The Unexpected Consequences of Love by Jill Mansell

staying at Sophie’s.”
    Sophie gave the back of Tula’s seat a swift kick; there was such a thing as pushing your luck.
    Evidently thinking the same, Josh shook his head. “If you’re not interested, just say so. I’ll find someone else.”
    â€œI’m interested,” Tula said quickly.
    â€œGood. Can you start tomorrow?”
    â€œI don’t know about that. I can’t let Melvyn and Noreen down.”
    He smiled slightly. “Touché.”
    â€œThen again,” said Tula, “if you’re really desperate…”
    She took out her cell phone, called the Melnor, and told Noreen she wouldn’t be back. Luckily they were used to members of staff doing a bunk, so the news wasn’t as traumatic as it might have been. “Fine. Who gives a toss? Plenty more where you came from,” Noreen slurred down the phone. “Just don’t expect to get paid for the last two nights.”
    â€œSorted,” Tula announced when the call was over.
    â€œGood.”
    â€œShall I move in tonight? Oh.” Her face fell. “My car’s being fixed. I won’t be able to move my stuff.”
    â€œNo problem,” said Josh. “We can use mine.” He glanced over his shoulder at Sophie in the backseat. “Is that okay with you? Taking your friend away from you?”
    â€œOh, you’re welcome to her,” said Sophie. “She snores.”
    ***
    â€œI don’t, by the way.” On her knees in Sophie’s living room, Tula was busy cramming her worldly goods back into two cases.
    â€œDon’t what?”
    â€œSnore.”
    Josh looked amused. “Doesn’t matter to me whether you do or not.”
    â€œI know. But I’m just saying.” She couldn’t help herself; maybe he wasn’t interested in her right now, but she had no intention of giving up yet. It could still happen. And there was definitely more chance of it happening if he didn’t think she snored like an old warthog every time she fell asleep.
    But anyway, no need to worry about that now; she was going to be moving into Mariscombe House and working for Josh. Hooray . They could get to know each other gradually, and in time she would win him over with her wit, her sparkling personality, and her vivacious charm…
    Oops, although he might not be quite so entranced by her tangled socks and tights; hastily she shoveled them into the case under a pair of jeans.
    Had Josh spotted them?
    Dammit, of course he had. Story of her life.
    ***
    Josh watched idly as Tula buried the armful of underwear in the case before reaching for the rest of her clothes. He turned his attention to the photographs on the geranium-red wall above the sofa Tula had spent the last couple nights sleeping on. The plainly framed photos were excellent, as you’d expect.
    â€œThat one’s my favorite,” he told Sophie when she emerged from the kitchen with a plate of toast.
    Following the direction of his gaze, she smiled. “Mine too. Vacation heaven.”
    It wasn’t a scene that had been carefully designed and set up, which made the resulting composition all the more miraculous. Sophie had taken the photograph on St. Carys beach. The sun was high in the sky, small waves were eddying up the beach, and people were swimming in the sea. In the foreground, a serious-looking baby sat with his fat legs outstretched while he carefully poked at a sand castle with a stick. To the left of him was a small girl, presumably his sister, in an oversized white T-shirt. Her hair was a glinting mass of marmalade ringlets and her face an absolute picture of suppressed glee as, having crept up behind him, she prepared to carefully balance a long strand of seaweed on the baby’s head.
    Finally, to top it all, Sophie had managed to capture the exact moment a Jack Russell terrier with a naughty look in his eye was helping himself to the last sandwich on the picnic plate in the