The idea of spending a whole weekend with Kit was very appealing. Which was also the reason she couldn’t possibly agree to go with him. Kit was her best friend’s little brother. She was six years older than him. Her sudden feelings for him were inappropriate on so many levels.
“I’m scheduled to work all next weekend,” she said, racking her brain for a further excuse, since Kit knew the pub was over-staffed and it would be easy to get someone to cover for her. The fact that her boss was also her uncle made it easy for her to get time off too. “My car needs some work doing on it so I specifically asked Charlie for more shifts. I need the money.” She smiled, hoping that sounded more believable to Kit than it did to her. Was it obvious she was making excuses?
“That’s fine,” Kit said, sliding off his stool. “I presumed you wouldn’t be able to. Maybe another time.”
“Yeah,” she said feebly. “You and Trystan will have more fun without me around anyway. Boys’ weekend!”
“True.” He turned on the way to the door and gave her a heartbreaking smile. “Definitely more fun without you.”
The way his eyes sparkled when he teased her brought a slow smile to her face. How long had he had sparkly eyes for? That must be a new thing too.
“Have a good day!” he called before the door swung closed behind him.
Slouching against the bar, Seren sighed heavily and ignored the voice in her head telling her to chase after him and say she’d changed her mind. There was no real harm in spending a weekend with one of her oldest friends.
Standing up straighter she gave herself a mental shake. Of course she couldn’t go to London with Kit. Not given how jumbled her feelings were. If anything, it was just a crush. And the thing about crushes was they didn’t last long. She’d ignore it until it passed. All she needed to do was make sure no one found out about it.
If Kit knew he’d be unbearable. He’d no doubt tease her mercilessly … and probably end up with a massively inflated ego. Either that or he’d be completely weirded out by it.
The pub was busy all day, which meant time went fast. But it wasn’t enough to fully distract Seren from the thought of wandering along the Thames, laughing in the sunshine with Kit.
“You’re miles away today,” Charlie said when he caught her staring into space at the end of her shift.
“I’m tired,” she said vaguely.
“You work too hard. Why don’t you take some time off? Have a holiday or something.”
She laughed lightly. Was the universe ganging up on her or what?
“It’s the wrong time of year to be taking a holiday. Things are getting busy around here. I need to take advantage of it and earn some money.”
“A few days off wouldn’t hurt.”
She sighed loudly. “I don’t need time off. I just need an early night. I’m going home, unless you need me to stick around?”
“No. You get off. I thought you were having dinner with Mirren, though?”
“Crap! I forgot.” Seren checked the clock on the wall, then made a dash for the door, calling goodbye to Charlie as she went.
* * *
“Perfect timing,” Mirren said when Seren wandered into the homely kitchen, inhaling the soothing aroma of home-cooked food as she went.
“That smells amazing.” After kicking her trainers off, Seren kissed Mirren’s cheek and peered into the dish on the counter. “Please tell me that’s chicken and mushroom pie?”
“It is.” Mirren nudged her aside and cut into the flaky pastry. “How was your day?”
“Fine.” Her mouth watered as she took her plate to the table. “The pub was so busy I barely had time to eat. I wolfed down a few mouthfuls of club sandwich at lunchtime but didn’t even manage to finish it.” She took a mouthful of creamy chicken with deliciously buttery pastry and rolled her eyes in delight. “This is so good.”
“I invited Noah and Keira but they’ve been over to Bryher to visit Lowen today and aren’t back yet. They said to save them dinner but not to wait for them to eat.”
“There’s no way I could’ve waited,” Seren said through a mouthful of pie.
Mirren told her about the new guests who’d arrived earlier that day for a week-long stay in Kensa Cottage. A family of four who’d been thrilled with the cottage and its phenomenal view.
“It’s always lovely to have returning customers,” Mirren said. “But I’ll never get tired of seeing people’s reactions when they arrive for the first time.”
“I bet they’ll wish they were staying for longer than a week.” With her initial hunger satisfied, Seren slowed down, savouring every mouthful of the delicious meal.