Sadie shrugged. ‘I know. But all this with Gampy has changed things somehow. I don’t know what I want these days. My family are here and at times like this that seems more important than anything else.’
‘But not Lucy. Unless she’s moving back to England… to the bay?’
Lucy. The prime culprit in Declan’s eyes – at least she had been that fateful day when she and Declan had split. Sadie had looked up to her big sister, had watched her leave the bay and achieve amazing things, and she’d wanted to do that too. In reality, with the age gap, Declan hardly knew Lucy, and yet Sadie knew he disliked her sister for something that Lucy didn’t even know she’d done; an innocent and unintended consequence of the life she’d chosen to live. She’d set an example that Sadie had been desperate to follow and, eventually, it had led to the end of Sadie and Declan. The irony was that things hadn’t worked out like that at all in the end – Sadie was back where she’d started, the big ambitions silenced, while Declan, the one who hadn’t wanted to, had moved on.
‘No chance,’ Sadie said. ‘She’s got some big deal going down – her biggest yet, she says. She’s always got some big deal going down to be honest. This is something as glamorous and showbizzy as ever but these days even I’ve started to glaze over when she tells me about it. I mean, we’re all incredibly proud of her and everything, but it all seems so far away from our lives here that it’s hard to get your head around it, you know? I can’t help feeling like she’s… well, it doesn’t matter.’
Declan gave his head a tiny shake as he regarded Sadie with a look of such compassion and affection that it made her want to cry again. ‘You always did try to live up to Lucy’s impossible example. Not that I ever thought you weren’t capable of amazing things, but there’s only so much room in the world for people like Lucy. The rest of us just live ordinary lives, but there’s nothing wrong in that. We can be just as happy… happier sometimes.’
‘Yeah.’ Sadie took the keys from her pocket. ‘I suppose so.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, glancing at the keys. ‘You need to get back and here’s me keeping you talking.’ He stepped back, out of the doorway and onto the boards of the pier.
‘No, it’s not that. I mean, I do have to get back but you’re not in the way at all. It’s nice to catch up; I don’t see you all that often these days…’
Without Melissa, she wanted to say but stopped herself. Would that have sounded bitter or childish or resentful? Sadie certainly had no right to be any of those things.
‘Are you heading home now?’ he asked. ‘I could walk some of the way with you.’
‘I am,’ Sadie said. ‘That’d be nice.’
As they started to walk the length of the pier, chatting easily about nothing and yet everything, it was almost like old times. Almost, but never quite, because Sadie could add those times to a rapidly growing list of ones that she wished she’d treasured a bit more when she’d had them.
Chapter Four
The Listing Ship was Sadie’s favourite pub, which was lucky, because it was the only pub in Sea Salt Bay. Overlooking the far side of the bay and the wall of the grey cliffs, it was small and cosy, with orange lamps embedded in the teak walls and canopies of fishing nets hanging from the ceiling, and when the narrow windows were open and the breeze rolled through the snug, the air smelt of salt. It had a history that went right back to King James and had once been stocked entirely by the illegal rum that came into the bay when the moon was high and the army was looking the other way, the landlord always serving it with one eye on the door should the revenue man come calling. These days patrons were more likely to find guest ales and craft gins behind the bar, but Sadie loved the sense of romance about the place, the idea that it had always belonged to the bay and that its history was inextricably bound up with that of the sea that rolled onto the nearby sands.
Sadie wasn’t inside today; the weather was far too glorious to be indoors. Today she and best friends Natalie and Georgia were in the sunniest nook of the Listing Ship’s beer garden. It was early in the evening and so they had the garden almost to themselves. She’d said goodbye to Lucy earlier that day, leaving her at the airport to board her flight back to New York, and already Sadie missed her. It wasn’t even that they were close – not as close as she’d always been to Ewan anyway – but blood was still blood, and despite the miles between them the bond of blood was stronger than any distance. Close or not, her sister was still her sister and Sadie loved her. She’d needed to get out of the house soon after they’d got back from the airport because everyone in the Schwartz household was missing Lucy too and the atmosphere had been tetchy and miserable. She needed the brand of cheering entertainment that only her old school friends could provide to give her at least a few hours’ respite. By tomorrow morning her family would be back to normal, she hoped, used once again to Lucy’s absence.
Natalie shifted on the bench, straightening her skirt over tanned, generous thighs. She plucked a lip salve from her handbag and applied a little, regarding Sadie keenly from a face framed by a dark, glossy bob.
‘I’m sure even your grandma didn’t think that place was going to stay open forever,’ she said. ‘She might be sad to see it go – we all will – but she’ll get used to it and she’ll probably be glad of the chance to finally slow down. I mean, how old is she now?’
‘Seventy-eight,’ Sadie replied. ‘But age has always been just a number to her and it’s the slowing down that actually worries me. I’m not sure it won’t just mean sending her down the slippery slope.’
Natalie dropped the little pot back into her handbag. ‘The slippery slope to what?’
‘Like, running on adrenaline for years and years and then suddenly stopping to find that you’ve been completely exhausted the whole time but you were so busy you didn’t notice. Once you stop and you see it, you just can’t rev up again.’
Natalie glanced at Georgia, who was looking at her phone. She turned back to Sadie. ‘What does she need to rev up for? Isn’t she a bit past revving up these days? When I’m seventy-eight – if I make it that far – I want to have some strapping male care worker in a tight shirt wheeling me around in my bath chair all day; I don’t want to be rushing around.’
Sadie smiled slightly but shook her head. Natalie joked like that all the time but everyone knew that wasn’t really what she wanted for her future; she wanted to grow old with the man of her dreams… she was just having trouble finding him right now.
‘The waffle house… I don’t know. Without Gampy she doesn’t seem to have anything to keep going for. I’m scared that if we take the waffle house away as well then she definitely won’t have anything to keep going for.’
Georgia raised her head. ‘I see where you’re coming from,’ she said, locking her phone and shaking her freshly dyed violet hair free from her collar. ‘And I understand why you want to help your grandma keep the place but I don’t see how you can do that and continue your teacher training.’
Sadie chewed vaguely on her bottom lip for a moment. ‘I’d have to get help,’ she conceded finally.
‘Good luck finding someone you can trust,’ Natalie said.
Sadie raised her eyebrows. ‘There are plenty of people I can trust.’
‘Yes, but they’re not all available or willing. When you say you’ll get help I assume you mean free, voluntary help?’
‘I could pay someone, I suppose. Not a lot, but maybe if we started to make enough money…’
‘And I’m sure you’ll be able to offer a huge wage,’ Natalie replied with not a little sarcasm in her tone. ‘Along with pension contributions, holiday pay, sick pay… It’s not as simple as bunging someone a few quid every now and again, and I’m assuming you’ve considered all that?’
‘Yes, yes…’ Sadie shot back. She hadn’t considered any of that but she wasn’t about to admit it to Natalie, who could be so irritatingly shrewd about things that Sadie hadn’t even thought of. ‘But I sort of hoped that my friends and family
might be able to lend a hand every now and again.’
‘You know we would if we could,’ Georgia said.
‘Oh I know that,’ Sadie replied quickly. ‘It’s not what I’m asking you.’
‘Yes, but you know we’d do almost anything for you because we absolutely love you and your grandma to pieces. If anything, it’s more of a case of how much use we’d be if we did have time to pitch in. You might find you’d be better off without our so-called help.’
‘You’d be great,’ Sadie said, though even she struggled to show any kind of conviction in her tone.
‘We’d be terrible and you know it,’ Natalie said. ‘I don’t know the first thing about cooking for a start. And don’t forget we both have full-time jobs of our own – there wouldn’t be as many hours to spare as you might imagine.’
‘Anything at all would be a help,’ Sadie said lamely, though she already knew her friend was absolutely right.
Natalie shook her head. ‘It’s not a practical solution at all, is it? Even if we could help you’d end up coming to rely on us and if something happened one day and we couldn’t come you’d feel let down and resentful. It might cause bad feeling between us. And if we let you down, we’d feel guilty too and a little resentful that we were being made to feel guilty, even if you were as nice as pie about it and didn’t intend that at all.’
Georgia fished a strawberry from her glass of Pimm’s and popped it into her mouth. ‘What’s the fam said about it?’
‘Nothing.’
Georgia frowned.
‘I mean, I haven’t exactly discussed it with them yet,’ Sadie added. ‘Obviously, we’ve discussed the future of the waffle house but I haven’t exactly told them I was thinking of taking it on. I mean, I hadn’t really decided if it was a good idea. In fact, I still don’t know if it’s a good idea, I just feel that it’s the right idea… you know?’
‘Oh,’ Georgia replied, chewing. ‘Don’t you think you ought to before you make all these plans? What if they’re not happy about any of it?’
‘They probably won’t be,’ Sadie said. She had a fairly good idea what her family’s reaction would be and that was partly why she hadn’t broached the subject with them yet.
Her mobile phone pinged the arrival of a message. She looked briefly to see that it had come from Lucy, who was letting her know that she’d arrived in New York and was on her way back to her apartment, and that even though it had been in sad circumstances, it had been lovely to see her. Sadie smiled slightly and locked her phone again. She’d reply when she had more time to write something meaningful.
‘If you think that,’ Natalie put in, ‘what does that tell you?’
‘That it’s probably a terrible idea – I know,’ Sadie said as she pocketed her phone and rejoined the conversation, irritated again at being called out a second time. Of course Natalie and Georgia were both right but knowing it didn’t help. Sadie couldn’t shake the notion that no matter what she thought about it all personally, no matter what misgivings she might have about reopening the waffle house, she couldn’t let it go. For all the reasons she’d stated, and for many more that even she couldn’t convey or understand, she was gripped by this unshakeable conviction that reopening was the right thing to do, no matter how hard it might prove to be. If nothing else it would be something for Gammy to focus on so that she wouldn’t be overwhelmed by her grief for Gampy.
‘You need to discuss it with your family before you do anything else,’ Natalie said.
‘I will,’ Sadie replied shortly. ‘I wouldn’t be so silly as to do anything without discussing it with them first. I just wanted to see what you both thought before I did. I mean, it’s not even a firm idea yet… it’s more of a daydream.’
‘So, is what we both think what you expected?’
‘Pretty much.’ Sadie swished her lager around in the glass before taking a sip. It was cold and bitter and crisp, just the thing for a warm evening in the sunniest nook of the beer garden of the Listing Ship. Sadie didn’t know what magic happened in the cellars of that pub, only that she’d never had better lager, no matter where else she went. Once she’d dreamt of running away from Sea Salt Bay as her sister Lucy had done, but more and more these days she was finding reasons to be glad she’d never had the courage to leave. Or at least the courage to leave for good, because her brief few years at university – though they’d felt like an adventure to the other side of the world – hardly counted at all when you got down to it.
‘So,’ Georgia said. ‘Changing the subject for a minute, what’s happened to Whatshisface? Why did you get rid of this one?’
Sadie couldn’t help but smile. ‘Jason. Why can’t anyone remember his name?’
‘Because,’ Natalie cut in, ‘he was such a boring nonentity that we’ve all had to block it out of our conscious minds for fear of falling into a coma should we utter it.’
‘He wasn’t that bad.’
‘He made me want to go and watch concrete set,’ Natalie said.
‘I’m sorry but he was pretty boring,’ Georgia agreed.
‘Really?’ Sadie blew out a breath and glanced at each of her friends in turn.
‘You must know,’ Natalie said. ‘You dumped him after all.’
‘I didn’t dump… Oh, alright; I suppose dump is as good a word as any for it, though I can’t help feeling it sounds a little mean to put it that way. Anyway, it was more of a mutual separation really…’
‘Instigated by you?’ Natalie asked carelessly.
‘Well,’ Sadie replied. ‘Yes. I suppose…’
‘Then you dumped him. Face it, Sadie, no one is ever going to live up to—’
‘Don’t!’ Sadie thumped her glass down, lager sloshing over the rim. ‘I know what you’re going to say and it doesn’t help.’
‘If you know what I was going to say then you’ll also know that my opinion hasn’t changed on the matter,’ Natalie said. ‘I don’t know why the hell you let Declan go in the first place—’
‘Nat!’ Sadie cut in, a real note of warning in her voice now.
Natalie shrugged. ‘Whatever. You know I’m right even though I’m not allowed to say it. The only bloke hotter than him in Sea Salt Bay is Ewan and—’
Sadie grimaced, holding up a hand to stop Natalie’s flow. ‘I don’t want to hear that either. No girl wants to hear all the dirty thoughts their best friend might be having about their older brother.’
‘Make that two best friends,’ Georgia said, fishing another strawberry from her drink. ‘In fact, I’m having one right now, and you do not want to know the details.’
‘Ugh!’ Sadie cried. ‘You’re disgusting!’
‘I can’t help it,’ Georgia said with a wicked grin. ‘I’m only human. If he wasn’t your brother you’d see exactly what I mean…’
‘But he is!’ Sadie said, shuddering.
‘Georgia’s got a point,’ Natalie said. ‘I think I might have a filthy daydream coming on too…’
‘You’re both disgusting,’ Sadie said, folding her arms, though she had to laugh despite herself. She pointed an accusing finger at Natalie. ‘And you’re a married woman!’
‘Not for long,’ Natalie said. ‘Just as soon as my useless solicitor gets her finger out and dishes up those documents I’ll be as free as the wind.’
‘Well Ewan won’t be so you can have your pervy thoughts about someone else,’ Sadie said, trying to sound serious but not doing a very good job. She knew half the women of Sea Salt Bay would throw a party if Ewan and Kat ever split up – a few men too – but everyone also knew that it was as unlikely to happen as actual Martians landing on earth. Ewan had met Kat at a lido up the coast and, as she was about as close to a mermaid as you could get, he’d been instantly smitten. He was obsessed with the water and so was she – a match made in heaven if ever there was one. It seemed inevitable that they’d end up together and that they’d make a living from the sea they both loved so much. Sadie knew, too, that this conversation was just the
usual harmless banter from her two best friends, even if sometimes they had a tendency to take it just that little bit too far for her liking.
Natalie let out a theatrical sigh. ‘His endearing loyalty to Kat only makes him more attractive – you do realise that, don’t you?’
Georgia nodded. ‘Yes, it’s absolutely no use pointing that out because it doesn’t put anyone off. If I were a girl with looser morals it would make me try harder if anything.’
‘Well, anyone with looser morals can forget it.’ Sadie knocked back a mouthful of lager. ‘Ewan and Kat are made for each other and I’d have serious issues with anyone trying to split them up – we all would.’
‘Don’t worry; your brother is safe,’ Natalie said, grinning at Georgia. ‘Just let us carry on looking and we promise not to touch.’
‘I think you ought to wait until you’ve got rid of the current one before chasing a new one anyway, Nat,’ Georgia said. ‘There’s only so many hours in the day after all.’
‘True.’ Natalie gave a solemn nod. From anyone else the comment might have been overstepping the mark, but even Natalie had to take on board the slightly critical observation with good grace. Going through her second divorce in five years hardly looked good to her, let alone anyone else. Her friends all told her she fell in love too quickly and too deeply to make sensible decisions but she’d never really taken the advice seriously until her second marriage had begun to break down after only six months. Once she’d seen it was headed, irretrievably, in only one direction, she’d been forced to take stock of her life and the way she loved and admit that they’d only been speaking a truth she’d been too close to recognise. Though she joked about it for the most part, in darker, lower moments she had admitted to Georgia and Sadie that she was determined to show more caution the next time love came knocking.
Natalie’s head went up and her gaze to the gates of the beer garden. ‘Aye, aye…’
Sadie turned to look. A couple were carrying a drink each and looking for a seat, the man holding a wooden spoon bearing a number for a food order. Natalie lowered her voice.
The Waffle House on the Pier: A gorgeous feel-good romantic comedy Page 5
