Summer
Season on the Seafront
The Greenley Players are back practicing their
Shakespeare and, as usual, things aren't going to plan.
Sarah Powell is fed up with her sad single status
and when her estranged father walks back into her life things get even worse.
Can dishy doctor Finn MacDonald mend her broken heart and help her figure
things out?
TV star, Nate Hardy's career is going from strength
to strength until his performance is interrupted and he has to flee the West
End to hide away in Greenley. Will he ever get his career back on track or will
Sarah and the rest of Greenley's madcap residents capture his heart
forever?
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Excerpt
In
this extract from Chapter 3, Sarah is with the Greenley Players at the theatre,
ready for rehearsals, but something seems to be up with her fellow players
Gregory and Cecil.
Something was lingering in the air around
Gregory and Cecil, and the coy smiles tugging at their heavily tanned faces
told her they had news of some sort. She hoped they weren’t setting her up on a
blind date again. Unless it was with Finn. ‘What’s got you two all excited?’
she said. ‘I haven’t seen you this worked up since we saw Kit Harrington in Othello and you were planning on
throwing your pants at him.’
Gregory took a deep breath then leaned in and
spoke in almost a whisper. ‘I’ve got something to tell you, but you have to
keep it top secret.’
‘Okay,’ Sarah replied, hesitantly.
His eyes scanned around quickly, checking no
one was listening.
‘The one and only, totally gorgeous, heartbreakingly
swoon-worthy Nathaniel Hardy is currently asleep in our spare room.’ Gregory
sat back with a silly grin on his face. Sarah opened her mouth, closed it, then
tipped her head. Nathaniel Hardy, the
famous actor?
‘Are you telling me fibs?’
‘Scout’s honour,’ Cecil replied, giving the
three-fingered salute, but Sarah didn’t believe him for a minute.
‘You were never in the Scouts. You told me you
refused to join because you didn’t believe in camping.’
‘Darling, why would you ever go camping when there
are luxury spa hotels?’
‘Not the point,’ Sarah responded huffily. The
coffee and muffin hadn’t settled in her stomach and she felt a bit sick. ‘Why
don’t you tell me the truth or just say it’s private? There’s no need to tell
lies.’
Gregory leaned further in and took her hand.
‘I’m not lying, my darling. This is top secret and you can’t tell anyone.’
Sarah’s brain refused to compute. It was one of
the oddest things Gregory had ever said to her, and that was saying something.
She felt a bit like she’d read one of those odd newspaper headlines that pop up
every now and again like, ‘Alien Crop Circles Found in Chigwell’. You just
couldn’t believe them because if aliens did come to this planet, the last place
they’d want to visit is Chigwell. ‘Nathaniel Hardy?’ she asked. ‘At your house?
Right now?’
‘Yes. Yes. And yes.’ Gregory smiled like he’d
just been given Chris Hemsworth naked, for Christmas.
‘Why?’ was the only thing Sarah could think to
say in a vain attempt to understand all this nonsense.
Cecil sighed in exasperation. ‘My darling girl,
haven’t you seen the papers?’
‘No, of course I haven’t. It’s ten-thirty on a
Sunday morning and I’m hungover as f—’
‘Thank you,’ said Gregory, disapprovingly.
‘You’re lucky I’m here and dressed. I nearly
didn’t make it at all, or I could have turned up in my jimjams.’
Leaning backwards, Cecil wriggled his phone
from the pocket of his trousers and began tapping away.
‘What are you doing?’ Sarah asked.
Cecil held up a finger, then resumed typing.
‘Hush.’
‘I just want to know wh—’
‘Hush,’ he said again, before turning the phone
to show her the website for one of the tabloids. A giant headline read, ‘Love
rat heart-throb ditches loving wife for debauched night with glamour model’.
Sarah’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open.
‘He did not!’ This was incredible. Like most of the women in the UK, Sarah
fancied the pants off Nathaniel Hardy, especially since he’d played a suited
and booted villainous bodyguard on TV. Those well-fitting suits were
mouth-wateringly attractive and he had a strong square jaw. Plus, he was
supposed to be a complete darling, loyal to his first love despite starring
alongside some of the most glamorous women in the world.
‘He did,’ said Gregory. ‘I got a call at about
ten o’clock last night from an old acting chum who’s now an agent in London –
Mr Hardy’s agent as it turns out – and he said one of his clients needed to get
out of town for a bit and could we take them in—’
‘So we said yes, of course,’ cut in Cecil, his
cheeks tinged pink with excitement. ‘Who’s going to say no to something like
that? We’d have taken in anyone. And then he said—’
‘And then he said it was Nathanial Hardy,’
finished Gregory. ‘Honestly, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven!’ He placed
his hand over his heart. ‘So then he turns up at about midnight, in a black car
with tinted windows. No bags. Nothing.’
Sarah pulled back and scowled. ‘Not even spare
pants?’
Cecil rolled his eyes. ‘Not that we could see,
dear, no. No toothbrush either. Luckily, we’ve always got people staying so we
have a supply.’
‘Of spare pants?’
‘Of
toothbrushes. What is it with you and pants?’
Author Bio
– KATIE GINGER lives in the South East of England, by the sea,
and apart from holidays to very hot places where you can sit by a pool and
drink cocktails as big your head, she wouldn't really want to be anywhere else.
Summer Season on the Seafront is Katie's second novel. Her debut novel The
Little Theatre on the Seafront was shortlisted for the Katie Fforde Debut Novel
of the Year award. She is also the author of some cosy mystery short stories.
Katie loves making her characters either fall in love, or killing them off - it
depends on her mood!
When she's not writing, Katie spends her time drinking gin, or with her
husband, trying to keep alive her two children: Ellie, who believes everything
in life should be done as a musical number from a West End show; and Sam, who
is basically a monkey with a boy's face. And there's also their adorable King
Charles Spaniel, Wotsit (yes, he is named after the crisps!).
For more about Katie you can visit her website: www.keginger.com,
find her on Facebook: www.facebook.com/KatieGAuthor,
or follow her on Twitter: @KatieGAuthor
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