‘I should reckon so! Folk’ll give their right arm to see inside your house.’
‘Well, quite. It’s a bit annoying to think that people will be more interested in what kind of bedding I use than Jason’s art, but that’s the world we live in, isn’t it?’
‘Sad but true. So you’ll want me to do what?’
‘Prepare a press release for the Bledburn Gazette. Organise a printer for some posters. Source a caterer. I’ve got my gallery-owning friend Tabitha for advice – I’ll give you her number. She’ll have plenty of ideas. The show is officially hosted by her gallery, so you’ll need to mention that on all the advertising . . .’ Jenna trailed off, noticing that Kayley was looking rather beleaguered.
‘It’s a big job,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to muck it up.’
‘You won’t. I’m here – I’ll be involved as well. And so will Tabitha. And, in the end, the only person who can really muck it up is Jason, if he suddenly decides not to do it.’
‘Not to do what?’
Jason reappeared at the French windows, Bowyer purring in his arms.
‘The show. I’m just telling Kayley.’
‘Oh, yeah. Milk, no sugar, ta.’
He let Bowyer pad away on the granite tiling, looking for a cooler spot to curl up than the arid garden, and sat down beside Jenna.
Kayley brought the tea over and sat down opposite them.
‘You’d better start sifting through your work,’ Jenna said to Jason. ‘Decide which pictures you want to exhibit.’
He nodded.
‘I can’t get my head round it,’ he said to Kayley. ‘Who would have thought I’d ever be in this situation?’
She smiled ruefully back.
‘Life’s thrown us all a few surprises lately,’ she said.
Jenna felt the truth of this deep in her heart.
‘Good surprises, mainly,’ she added.
They chatted about the gallery, and some of their London experiences (barring the racier ones) until Kayley had finished her tea and was ready to go home.
‘Tomorrow we’ll make a start on our publicity,’ Jenna told her, showing her out. ‘I promise you, by the end of this summer, Jason will be a star.’
Jason, standing behind Jenna, put his hands on her shoulders.
‘What do you mean, “will be”?’ he joked. ‘I’ve already made all the front pages.’
‘For all the wrong reasons,’ said Jenna severely, shutting the door. She turned around to face him, putting her hands around his neck. ‘But not this time. This time, the reasons will be right.’
They woke up one bright morning a week or so later, to hear Bowyer scratching at the door and mewing plaintively.
Jenna put the pillow over her head while Jason laughed softly and rose from the bed, splendidly naked, to sort out some feline breakfast in the kitchen.
Jenna, awaiting his return, ran through a mental checklist of the day’s tasks. Finish painting the bedroom ceiling. Cut back some more of the out of control rose bushes. Get the poster design to the printer. Negotiate with one of the classier glossies to cover the event. God, it was all so much like when she was at work that she wondered how she dared call it a sabbatical.
At least she didn’t have to go into any office, she thought. She could do it all naked if she really wanted to. She threw aside her summer-weight duvet and sat up, looking down at her body.
God, it was getting obvious she wasn’t working out very much. She did yoga, and stuck to a Pilates routine when she remembered, but most of her exercise these days came from sex. And very good exercise it was, too, but she could still use some toning around the upper arms. Jason would complain, of course. He said he liked her with a bit of curve. Especially her bum.
She rolled over and tried to twist her neck around to observe that part of her. Useless. She’d have to look in the mirror.