“If I’d known I would have stayed put.” She smiled at him, glad to see him back to his usual cheerful self.
“I’m really sorry about yesterday,” he said drawing up the stool beside her.
“You don’t have to apologise.”
“I do. I was having a crap day and I was horrible to be around.” He gave her a crooked smile. “And I knew I was horrible to be around … I just couldn’t do anything about it.” Running his hands through his hair, he looked suddenly weary. “I want to explain, it’s difficult to talk about …”
“I have a confession to make,” Keira told him, taking his hand. “Seren called you last night and I answered your phone.”
He looked uncertain. “What did she say?”
“She was calling to see if you were all right. When I told her I didn’t think you were …”
“She told you about Dad?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry if you didn’t want me to know but we were both concerned about you.”
“It’s okay,” he said, interweaving their fingers. “I should have told you myself, but it makes things easier that Seren told you. I don’t know if I can talk about it at the moment, at least not without bawling my eyes out, and I think you had more than your fair share of me being miserable yesterday.”
“I was only worried I’d done something to annoy you. I’d got it into my head that you were annoyed after our chat on Friday night.”
“Definitely not. Me being in a bad mood had nothing to do with you. I’m sorry you had to deal with it. I’ll make it up to you today.” He placed a hand on her cheek and kissed her softly.
“What’s for breakfast?” she asked when they broke apart.
“Everything!” He hopped off the stool and moved to the shopping bags. “I felt so guilty about yesterday that I bought every kind of breakfast food they had in the shop. I hope you’re hungry.”
“That’s a lot of food,” she remarked as he pulled eggs and bagels and fruit from the first bag.
“Whatever we don’t manage for breakfast we can take with us for a picnic later.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“I thought we could go over to Tresco, one of the off islands.”
“Thewhatislands?” she asked in confusion.
He gave a small shake of the head. “Sorry. The off islands are the smaller islands. Four of them are inhabited: Bryher, Tresco, St Martins and St Agnes. There are inter-island ferries that go between them regularly. If we go over to Tresco we can have a walk around the gardens and check out the beaches. You’ll like it.”
She beamed at him, feeling much more positive about the day ahead. “I’m sure I will.”
* * *
The trip on the little inter-island ferry felt like an adventure in itself. As did the ten-minute walk to Tresco Abbey Gardens. Everywhere Keira looked was a feast for the eyes. Strolling through the sub-tropical gardens with exotic plants from all over the globe, she found it strange to think she was in Cornwall.
She also couldn’t believe she was still in the UK as they lazed on a blanket on pristine white sand in the afternoon. It wasn’t exactly scorching, but she was comfortable in shorts and T-shirt with a jumper which she kept taking off and putting on again thanks to the fickle breeze. The sun shone strongly enough to make her cheeks tingle.
“Is it usually so warm here at this time of year?” she asked.
“It’s notunusual. But it could also be grey and rainy. We got lucky with the weather this weekend.”
She sat up to admire the view again, leaving Noah on his side, propped up on his elbow. There wasn’t another soul on the narrow crescent beach which must have stretched for half a mile at least. Low dunes behind them were covered in long grass, which undulated as the wind rushed over it.
Shifting his weight, Noah reached for his phone when it buzzed. “Mum’s asking if we want to have dinner with everyone. She’s cooking.”
“Fine by me.”
“Are you sure? If you’ve had enough of my family I completely understand.”