, who danced around and barked some more. ‘It’s my fault. I called him over. I really don’t mind, you know. It makes a nice change to get out of a suit sometimes and be scruffy.’

‘Is that your idea of scruffy?’ Millie looked down at her own cropped jeans and knee- length baggy grey sweater. It was another of her dad’s. She pushed her hair, made curly by sea spray, off her face and laughed.

Jed looked abashed. ‘Well, it’s all relative.’

With Trevor finally calm, Millie put her arm through Jed’s and turned westwards, in the direction of the café. ‘What brings you out this early?’

‘Thought I’d see what the attraction of a dawn start was and join you on your early morning dog walk. Oh, and you know, it’s too nice a morning to waste.’

‘Isn’t it just? Glorious. And it’s a spring tide today. The sea has gone out a long way. Loads of space for Trev to run.’

They wandered nearer the edge of the waves, where the dog was trying to tug a deeply buried bit of wood out of the sand.

‘And he never gives up hope with that. Stubborn and persistent, that’s my Trevor.’

‘Wonder who he gets that from?’ Jed said, on a smile.

‘Hey!’ Millie jabbed in the side with her elbow.

‘I believe you promised me a sandcastle building lesson.’

‘What? Now?’

‘Well, the thing is, I have to do this thing called work and you seem to spend all your waking hours running the café. I find I have to make the most of any time I have with you. So, yes. Now.’

Millie stopped and smiled up at him. The chilly air had freshened his complexion and brought an impish gleam to his dark eyes. ‘You’re on.’

He clasped a hand, cold from the wind, around the back of her neck. His thumb hooked around her earlobe and he brought her face closer. ‘You could teach me so many things, Millie,’ he murmured against her lips. He began to kiss her and then yelled.

Millie felt icy sea water hit her wellies and shrieked with laughter as Jed danced around trying to avoid the incoming tide, which had soaked his expensive-looking boat shoes.

She grabbed his hand. ‘Come on then, Scruff Boy. Let’s go and find ourselves a bucket and spade.’

They ran over to a shack on the very end of the promenade, where it met the lane that led to the harbour. The dilapidated sign over the shop read: Barney’s Beach Supplies.

‘Looks in need of a bit of TLC,’ Jed observed.

‘It’s the rough winter weather. Always plays havoc with any paintwork on the front. Barney will repaint before the season gets going proper and it’ll look beautiful.’ Millie looked up at the front of the boarded-up wooden shed with fondness. ‘He does candy floss and yummy toffee apples in October before he closes up.’ She disappeared around the back and yelled out, ‘Barney always keeps a few buckets and spades back here. He does an unofficial lost-and-found service in the summer.’ She reappeared, brandishing a couple of spades and three faded plastic buckets. ‘Come on, let’s find us the right sort of sand.’

‘There are different sorts of sand?’ Jed queried.

‘Oh, you have so much to learn, my lovely,’ Millie responded, looking pityingly at him.

Jed grinned. ‘Apparently so.’