A million excuses and reasons ran through her mind. She wasn’t ready, she wouldn’t be very good, she’d disappoint him, her bikini line was probably a bit of a state.

He must have seen all of that running across her face. ‘I promise, we don’t have to do anything, we can just do this. I like this. I like the idea of falling asleep with you in my arms again. I get the impression there hasn’t been anyone for you since Chris?’

She flushed with embarrassment. ‘No, for one reason or another, there hasn’t been anyone for eight years. He was my first boyfriend too.’

She thought he might laugh at this. She was nearly thirty and had only ever been with one man, whereas Henry had probably been with lots of women, whether they were serious or not. But he didn’t laugh at all.

‘So we’re going to take this really slow, we won’t do anything until you’re ready. We can date and get to know each other and I promise I won’t try to take it any further. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to want lots of kisses though.’

She smiled with love for him. This wasn’t real, men weren’t patient when it came to sex, well, Chris never had been. Someone like Henry could have any woman he wanted, if the reactions of Jade, Beth and Clara had been anything to go by. So why would he waste his time waiting for her when he could have a quick shag with any single woman in the town, especially as when he arrived in White Cliff Bay he wasn’t even looking for a serious relationship.

‘I want this to work,’ he said softly, obviously having a knack for reading her mind.

She reached up and kissed him softly, hoping the mint had done a good enough job. He pulled her tighter against him, deepening the kiss.

He pulled back slightly, his eyes alight with mischief. ‘Or you know, if you didn’t want to wait, we could get down to the hot, passionate sex now.’

He quickly rolled on top of her, pinning her with his weight and tickled her.

‘NO!’ she squealed, trying to escape from his merciless hands.

‘Come on, give me all the sex.’

She laughed. ‘No, you’re not having it, never.’

She wriggled from his grasp, quickly climbed out of bed and ran laughing from the room but he was hot on her heels. He caught her by the waist and pinned her up against the wall, kissing her again as he tried to suppress his laughter. As he kissed her, his tongue sliding slowly into her mouth, his hands skimming her sides, her body humming at his touch, she wondered why she was holding back. Would it be so wrong to go back to bed with him now and discover how deep this spark between them actually ran? She barely knew him, but everything about this man, his kiss, his touch, just screamed that he was perfect for her in every single way. She was falling for him, she knew that. She just had to hope he felt the same.

He pulled back slightly and frowned. ‘What time are you meeting Maggie?’

‘Maggie?’

He smiled. ‘Your friend?’

‘Oh, erm, twelve.’

‘Pity, it’s half eleven now.’

Her eyes widened as the fog cleared. ‘What? How is it so late?’

‘Well, if you were anything like me, I spent most of the night lying awake thinking about our date.’

She smiled. ‘I did too.’

He pulled back, reluctantly. ‘Go and get ready and I’ll see you tonight. You’ll stay with me, right?’

She nodded and he walked down the stairs, leaving her alone. Her face was aching from smiling so much. Renting out the annexe was the best decision she had ever made.

Penny burst into the bakery and looked around. She was ten minutes late but it seemed she had still managed to beat Maggie. She walked up to the counter and joined the short queue. It seemed busier than usual for a Tuesday and Linda seemed a bit stressed out by the additional customers.

Tilly suddenly came running up to Penny, chocolate round her face coupled with a huge grin.

Penny crouched down and carefully signed. ‘Hello, what are you doing here, has your school closed for the holidays already?’

Tilly nodded excitedly and then signed back. ‘The heating has broken so the school is closed. It probably won’t be fixed before Friday.’

Well, that explained the extra customers and probably why Maggie was late if she was looking after her two boys.

‘How cool, you get an extra long break. Are you helping your mummy and nanny today?’

‘I’ve been making mince pies, do you want one?’

‘That would be lovely.’

Tilly ran off and Penny stepped forward to place her order of a cheese sandwich for her and a bacon sandwich for Maggie. She was surprised when Linda handed her over two doughnuts as well as the sandwiches.

‘You need to keep your energy up,’ Linda winked and her daughter Polly, standing next to her, giggled.

Confused slightly, she found a table just as a young couple were leaving and a moment later Maggie burst into the bakery.

‘I’m so sorry.’ Maggie took an appreciative bite out of her bacon sandwich, moaning with pleasure. ‘The kids are off from school and I’ve been trying to keep them entertained all morning as I finish off the preparations for the ball. Seven days and I’m starting to panic that I’ve forgotten something big, the pregnancy is playing havoc with my brain.’

‘I’m sure you have everything planned to the finest detail. Is there anything I can help you with?’

‘No, I think we’re nearly there. The marquee arrives tomorrow, which is being used for the gingerbread house competition on Saturday and your workshop on Sunday, then everything else is arriving on Tuesday, the day of the ball,’ Maggie rattled off her mental list of preparations from her head. ‘Anyway, my mum has the boys for an hour, I told her I had an emergency lunch meeting with you.’

Penny blinked. ‘What’s the emergency?’

‘Your big date tonight.’

She felt her eyes widen. ‘How do you know about that?’

‘Well, Jade was quite vocal about it in the pub on Saturday night after she had been spectacularly rejected by Henry, although she obviously didn’t put it like that, and it’s been quite the talk of the town ever since.’

‘The talk of the town?’ Penny suddenly felt cold at the thought of everyone talking about her. She knew that the town thrived on gossip and poking their nose into other people’s business but she had never been the subject of it before, her life was way too dull for that. She thought back to the time of her miscarriage and how everyone must have talked about her then, but she had been too far removed from it, closeted in her home up on the hill.

‘Everyone is happy for you, they’re all very excited,’ Maggie soothed, though Penny could find nothing in these words to calm her down. How embarrassing. She and Henry were still trying to get to know each other, they didn’t need the whole of White Cliff Bay digging their noses in before their relationship had even got off the ground. Plus the fact that Daisy wasn’t supposed to know.

‘We’ve had a meeting and—’

‘A meeting? Who’s “we”?’ Penny squeaked, wanting suddenly to run back to her house and hide.

‘The book club,’ Maggie said, talking of the little group of mothers who would escape their families once a week to go round each other’s houses, get drunk and let their hair down. No actual reading or discussions of books ever went on in their club meetings if the drunken photos on Facebook were anything to go by.

‘I was the subject of a book club meeting.’

‘Yes, now, the girls have all agreed to help. Natalie is going to do your hair and then Christine has you booked in for an all-over wax. Monica wants you to come to Silk & Lace afterwards and she’s going to help you pick out some sexy underwear, I know you don’t possess such things and all your bras and knickers are grey with holes in, that’s not the look we need tonight and…’

‘Wait, I’m not sleeping with him,’ Penny shrieked and the bakery went quiet, all eyes swivelling in their direction.