A Good Catch Part 9

'Is he seeing someone else?'

Loveday absentmindedly picked up the shortbread biscuit and popped it in her mouth. 'I know he wants to go out with me but, as I keep saying no, Jesse and he are playing the field. Every spare minute they're in Newquay or St Ives, doing the clubs, picking up girls. We don't hang out like we used to.'

Greer clutched her coffee cup and hoped that Loveday didn't notice her hand shaking at the mention of Jesse.

'Is he seeing anyone special?'

'No, they're just being idiots.' Loveday hoped that Greer didn't see how much it hurt to know that Jesse had become a bit of a w.a.n.ker, 'making hay while the sun shone', as he called it. That was one way of making it sound nicer than it was, she thought darkly.

Both girls stared out of the window of the little cafe in one of Trevay's side streets. Across the road, in the window of the dress shop, Doreen's, a woman was dressing a dummy, pulling up the elasticated waist of a pair of white trousers, and adding a short-sleeved nautical T-s.h.i.+rt.

'Talk of the bleddy devil.' Loveday banged on the gla.s.s cafe window. 'Jesse!' she shouted in a voice that carried around the restaurant, out of the open door and onto the pavement.

Greer saw him as he looked around, trying to work out who was calling him and from where.

'In here!' Loveday was banging and shouting until he saw her. He gave a small wave but kept walking. 'Greer's home, look!' she shouted again, embarra.s.sing Greer and eliciting tuts from customers who merely wanted to eat their lunch in peace. Loveday pushed her chair back with a screech and ran out onto the pavement, physically stopping Jesse. Greer couldn't bear to watch in case Jesse shrugged and walked on. She'd seen him only twice, briefly, since the night of the hog roast, and whenever she thought about how she'd virtually proposed to him a cold river of shame poured over her.

In spite of herself, she took a quick glance through the window and out to the scene on the pavement. Oh my G.o.d, he was walking towards the cafe with Loveday grinning and chatting by his side.

He came in and walked up to her table. He looked taller; his muscles had filled out and he was a ton more handsome, if that were possible. Suntanned, with a chiselled jaw and his unruly blond hair just a little longer, he stood over her, smiling, making her insides do funny things.

'h.e.l.lo, Greer. It's been a long time. I wouldn't have recognised you with your short hair.'

Again her hand flew to her head. 'Do you like it?' Oh G.o.d, what kind of question was that?

He appraised her steadily before saying, 'It's all right. Do you girls want a cup of tea?'

'I'd like a milkshake,' Loveday announced, noisily pulling her chair back up to the table.

'Flavour?'

'Banana.'

'Right. You, Greer?'

'No, thank you.'

'You'm skin and bone, maid.'

Greer looked at her narrow thighs in their tight black jeans. 'Oh, OK. I'll have another coffee. Thanks.'

Jesse laughed and showed his good teeth. 'Black no sugar?'

Greer hated him laughing at her. 'White coffee with sugar,' she said defiantly, even though he'd been right in the first place.

The waitress brought the order to the table.

'So, how have you been?' Greer asked stiffly.

'Brilliant,' said Jesse. 'I'm on the boats full time now. Hard work, but the pay is good. I've bought a car.'

'Gosh. How grown-up.' Greer was seething with jealousy. A car meant he could pick up as many girls as he wanted. 'What sort?'

'Ford Capri. I'm doin' it up right now. Want to come and see it?'

'Maybe.'

'Well, don't if you don't want to.' He looked rather crestfallen. 'I expect you saw plenty of nice cars up country.'

'No, I would,' she said quickly, afraid of losing this chance to be with him. 'I'd love to. Where is it?'

'Up the sheds.' He spooned three sugars into his tan-coloured mug of tea. 'What's new with you then, Greer? Been a long time since we clapped eyes on you. How was it at college?'

'It was good. Quite fun.'

'Only got Student of the Decade and all her secretarial stuff too,' interjected Loveday, proudly.

Jesse raised a blond eyebrow appraisingly and nodded slowly. 'Right, well, when I get my house I might let you do it up for me, then.' He looked at her with a smile playing around his lips.

Greer felt he was trying to bait her. And was irritated by his att.i.tude. 'I'm very expensive.'

He smirked. 'Oh, really? How much?'

'It would depend on what you wanted.'

Loveday jumped in. 'Tell him about the curtains.'

'Well, I could do a set of curtains at about three hundred a window.'

He roared with laughter. 'No. How much really?'

'Three hundred.'

'Straight up?' He looked amazed.

'Or flounced and tied back,' joked Loveday.

Her joke flew over his head and he looked at Greer with fresh interest. 'Three hundred? Fools and their money are easily parted!' He drained his tea, pushed his chair back and stood up. 'Anyway, I gotta go back to work. Dad wants me.' He walked to the door. Greer refused to turn and watch him. At the last moment he said, 'Mick and me will be up at the sheds about half six if you want to see my car.' And he left.

Mickey looked the same but even taller, if that were possible. He gave her a huge bear hug.

'Greer, you've gone all posh an' that, 'aven't you?'

Greer smiled. 'Have I?'

'Yeah, look at you. London clothes and haircut and that.'

Greer looked down at her jumpsuit with its padded shoulders and wide belt and supposed that she was rather more on trend than the rest of Trevay. 'Oh, it's only Chelsea Girl.'

Loveday had already quizzed her friend on her new wardrobe and was planning a trip to Plymouth to update her own clothes. 'Don't she look good? And what about her hair?'

Mickey took in the urchin cut but said nothing other than: 'It's good to see you. I thought you'd dumped your old mates.'

The thing was, once Greer had left Trevay, she hadn't really missed her friends that much; there was too much going on and the thought of going back home and being treated as a kid by her father was unappealing. Besides, her mother loved the shopping in Guildford, and even at Christmas they'd been quite happy to come and have their Christmas lunch at a posh hotel in Surrey. She smiled. 'I know I haven't been home for two years but I was busy, and Mum came up to see me all the time. She kept me up to date with all the Trevay news, though.'

Jesse walked over to the Behenna's Boats shed and pulled at the big doors. ''Ave a look to this beauty.' The doors opened and behind them in the workshop was Jesse's Ford Capri. Bright blue with the Cornish flag painted on the roof.

'Wow!' Greer said sarcastically. 'Who did the paintwork?'

'Me and Dad.'

'It's lovely.'

'Want a ride?'

Greer caught her breath. The thought of sitting next to Jesse after two years of dreaming about him made her giddy. She managed to say, 'Sure.'

'Right,' said Jesse. 'You two girls hop in the back and we'll all go for a ride.'

The roar and rumble of the throaty engine bounced off the shed walls. Greer and Loveday, squished into the back, were forced backwards as Jesse put his foot to the floor and shot the little car out of the shed and off down the lane towards the harbour.

'Cheers, Edward.'

'Cheers, Bryn.' The two men clinked their gla.s.ses of ale at the pub and supped contemplatively for a moment before Bryn spoke.

'My Greer's back from up country today. Got her exams and 'ome for good now.'

'She done well up there. I 'eard from Jan. What she planning on doing now?' Edward asked cautiously.

Edward knew what Bryn was likely to say, but there was still a part of him that hoped Greer Clovelly would decide that the bright lights of Surrey had more to offer her than her home town of Trevay.

Edward Behenna and Bryn Clovelly eyed each other along the bar of the pub.

'Like I said, she'll be 'ome for good now, be ready to settle down and start a family, I reckon.'

'What about her qualifications? She'll want to put them to good use, won't she?'

Bryn blew out a cloud of smoke dismissively and gave a firm shake of his head. 'That decorating course is just a Mickey Mouse qualification. Kept 'er happy for a couple of years and she got to see a bit of life, but it's kids and family that will be the making of her.'

Edward stroked his chin thoughtfully. 'She might 'ave ideas of her own.'

'All she wants is to marry your Jesse, and that's what I want for her as well. Don't you think it's time you told 'im about our little arrangement?'

Edward had been dreading this moment. He and Bryn had put the final touches of their merger together and all the papers had been drawn up and signed in triplicate. It was a done deal. The Clovelly Fisheries Company now owned a controlling share in Behenna's Boats. The future of the company was secured and Edward Behenna had a seat on the board. But there was one clause that didn't appear in the reams of papers that he'd read through in the offices of his Trevay solicitors, Penrose and Trewin: what would happen to Jesse's inheritance the one that both he and his father had spent their lives trying to ensure? One fail-safe way that Jesse could guarantee his share and carry the Behenna name into the future was by marrying into the Clovelly family.

He rubbed his chin and creased his brow, anxious about how he was going to break the news to Jesse.

'Come on, Edward. Your Jesse will see sense he'll have money in his pocket and a beautiful girl for 'is wife. For G.o.d's sake, what's to decide? Come on, here's to our future and that of our grandkids!' He clanked his pint against Edward's again. But Edward found it hard to raise a smile, let alone his gla.s.s.

When Greer got home that evening her parents were waiting up for her.

'Can I get you anything before bed?' asked her mother.

'No, thank you, Mum.'

Bryn folded his paper and got out of his armchair. 'How was Jesse?'

Greer, already pinkened by two gla.s.ses of white wine, coloured a deeper shade. 'Fine,' she told him, before kissing her parents goodnight.

Bryn gave his wife a knowing look, which she returned as they watched their daughter retreat to the childhood bedroom she hadn't slept in for two whole years.

'How was Greer?' asked Jesse's father.

'Fine, I think.'

Jesse stepped over his father's outstretched legs in an attempt to get to the stairs and the safety of his bedroom before Edward could ask any more questions.

No luck.

'Hold on, boy. I want to talk to you.'

Jesse's shoulders dropped but he put on an innocent smile and said, 'What's that then, Dad?'

'Come and 'ave a seat, lad. Want a snifter?'

Jesse's father indicated the bottle of whisky from which he'd just poured himself a generous measure.

'Not really, Dad.' Jesse thought his dad had already had enough.

'I want to 'ave a proper talk with you, it's about your future.'

Jesse knew his father was about to launch into his usual sermon about the future of Behenna's Boats and him marrying Greer Clovelly. If he'd heard it once, he'd heard it a million times especially when his dad was in his cups, like now.

'Dad, can we talk about this tomorrow? It's late and we've an early tide.'

Jesse made another attempt to get to the stairs but his father was out of his seat and put his hand out to hold Jesse back.

'Dad?'

'Sit down, son,' his dad said firmly.