Free Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements Page B

sounding drowsy.
    She checked the time on Vivien’s grandfather clock. Damn, it must be the middle of the night over there, she’d completely forgotten about the time difference.
    ‘Hi, Luca,’ she said.
    ‘You’re nearly home,’ he murmured sleepily.
    The words she wanted to say caught in her throat.
    ‘Everything’s ready – the guys at Komodo have reserved an area for us on Thursday night for the party, and I’ve invited Santiana, Davy and all of your dive friends along.’
    ‘Thank you,’ Imogen said, the guilt of what she had to say weighing heavily on her. ‘But actually that’s the reason I was ringing. I know I was going to be flying home tomorrow, but it turns out I can’t come back right now.’
    ‘You’re kidding,’ Luca said, suddenly alert.
    ‘I need to sort some family stuff out. It’s important.’
    ‘And I’m … I’m what, Imogen? God, I knew you’d do something like this. How long are we talking?’
    ‘I don’t expect you to wait … ’
    ‘How long?’
    ‘Four months, maybe five,’ she said. ‘I’d be back by September, definitely.’
    ‘September. Are you serious?’
    ‘You could always … come here and visit. If you wanted,’ Imogen said, realising as she spoke how unlikely it was.
    ‘Right,’ Luca said, and Imogen heard the hurt in his voice. ‘Listen, I need to think about all this. I don’t know what to believe from you right now.’

Chapter Six
    ‘Here you go,’ Jon said the following Friday, passing Anna some tea in her favourite Orla Kiely-print mug. She pulled her duvet-covered legs up towards her and cradled it in her hands, taking a sip.
    ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I need a bit of perking up to be ready for today.’
    Jon sat down next to her on the bed, doing up the buttons on his white shirt.
    ‘You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?’ he said, his green eyes meeting hers. ‘It’s all happened so quickly. Monday night is the first I hear of it, and I’ve barely seen you since then, with you and Imogen beavering away on that business plan every evening.’
    ‘Tell me about it,’ Anna said. ‘I’m not sure if the whole thing is a crazy pipe dream or a real-life possibility for us to run our own business. All I know is we need to find out.’
    Her head still felt fuzzy from the late night; she and Imogen had been up until three a.m. finalising details.
    ‘Today should give us more of an idea,’ she said. ‘The smallbusiness advisor was really helpful when we saw her on Wednesday, and now that we’ve got more to show her, she should be able to help us firm things up.’
    ‘Well, good luck with it,’ Jon said, kissing her on the nose. ‘It’s nice to see you so passionate about something, even if I can’t quite understand why you’d give up the security you have in your job. But it sounds like you have to see this through.’
    ‘There’s no risk – at least not yet,’ Anna reassured him. ‘If the figures don’t add up, then I still have my job to go back to. I haven’t said a word to anyone in the office yet – I told my boss I was taking today off to do some DIY.’
    ‘That’s good. Leaves your options open. What do your parents think about it all?’
    ‘They’re excited. Apparently it’s making a difference to Dad. Mum said it was the news about us looking into running the place that got him to open the door to her.’
    ‘You don’t think maybe he’s getting his hopes up for nothing?’ Jon said, fiddling with the knot in his tie. ‘I don’t mean to be negative, but it sounds like he’s quite fragile at the moment.’
    ‘He knows it’s only early days. But the main thing is, Dad’s showing some signs of improvement, even if he’s refusing to see the GP. It’s still a real worry though. He’s never been like this before, and as much as Mum loves him, she isn’t always the most approachable about emotional stuff.’
    ‘It must be really hard,’ Jon said, ‘whatever age you are. I can’t