‘Well…’ Sadie looked at everyone in turn, ‘as I’ve said about twenty times now, I haven’t made up my mind what I’m going to do.’
Her gaze flicked back to Declan, though she dared not let it rest there too long. She might say she hadn’t made up her mind, but maybe, at some point during the last ten minutes, she had after all.
Chapter Five
Sadie adjusted her face mask. If there was one person whose opinion she trusted more than her friends’, even more than that of her parents or Ewan, it was Kat’s. Technically, of course, Kat was family, but it wasn’t quite the same. In fact, it was strange how her sister-in-law had very quickly become a confidante to a younger Sadie when she’d first started seeing Ewan, and these days, with Sadie’s sister Lucy mostly absent, Kat had taken the role of honorary sister/auntie/best friend. She was level-headed and saw emotionally charged situations with more clarity than other family members, and thus was able to offer thoughts (especially on family situations) that were much more balanced and trustworthy. Perhaps because she had a different relationship with them all, or perhaps just because that was the sort of person she was, Sadie didn’t know; she was only glad that she had someone like that in her life.
They were perched on the rocks now like black-clad mermaids, the afternoon sun mid-sky and warming their shoulders as they prepared to snorkel together. Sadie could scuba, as Kat could, but she preferred the freedom of snorkelling as opposed to dealing with the weight of extra equipment and – frankly – the stress of diving with air tanks. Snorkelling was their bonding thing; it had been from very early on. Kat had taught Sadie how to do it – Sadie’s parents weren’t interested in diving, preferring to see the sea from the surface, and Ewan was so critical of Sadie’s technique that they’d always end up bickering. But with Kat, Sadie could just relax and enjoy it, and it gave her space to open up because them diving together was often an excuse for an hour alone to catch up.
This afternoon, Freddie and Freya were with Ewan, further up the beach looking for sea life in rock pools, which had allowed Sadie and Kat to steal away for a little privacy.
‘It seems like ages since we’ve done this.’ Sadie’s wetsuit-clad legs dangled into the sea. She kicked out, sending a spray of water up from the surface that glowed like crystals in the sun. The weather had been calm over the last couple of days and so the sediment that sometimes got stirred up from the sea bed to dirty the colour was firmly settled where it belonged, making the depths a glorious turquoise. On a day like today, if you squinted and looked around – ignoring the very British pier and shops lining the shore – you could almost imagine you were on some Greek island. Today would be a very good day to see so many things below the waves, and no matter how often Sadie saw swooshing rays or forests of vibrant blue snakelocks anemone and seaweed in dazzling shades of green, darting fish or tiny crabs scurrying along the ocean bed – even the odd sea horse – she never tired of it. Every dive was a new adventure as thrilling as the one before, and even on those occasions when she saw hardly a single creature, just the act of swimming in the sea itself left her feeling as relaxed and content as any bottle of wine or yoga session.
‘It has been,’ Kat said. ‘I don’t think we’ve been out together since last year.’
Sadie raised her eyebrows. ‘It’s been that long?’
‘Honestly,’ Kat said. ‘Think about it – we haven’t been out yet this summer and you won’t go in the winter.’
‘Nobody in their right mind would come out to snorkel in the winter,’ Sadie said.
Kat laughed. ‘No, but I do, so what does that say about me? Besides, get the equipment right and it’s fine.’
‘That’s because you’re a diving addict.’
‘That’s what comes of marrying your brother. You know what they say – if you can’t beat them join them. I have missed swimming with you though,’ Kat added, winding her hair into a neat coil which she fastened with a ponytail band.
Kat was almost forty, just like Ewan, but she could have passed for something much closer to Sadie’s age. She was trim and petite, her arms and legs toned and smooth from the amount of swimming she did, and despite her tiny frame, she was incredibly strong. She lowered herself into the sea now with barely a ripple to trouble the surface, cutting through like a dart as she pushed herself away from the rocks.
‘Oh, it’s not cold at all, is it?’ Sadie called, half laughing, half gasping as she followed Kat into the sea. The sun might have been shining, but the water temperature was still a little on the cool side as the waves lapped at the exposed skin of her face.
‘See, you’ve gone soft,’ Kat shouted back. ‘That’s what comes of being lazy.’
‘I’m not lazy – I’ve just had a lot of other things on my mind.’
‘I bet they weren’t as much fun as this, though.’
Sadie struck out to catch up with Kat, who was now bobbing in the water, waiting for her, savouring the taste of salt on her lips. She’d missed days like this – she just hadn’t realised how much until now.
‘Ready?’ Kat asked.
Sadie nodded, and as one they dipped their faces into the water. Sadie let herself become weightless and felt her body rise to float on the surface. With her hands tight over her chest, she began to kick and move through the water. The sun had been playing peek-a-boo with the clouds all morning, so although Sadie and Kat were swimming in fairly shallow water and the sediment was nicely settled, it was still a little murky when the sun dulled. Aside from the relaxation of the swim, there might not be anything really to see. But as they continued to move along a path that Kat knew well, one safe from currents and riptides, they were rewarded with bars of rippling light, illuminating the sea bed as the sun broke through the clouds again. Sadie glanced to her right to see Kat gliding beside her, and an old peace and contentment she hadn’t felt in a long time stole over her. She’d come today mainly to seek Kat’s counsel, but this wonderful peace wasn’t a bad bonus.
They swam for a while, eyes picking out crabs and anemones and brilliant slivers of darting silver and blue fish, mounds of purple algae caressing the rocks. Sadie lost herself in the tranquillity of a world so different from her own, marvelling – as she always did – at every little sight. She forgot that she could feel the chill of the water even through her wetsuit, and that her hands were wrinkling, and that her leg muscles were beginning to tire. She could have stayed here in this magical watery kingdom until the sun went down.
But then she felt something prod her and looked to see that Kat was gesturing to the surface. Kat’s head went up, so that Sadie could see only her legs kicking out as she trod water.
Fired by a sudden rush of mischief, Sadie submerged herself fully and tugged at Kat’s legs playfully, as if to pull her under again. Then she saw Kat come back down below and they began a silly tug of war with each other, trying to pull each other further down. After a few seconds, Sadie let go so they could go up for air. She watched Kat shoot up and quickly followed herself, grinning, happier than she’d been in months as her head broke through and she filled her lungs again. She turned to Kat, but the grin died as she focused on her sister-in-law’s face and saw only shock and panic.
‘Sadie – look out!’
Sadie whipped around, but everything happened swiftly while she could only react slowly – far too slowly. The bow of the boat loomed, not speeding towards her but moving with an inevitable steadiness. There was no way she could escape the collision that she realised – with horror – would come. It wasn’t huge, she thought quickly – it was more of a rowing boat really. Perhaps it would be OK.
But even as those vague, half-formed observations raced through her mind, it struck her a glancing blow to the side of her head, enough to send her beneath the waves, lights popping and vision failing. Sadie’s limbs were suddenly heavy, uncontrollable; her lungs empty of precious air as she drifted downwards into the depths.
Chapter Six
Sadie opened her eyes to th
e worst headache she’d ever had and a circle of faces framed by the sky above her.
‘Ow,’ she said, and never had an exclamation felt less appropriate for the gravity of the situation. She could see by the faces surrounding her that something very bad had just happened, even if it had all taken place so fast that she couldn’t remember much of it.
‘You always did have a way with words,’ Ewan said, the sharp edges of his frown softening a little.
Sadie tried to acknowledge him with a smile but it wouldn’t come.
‘Jesus, Sadie, you nearly frightened me to death. I thought…’
Kat’s sentence tailed off. Sadie didn’t know how it would have ended and perhaps it was better that way. Next to Ewan, Freddie and Freya looked down at her too, something more like awe on their young faces.
Sadie tried to engage her trembling limbs and pushed herself to sit, sand gathering under her nails as she dug for traction. It was a shock to feel so weak, and for the world to start spinning as it did.
‘Steady,’ her brother said. ‘Take it easy. How do you feel?’
‘Like I’ve been hit by a boat,’ Sadie said.
‘All those clients for all those years,’ Kat said. ‘And I’ve never had to save a single one of them from drowning, not ever. An afternoon out with my sister-in-law and… honestly… You’re just lucky I could remember my training.’
‘I am,’ Sadie said, though she realised that it was Kat’s shock talking. She updated her training on a regular basis and she and Ewan ran practice lifesaving drills all the time – there was no way she wouldn’t have been able to rescue Sadie despite what she’d said. ‘I’d like to say I’ll return the favour one day but I don’t expect I’d be able to.’
Ewan turned to his wife, dreamy and lustful for a moment. ‘You’re brilliant,’ he said in a husky voice. ‘Just bloody amazing.’
Sadie felt queasy, and this time it wasn’t from the bump on her head, or the amount of saltwater she’d swallowed.
‘Get a room, would you?’
Ewan turned to her now and started to laugh, while Kat blushed. At least their kids seemed oblivious to the whole thing, still fixated on Sadie’s situation.
‘I think that tells us everything we need to know,’ Ewan said. ‘She’s alright – no serious damage. And if there was it might be an improvement anyway. At least she might not be such a sarcastic little mare.’
‘Watch it,’ Sadie fired back. ‘I may be incapacitated now but I’m sure I’ll recover enough to kick your backside later.’
With Ewan still chuckling, a note of huge relief in it, Sadie looked down the beach. A small, shallow-bottomed boat rested on the shingle at the water’s edge. Close by she saw Andy Travers – one of Sea Salt Bay’s volunteer lifeguards – talking earnestly to a man she’d never seen before. She’d have put him in his early to mid-thirties. He was dark-haired, tall, toned and tanned. It was hard, even in her current state, to ignore that there was a certain pleasing symmetry in his looks.
‘There’s the dickhead who nearly killed you.’
Sadie turned back to Ewan. His tone was far more serious and menacing now than the one he’d just been teasing Sadie with. He glared in the direction of the man, jaw twitching. If Sadie hadn’t known him better she would have sworn he was about to run over with his fists flying – he looked as if he was desperate for a good punch-up.
‘Mummy… did Daddy just say—’
‘Yes, Freddie,’ Kat said, frowning at Ewan, who continued to glare at the man. ‘But he didn’t mean to; he’s just very upset.’
‘Sometimes I feel upset—’ Freddie continued, but Kat cut him off.
‘I expect you do,’ she said. ‘But you still shouldn’t say it. If someone almost dies, right in front of you, that’s the only time I’ll allow you to say it. Got it?’
Freddie looked disappointed but he didn’t argue. Instead he glanced at Sadie with that strangely inappropriate look of awe again. She supposed what had happened probably seemed rather dramatic and adventurous to him. He watched movies all the time, tales of derring-do and heroism where the protagonists had regular brushes with death, and it always looked glamorous and cool. She could have set him straight – that being hit by a boat and almost drowning left you feeling sick and a little bit stupid, rather than heroic – but she didn’t have the heart (or the stomach or concentration span) right now.
Sadie’s gaze went back to the man talking to Andy. Or rather, being given a firm telling-off by Andy.
‘I don’t think he’s a local, is he?’
‘Probably not,’ Kat agreed. ‘I certainly haven’t seen him around here before.’
‘When Andy’s finished I’m going to have a word myself,’ Ewan growled.
‘Don’t,’ Kat said. ‘If it’s anyone’s, this whole thing is my fault. I didn’t leave a marker buoy to warn people where we were—’
‘You’ve never had to in that stretch of the sea before,’ Ewan began to argue, but Kat put up a hand to stop him.
‘And I should have kept my wits about me. If I’d been out with paying customers I would have, but because it was Sadie I relaxed my guard and I shouldn’t have. By the time I realised he was there and which direction he was heading in it was too late.’ She shook her head. ‘Poor fella. He was properly shaken up – very upset about what had happened.’ She looked at Sadie. ‘He said he hadn’t seen either of us.’
‘Should have been looking then, shouldn’t he?’ Ewan said through gritted teeth.
‘Good thing it was a tiny boat,’ Sadie said.
‘It was still big enough to cause damage, and he has a responsibility to keep not only himself safe but others. He’s probably one of these idiots who’s never taken a boat out in his life and thinks all you do is hop in and float away.’
‘And he couldn’t have hit me head-on,’ Sadie continued, ignoring her brother’s tirade. ‘It would have done a lot more damage if he had.’
‘I think he did enough,’ Ewan said.
Sadie looked along the beach again. ‘What’s he doing with Andy – they’ve been ages.’
‘If I know Andy, he’s giving him a good ticking-off and a few pointers about safety at sea.’
‘Hmm. I feel kind of bad for him now.’
Kat looked at Sadie with a vague frown. ‘Why should you feel bad?’
‘Like you said, he couldn’t help that we just popped up out of nowhere. And Andy’s safety lectures…’ She gave a theatrical shudder that made Kat laugh lightly, despite the gravity of the situation. ‘I wouldn’t wish one of those on anyone.’
‘Perhaps he might know what he’s doing for next time,’ Ewan cut in. ‘People ought to get proper training; not just go on holiday and suddenly decide they’re expert mariners and take to the sea. I’d like to know where the boat came from – whether it’s his or he hired it. If he hired it I might well have to have a word with the company that let him take it out.’
‘I’m alright though, Ewan – no harm done.’
Ewan turned a critical eye on his sister. ‘Hardly,’ he said. ‘You wouldn’t say that if you could see you from where I’m standing.’
Sadie raised her eyebrows. ‘That bad?’
‘You’ve looked better,’ Kat agreed. ‘Sorry, but there it is.’
‘Well…’ Sadie shrugged. ‘I did say I fancied a dip. This isn’t quite what I had in mind though. And ow again!’ she added as an extra-large throb reminded her of the sizeable bruise on her head. Her headache wasn’t helped by the sudden wail of a siren, distant at first, but rapidly getting louder as it drew closer. Sadie looked at Ewan and Kat in turn. ‘Please tell me that’s not for me.’
‘Of course it is,’ Ewan said testily. ‘What else were we meant to do?’
‘You could have waited!’
‘For what? For you to die? “Oh, Kat, she’s dead now, do you think we ought to call the ambulance after all?”’
‘Just until you’d checked if I was really injured.’
‘You are
really injured!’
‘A lot.’
‘You don’t call being unconscious when you’re hauled out of the sea injured? Sadie, we had to do CPR on you. If you don’t think that’s serious enough to call for an ambulance then please, whatever you do, never volunteer your services to Andy because you won’t save many people like that.’
Sadie let out a sigh. She had to concede that Ewan might have a point, though she just couldn’t see why he was so angry and upset. Perhaps it was a case of delayed shock, but she felt curiously unconcerned by what he’d told her. Maybe it would sink in later but, right now, she just felt her brother was overreacting. Then again, she had to admit that her head hurt a lot. If nothing else, she supposed she ought to get some advice about concussion. And who knew, maybe one of the ambulance crew would be an attractive man she could flirt with?
But then even those hopes were dashed when she looked at where the vehicle had parked on the promenade and saw two women getting out. Not having noticed Sadie sitting on the sand some feet away, they walked towards Andy and the man who’d caused all this fuss. After a brief exchange, Sadie saw Andy point in her direction and the paramedics strode over, Ewan stepping forward to greet them tersely.
‘So, who do we need to look at?’ one of the women said, giving Sadie a quick glance. She’d have thought it was self-evident, but apparently they had to ask. She stuck a sheepish hand up.
‘I’m the idiot.’
‘My sister had an argument with a rowing boat out on the sea,’ Ewan said. ‘The boat won.’
The Waffle House on the Pier: A gorgeous feel-good romantic comedy Page 7
