‘You and Kat get along brilliantly,’ Sadie said.
He flicked a sideways glance her way. ‘Then we put on a good show for the customers. Kat regularly tears a strip off me when she gets annoyed and we don’t always see eye to eye on the best way to run the business.’
‘And it’s only Kat who gets annoyed?’ Sadie asked with a playful grin.
‘Oh, I get annoyed,’ Ewan said with a laugh, ‘but I know my place. I wouldn’t dare show it, and it’s not often I win an argument with Kat anyway, so why bother?’
Sadie laughed too. ‘Point taken.’ She twisted round to look at her grandmother. ‘But we’ve got on just fine today, haven’t we?’
‘Oh yes!’ April beamed. ‘It’s been just lovely having you there today. But when your grandpa gets—’
She stopped mid-sentence, her mouth open, still formed around the words she’d been meaning to say. But she didn’t say them, and instead closed her mouth and looked out of the window. Sadie stared at her – she couldn’t help it – with a mixture of dread and relief. Dread, because she’d had a horrible idea where her grandmother’s statement had been going, and relief that she’d stopped herself before she’d uttered it. If April was getting a little confused from time to time, at least she wasn’t so far gone that she no longer had any recognition of reality. At least she was aware that Gampy had passed, even if she allowed herself to occasionally and briefly forget it.
Sadie exchanged a meaningful look with Ewan, but both of them knew now wasn’t the time to say out loud what they might be thinking. He’d want to talk to her later though. Could she tell him about the other worrying little slips of the day? Did the fact they’d happened even mean they were something to worry about? Perhaps this was Gammy still adjusting to her new life after all, and nothing of concern. But she saw in her brother’s face that he was already concerned, even without the knowledge of those other things, and that as soon as the opportunity arose he’d want to know more about how their grandma had been that day. At home she’d been quiet and a little withdrawn, and perhaps that had been the reason nobody had seen just what was happening in her head until now, when necessity had persuaded her to function and engage with the world again. Sadie only hoped that Ewan wouldn’t bring this conversation up with their parents before she’d had a chance to discuss it fully with him, because Henny and Graham were already strongly in favour of Sadie and April ‘giving this madness up’ and they didn’t need any more reasons to pressure them into thinking again about reopening the waffle house. If she allowed herself to dwell on it, Sadie had enough doubts of her own too, but she was still as determined as ever not to give those doubts room to grow.
‘We are opening again tomorrow, aren’t we?’ April asked uncertainly, as if she’d been able to read Sadie’s thoughts, or at least the strange, charged silence that had passed between Sadie and Ewan.
‘That’s the plan,’ Sadie replied, sounding as confident and airy as she could. ‘That’s if you can stand another day of me getting everything wrong.’
‘Oh, you did just fine, darlin’,’ she said, her features relaxing now.
‘That’s good to know.’
April nodded. ‘A few days and you’ll be running the place good enough to make your grandpa proud.’
Sadie welled up as the thought of her recently lost, dearly loved Gampy squeezed her heart in a way she’d been completely unprepared for. If she was honest, there were times when Gammy wasn’t the only one who momentarily forgot that he was no longer with them. They were all getting on with their lives and, for the most part, coping – as people did – but his loss had changed them all forever, even if it was hard to admit it. It seemed to Sadie that losing a loved one always did that for everyone, even if the change was so small it was hardly recognisable, because how could a person fail to change when the world around them had changed? Someone who had once occupied a space in the world was no longer there, and the world was forced to bend anew around that space, so that even though they no longer existed they wouldn’t be forgotten.
Sadie turned to the window, not wanting April to see her cry. She didn’t really want her brother to see it either, but at least it wouldn’t set him off if he did, unlike April. Sadie didn’t want to be responsible for upsetting her when she’d already cried so hard and so long since Gampy’s death.
‘Dec asked after you today,’ Ewan said. Perhaps he’d wanted to distract Sadie with something innocuous. He couldn’t have realised that this was probably the only other subject that would make her feel worse. But she tried to look unconcerned.
‘Yeah?’
‘He’d wanted to pop by at the waffle house to see how it was going but he didn’t get time.’
‘Oh,’ Sadie said. ‘When was this?’
‘Oh, it was late. I was on my way back to the office and he was going to meet Melissa from work.’
‘That’s so nice of him,’ April said. ‘He’s such a thoughtful boy – he always was my favourite.’
‘Your favourite what?’ Sadie asked, though she knew full well what April meant.
‘My favourite of all the boys you brought to meet me. I always thought he was the one you’d settle with.’
‘The others never lasted more than five minutes, that’s why,’ Ewan said, and Sadie stuck her tongue out at him in exactly the same way she would have fifteen years before.
‘Just because you married the first girl who would have you,’ she said, ‘doesn’t mean we all have to do that.’
‘So you’re into girls now?’ he fired back. ‘I wish you’d told me this before; Kat’s got loads of single friends and I think one or two of them might be into girls too.’
Sadie rolled her eyes. ‘Hold my sides – I think they’re about to split. I don’t know why Kat married you – you’re such a dick.’
‘Sadie!’ April chided.
To her credit, Sadie blushed. ‘Sorry, Gammy. I meant idiot. Ewan’s an idiot. And even you have to admit that he is.’
‘I’ll admit no such thing,’ April said. ‘He’s a fine boy. You’re both wonderful.’
Sadie glanced at Ewan. Banter was an art that had completely passed Gammy by. She either meant something or she didn’t – sarcasm, irony and teasing; they were concepts she’d never really understood.
‘I am a fine boy,’ Ewan said with a grin. ‘Kat was lucky to get me and she knows it.’
‘You were lucky to get her more like,’ Sadie shot back. ‘You might be good-looking – though that’s up for debate as far as I can see, even though everyone else seems to think you are – but you’re still as annoying as hell. I can’t even imagine how annoying you must be to be married to.’
‘Kat says every moment married to me is like heavenly bliss.’
‘I’ll ask her if that’s true when I see her next. I think she might have something different to say about it.’
‘Yeah, yeah… you say all this but you’d be devastated if I ever left the bay and you couldn’t see me every day.’
Sadie grimaced and pretended it wasn’t true at all, but it was. She couldn’t imagine life without Ewan on the doorstep. Her sister Lucy was almost a stranger to her these days, but she and Lucy had never been that close anyway, not like her and Ewan. From the moment Sadie had arrived in the world it was Ewan. Lucy hadn’t been interested in Sadie as a baby – as it turned out, she wasn’t interested in babies at all – but Ewan had loved her. Over the years he’d become her unofficial guardian and protector. Whenever there had been bullying at school he’d been there to sort it out, unsuitable boys had been warned off (though they didn’t always heed the warning and Sadie didn’t always either), misdemeanours had been covered up and hidden from their parents with his collusion and shoulders had been offered to cry on. By the time Sadie had turned eighteen, it was common knowledge in Sea Salt Bay that if you messed with Sadie Schwartz then you messed with her big brother too.
These thoughts led to others as Ewan turned his attention back to the road, wearing a
grin. But then Sadie spoke again and wiped it from his face, even though she hadn’t meant to.
‘You had Luke’s business card, didn’t you?’
‘Who?’
‘You know who I mean – don’t pretend that you don’t. Luke. Boat man… the man you were so mean and rude to earlier on.’
‘Oh, him.’
‘So you must have already known he’d moved to the bay.’
Ewan shook his head. ‘The card shows an old address. He had absolutely no intention of being available for assistance if we’d needed it – he was trying to stitch us up.’
‘I don’t see how that makes sense because he must have realised that sooner or later we’d find out he’d moved here.’
‘Who knows what he was thinking, but I don’t believe for a minute he was accepting any kind of responsibility for what happened.’
‘Aww, come on, Ewan… that’s ridiculous. You saw him – he couldn’t have been more sorry. What did you want from him? And I’m assuming that there would have been a mobile number on the card and there was a good chance that would still be valid.’
‘Maybe.’
‘So he wasn’t trying to stitch us up.’
‘Sadie… what does it matter?’
‘It doesn’t – I’m just curious.’
‘Right.’
‘So, what did you do with the card then?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said evasively. ‘I expect it’ll be lying around somewhere.’
‘You didn’t throw it away?’
‘No. You never know when you’re going to need to sue someone.’
‘But you said it was useless because it had an old address on it.’
‘Ah, but you said that there would be a mobile number on it.’
‘Hmm. Which means you do know where it is…’
She didn’t wait for his reply. Diving for the glovebox, she began to root through.
‘What are you doing?’ Ewan snapped.
‘You know what I’m doing.’
‘You won’t find it in there.’
Sadie continued to search. Then she held up a letter. ‘This is your mortgage statement. You’re terrible for stashing things in this glovebox – you put anything and everything in here. I’ll bet Luke’s card is in here… ah!’ She pulled out a white square and flicked it with a look of triumph. ‘Luke Goldman… this is it, right?’
‘I don’t remember…’ Ewan replied lamely.
Sadie slammed the glovebox shut, pocketed the card and sat back in her seat. ‘You won’t mind if I take it – after all, it can’t be that important to you if you can’t remember where it came from.’
Ewan grimaced. ‘And what are you going to do with it?’
‘I haven’t decided yet. I just thought I’d keep hold of it. After all, my head’s the one that got damaged.’
‘I’m beginning to think it got really damaged,’ Ewan muttered, and Sadie had to laugh at the look of sheer bemusement and annoyance on his face.
‘Dear God – please tell me you don’t fancy this guy,’ he added.
‘Would it matter if I did?’
‘Yes. For a start he’s a lot older than you.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because he told us he was thirty-five – remember?’
‘Oh, right. OK. So what? Next objection please.’
‘I’m willing to bet he’ll end up another in your long line of rejects.’
‘Ouch. Harsh.’
‘But true.’
‘You do realise you’re the only person who could say that to me and not get a smack in the face. Besides, the law of averages says one of them eventually is going to turn out to be right for me.’
‘You had the right one,’ April said.
While the banter between Sadie and Ewan had been in full swing, they’d almost forgotten she was there until she made herself known again. But at this intervention, Sadie’s good humour evaporated. She hardly needed reminding of that fact. Had anyone ever considered that she might know that she’d loved and lost her Mr Right and now the best she could hope for was Mr Almost Right? Did they ever consider that her Mr Almost Right was hard enough to find, but harder still when you were constantly reminded that Mr Right was achingly close but always just out of reach? It was like being in a locked room, starving and being forced to stare at a huge luscious cake through an impenetrable glass screen. There was no way you were ever getting the cake, but you were so hungry that if someone pushed a slice of bread and butter through the door you’d damn well grab it, cake or no. If Sadie was lucky perhaps her slice of bread would be soft and fluffy and the butter would be creamy and she might even get a little jam to go on top. It wouldn’t be cake but it would still be nice, and she wouldn’t complain about the fact that it wasn’t cake because at least she wouldn’t be hungry anymore, and anyway, she’d once said she was never going to eat cake again so she couldn’t really complain when someone else had decided to eat it.
‘Here we are…’
Ewan stopped the car and Sadie looked to see that they were at the gates of her house. She’d never been so pleased to see it.
She unclipped her seatbelt and looked up at Ewan. ‘Are you popping in to get Freddie and Freya and say hello to Mum and Dad? I’m sure they’ll be back by now.’
‘I’d better get back to sort out the office while Kat’s out with her last clients. Tell Mum and Dad I’ll call later to pick up the kids if that’s OK… and I’ll talk to you then…’ he added in a very deliberate tone, which led Sadie to believe that he’d be grabbing a quiet moment with her specifically to find out more about how Gammy had been that day – if not to tell her again what a bad idea it would be to get involved with Luke Goldman. Sadie needed to have some convincing answers for both scenarios, but at least she’d have time to think about them. That was, unless her mum and dad cottoned on as quickly as Ewan that all had not been plain sailing in the waffle house. If that happened, Sadie would just have to think on her feet.
She hopped out and went to help her grandmother.
April took Sadie’s offered hand. ‘Thank you darlin’.’ She stepped carefully down onto the road and then went round to look in at the open driver’s window. ‘Thank you for the ride – I don’t think I could have walked another step today; I’m worn to the bone.’
Ewan smiled at her, but then looked at Sadie, who gave an inward groan. Statements like that from their grandma, made as lightly as they were, only gave everyone more ammunition in the battle to prove that reopening the waffle house wasn’t the best thing for her, even if she wanted it. And again, Sadie couldn’t deny that she was still asking herself that question even if she was the person hell-bent on helping April to reopen it.
April leaned in to kiss her grandson lightly on the cheek before making her way up the path to the front door of the house. Ewan and Sadie watched her for a moment as she pushed the door open and went inside. Sadie was about to follow when Ewan called her back.
‘Don’t,’ she said in a low voice. ‘Whatever you’re going to say, just don’t.’
‘You have no idea what it is.’
‘If it’s about Gammy then yes, I do, and it’s only what I’ve been thinking myself all day.’
‘So she’s struggled? And be honest with me.’
‘Not struggled, exactly.’
He raised his eyebrows.
‘I am being honest,’ Sadie said. ‘She’s enjoyed it. I just noticed… well, one or two moments where she wasn’t quite with it.’
Ewan frowned, silent for a moment as his gaze went to the now closed front door of the house.
‘I’m sure it’ll pass,’ Sadie said. ‘She just needs time to readjust. She’s been sitting around for a month and really she’s still in mourning. And before you agree and use that as a reason for her to be rotting at home, I still say the best way to get her through that is to get her occupied again doing something she’s always loved.’
‘Maybe doing jigsaws or watercolours,’ Ewan sai
d quietly. ‘Not running a busy café.’
‘She’ll be fine,’ Sadie insisted. ‘Give us a few weeks – to the end of the summer at least. I won’t hold back on you – you know that. If she’s still struggling then I’ll say so and we’ll do something about it.’
‘You said she wasn’t struggling.’
‘You know what I mean.’
He shook his head. ‘The end of the summer is too long. Let’s try the end of the month.’
‘But, Ewan—’
‘That’s enough time to see how this is going.’
Sadie pursed her lips. ‘It’s not your decision. You’re not the head of the family, even though you think you are, and it’s not for you to tell me what to do.’
‘Ordinarily I wouldn’t dream of even attempting to tell you what to do. But this is as much about Grandma as it is about you. If anything, it’s all about Grandma.’
‘So it doesn’t matter that I gave up my teacher training to do this?’
‘That was your choice and, anyway, we all told you not to do it. Your bed, you go and lie in it.’
‘Thanks,’ Sadie muttered.
‘Believe it or not, I’m actually trying to look out for you here. For both of you. If the worst came to the worst and the waffle house closed down for good you could reapply for teacher training next year.’
‘They wouldn’t have me back.’
‘Of course they would.’
‘And what am I supposed to do with myself while I waited for that?’
Ewan started his engine and shrugged before he pulled away, leaving Sadie standing at the roadside.
‘Great,’ she said, watching as the car got smaller. ‘Just great.’
Chapter Ten
Sadie had woken with dread in her heart for what the following day would bring, but she needn’t have done. April was more her old self than Sadie had seen her since Gampy’s death, and she had the waffle house kitchen running like a well-oiled machine. Could it be that the previous day had simply been a period of readjustment, a bump on the road to Gammy’s recovery?
The Waffle House on the Pier: A gorgeous feel-good romantic comedy Page 12
