Read Online This Is Your Life by Debbie Howells/Susie Martyn - Free Book Online Page B

wince.
    ‘Trouble is , it means I’m stuck,’ Lizzie’s voice had gone squeaky.  ‘I don’t know what to do.’
    Mick cocked his head like a sparrow.  ‘Me sister’s selling her car.  If you’re interested, mind… Nice little jeep.  Quite clean and tidy.  I’ve been looking after it for her.  Tell you what.  I’ll bring it over next week if you want to take a look at it.  Tuesday say.  Ok?’
    What could Lizzie say.  Only chances were, seeing as this was Mick, it would probably be Friday at the earliest and by then she’d have been here well over a week.  It had already been quite long enough and Lizzie was restless for magical Cornish coasts and that bracing dip in the sea.
    ‘Ok,’ she said with great reluctance.  ‘I better give you my mobile number.  But if there’s any chance you can get it here sooner, I’d be really grateful...’
    ‘Okey dokey,’ said Mick.  ‘You taking them bags now?  Only s’pose you’ll want me to get rid of it…’
    ‘Oh!’ Lizzie started.  How could she , when it was her last link to her mother. 
    Katie elbowed her.  ‘It’s a car Lizzie.  Just a car.  It isn’t important – not really.  It’s ok…’ she added looking anxiously at her, as they gathered the last of her suitcases.  ‘Come on.  Let’s get everything back to the pub.’
    A perplexed Mick watched them unload what was left and stagger back down the lane.  Safely back in her room, Lizzie dissolved into tears.
    ‘Come on.  Change,’ said Katie bossily, never one to be sentimental.  It was a car, for God’s sake.  ‘We’re going to be late for lunch.’
     
    It was the next piece of the cosmic jigsaw as without a car, Lizzie was stuck here.  For an indeterminate period - or until Mick turned up with another one. 
    The Old Goat was n’t far away and they sped along the lanes in Katie’s MG with the roof folded down, slowing down for groups of horses the odd cyclist.  After a recent review in a national paper, the pub was crowded, word having spread far afield about its weekend roasts and locally sourced menu, hence lines of brand new Audi’s and BMW’s crammed down the sides of the lane. 
    Unlike the Star, it looked just as you imagined a country pub should with a quaintly sloping thatched roof and window boxes brimming with flowers.  Inside, the stripped wood and fresh white paint was a welcome sight, as was the starched linen and menus on the tables.  Looking around, Lizzie was suddenly ravenous. Fortunately Katie had booked – every spare table was taken.
    She perused the menu for ages, trying to make up her mind .
    ‘For goodness sake, just order something ,’ said Katie, before suddenly jumping up. Then ‘No!’ she shrieked as two men came towards their table.
    ‘Darling?  Is that really you?’ The resonant voice came from the more slender of the two, who was immaculately dressed in a white shirt and impeccably tailored trousers.
    Katie stared disbelievingly before she flung her arms round his neck.
    ‘Darius! It is you! I don’t believe it!  What are you doing here of all places?’
    ‘I might ask the same of you , flower,’ he mock-flirted back.
    ‘And An gel too!  Oh wow!’  She kissed him noisily on both cheeks. 
    Katie’s shrieks had got the attention of most of the restaurant, but Angel was not the least perturbed.  Camp didn’t describe the half of it.  One looked as though he was wearing lipstick, and flamboyantly dressed in a bright cerise shirt, he wore the most gorgeous jeans Lizzie had ever seen, so soft-looking she had to stop herself reaching out to touch them.
    ‘Boys, meet my friend Lizzie!  She’s marooned here!  Her car broke down…’
    After breathless gasps of ‘no’, and ‘not really’, the boys embraced Lizzie just as warmly.
    ‘How’s Sylvia, pet?’ Darius asked Katie.  ‘I got her a darling little piece for her boudoir, did she show you?’   Sylvia was Katie’s mother.
    ‘ She loves it!  I think