‘Oh, hello, darlin’,’ April said as he strode down the pier towards them. ‘Come to take us home? You are a sweet dear.’
‘Yes, Grandma,’ he said, giving her a tight smile and reserving his death stare for Sadie. She pouted in return, ready for a fight. And if he wanted a fight he was going to get one. It was hardly her fault Gammy had decided to go walkabout, and she wasn’t going to take the blame. And she was even less inclined to stand for one of Ewan’s lectures.
He led them up the pier and the three of them drove home in almost perfect silence. April fell into a doze, but she wasn’t sleeping deeply enough for anyone to start a conversation about her, and they arrived at the house to find Henny, Graham, Kat and the kids sitting in the kitchen. Sadie grimaced inwardly and braced herself for the onslaught.
‘Oh!’ April said as she saw them all assembled. ‘Is it someone’s birthday? Did I forget?’
‘No,’ Kat said, giving the most natural, reassuring smile of any of them. In fact, the only smile at all. ‘Ewan and I just thought we’d stop by and say hello.’
Sadie looked to see her brother had taken a seat next to his wife.
‘Well, it sure is wonderful to see you,’ April said, settling on a chair herself.
‘Mum…’ Graham began gently, ‘what was going on this afternoon?’
April blinked at him. ‘Whatever do you mean?’
‘You left the waffle house and locked it up with Sadie still trapped inside.’
‘Why, I…’ April looked confused. But then she brightened. ‘I don’t exactly recall – I was so busy today I was just whizzing around doing everything without thinking too much. I expect I went to the bank because Sadie couldn’t go… Yes, that’s it. I went to the bank. Sadie didn’t have time – did you, darlin’?’
‘You left the money in the safe, Gammy,’ Sadie said. ‘We’d agreed to leave it in there until tomorrow because it was getting late.’
‘Did we? In the safe? I was certain I had it in my bag when I left you.’
‘Your bag was in the office too. You didn’t take it. You didn’t take your coat either.’
‘It was warm enough.’
‘I know, but…’
Sadie’s sentence simply ran out of energy. It was sort of how she was feeling right now. This was beginning to feel like swimming against a very strong tide. April looked at all the faces around her in turn, and then a shadow crossed her own.
‘Why are you all so angry with me?’ she cried, her voice wavering. ‘I’ve done nothing wrong!’
Freya looked up from the ubiquitous book clasped in one hand with a shocked frown, while Freddie simply stared down at his feet. A fleeting thought crossed Sadie’s mind that perhaps this wasn’t a place they ought to be right now, but she wasn’t about to say it to Ewan, who was already ready to blow, or to Kat, who must have thought otherwise and was their mother after all.
‘Nobody is saying that you have,’ Graham said patiently. ‘Nobody is angry with you.’
‘Well it sure as heck feels that way with everyone staring at me,’ April retorted.
‘Nobody is staring at you either,’ Ewan said, his tone as soft and patient as his father’s.
April swept a hand around the table. ‘Well, what do you call this?’
Ewan glanced at Kat, who nodded immediate understanding.
‘April…’ she began. It seemed to Sadie that Kat was the most reasonable, rational voice at the table right now, and certainly the calmest and kindest. She always was, which was why Sadie herself had more often than not over the years gone to her when she’d had a problem before anyone else. ‘I think the strawberries on the bushes out in the garden are about ready – I noticed it the other day and I think the kids would like to go and pick them. I wonder if you could help them recognise the ripe ones – you’re so much better at these things than I am.’
‘And where are you gonna be?’ April asked cautiously.
‘I’ll come with you if that’s OK. That way I’ll know for next time – if we have to pick them without your help.’
April didn’t look convinced, but when Freddie and Freya looked hopeful at the thought of strawberry-picking (and strawberry-eating, probably) she seemed to quite forget she was supposed to be angry at them all for something.
‘How can I refuse those darlin’ faces?’ she said with a smile. She reached for her handbag and followed Kat, Freddie and Freya out of the room.
‘Now she takes the bloody bag,’ Sadie muttered as she watched them go. But the moment they were out of earshot her mother rounded on her.
‘I knew something like this would happen!’
‘How could you have done?’ Sadie shot back. ‘How could any of us have really seen this coming? There’s a difference between being a bit confused and what happened today – I know that! And if I’d thought for a minute that Gammy was as ill as she seems to be I would never have pushed to reopen the waffle house – even I’m not that pig-headed!’
‘Sometimes I wonder…’ Henny said brusquely.
‘Well,’ Sadie said, her tone just as cold, ‘if I am then you must know where I get it from. Why am I suddenly the villain here?’
‘Nobody is saying that,’ Graham put in.
‘You just never listen to anyone,’ Ewan said.
Sadie threw her hands into the air. ‘Oh, here we go! Saint Ewan has spoken and everyone has to listen!’
‘Oh, grow up, Sadie!’ her brother shot back. ‘And maybe you could listen once in a while; you might find that people aren’t always out to get you or stop you from doing what you want when they’re giving you good advice. They’re just trying to protect you.’
‘Well maybe I don’t need protecting. Maybe I can be left to look after myself and make my own mistakes like everyone else does, and maybe it will work out just fine.’
‘Like the waffle house? Because that’s worked out just fine, hasn’t it?’
Sadie crossed her arms over her chest and looked out of the windows. She could hear murmurings coming from that direction; the voices of Kat, April and the kids as they pottered about in the greenhouse. If only she could have volunteered to take April out of the way and let everyone else have this horrible conversation instead of having to be a part of it.
‘Nobody is blaming you,’ Henny said, her tone more measured now.
Sadie turned to her and jabbed a finger at her brother. ‘He is.’
‘That’s because—’ Ewan began, but their mother jumped in.
‘Enough!’ she snapped. ‘You’re not children anymore – either of you – but you’re bickering more than I’ve ever seen Freddie and Freya do.’
Ewan’s mouth clamped shut. Henny turned to Sadie.
‘We realise your efforts at the waffle house came from a place of love for your grandmother, but surely you can see now that the kindest thing to do is to call it a day. Your grandmother will be unhappy at first, but it will take her less time than you imagine to settle into a new routine without it.’
Sadie turned back to the windows. She sniffed hard.
‘Sadie…’
When Sadie looked back at the table, Graham had left his chair to sit on the one now vacant next to her. He took her hand.
‘Nobody loves that old place more than me, and nobody is more proud of what you’ve been trying to do there than me, but sometimes you have to know when to throw in the towel.’
‘But that’s just it, Dad, it feels like I’m always throwing in the towel. With my teacher training, with…’ She stopped, paused, took a moment to recognise that some things she’d given up probably shouldn’t be mentioned. ‘I don’t want to throw it in this time. Just once, I want to see it through. I could make a go of that place, I know it.’
‘Everyone told you not to chuck in your teacher training,’ Ewan said, and Henny glared at him.
‘That’s not helping, Ewan.’
He shut his mouth again.
Sadie looked at her dad. ‘Maybe I could buy the waffle house fr
om Gammy? Then I could take most of the responsibility in running it; that way we’d keep it in the family and she’d sort of be retired but she could lend a hand when she felt up to it. Could that work?’
Graham shook his head sadly. ‘Where would you get that kind of money from? And don’t forget that it represents your future inheritance – yours, Ewan’s and Lucy’s. We couldn’t allow it to be sold for anything less than the market value in light of that fact – not even to someone who would stand to be one of the beneficiaries of that legacy. It wouldn’t be fair to the others.’
Ewan spoke again, but his tone was much warmer this time. ‘I wouldn’t insist on my share, if that helps. If it meant Sadie could keep it running I’d give my inheritance up… I don’t need it all that much anyway.’
Sadie’s eyes filled with tears again as she looked at him. ‘You’d do that?’
‘Yes. What else are big brothers for?’
‘That’s very noble,’ Henny said, ‘but I rather think Kat might have an opinion on the matter and I think it would be disrespectful not to seek it. She is your wife after all.’
Ewan shrugged. ‘Maybe, but I think she’d agree with me. We could certainly have the conversation if it helps.’
‘What about Lucy?’ Henny asked.
‘I think she’d be a different matter,’ Graham said, and on that Sadie had to agree. The sliver of hope Ewan had offered to her had been raised and dashed in the same breath. Lucy had allowed herself no ties to Sea Salt Bay and no interest in what happened at the waffle house, save that one day a share of it would come to her. She’d want her inheritance or she’d want Sadie to buy her out and Sadie couldn’t afford that. She couldn’t even afford a third share, even if Lucy did give hers up, as Ewan had said he would, though it was easier to find a solution that might get her the money for a third than the whole of it. And she secretly harboured a hope that the family might come to some arrangement over the money that might make it happen, because, despite this conversation, everyone around the table cared as deeply about the old waffle house as Sadie did.
‘Could we talk to Lucy?’ Sadie asked.
‘I could phone her later,’ her dad said. ‘See what she thinks.’
‘You could fill her in on the situation but I wouldn’t press her on it,’ Henny put in. ‘The decision must be entirely hers.’
‘Of course it would be,’ Graham said. ‘There would be a lot of other things to work out anyway so I’d only be testing the water to see how she felt about it.’
Sadie nodded – she could hardly argue with that, and she was grateful that her dad would try, even though she wasn’t all that optimistic about what the outcome of the conversation would be.
‘One thing’s for certain,’ Henny added, ‘April can’t go to work again; goodness knows what dangers she might pose. To herself and to others.’
‘We can’t just close the waffle house again,’ Sadie said.
‘We don’t have a choice.’
‘But… if it turns out I can take over properly, surely it’s better that it’s kept open in the meantime?’ Sadie said.
Graham nodded. ‘I have to admit, Hen, she’s got a point. Even if we do decide to sell up I’m sure it would make more money as a going concern than as a run-down empty building. In this climate, that close to the sea, standing empty would soon have the building deteriorating.’
‘Yes!’ Sadie said.
‘How do you propose to keep it going without your grandma?’ Henny asked.
Sadie shrugged. ‘I can’t just magic up a solution – I know that. I wasn’t expecting I’d have to. Give me a couple of days and I’ll talk to people.’
‘And what couple of days would these be?’ Henny asked. ‘As presumably you’d need any help you’re going to ask for by tomorrow morning and you’d also need them to have some catering knowledge. Do you know anyone who ticks all those boxes?’
‘I have catering knowledge,’ Sadie said. ‘They wouldn’t need all that much.’
Her mother raised disbelieving eyebrows.
‘OK, I have a bit,’ Sadie admitted. ‘And maybe they’d need a bit. But I could just tell them what needs doing and we’d muddle through somehow. And they do say that the best way to learn is on the job.’
‘Well, we shan’t have to worry about keeping it open until we get a sale, because with that solution I should imagine you’d be bankrupt inside a week,’ Henny said acerbically.
‘Well,’ Sadie shot back, ‘that’s what you want anyway so there’s no harm in me trying it, is there?’
‘Your mum’s trying to help,’ Graham said gently.
Sadie glanced at the clock. She couldn’t help but feel that they were going round in circles. Just when they were on the brink of a solution, someone would shoot it down and they’d be right back where they’d started again. She didn’t have time for a discussion that would go on like this the whole night and end with them going to bed with nothing decided at all. And she still had to get ready to meet Luke – about the only good and certain thing she had to look forward to right now.
But then, it occurred to her that she might just have the answer after all, from a most unexpected place.
‘I might know someone who can help,’ she said. ‘I’m almost certain he’s free tomorrow – at least, I don’t know of any solid commitments he’s got right now and I’m sure he’d be willing to lend me a few hours.’
‘Who?’ Ewan asked. But then he grimaced. ‘No way!’
Sadie pouted. ‘But you don’t even know who it is.’
Her brother folded his arms. ‘Luke Goldman, by any chance?’
‘Who?’ Henny asked.
‘The new owner of the Old Chapel,’ Ewan said. He looked at Sadie. ‘Did you think I wouldn’t find out about your night out with him?’
‘You went out with him?’ Henny asked, looking from Sadie to Ewan and then back again. ‘This is the same man who—’
‘Yes,’ Ewan said. ‘The nutter who nearly killed her in his boat.’
Sadie slapped her hands on the table. ‘For the last time, it was an accident! And if you don’t like it, have you got a better idea for staffing the waffle house?’
Ewan looked as if he would argue. But then he let out an impatient sigh. ‘You’re really this determined?’
Sadie nodded.
‘Right.’ Ewan glanced at his parents in turn and, when nobody stopped him, he looked back to Sadie and continued. ‘I don’t want Goldman anywhere near the place, but I’ll talk to Kat and we’ll see if we can work out a way to help you. It wouldn’t be ideal and it wouldn’t be a permanent solution, but…’
Sadie broke into a broad smile. ‘Sometimes you’re not so bad, you know. As stinky brothers go.’
‘I’m not making any promises,’ he warned. ‘And, like I said, it’s a short-term solution. You do need to make some other arrangements as soon as you can – and it had better not involve Boaty McBoatface.’
Sadie’s smile grew. For the time being she wasn’t about to challenge Ewan’s disapproval of Luke, thankful that she’d finally got his support with the waffle house. It was a small victory but she’d take it. If she was totally honest, she wasn’t sure Luke was the answer and even if he’d agreed to help she didn’t know how much use he would have been. She’d really been clutching at straws there because Luke knew next to nothing about catering – as far as she was aware – though she could hardly deny that it might have been fun having him around.
She glanced up at the clock again.
‘Is there somewhere you need to be?’ her mother asked haughtily. ‘Because you seem to be very interested in the time.’
‘Well… I do have to be somewhere, actually, a little later on…’
‘Could you postpone or cancel it?’ Henny asked.
‘Actually, no,’ Sadie said, not daring to look at Ewan because she was certain her face would give the game away. Ordinarily she wasn’t one for secrecy, particularly where her family were concerned, and she had no issu
es with them knowing who she was dating. But this was different. Even setting aside their intense dislike of Luke, there was still a lot going on here. Sadie wasn’t stupid – she knew it looked bad that she was planning to be elsewhere while so much still needed to be discussed. But in the end, what would hours’ more discussion achieve that hadn’t already been agreed?
‘Jesus Christ,’ Ewan muttered. ‘Let me guess…’
‘You’ll have to cancel whatever it is,’ Henny said, apparently not catching on quite as fast as Ewan and confirming what Sadie had been afraid she’d say. ‘There’s far too much going on here and we need you.’
‘Haven’t we already sorted it?’ Sadie’s shoulders slumped.
‘No. We’ve sketched the plan but we’ve yet to fill in the details.’
‘Mum’s right,’ Ewan said. ‘We’re nowhere near finished.’
‘But…’ Sadie gave a look that pleaded with her brother to back her up, just once more and despite the fact that it would be going against everything he thought was good for her. ‘I know you don’t like Luke, but I really do. If you gave him time you might even change your mind.’
‘I doubt that,’ Ewan said.
‘Actually, so do I,’ Sadie replied in a tone that suggested she really didn’t care. She looked at her parents. ‘I won’t stay out late and when I get home I promise I’ll have a plan for tomorrow. In fact, before I go I’ll make some calls.’ She turned to Ewan. ‘I know you’re going to talk to Kat but I wouldn’t expect you two to take up all the slack.’
Ewan leaned forward and rested his arms on the table as he surveyed them all. ‘This is all very well, but what are we going to tell Grandma? I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be the person who tells her she can’t go to work tomorrow because it might be dangerous for her.’
Henny and Graham exchanged a look. They hadn’t thought of that – that much was obvious.
The Waffle House on the Pier: A gorgeous feel-good romantic comedy Page 19
