‘Except you have,' retorted the woman, who clearly had no intention of backing down. ‘And I'm a GP, so shall I tell you why the fact that you're denying it makes me so cross? Because you're ashamed of your own body, that's why! Too embarrassed to admit you have an intimate problem that some people might find amusing.'
Oh God, where was a hole in the ground when you needed one to swallow you up? Coral said, ‘But-'
‘You!' The loud woman pointed an accusing finger at Declan. ‘Would you still love her if she had piles?' As she said it, she put sarcastic air-quotes around the word if.
‘Yes,' said Declan. ‘I would. Of course I would.'
Coral just wanted to die.
‘Except they aren't a couple.' The cashier shook her head at the loud woman. ‘They're just friends.'
‘And I don't have piles,' Coral protested.
‘Oh I give up. Some people just don't want to be helped.' The loud woman dropped her wire basket to the floor with a crash and stalked off.
‘Ah, wasn't this one great?' The cashier beamed and jerked her thumb at Declan. ‘Jumping to your defence like he did, saying he'd still love you even if you did have piles. What a star!'
‘I don't have them, though,' Coral said faintly. ‘I promise.'
But everyone was looking at her and smirking. Worse still, she knew none of them believed her for a second.
Having paid for their shopping, Declan removed his credit card from the card reader and said brusquely, ‘Let's just get out of here, shall we? Right now.'
Mortified, Coral felt herself blushing all over again. Oh dear, he'd clearly had enough.
As they left the store, she blurted out, ‘I'm so sorry about that … how embarrassing. Look, confession time. I overheard someone saying that stuff was a miracle cure for eye bags … that's all it was. I should have said so straight away … I thought I'd give it a try, but then you turned up and-'
‘I meant it,' Declan interrupted her.
‘Oh, sorry. Of course.' All of a fluster, Coral realised he didn't want to listen to her garbled explanation; he just wanted to be out of here, out of the car park, probably well away from her. ‘Well look, you can go, I'm fine to unload the trolley on my own, my car's right there-'
‘What are you talking about?' said Declan.
‘You want to get out of here.' As she steered the trolley over to where her car was parked, Coral said with a slightly hysterical laugh, ‘And who can blame you?'
‘OK, stop.' Declan reached for the handle and brought the trolley to a halt. ‘We're at cross purposes here. When that madwoman asked me if I'd still love you, I said yes. Just now, when I said I meant it … well that's what I meant.'
Coral stared at him. What? Oh. Oh.
Declan paused too, as if listening to the words that had just come out of his mouth. He raked his fingers through his hair. ‘OK, I didn't plan for it to happen quite like this, but I'm saying it now. I'd still love you. I just would. Because … I already do.'
Coral was trembling. She wanted to ask if this was a joke, but knew it wasn't. All she could say, with a squeak in her voice, was ‘Really?'
Declan nodded. ‘Oh yes, really. You're amazing. The only reason I bought that cottage was so I'd have an excuse to keep coming down here.'
Oh God, imagine that.
‘I had no idea. You didn't say anything.'
Declan shrugged. ‘I didn't know how you felt about me. I thought maybe you weren't ready for another relationship.'
‘And you had Gail … ' she reminded him.
‘I know. I felt bad about that. But she was the one who told me you liked me.'
‘Gail said that? Oh my God! How did she know?' Feeling herself flush, Coral stammered, ‘I m-mean, she asked me, but I said it wasn't true.'
Declan was searching her face for clues. ‘Was it not true?'
‘Are you kidding? Of course it was true. I was mortified!'
‘So then I finished with Gail, but in the meantime you'd run off to Grimaud.'
‘Hello? Because I was mortified.'
‘And then you met Trent … '
‘Because I was so completely desperate to get over you! Plus,' said Coral, ‘still mortified.'
‘Well I think you can stop being mortified now.' Declan's voice softened as he drew her towards him. ‘I want to kiss you, but I don't know if I can do it here.'
‘Really? Why not?'
‘Well I don't know if you've noticed, but we're standing in the middle of a supermarket car park. It's hardly the most romantic setting.'
‘Oh I don't know. Feels quite romantic to me,' murmured Coral.
He broke into a smile and lowered his voice. ‘Also, people are watching us.'
She wrapped her arms around him and felt months of fear and anxiety melt away. This, this was what she'd been waiting for. Pausing with her mouth millimetres from his, Coral smiled back at him. ‘Good.'
And it turned out that if you wanted it to be, and if you were with the right person, a supermarket car park could be a wonderfully romantic place after all.
Chapter 50
It was the last week of October, and autumn had well and truly arrived. But today was a sunny, cloudless day so Lily was able to see everything. From up here, the leaves on the trees glowed red and gold as if they were on fire.
‘Look over there.' Dan was leaning across, pointing out of the window on her side. ‘Waterskiers on the lake.'
Lily gave his arm a swipe. ‘Will you stop looking out of the window? Watch where you're going!'
‘Hey, calm down.' He waggled the wings for a second, just for fun. ‘This isn't a car. I can't steer it off the road.'
‘Well keep your eye on the instrument panel. I still can't believe you're allowed to drive one of these things. And I really can't believe I'm letting you drive me,' said Lily.
‘You're being very brave.' He kept a straight face. ‘Although when it's a plane, we do tend to call it flying, not driving. That's the technical term for this up-in-the-air business.'
It did all look incredibly technical, though. There were so many flight instruments: dials, switches, levers and different-coloured square buttons. Dan had already listed them, rattling off explanations of vertical speed indicators, airspeed indicators, the magnetic compass and the altimeter. He appeared to know what he was talking about, which was a relief. Lily, who had never seen him actually being a pilot before, kept sneaking sidelong glances at this new professional version of Dan, in his crisp white shirt and dark trousers, with his combed-back hair and aviator sunglasses. No wonder he was endlessly being propositioned by girls.
The next minute, she clutched the sides of her seat and yelped, ‘What's happened? Are we crashing? Oh God … '
‘Will you relax? We professionals prefer to call it beginning our descent. Look, there's the River Tamar.' Dan was pointing again. ‘We're crossing into Cornwall. Not long now before you're reunited.' He sounded amused. ‘Try not to make a fool of yourself, OK?'
‘I'll do my very best.' Lily was used to his teasing now. The view of the press was, naturally, that Eddie Tessler had been the one to end the relationship, and since neither of them had commented on the situation, Dan had played along with it. Whether or not he believed it was another matter.
‘Have some dignity,' he said now. ‘No bursting into tears and begging him to take you back.'
‘I'll try not to do that. And in return, can you try to land this plane?'
‘Land it? Oh dear, that could be tricky,' said Dan. ‘Hang on, let's see if anyone's left a manual in the glove compartment … '
It had been Eddie's idea to hire Dan for the day. He was currently making a film in north Cornwall and needed to fly over to Paris for a meeting with an Australian producer. As soon as the meeting was over, he'd be returning to Cornwall. Aware that Dan was now fully recovered and back working for the airline, Eddie had asked if he was free that day and able to lease a small plane to take him to France and back.
Which Dan, with his dreams of one day starting up his own charter company, had been only too happy to do.
And when Eddie had suggested that Lily might like to fly down with Dan and visit the film set, she'd jumped at the chance.
She smiled at the sight of Eddie walking towards her. The awkwardness was behind them now, and it was great to see him again after that last afternoon in Stanton Langley back in July. While Dan completed the necessary paperwork in the tiny airport office, Lily gave Eddie a hug. ‘What have they done to you?'