Meet Me at Pebble Beach_ Part Three – Bella Osborne Page 0,6

giggle.

‘You might as well have done. You’ve made me so happy.’ His lips met hers and she was sure his happiness was infectious because the feeling that swamped her almost reduced her to tears.

They kissed with abandon until a whoosh followed by a wet sensation travelling up from her shoes made her stumble backwards. ‘Tide’s coming in!’

They grabbed up their things and in a bundle of laughter and happiness they ran up the beach as fast as the unstable pebbles would allow.

Chapter Thirteen

Regan was on time for work the next morning, despite hardly sleeping – thanks partly to Cleo’s bloody chair, but mainly because her mind was awash with images of Charlie and ideas for what to sell on a market stall. It was a surprisingly heady combination.

‘Blimey. You look happy – or did a face-lift go very wrong?’ asked Penny, throwing an apron at her.

‘Today everything changes,’ said Regan.

‘Okay,’ said Penny, not looking convinced.

‘I’m going to work here and then I’m going to run my own market stall.’ Regan raised her eyebrows in anticipation of Penny’s reaction.

‘Good.’ Penny continued to dash about. ‘Opening in twenty minutes. Need to unpack the milk delivery and stock up.’

Regan couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed by Penny’s lack of reaction. But she had a job here and she needed to keep hold of it. ‘Okay, boss. Ooh, actually, can I take Kevin a coffee?’

Penny straightened her shoulders. ‘You only get free stuff for you.’

‘Oh, right. Sorry.’ Regan was a little surprised by Penny’s attitude. She kind of thought working for Penny would be a bit like working for a friend. They had got to know each other over the last few years and their chats had got longer and longer.

Penny’s expression softened. ‘Mr Hughes would sack the pair of us if he found out. But look, there’s always errors on orders—’

‘Hey, I did all right yesterday.’ Regan was mildly offended at Penny’s assumption.

‘No. Not you, the customers. They order one thing then change their minds or think they’ve ordered something else. When that happens we chuck it away, but if it’s not mad busy you could run one of those out to him.’

‘Perfect,’ said Regan.

‘Just no deliberate mistakes. Okay?’ Penny gave her a look she’d seen on many a teacher in her past.

‘Cross my heart,’ said Regan, crossing her chest and hoping it was a morning of customer errors because she’d already promised drinks to Kevin and Elvis.

The morning rush was exactly that. Lots of shouting and running about interspersed with blasts of steam, the gurgle of the coffee machine and all of it steeped in the smell of hot milk and coffee. Regan found it quite exhilarating. I’m dying for a coffee, she thought, and then a picture of Charlie popped into her head and she swallowed hard. Maybe she wasn’t quite that bad.

‘Large cappuccino to go,’ called Regan, placing the cup on the collection counter.

‘Decaf?’ asked a slim man with a gruff voice.

‘Nope, fully leaded,’ said Regan, with a smile.

‘I asked for decaffeinated,’ he said, checking his watch.

Regan frowned but Penny was already there. ‘No problem, sir. Sorry about that. It’ll just be a minute.’ Penny guided Regan back to the coffee machine. ‘See. Like I said. It’s his mistake – he didn’t ask for decaf. Do him another and then run this one out to Kevin.’

Regan grinned. This was brilliant. She had some milk that she’d already heated and now it was cooling down it had to be thrown away, but instead she tipped it into a cup for Elvis. Once the customer was happy with his large decaf cappuccino Regan spied her chance and nipped outside. She scanned the street in both directions and her eyes alighted on the market stalls all setting up for the day. She could barely quell her excitement. That could be her. If she could just get her shit together and come up with a good idea, that really could be her. She watched them, transfixed for a moment whilst her mind wandered off to picture herself running her own stall.

A loud bark heralded Elvis’s arrival and pulled her out of her daydream. She was sure the dog could smell milk from a mile away. Today it was a very wet Elvis; he merrily showed Regan how wet by doing a full body shake in front of her and showering her in the process. ‘Oi!’ she said, through spluttered laughter. Kevin wasn’t far behind and he was shaking his head in a similar