A Secret Cornish Summer by Phillipa Ashley

Author:Phillipa Ashley [Ashley, Phillipa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2023-05-16T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Once more, Simon had snatched her choices away from her.

Eden’s hands shook as she put the filter onto the machine. She wanted to run. He had made her feel like that.

How dare he? This was her new life, and he’d invaded it. What did he want?

The customer was frowning. ‘I think I ordered two cappuccinos and a decaf mocha …’

‘Sorry. Sorry,’ Eden stammered. She’d managed to make two mochas and a cappuccino. ‘I’ll make a fresh cappuccino. I’m sorry for the mistake.’

‘It’s OK,’ the woman said. ‘No rush, I’m on holiday.’

Eden turned back to the machine, making a fresh coffee, knowing Simon would be watching her every move. The stencil shook as she sprinkled it with chocolate powder. It looked a right mess, but coffee art was the least of her worries.

Simon was back.

She tore her eyes away from his face, grinning over the head of the customer.

‘H-here you go …’ She slotted the drinks in a cardboard carrier at the counter and the customer waved her card over the machine.

‘Thanks,’ Eden managed. ‘Enjoy your day …’

The lady left the container, beaming at Simon as she passed him. ‘It’s worth the wait,’ she said. ‘The coffee is delicious.’

‘I’m sure it is,’ he said, with the crinkly-eyed smile that had once made Eden’s heart flip and now made her stomach turn over.

Before she could move again, he marched up the ramp that led to the counter. ‘Hello. Sorry if I startled you. I’d rather hoped you’d be alone.’

Somehow in her mind’s eye, she’d expected prison life to have added a gaunt, hard-edged look to the handsome features she’d once admired, but she was wrong. Simon had always had an angular profile and she’d imagined those lines would be accentuated, but the opposite had happened. His cheekbones had all but disappeared in a flabby face and he had a goatee beard, which she hated on sight and made him look as if he was permanently smirking. How had she ever fancied him?

A momentary pang of guilt struck her. Perhaps the weight gain was due to his treatment.

‘Simon,’ she said, hardening her heart again. How dare he turn up like this? ‘What do you want?’

He sighed dramatically. ‘Well, I can’t decide between a latte and a flat white. What do you recommend?’

‘I recommend you turn around, get in your car and never come back.’

‘Hmm.’ He nodded. ‘This is OK. I understand your hostility. I was told to expect it.’

‘Told to expect it? By who?’

‘My counsellor.’

‘Your counsellor?’ Eden snorted in disgust. ‘Why do you need counselling?’

He smirked, which enraged Eden even more. ‘Actually, my parents suggested it and they were generous enough to pay for it. I suppose I don’t deserve their kindness after all I’ve put them through but they insisted on it as a condition of me moving back in with them. Now I realise that their tough love was the best thing that could have happened to me.’

‘Tough love’? ‘Counselling’? Eden was speechless. She hadn’t had any counselling, yet she was the victim.

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