Ella's Ice Cream Summer by Sue Watson

Author:Sue Watson [Sue Watson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786811684
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2017-05-11T04:00:00+00:00

16

Fun, Frappuccinos and a Frantic French Farce

As I walked from the pub back onto the beach, a warm breeze was blowing and I felt happy, complete almost. Gina was back where she belonged, it might be a short visit, but while she was here there’d be some fun – and the chance for us to heal the family rift that had cleaved us all apart for too long. I was feeling so buoyed up I decided to pop into Caprioni’s and see how things were ticking over, but just approaching the building filled me with darkness. The place seemed deserted, no one was coming here any more, and walking in to see Marco at the counter didn’t help.

‘Hi is all okay with you?’ I said, trying to be friendly, after all it can’t have been much fun for him sitting here day in, day out. ‘Now Gina my cousin’s back you should know your fate soon,’ I said, referring to his job at the café.

‘Wow thanks for the heads up,’ he muttered sarcastically.

‘I just thought you might want to know about what’s going to happen with the café – I know I do.’

‘This isn’t a café, it’s hell with fluorescent lighting,’ he said, and with that, took his phone from his pocket and ended the conversation. So I said goodbye, which wasn’t returned, and I left the café to walk back into the sunshine, feeling so happy that even Marco couldn’t bring me down.

To add to my happiness, by the time I’d arrived at the van there were several people waiting to buy something. I soon started serving, aware that there was almost a queue forming – something I hadn’t experienced so far. As I slowly worked through the orders, I was delighted – dare I hope things were finally starting to take off? But turning around to hand someone their two large cones of chocolate ice cream, I looked behind to see the last person in the queue and almost dropped the cones. There in my queue on Appledore beach was my mother standing bold as brass.

‘It’s me, it’s Mum,’ she said, pointing to her chest, like she needed to introduce herself.

‘I can see that, Mum,’ I laughed. My first thought was oh God, not now, not just as Gina has arrived, and this wasn’t the time to tell her, so I smiled bravely and climbed down from the van. I gave her a big hug and then helped her inside. ‘Come and see my new office.’

She explained that Sue had dropped her off at the station in Manchester and she’d wanted her visit to be a surprise.

‘Well it’s a lovely one,’ I said, grimacing. This was completely unexpected, and the timing was horrific. Just as I was about to build bridges with Gina, my mother was here – and she wasn’t in the business of building any bridges. It seemed Gina wasn’t too keen on Mum either and now I had to entertain both of them without offending either.

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