‘Yes. What else would it be?’
‘OK,’ he said, still sounding unconvinced. He grabbed a chair while Sadie went to get the sweeping brush.
‘I bumped into Ewan yesterday and—’ Declan began. But he stopped short because Sadie was crying. She hadn’t wanted to – not in front of him and not with Gammy in the next room – but she couldn’t keep it in any longer. He put the chair down and rushed to wrap her in his arms. No questions, no waiting for permission, just an instinct to comfort her, and though she knew she ought to be grateful for his reaction, it only made things worse.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, sniffing hard. ‘Ignore me; I’m just tired.’
He held her tighter still. He still smelt the same, a special scent that seemed to have been created just for her. She closed her eyes and breathed him in.
God, how many years had it been since she’d been folded into his arms like this, and yet, how could it feel so painfully, heart-achingly familiar?
‘You’re sure that’s all it is?’ he asked. ‘Nothing else?’
‘No.’
‘Nothing to do with your scare at the beach the other day…? Because nobody would think you were weak for admitting that it had affected you and sometimes it’s a delayed reaction—’
Sadie buried her head further into his chest. She knew that she ought to push him away but she didn’t want to. ‘No, it’s not that.’
How could she tell him what it really was? How scared she was for her grandma, how she was even more scared that she’d made the most terrible mistake leaving her teaching course to come and take the waffle house on?
Terrible mistakes, she thought ruefully, seemed to be her speciality these days – she’d certainly made enough of them over the last few years. Many of them were still being afforded the luxury of time to regret. One of them was standing with his arms around her now, making it worse than he could have ever imagined, and the fact that his intentions were nothing but pure made it all worse still.
‘You need some help in here?’ he asked. ‘Until you get used to it?’
‘You’re far too busy.’
‘It’s a shame but I am really, even though I’d like to help. I was thinking Melissa might be able to, though. She has some afternoons free and I could ask—’
‘No!’ Sadie said, panic-stricken by the thought and with a tone that was probably a bit too revealing of that fact. Melissa was the last person she needed in here. It was hardly Melissa’s fault that Sadie’s emotions were all over the place, but her presence certainly wouldn’t help.
‘I’m sure she’d say yes.’
Sadie eased herself free and looked up at him. ‘Everyone is busy and I wouldn’t expect anyone to give up their time regardless. We have to manage, Gammy and me. We’ll find a way to make it work; it might just take a little time.’
He smiled down at her. ‘Everyone loves her, you know. Everyone wants this to succeed. And everyone knows why you’re doing this, but not one of them would blame you if you decided it was too much. It doesn’t have to be your battle, and you certainly don’t have to fight it alone.’
‘You say that, but it kind of is. I’m here now, I dragged Gammy back into this place and I persuaded everyone that it was a good idea, and now I feel I have to see it through. I could have left it alone but I didn’t, and I have to take responsibility for that. It’s only fair – I can’t give hope and then take it straight away again, especially not when it comes to Gammy.’
He caught a tear with his sleeve pulled up around his hand, just like he used to do whenever she got upset, and, for a moment, she felt she’d stop breathing.
‘Thank you,’ she said, and she’d never meant those words more. And if he’d asked her what for, she wouldn’t have been able to tell him. It was for too much, far more than she had words for. Most of all, that he could still be this kind and patient, this supportive, this much of a friend after all she’d done to him. She’d never felt so grateful and yet so undeserving, and like such a snake for the unwanted thoughts she had: that if she could see a way to removing Melissa from his life with no comeback and no recrimination then she might be sorely tempted to do that so the way would be clear for her again.
‘Look,’ he said, ‘is there anything else I can help with while I’m here? I don’t have to be anywhere in particular for a while.’
Sadie forced a smile. ‘You’ve just done a full day at work – the last thing you need is to start again here.’
‘I want to help; tell me what I can do.’
At that moment, April emerged from the kitchen. Sadie glanced at Declan, relieved that she wasn’t still in his arms because who knew what kind of confusion that might cause.
‘Oh, darlin’…’ April said cheerily, wearing a broad smile, ‘if you really want to help then we could sure use your muscles to take all that garbage out to the bins on the promenade. It’s such a walk for me these days.’
Sadie hadn’t heard Gammy coming back to the dining room, but her grandmother had clearly heard some of what they’d been saying. There was no way to know how much of the rest of the conversation she’d picked up without asking her straight out, and Sadie wasn’t about to lift the lid on that potential nest of vipers, but, judging by her breezy attitude, it didn’t appear to be much. So Sadie hurriedly rubbed her eyes and put on her brightest smile. Declan flexed his biceps with a grin that made April giggle like a teenager.
‘Your wish is my command!’ he said. ‘Show me what you want moving and I’ll be happy to do it for you.’
‘Oh, you are just a dear,’ April began. ‘This way… I’ll show you…’
They went through to the kitchen together. A moment later Sadie heard laughter from them both as she turned her attention to moving the chairs that Declan hadn’t finished doing and sweeping the floor. Declan had always found it easy to charm April, even as an awkward boy. He was just one of those people who exuded warmth and kindness, whose good soul shone through. No wonder Melissa was so keen to keep any potential competition for his affections firmly out of the picture, and no wonder she didn’t trust Sadie. And she didn’t trust Sadie an inch – that much was evident. Sadie wouldn’t trust Sadie either, and this evening was a dangerous reminder of those feelings that she constantly fought to keep locked away. Natalie would have said Sadie needed a distraction, though Lord knew that Sadie had been trying hard enough over the last few years to find one that might finally become more permanent than that, someone who could banish the regrets over Declan that she couldn’t seem to shake – her long list of unsatisfactory boyfriends since Declan was testament to that.
She looked up as he came back from the kitchen lugging a large refuse sack, chatting easily to April as she followed to unlock the front door for him. He shot Sadie a smile full of sympathy and understanding that seemed to tell her not to worry, that she wasn’t on her own, that she could share her worries and stresses with him whenever she needed to offload, and her heart gave a lurch like a ship tossed on an unseen swell.
God, she needed a distraction and she needed it pronto.
Chapter Eleven
As the sun went down, Sadie walked along the beach, the sun warm and friendly on her skin, the evening light mellow and pinky gold on the cliffs. After they’d finished clearing up at the waffle house Declan had given them a lift home before going back to meet Melissa from work. Sadie had been grateful for the ride for April’s sake, but for her own, she’d wished he could find it in himself to be less than insufferably kind for one second of his life because she would rather – really needed to – have walked. So Sadie skipped dinner at home, incurring Henny’s ire, but making excuses that she’d been picking at the fruit and sweets at the waffle house all day and had ruined her appetite and was going to take a walk to try to get it back.
The bit about the fruit and sweets wasn’t true, even if the part about needing a walk was, because she’d hardly had time to pick at anything. She just wasn’t hungry at all, even though an early start and a
busy day ought to have meant she was. Maybe she’d get some leftovers later, or maybe she’d even stop by for fish and chips, which tasted better by the sea than anywhere else (even people who lived by the sea couldn’t deny that). Although, that did run the risk of bumping into Declan’s dad, who owned the fish and chip shop and, even though he had staff, sometimes worked a shift too. Or even Declan himself, who might be around, as he sometimes was, sitting at a table shooting the breeze with his dad if the restaurant was gifted a quiet moment.
But for the moment Sadie wasn’t really thinking about food. She wasn’t really thinking about anything, and yet, she simultaneously seemed to be thinking about everything in the world. Her head was full, but nothing seemed to stay long enough in there to fully process because as soon as a thought presented itself another would come along demanding her attention. The end result was a Sadie increasingly frustrated with her inability to make a decision about anything, a Sadie who had even less ability to actually begin addressing any of the things that were bothering her than a Sadie with no time to think of them at all. Walking the beach, the sea licking at the shoreline like a contented cat, was helping her to relax, but it didn’t feel as if it was solving anything.
Toes dug into the soft sand, she stopped to gaze out to where the sunlight was sprinkled over the waves like glitter. Visibility was good this evening, the light just right so that you could see for miles, and on the horizon she counted at least three large ships and the distant headlands further along the coast. This view was the most perfect view in the world to her. She hadn’t always thought so, but being away from Sea Salt Bay had taught her a lot of things, and how to appreciate her home was one of them. She couldn’t understand how her sister Lucy could live so far from here and never want to come back, but perhaps that was because Lucy hadn’t felt so connected to the people she’d left behind. One, in particular…
Sadie shook the thought away. She’d come out this evening to get away from those feelings, not ponder them some more.
‘Would now be a bad time to say hello?’
Sadie almost visibly jumped. She turned to find Luke standing next to her, yet she’d been so lost in thought that she hadn’t even noticed him approach.
‘It’s a good thing you’re not a mugger,’ she said, catching her breath. ‘Although you’d be bloody brilliant at it because I never even heard you sneak up on me.’
He gave a warm chuckle. ‘Sorry about that. But you can keep your money; I’m not a mugger.’
‘We’ve got to stop bumping into each other like this,’ she replied with a laugh.
‘I know – it must look as if I’m stalking you and I promise I’m not.’
‘Ah, well, I think I can believe you on that score. Sea Salt Bay is a very small place and it’s inevitable that we’d keep running into each other really.’
He held her in a gaze that threw her for a moment. ‘Is that so bad?’
‘Um… No…’
He turned to the sea. Sadie glanced at his profile in the low sun. He was even better-looking than she remembered, everything in perfect proportion, his features not as soft as Declan’s but…
Ugh, why did she keep on comparing people to Declan?
She began again. Luke, this was Luke, and he was like himself, nobody else. His skin was tanned, his hair dark, the faint beginning of crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes that didn’t detract from his looks but only gave them a sexy hint of experience and a life well lived. He was tall too, maybe around five eleven, six feet. His accent was that of a well-heeled Londoner though there were traces of other accents that suggested he’d lived in other places too. She’d never really noticed that before, or how his voice was mellow and full, like the notes of a well-loved oboe. She’d had plenty of distractions previously, but already she could tell that Luke might be different. And was he flirting with her? Yes, she decided, maybe he was. And maybe she might quite like it.
‘It’s a beautiful place,’ he said, gazing out at the view she’d just been admiring. ‘I suppose you take all this in your stride when you’ve lived here all your life.’
‘All what?’
‘This…’ He swept a hand along the line of the horizon. ‘I suppose it stops being so incredible to you after a while; you take it for granted.’
‘No, it doesn’t really. I was born and raised here, and I suppose I’m used to it, but I never take it for granted and it never stops being beautiful. It was one of the things I missed most when I went away to uni. Now that I’m back, I know I’d never get bored of it, even if I looked at it every day for a hundred years.’
‘I can see why. I’m hoping I’ll feel the same when I’ve been here long enough to start feeling I can call it home.’
‘So you’re planning to stay, even though you’re being treated horribly by the locals?’
He laughed again, a warm, rich sound.
‘I think the locals might have just cause. I think I might have got off on a very wrong foot with them. But if at least some of them can forgive me then I’d like to call this my forever home. I can’t imagine now how anywhere else could compare after being here.’
‘One of them has already forgiven you,’ Sadie said.
He cocked her a sideways glance. ‘And would that one be standing close by?’
‘They would.’
He smiled. ‘Then I’m grateful to know that not everyone hates me.’
‘They don’t, and even if they did it wouldn’t last long. Even Ewan will come round eventually.’
Luke raised a disbelieving eyebrow.
‘It might take twenty or so years,’ Sadie admitted, laughing. ‘But he will. He’s not scary at all when you get to know him.’
‘So I’ve been hearing. He seems to have a lot of fans around here.’
‘Ah…’ Sadie grinned. ‘Would these fans be mostly female?’
‘It does seem he’s a bit of a local heartthrob.’
‘God, it’s enough to make a sister want to vomit.’
He looked at her again. ‘That bad? If it’s any consolation he didn’t get all the good-looking genes in your family…’
Sadie burst out laughing and he shook his head, having the decency to look a little embarrassed.
‘As chat-up lines go,’ he said, holding in his own laughter, ‘that was dreadful, wasn’t it?’
‘A chat-up line? Was that what it was – I hardly recognised it.’
‘In my defence, it was off the cuff. You could at least cut me a bit of slack here – I’m trying to think on my feet to woo you in very difficult circumstances.’
‘And what circumstances might those be?’
He rubbed a hand across his chin. ‘Well… I can’t imagine I’m your favourite person right now—’
‘But I appreciate that you’re working hard on that,’ Sadie cut in with a smile.
‘But still… I find myself trying to win you over anyway. Tell me honestly, is it a lost cause? Tell me I’m deluded and I’ll sod off and never bother you again.’
Sadie’s smile grew. ‘You’ve got balls, I’ll give you that.’
‘Does that mean you admire my tenacity but I am deluded?’
‘No. It means I like that you’re trying and I could be persuaded to… what actually are you asking for?’
‘How about a drink with a stranger in town who doesn’t yet know anyone except the girl he almost drowned and who’s apparently crazy enough to forgive him?’
Excitement bubbled up in Sadie – a mad, giddy kind of excitement that she hadn’t felt in a long time.
‘You want to take me out?’
‘You don’t want to go?’
‘Yeah… yeah, I do. I was just making sure I was following the conversation because, you know, since that bump on my head I get kind of confused.’
He looked suddenly horrified, and Sadie started to laugh. ‘Oh, God, I’m sorry! I thought you’d realise I was kidding!’
His hand went to his heart and he looked a little offended. ‘No,
I didn’t!’ But then his features relaxed again. ‘OK, I probably deserved that.’
‘In all honesty, though, I did need to check because I hadn’t really expected things to go the way they are.’
‘Can I be honest? Neither did I. Until five minutes ago it hadn’t crossed my mind to ask you out. I mean, it had, because, you know, I find you very attractive, but I wouldn’t have dared after…’
Sadie giggled. ‘Just goes to show that sometimes life can surprise you.’
‘It does.’ He held her in a gaze lit by the setting sun. ‘Is it forward to say that I’ve never met anyone like you before?’
‘A little, but I can deal with it.’
‘It’s true. I meet a lot of people but none of them have ever caused me to spontaneously make myself look like an idiot.’
‘You don’t look like an idiot. I’m glad you felt spontaneous.’
‘Can I be even more spontaneous then?’
‘How?’
‘That drink… what are you doing for the next couple of hours?’
Sadie smiled, her stomach doing delicious flips again. As distractions went, this one was looking promising.
‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘But I have a feeling that’s about to change.’
* * *
There were a few raised eyebrows in the Listing Ship as Luke approached the bar with Sadie by his side. Everyone knew he was newly arrived in town, but that wasn’t the only thing they knew because by now everyone had heard about the incident where his boat had collided with Sadie’s head. She could imagine that this latest turn of events might surprise a few of them.
Vivien, who by day was the lollipop lady for Sea Salt Bay’s only school and worked the bar at Sea Salt bay’s only pub at night, was on duty. Even though Sadie and Luke came in together and approached the bar together, after a swift, uncertain glance at him, it was Sadie she addressed first.
‘Hello, Sadie. How’s your gran doing?’
‘Oh, she’s getting better every day, thanks,’ Sadie said. She wasn’t about to give anyone outside the family any more information than that.
The Waffle House on the Pier: A gorgeous feel-good romantic comedy Page 14
