Damn. He was too late.
Jake tried the handle of the Starfish Studio door but it was locked. The windows were dark and there wasn’t a sound from inside. Poppy had probably locked up because of all the takings from the launch and, judging by the silence, she and her friend and family must have already gone to the pub to celebrate.
The launch party had been winding down when he’d had to rush back to the cottage to take an urgent phone call. By the time he’d dealt with the fallout from that conversation, over an hour had passed. He’d been about to return to the party when Minty had knocked on his door.
It was now almost seven o’clock.
Deciding it was easier to explain his hasty departure from the party face to face, Jake jogged up the road and was soon walking onto the terrace of the Moor’s Head. The place was heaving with locals, off-islanders and tourists, all out in the warm sunshine. Everyone was in T-shirts and shorts or summer dresses, chattering and admiring the jaw-dropping view of tiny green fields falling away sharply to the sea shimmering in the evening sun. Poppy’s parents were enjoying a pint and a G&T at one of the tables. Her friend, Zoey, was chatting to Rowan Pentire and the two seemed to be getting on very well.
There was no sign of Poppy, which might be convenient because Jake wanted to get her on her own to deliver his news.
Jake made his way through the drinkers, saying ‘hi’ to people he knew. He’d almost reached the bar entrance when he bumped into Poppy. She hadn’t seen him and her tray of drinks wobbled as he made contact.
‘Whoa.’ He smiled at the laden tray. ‘Found you at last. D’you need a hand?’
She threw him a brief smile. ‘No thanks.’
‘Sorry I had to rush off from the party. I had to take an urgent call.’
‘I know.’
Jake frowned. ‘You know? But how …’ Even as Poppy opened her mouth, realisation dawned on him. Oh, shit. Minty.
‘The Amazon, isn’t it? Sounds amazing. Scary but amazing.’
A guy nudged Jake’s elbow on his way to the bar. He knocked Poppy’s tray and more drinks slopped out. ‘I can explain. Let’s go somewhere quieter before you lose all of those drinks,’ he said.
A frown deepened between her eyes. ‘There’s nothing to explain, Jake. Why would you think that? I have to get these back to the gang or they’ll wonder where I am.’
He wanted to kick himself. He wished now he’d never let slip to Minty that he was leaving so soon, but she’d forced him into a corner. Literally. None of that mattered now that Poppy had clearly lost trust in him.
He walked ahead of her, clearing a path through the drinkers. She looked gorgeous in her denim cut-offs and a white T-shirt that showed off her tanned limbs. Her hair was piled messily on her head and caught up in a clip. He wanted to kiss her and then drag her off to bed despite all his resolve not to think such thoughts.
Their arrival on the terrace was greeted with cheering and sarcastic applause.
‘Thought you’d been kidnapped,’ Poppy’s father joked, rubbing his hands together at the sight of his pint.
‘By pirates,’ Zoey added, detaching herself from Rowan’s side to take two glasses from the tray. She smirked and shot a look at Poppy. ‘Spanish pirates. Maybe ones left over from the Armada.’
This was obviously some in-joke between the two friends. Jake decided to run with it anyway, hoping to lighten the atmosphere between him and Poppy.
‘We had a narrow escape, but no one’s been made to walk the plank, as you can see,’ Jake said lightly, while Poppy handed her mum a fresh G&T. ‘Yet,’ he added.
He could have sworn Poppy was trying to avoid catching his eye. He really wished he’d been able to tell her about his plans himself.
‘I could do with a pint myself,’ he said. ‘I’m going into the bar, but I’ll be back.’
Hoping Poppy would take the hint, he joined the queue inside the pub, letting someone go in front of him and lingering inside chatting to the landlord, but she didn’t appear. Luckily, however, as he slipped out the back door to the gents’, Poppy was just coming out of the ladies’. The outside of the pub’s toilet block was hardly the ideal location, but they were alone – for the time being – and he was growing desperate, so he seized his chance.
‘Poppy. I need to talk to you.’
She glanced away from him as if she was searching for an escape route. ‘I was about to go back to the terrace.’
‘I won’t keep you and I know I don’t need to explain what happened at the party, but I want to. What exactly has Minty told you?’
‘She came around to the studio after everyone had gone to the pub while I was locking up. She said she hoped I wouldn’t be too disappointed but she thought she ought to let me know that you were going away for an “unspecified” length of time to Brazil.’
‘Oh shit. I was going to tell you about the trip. I only received the phone call from the agency who arranges my assignments while I was at the party. The photographer who was doing the trip has been taken ill and she can’t go for the foreseeable future. It’s very sad, but I’ve been asked to step in at short notice.’
Poppy blew out a breath. ‘Sounds like very short notice.’
‘I know and I hesitated before agreeing to go but it’s an assignment for an international wildlife organisation who support some fantastic conservation work. We’re going to document the threats to the wildlife and indigenous people in a remote area of the Amazon rainforest. I’m meeting up with local environmentalists and a film crew.’
‘It does sound amazing. I know you’ve always wanted to go to that area and I’d be off like a shot if I were you. Honestly. You really don’t owe me anything and I expected you to leave way before this. You’ve already done far more than I expected, but I just wish …’
‘That I’d told you first?’
‘Yes. I didn’t trust Minty’s version of events, but I knew the basics about you going on the trip must be true. Are you actually leaving on Monday?’
‘Um. It’s Tuesday actually. Minty got that part wrong. I plan on seeing Fen off on Monday and leaving first thing Tuesday morning so I can spend a couple of days with the family before I head out to Brazil. I had to say yes, seeing as I’m available – technically – and it’s important work. At least, I think it is, and the opportunity of a lifetime. I would never have accepted the job under any other circumstances.’
She smiled and his heart broke a little. God, how had he got in so deep so quickly with this woman? He never asked to feel such a connection to her or be so attracted after barely a month. He’d tried not to – but he obviously hadn’t tried very hard.
‘I wanted to get to you before Minty… but I’m afraid to say she came around to the cottage and virtually had me pinned against the kitchen sink, asking if we could get together again now I was here. I was caught on the back foot and blurted out that there was no point because I was leaving in a couple of days.’
‘Oh. Pinned in a corner?’ Poppy raised an eyebrow. ‘Sounds scary.’
‘It was bloody terrifying, actually. I was scoping out whether I could make it out the back door and wondering if I’d left it open.’
‘Wow. If you can’t handle Minty, how will you ever cope with a giant anaconda?’
He smiled, delighted to be laughed at rather than frozen out. ‘We’ll have local guides with us and the trip’s being organised by a professional “fixer” with tons of experience in that region. Mind you, even he might not want to tangle with Minty on a mission.’
Poppy stifled a laugh. Phew, he was getting somewhere at last … then he was hit with a fresh wave of guilt.
‘I hinted to her not to spread the news around. I hoped that I could rely on her discretion long enough to find you and talk to you but it obviously didn’t work out.’
She seemed relieved. ‘I did suspect something like that might have happened. So, how long is the trip?’
‘Six weeks, possibly longer depending on how things go and if we get the shots we need. I haven’t told Mum and Dad or Fen yet, so if you could keep it to yourself until I’ve had chance … I plan to see Mum, Dad and Grandpa for a couple of days, collect my gear from my flat and then it’s straight to Heathrow. We fly out to Rio on Friday morning.’
‘Wow. That is short notice. I used to need at least a month for a weekend in Ibiza.’
He laughed, relieved to see her joking, but he wasn’t out of the woods yet. ‘If Minty hadn’t turned up and I hadn’t been stupid enough to tell her my plans, I might have left the news until tomorrow morning because I didn’t want to spoil a great day.’ He softened his voice. ‘Or perhaps the news I’m leaving has made your day?’
‘It’s fine. Now, can we please move away from the toilets and go and have a drink in the sun? I’m gagging for a large glass of wine.’
Jake followed her onto the terrace. She’d seemed to accept his apology, but an air of tension between him and Poppy remained even as the laughter and banter flew around the terrace. He’d thrown out his comment about ‘making her day’ on the spur of the moment. He’d cast out his line, hoping to lure her into admitting that she would miss him – but it had come back empty. He wasn’t even sure whether she’d been upset because he was going, or because he’d told Minty first – and not for a moment had she shown any sign of wanting him to stay or asking if he’d be coming back to St Piran’s again after the trip.