The Waffle House on the Pier: A gorgeous feel-good romantic comedy

by Tilly Tennant

  She let out a giggle that had the half-dozen diners they had in looking for the source of the noise, and she had to clamp a hand over her mouth, a sheepish grin on her face.

  ‘Jelly?’

  ‘You don’t recall the jelly incident? Or Jelly-Gate, as I like to call it.’

  ‘You don’t eat jelly.’

  ‘No, and there’s a good reason why. Come on now, think back.’

  Sadie paused, and then she giggled again. ‘Oh, God, yes… that time…’

  ‘I never used to eat it and you couldn’t understand why and I couldn’t remember why, so one day you made me have some with custard and I broke out in hives almost immediately.’

  ‘And you had your headshot for student council the next day.’

  ‘And I looked like I’d got some horrible disease and nobody could ever recognise me from that photo. I spent three bloody years explaining to people that it was me and why it didn’t look like me at all. Three years stuck with a portrait that made me look like a bowl of tapioca pudding!’

  ‘Oh, God,’ Sadie snorted and again put a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter. ‘Does it make it better that I’m still sorry about that?’

  ‘It would, only there’s so much else for you to be sorry about that I think you’d have to pay penance for the next twenty years to make it all up to me.’

  ‘You can talk!’ she squeaked.

  He put a hand to his breast and feigned an expression of newborn innocence. ‘Moi?’

  ‘What about that time you phoned me to say Robert Downey Jnr was drinking in the Ship? I rushed down there and when I got there you were just sitting in the bar with one of those celebrity masks on, laughing your head off. You have no idea how disappointing it was!’

  ‘Serves you right for racing down to see another man.’

  ‘It was no man – it was Robert Downey Jnr! My free pass! What else did you expect me to do?’

  ‘I wouldn’t have done it.’

  ‘Not even for Blake Lively?’

  ‘OK, maybe…’ He grinned. ‘But free pass or not, you wouldn’t have really gone there, even if it had been the man himself?’

  ‘Yeah, because he would have totally gone along with that,’ she said with gentle sarcasm in her tone.

  ‘I wouldn’t have, not even for Blake Lively.’

  She smiled up at him. ‘I wouldn’t have either – you know that.’

  He smiled too, and for a moment they held each other’s gaze.

  It was too easy to be like this with him, and alarm bells should have been ringing but they weren’t. The fact was, no matter what else happened, where else life took them, nobody knew the soul of Sadie like he did and that was hard to resist, especially on days when she felt lost and out of her depth and needed a little understanding.

  But then the door to the waffle house opened and Sadie tore away her gaze to greet a new customer.

  Only it wasn’t a new customer; it was Luke, and he was wearing the expression of a man who’d just seen something he wished he hadn’t. There was a glance loaded with questions shared between Sadie and Declan, until it settled back on Sadie again.

  Declan cut into the stark and sudden silence.

  ‘If you don’t need anything,’ he said to Sadie, ‘I’ll get back to work.’ He cast a wary glance Luke’s way, as uncomfortable as the other man’s had been distrustful.

  ‘OK,’ Sadie replied, determined not to let the moment get the better of her. ‘Thanks for dropping by; it was thoughtful of you.’

  Declan hooked a thumb towards the kitchen. ‘Maybe I’ll just go and…’

  ‘Yes,’ Sadie said, her smile brief and reserved now. ‘That would be great; Gammy would love to see you and you could… you know…’

  ‘Check on her?’

  ‘Exactly. Kill two birds with one stone.’

  Declan went through to the kitchen and Sadie forced a bright smile for Luke.

  ‘Have you met Declan properly yet?’

  ‘No, but I know of him.’

  ‘Right. Of course. Small town and all that, of course you do. He’s an… old friend.’

  ‘I gathered,’ he replied, and Sadie didn’t know how to respond to that so she ignored it.

  ‘I didn’t expect to see you again today. Is everything alright?’

  ‘I didn’t expect to see you open today.’

  ‘No; a lot of people seem to be coming in to say that. It’s a long story. Did you just come in because you’d noticed or…?’

  ‘Well, yes. But I thought I’d just come in to take the opportunity to catch you anyway. About this morning—’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I handled it very badly.’

  ‘No, no you didn’t. It was a stupid suggestion and everything you said made perfect sense. I just wanted to say that and clear the air. After we left things the way we did I haven’t been able to settle all day.’

  ‘Me neither,’ Sadie said. ‘Honestly, I’m so glad we’ve been able to speak again this afternoon.’

  ‘Me too,’ he said, and he seemed to relax a little. ‘I was so worried that I’d blown it this morning.’

  ‘Me too. We might be as daft as each other.’

  ‘We might.’ He glanced around the dining room before taking a step back towards the door. ‘You’re busy, and you don’t have time for all this now. When you said you’d be free later…’

  ‘Could we make it tomorrow? I know I said that this morning but things have changed. We have to talk to Gammy again, sort this business out once and for all, and I have to be there giving it my full attention. My parents will flip if I rush off again, not to mention my brother will want to come over and punch your lights out.’

  ‘He’d probably be quite efficient at it too,’ Luke said with a laugh. ‘He looks handy.’

  ‘Don’t be fooled. He looks as if he could handle himself but all those muscles are just decoration. He wouldn’t really hurt a fly.’

  ‘Easy for you to say – he’s probably never wanted to knock you out.’

  Sadie smiled. ‘How about tomorrow? That’s if you’re free.’

  ‘My evening schedule is a bit like yours – pretty empty right now. I think tomorrow could work.’

  ‘Tomorrow then. About…’

  But Luke’s attention had been drawn to the kitchen, and Sadie looked to see that Declan was walking across the dining room. She felt the temperature in the room drop by degrees once more as the two men regarded each other. Declan aimed a careless nod at Sadie.

  ‘Don’t forget, call if you need anything. Me or Mum or Dad – we’ll all help if we can.’

  Sadie smiled gratefully. ‘Thanks, Dec. I appreciate it.’

  ‘See you around then.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  He held his hand up in a casual wave and left. Sadie was aware that she wanted to watch him walk the pier for a moment or two, as she always did when he left the waffle house, but that she shouldn’t. Instead she turned back to Luke.

  ‘I’m looking forward to it already.’

  ‘I’ll text you later to see what time suits you. Where do you want to go?’

  ‘I’m content just walking on the beach if you’re there.’

  ‘Really?’ He grinned, and he looked so much happier now than when he’d arrived that it warmed her to see it. She was tired, and she had more trouble waiting for her at home, but at least there was this to look forward to.

  ‘Absolutely,’ she said. ‘If the weather is good, that’s what we’ll do.’

  Chapter Sixteen

  Sadie had never seen her grandmother cry – at least, not like this. She’d seen her cry at Gampy’s funeral, of course, and for other family members they’d lost over the years. She’d seen her cry at films and she’d seen her cry with happiness, but she’d never seen such bitter, hateful tears, and she’d never imagined in her wildest nightmares that she’d be the cause of them. April had called her a flake, lazy, disloyal, selfish… and that was despite Henny and Graham’s staunch defence of
her. It had cut into her very soul to see her grandmother look at her with such betrayal too, and yet, despite how much it hurt, she knew that Ewan was right and that the only way they’d get Gammy to step away from the waffle house was for Sadie to withdraw her help. It didn’t mean that she was any less hurt by the fact that her brother had chosen to throw her under the bus to achieve it, and that he was now the golden boy while Sadie was the girl her grandma could hardly bear to look at.

  In the end, Henny had been forced to take April to bed, and they’d been gone for a solid hour before she came back down to the drawing room, where Sadie was curled in her father’s arms, her own tears falling now that her grandma wasn’t there to see them. Ewan was in the garden with Kat, who was almost as distressed as Sadie and April about the whole thing.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ Henny said, coming to sit with her husband and daughter on the sofa. ‘I never imagined it would be quite this ghastly.’

  ‘It’s not your fault,’ Sadie sniffed, sitting up and dabbing her eyes with her dad’s clean hanky.

  ‘I can’t help but feel it is,’ Henny said. ‘We shouldn’t have let things get this far… We should have put that old place on the market the moment we’d buried poor Kenneth.’

  ‘I pushed it, Mum,’ Sadie said. ‘I don’t want you to feel bad about it.’

  Henny gave her a mournful look and reached to catch a tear as it tracked Sadie’s cheek. ‘How can I feel anything else? No mother wants to see her daughter cry like this. If anything, I’m angry at April.’

  ‘Angry?’ Graham looked sharply at his wife.

  ‘I can’t help it,’ Henny said. ‘I know I shouldn’t be but look at the disharmony between us at the moment and it’s all over that blasted waffle house.’

  ‘You can’t be angry at Gammy,’ Sadie said. ‘She doesn’t know what she’s doing.’

  ‘That doesn’t make it any easier to see you so upset.’ Henny let out a sigh. ‘Well, it’s done now. Tomorrow morning we’ll instruct someone to put the waffle house on the market. She’ll have to sign the papers, of course…’ She looked at Graham. ‘That’s going to be your job, I’m afraid, because I don’t think she’d do it for anyone but you.’

  Sadie gave her father a look of deepest sympathy. It seemed that she wasn’t the only family member who was going to have tyre marks across their back by the end of tomorrow.

  He nodded grimly. Sadie sank into the sofa and closed her eyes. She was drained – not only physically but emotionally too. She’d done a full day’s work on little more than two hours’ sleep, not to mention the added stresses of troublesome boyfriends and ex-boyfriends and brothers and mothers and grandmothers. All in all, she’d had better days.

  With the sounds of her mother and father still talking, she let herself drift away. She didn’t care that she was on the sofa – she’d have slept on a barbed-wire fence right now. And she might wake with a crick in her neck, but it was just another problem she’d have to deal with when she got to it. They were racking up quite nicely these days anyway.

  * * *

  She couldn’t remember going to bed but Sadie woke around eleven the next morning in her bedroom. The house was silent, but her parents would have gone down to the harbour by now and would probably be getting ready to take out the second boatload of tourists that day.

  She pushed herself up and stretched, and then suddenly remembered with a nauseous twist of her stomach that her grandma would probably be somewhere downstairs and that she would have to face her. Perhaps April would have forgotten the conversation, or perhaps she might have had a change of heart overnight and would be willing to forgive Sadie and put the whole thing behind them. Sadie wasn’t sure she wanted to find out, because neither of those things might be true. And she couldn’t just run away and go out, because if Gammy was in, Sadie felt duty bound to stay in too and make sure she stayed safe. Henny and Graham would expect that of her as well, as the only member of the family under retirement age and without a job.

  She shuddered, yet another cold truth dropping onto her. She was officially unemployed. Twenty-six, living with her parents, unemployed, unfinished education and with no real prospects. If she hadn’t felt miserable before, she did now. Natalie and Georgia might have complained that their jobs had no prospects but they were doing a damn sight better than Sadie. She’d have to address it, but it wasn’t something she could face right now. Instead, she decided that she’d no choice but to get up and get dressed and face her grandma. It would have to happen sooner or later – might as well get it over and done with.

  But when Sadie got down to the kitchen, there was no sign of April. There was, however, a note on the table telling Sadie that Henny and Graham had taken her to the boatshed with them to help (which meant they were keeping an eye on her and keeping her out of Sadie’s way) and she had to heave a sigh of relief, even though it might not have been the most appropriate reaction. She also knew that this wouldn’t be something they’d be able to do every day and that they’d probably have to enlist the help of someone they knew from the harbour community to enable them to do it today.

  Instantly she felt lighter and surprisingly hungry too. She grabbed a slice of toast and a coffee and then headed upstairs for a shower. A freshen-up, another coffee and a walk out in the sun… it was surprising what the small things could do to lift a low spirit. And who knew, maybe her feet would take her in the direction of the Old Chapel, and maybe the owner would be around to say hello. There had to be some advantages to having unexpected time on your hands.

  * * *

  An hour later she was walking the road to Luke’s house, on a mission to surprise him. The weather was cooler today, the sky a patchwork of fast-moving white cloud, and she’d thrown a cotton sweater over her vest top and jeans to stave off the chill coming in from the sea. But the sun, when it broke through, was still warm and comforting on her skin and she was happier and more optimistic just for being in it. She was looking forward to seeing Luke’s reaction when she showed up unannounced, and to more than just that. She was hoping that he’d be able to down tools to spend an hour or two with her.

  When she arrived at the Old Chapel twenty minutes later he was on the roof, stripped down to his waist. She stopped and watched for a while as he worked to replace a row of tiles, partly because she didn’t dare shout up in case she spoiled his concentration and made him fall, and partly because his tanned and muscular back was a pretty good view, one she was content to drink in for as long as she could. In fact, she perched herself on a large boulder at the side of the rocky lane that led up to the house. It wasn’t until he stopped and straightened up, standing atop the roof with impossible balance and admiring the view in the sunshine, that he suddenly noticed she was there.

  ‘Wow.’ He grinned. ‘Must be my lucky day!’

  She stood and walked to the garden gate as he scooted down the roof and negotiated the scaffolding like a mountain goat.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked as he met her on the garden path. ‘I thought we’d agreed to meet up later for that walk on the beach?’

  ‘Oh, you know, I didn’t have much to do and it was a nice day so I thought I’d throw the schedule out of the window and surprise you.’

  ‘You certainly did that.’

  ‘You don’t mind, do you?’

  ‘God, of course not! I needed an excuse to take a break and you’re perfect.’

  She shielded her eyes and surveyed the house. It was low level, one floor like a bungalow, with beautiful arched windows. It had once been Sea Salt Bay’s tiny chapel, where the hundred odd parishioners got together on Sundays to worship. The last time it had been used for that purpose had been many years ago – certainly longer than anyone alive in the bay today could remember. It had been deemed too high up on the cliffs and too old and draughty to continue using, a Victorian red-brick church taking its place, and for many years it had stood empty, until someone had attempted to turn it into a house. They’d given up, and then someon
e else had had a go and decided it was too much for them too. Sadie hoped that Luke would be a bit more tenacious in his attempts – for purely selfish reasons, of course. She wanted him to stay in the bay, and he was far more likely to do that if he had a beautiful, completed home there.

  ‘It’s looking good,’ she said.

  ‘Coming along,’ he replied, wiping his hands down his jeans and reaching for a shirt he’d left hanging on a gatepost. Sadie was almost sorry to see it cover his chest as he buttoned it up, but maybe she’d work on getting it off again before too long. She’d had a horrible few days and this morning, being handed a reprieve of sorts, had put her in a strange and mischievous mood. She felt like having some fun – in fact, she needed some fun because she felt as if she hadn’t had fun for a hundred years.

  ‘Can I get you a drink?’ he asked. ‘There’s not much of a choice I’m afraid – it’s either tea or orange juice. If I’d known you were coming I could have got more in, but…’

  ‘Orange juice sounds nice.’

  She followed him inside. The sunlight was swallowed by shade. The windows were beautiful in here but they were small and the frames worked with a heavy criss-cross design that kept out a lot of light. But, despite this, it wasn’t a dark or unpleasant space because the ceilings were so high and the rooms so spacious. The walls were still bare plaster and the original floor boards – with some new replacements here and there – were on show. Almost everything was in one room – the kitchen, living space and dining room – except for a master bedroom and a small bathroom which were off to one side. He went to where the kitchen was separated from the main space only by a breakfast bar and opened the fridge.

  ‘Want some ice in it?’ he asked.

  ‘Ice is good if you’ve got it.’

  He nodded, and a few seconds later the clink of ice on glass could be heard. Sadie could see only two old armchairs, but she supposed there was no point in having loads of fancy furniture when you were still building around it. She sat down on one of them, and though it looked threadbare, it was surprisingly comfortable. Then he stood before her, two drinks in his hands, and he offered her one before taking the other chair.