One Summer in Cornwall by Karen King (best books to read for success .TXT) 📕

this is Nick my stepbrother.’ Then she turned back to Nick, ‘This is my next-door neighbour, Marcus.’

Marcus nodded. ‘Pleased to meet you.’

‘I’m sorry, I had no idea that Nick was coming to help me. I’ll have to come over another time,’ Hattie said.

‘Don’t cancel your plans for me. Just let me in and I’ll make myself at home,’ Nick said.

Hattie hesitated. She’d been really looking forward to sharing a cosy evening with Marcus. She toyed with the idea of settling Nick in, then popping next door, but it seemed rude.

Marcus answered before Hattie could get her scrambled thoughts together. ‘Don’t worry, I’m sure you two will have a lot of catching up to do. We’ll have the meal another evening.’

‘If you’re sure, that would probably be for the best,’ Hattie said, trying to hide her disappointment. ‘Do pop in and see Buddy whenever you want. Buddy is Uncle Albert’s parrot,’ she added, seeing Nick’s surprised look. ‘Marcus has been looking after him and they’re very close.’

Nick nodded. ‘Owen said you were looking after your uncle’s parrot. That’s great. I like parrots.’

‘I’ll leave you to it, then. Nice to meet you, Nick. See you soon, Hattie.’

She tried to hide her disappointment as Marcus opened his garden gate and walked down the path. She’d had high hopes for a lovely romantic evening and now it was all ruined.

She sighed and turned to Nick. ‘Come on then, let’s get the kettle on.’

‘I don’t suppose you have a beer, do you?’ he asked as she opened the front door.

‘No beer, but I do have some fruit ciders in the fridge. Help yourself.’

‘Bugger off!’ Buddy shouted as soon as Nick walked in. He burst out laughing and went straight over to the cage. ‘Hello, mate, you’re a cheeky chappie, aren’t you?’

Buddy cocked his head to one side as if he was listening. Then he started squawking loudly, dancing along the branch and shouting, ‘Bloody hell, who is it?’

Nick laughed. ‘He’s quite a character, isn’t he?’

‘He certainly is. It took him a while to get used to me, but he’s settling down fine now, and I’m quite fond of him.’

‘He’s a yellow-naped Amazon, isn’t he? My mate has the same breed. We used to flat share so I spent a lot of time with Molly, his parrot,’ he said. ‘Shall we let Buddy out for a bit? He looks a bit bored stuck in there.’

‘I don’t usually, not unless Marcus is here. He escaped once and I couldn’t get him back in the cage.’

‘I’ll get him in no problem.’ Nick glanced around. ‘Are the windows shut?’

‘Yes, I always shut them when I go out but . . .’

Before she could stop him, Nick had opened the cage door. ‘There you go, Buddy!’

Buddy immediately flew out, perched on the top of the fridge-freezer and started whistling.

Hattie bit her lip uneasily. She hoped Nick wasn’t going to try and take over. ‘You’d better be able to get him back in again or I’ll be really annoyed,’ she told him.

‘I will. I promise.’ Nick opened the fridge and took out a bottle of cider. ‘Do you want one? I’ll go shopping tomorrow and get some stuff in. I don’t expect you to feed me, don’t worry.’

‘Well, that’s a relief!’ Hattie grinned, trying to lighten up. It was good of Nick to come all this way to help her sort out the cottage. It would be a lot easier with another pair of hands. ‘Yes, I’ll have one.’

Actually, Nick was good company. After Hattie had poured him a cider and made a sandwich – the crust of which he gave to Buddy, who happily took it out of his hand and then flew to the top of the fridge-freezer to eat it – they sat chatting, sharing experiences of their childhood. Hattie was surprised to hear that Nick hadn’t been happy about his mum remarrying either. In fact, he’d been just as resentful as she was and had set about making life very uncomfortable for her dad.

‘Owen bore the brunt of my teenage years, I’m afraid,’ he confessed. ‘I really hated him moving in with Mum and made sure he knew it. I caused lots of arguments between them. They almost split up once. I feel awful about it now.’

And there Hattie had been, thinking her dad was having a lovely new carefree life over in France, whereas it now seemed it had been far from an easy ride. No wonder he’d barely had time to phone or come and visit.

‘I was even worse when Lacey was born, felt like they wouldn’t want to know me when they had “their own baby”. I was a total berk. Didn’t come to my senses until I left school and went to college. Finally, I grew up, realised that relationships are complicated and that Mum and Owen deserved a shot at happiness. And that your dad is a great fella. He’s shown more interest in me and helped me more than my own dad.’

‘I felt the same about Lacey too, at first,’ Hattie admitted. She’d never stopped to think what life was like for Nick, but he was an innocent victim of this as much as she was. She wished she could go back and give that resentful teenage Hattie a shake. She could have spent her summer holidays in France every year and got to know her new family, that would have been awesome.

Mum wouldn’t have liked it, though.

She’d have got used to it.

‘Did Dad ever talk about me?’ she asked.

Nick nodded. ‘There was a photo of you on the dresser, beside the one of me and Lacey. He used to get excited every summer hoping you were coming over, then we could see he was hurt when you didn’t. Not that I blame you.’ A serious look suddenly came over his face. ‘I was awful to you that first summer. I’m sorry. I guess I resented you – Owen had been so excited about you coming, Mum had been preparing your