An A to Z of Love

by Sophie Pembroke

  “She asked you to do this?” Because that, right there, was all the reason Charlie needed to say no.

  “No, no, no.” Tony shook his head. “She has no idea I’m here. You see, the thing is, she thinks she’s in love with you.”

  “She’s not,” Charlie assured him. “And even if she was...”

  “You’re not in love with her, I know. And a little free advice? You might want to tell Mia about that at some point.” Tony sighed. “No, Becky and me? We’re a match. And it’s time for her to wake up to that. I need something to pin her down. The offer of a new life here might just be the thing.”

  “You think?”

  “It’s a perfect set-up,” Tony explained. “We can use the cottage as a weekend bolthole, and if you’re not here, she’ll be happy with that. I know she thinks she wants to live here, but she’d hate it within a month.”

  “Just like last time,” Charlie agreed. Looked like Tony knew Becky.

  “Exactly. So we come up here every few months, live in London the rest of the time. She never has to see you again because she’ll be too busy with other parts of the business.”

  “What about the casino?”

  “That’s easy.” Tony dismissed it with a hand wave. “I’ll offer it to her, but she’ll soon be ready for me to put a manager in her place and let her come back to Manchester. She needs a challenge, you see, just like me.”

  Charlie didn’t ask what Tony was going to do if Mia’s festival actually raised enough to buy the cinema. It didn’t matter, because...

  “It’s a generous offer,” he said. “But I’m afraid I’m going to have to turn you down.”

  “Why?” Tony asked. “You’re not in love with Becky, you can take Mia to London with you–bet she’d love to get out of this town. You need something to make the restaurant a success. So what’s stopping you?” Tony obviously didn’t know Mia.

  Still, Charlie thought about his answer. If Mia didn’t save the Coliseum, she’d leave town, he was sure of it. And if she asked, he’d go with her. Which would mean selling StarFish. And Charlie knew this was a one-time offer. Tony wasn’t the sort of man to ask twice.

  And yet. “I have faith. Mia’s going to save this town, one way or another. And I want to be here to see it.”

  Chapter 18

  Mia lay in bed that night, counting the hours until the festival opened on her alarm clock and listening to the wind rising up outside her window. The rain was battering at the glass now, powered on by ever-repeating gusts and gales, and she hoped the company hiring out the stall booths was right about them being fully waterproof.

  She wished she’d asked about windproof, too.

  What was her dad doing in this weather? The cottage couldn’t be a pleasant place to spend a night like this. Had Charlie got the roof fixed yet? Were there even any electrics? There wasn’t any heating for sure.

  What if there was a power cut? She checked her clock again. It was battery-powered, so proof of nothing. Flicking the switch on her bedside light, she waited in the darkness for a bulb that never came on.

  So the power was out. Great.

  Whatever her father had done, he didn’t deserve to suffer this sort of weather alone. Hauling herself out of her warm cocoon of blankets, she pawed her way to her dressing table chair and pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweater she hoped was the right way out. Then, guided only by the light of her mobile phone, she navigated her way down the stairs, into the A to Z shop and all way to the T shelf, where she finally found a torch.

  After another brief stop at the B shelf for batteries, she found her coat on the rack, tugged her hood over her head, and set out into the storm.

  The easiest path up to the lighthouse keeper’s cottage was from the beach. Mia figured it would give her a chance to check on the festival site, too. Just in case. But as she headed down Water Street, she saw candles lit in the window of StarFish and her heart relaxed, just a little. Her dad must have come down from the cottage and was crashing with Charlie for the night. That made sense.

  But the portion of her heart that had kept her up worrying wouldn’t let it go.

  She paused in the middle of Water Street, raindrops sluicing down her face and her soaked jeans sticking to her legs.

  “Oh, what the hell,” she muttered. It would only take a moment to check he was there. And who knew, maybe Charlie would offer to warm her up before she went home...if he wasn’t already packing to get out of town.

  The door to the restaurant was open and, eager to get safe and warm, Mia banged through at speed. Charlie’s head jerked up from behind the bar, his eyes wide and his hair bed-tossed.

  “Thank God somebody’s got a torch,” he said, standing up. “Candles are plenty romantic, but less practical for actually going out in the rain.”

  “Is Dad here?” Mia pushed her hood down and discovered that, despite her waterproof, her hair was still soaked. Just like the rest of her.

  Charlie shook his head. “And there’s no answer on his phone. I was just about to go and check the cottage for him. Bring him here for the night.”

  Mia’s heart sank lower, weighed down by rain and broken hope. Charlie gave her a knowing look. “I guess you want to come with me?”

  Shrugging, Mia put her hood back up, for whatever good it would do. “I was just heading down to the beach,” she lied. “Thought I’d check the booths are still standing.”

  “Right.” Charlie tugged a waterproof jacket over his t-shirt and jeans. “Well, we can do that on the way.”

  The rain was getting worse, crashing against the pavement and splashing up past her knees. The racket made it impossible to talk, so Mia took to silently creating some very inventive curses for every weather forecaster who’d said, “Rain overnight, and some showers tomorrow.” This wasn’t rain. It was a deluge.

  “Someone should be building an ark,” she muttered, and Charlie squinted at her through the water, unable to hear.

  She shook her head, sending water flying around her, and pressed on for the cliff path, pausing to take a quick look at the festival site as they reached the beach. It was too depressing to linger.

  “Do you want to go check the booths?” Charlie yelled in her ear.

  Mia pulled herself up to reply, “No point. We can’t do anything in this weather.”

  Charlie nodded and, taking her hand in his, followed her torchlight up the steep cliff path.

  They were out of breath by the time they reached the top, the wind and the rain making a usually energetic climb downright draining. Peering out at the blacked-out cottage, Mia reminded herself a lack of lights wasn’t necessarily a bad sign. Even if the cottage electrics were fixed, there was a blackout.

  She ignored the memory of Ditsy recounting how George had been into the A to Z shop to purchase a torch and batteries earlier in the week. And the gaps on the shelves when she’d grabbed her own.

  “Come on, then,” Charlie said, his voice whipped away on the wind as he dragged her forward. “Let’s get inside.”

  In the blackness of the cottage, Mia’s hearing started to return, protected by the thick stone walls.

  “Thank God I got the windows sorted early,” Charlie said, keeping hold of her hand and leading her into the lounge.

  “What about the roof?” Mia traced her free hand along the wall for balance.

  “It’ll hold,” Charlie said, and he sounded sure, so Mia decided to believe him. “George?” he called out. But the words just echoed off the stone walls.

  He wasn’t there, and they both knew he wasn’t there, but they searched every inch of the cottage by torchlight anyway, just in case. Eventually they found themselves in the lounge again, standing in front of the window seat, staring out at the rain.

  “Do you want to wait here?” Charlie asked. “See if he comes back?”

  Mia thought about going out into the rain and shuddered. “It was bad enough getting up the path. I’m not sure I want to try getting down it.”

  Charl
ie nodded. “Okay. Then let’s find some blankets, get out of these clothes, get settled and turn off the torch before we wear out the batteries.”

  Somewhere in there was a joke, a line about getting out of wet clothes, a tease about a come-on. But she was cold and tired and, once again, had no idea where her father was.

  Mia shivered and let Charlie strip the sodden coat from her shoulders.

  “I’ve got some spare work clothes here somewhere,” he went on as she toed off her trainers. “I’m sure I can scrounge up a t-shirt for you. Wait here and I’ll go see what we’ve got in the way of blankets and towels.”

  Charlie picked up a second torch, lying on top of a toolbox, and headed into the hallway. Mia got a glimpse of it in passing—not the same as hers. Not the one her father had bought from the A to Z shop.

  So, wherever he was, hopefully he had some light.

  Mia sighed and looked around while she waited for Charlie to return. For all that the cottage was still a work in progress, she was surprised at how habitable it actually was. Of course, she knew her father had been living here, but she’d been thinking of it more as camping. From what she could see in the faint torchlight, George had actually made it rather homey.

  “How much work have you done on this place?” she asked, watching Charlie’s torch beam enter the room ahead of him.

  Charlie wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, and she wriggled out of her t-shirt and jeans under it as he answered. “New windows and door, plumbing’s sorted, electrics work–except not right now, of course. We’re just starting the decorating, really.”

  “That’s a lot.” Mia tossed her wet clothes on the floor and huddled tighter under the blanket for a moment before slipping into the dry t-shirt. “I was imagining Dad living out here in a ruin.”

  “We were lucky.” Charlie moved to hang her clothes over an old chair in the corner of the room. He was being very optimistic if he thought they were going to be dry by morning. “The basic structure was sound, and even the roof’s not too bad. Magda’s brothers have done some shoring up that should last until I can afford to replace it properly.”

  Mia nodded, then stopped. “Then why were you so worried about Dad? Why climb all the way up the cliff path in this sort of weather if he was in a basically finished house.”

  Shrugging, Charlie gave her a sheepish smile. “He wasn’t answering his phone. Besides, you were worried about him.”

  “I thought he was living in a slum,” Mia pointed out.

  Charlie came closer and settled beside her on the window seat. Taking the torch from her hands, he switched it off, saying, “Better conserve power.” Then he leaned back against the opposite end of the sill, and Mia could feel his eyes on her in the darkness. “It’s okay to admit you care about him, you know.”

  “Haven’t you got any candles in here? It’s unnerving, talking to someone you can’t see but know is there.”

  She heard Charlie sigh, then a rustle of movement, and expected the sharp beam of the torch again at any moment while he went to go and look for candles. Instead, she felt his arms wrap around her waist, turn her so she was facing away from him and tug her into his embrace so her spine rested against his chest.

  “Better?” he asked, and she could feel the words vibrate underneath her.

  She wanted to argue that this didn’t actually address her original point, but the truth was she did feel better, so instead she just nodded, trusting he could sense the movement of her head even if he couldn’t see it.

  “Good,” he said, and Mia settled down to just listening to him breathe.

  “I had a visit from Tony tonight,” Charlie said, after a few minutes.

  Mia thought about acting surprised, but it didn’t seem worth the effort. “I know. I popped by. Overheard.”

  “You heard his offer?”

  Mia nodded again, and felt him shift behind her. He was so very close. And the thin layers of t-shirts between them wasn’t doing anything to stop the warmth radiating off him, despite the rain and the cold. A girl could get used to that.

  “I’m not going to take it,” Charlie said. “I don’t want to leave Aberarian.”

  “It’s a good offer,” Mia pointed out, wondering even as she spoke why she had to make life miserable for herself. Because I want him to be happy. Which was a stupid reason, she decided. But her mouth went on without her. “You should consider it.”

  Charlie shook his head, and water droplets from his still-wet hair dripped onto her neck. “I’m not leaving you,” he said, and his voice was so low and so warm Mia felt it right through her blanket and t-shirt and into her chest, where the words vibrated.

  And before she even acknowledged them, before she realized what she was doing, she was twisting in his arms and reaching up and her lips were on his and–oh thank God–they were kissing again.

  Her mouth moved against his like a fever, because Charlie was wrong. He might not leave her, but she would have to leave him, in the end. She’d been trying not to think about it, but she knew what the storm outside meant. There was no way they were going to get the festival up and running in time in the morning. God only knew how much damage the wind was doing to all their careful preparations.

  And if the festival didn’t happen, it wasn’t just the Coliseum Mia was going to lose. There’d be no place for her in this town if she failed again. StarFish might take off, once the casino was in place, but would there be a place for the A to Z shop? It didn’t seem likely.

  And if Becky was here, every day... Mia tore her lips from Charlie’s and set about kissing the line of his neck, instead, tasting the rain water on his skin. Anything to block out the inevitable truth.

  She was going to have to leave Aberarian.

  Charlie brought his arms up behind her, locking her against him, and Mia could feel every inch of his chest against hers. It seemed wrong that she was finally going to sleep with Charlie Frost, for what might be the first and only time, and she couldn’t even see him.

  Then he moved his hands under her t-shirt, and she stopped thinking all together.

  Chapter 19

  When Mia awoke, the storm was over.

  Sunlight streamed through the window, leaving the window seat very exposed for a couple wearing nothing more than a blanket.

  A couple. Was that what they were?

  He’d said he wasn’t leaving. Wasn’t that enough?

  Charlie was still fast asleep beneath her, so Mia carefully maneuvered herself out from under the blanket and pulled on his t-shirt. Her jeans were still damp when she fought to tug them up her legs, so she decided the first order of business had to be clean, dry clothes.

  Then she’d set about fixing everything else.

  Ditsy raised her eyebrows when she spotted Mia walking toward the A to Z shop.

  “Don’t ask,” Mia said, fumbling for her keys. “It’s been a long night.”

  “Clearly.” Ditsy followed her into the shop. “I was just heading down to the beach to see what the damage is.”

  Mia flipped a light switch on and off, relieved to see a burst of light from the bulb. “Me too. Just give me five minutes to change.” Mia started up the stairs. “Oh, and I owe you for a torch...”

  As they headed down to the festival site, Mia watched the pale gray clouds race across the almost blue sky, and worried. About the festival, about her father and about what Charlie would think when he woke up alone.

  Susan Hamilton was already waiting for her on the Esplanade, wrapped in a tweed peacoat and looking miserable. “Look at it! All our hard work.”

  Mia surveyed the beach. The bunting along the sea wall lay in tatters, while sea gulls pecked at the brightly colored flags, but that was only a minimal casualty. They’d held off setting out most of the stalls after April Havers saw the first weather forecast and Jacques confirmed it with an ache in his knee. Still, the high winds had changed the lay of the sand, and even the plan would need changing now. On the sands, the electrical team, comprised m
ostly of Doug the local electrician and handyman and a couple of Madga’s brothers, were shaking their heads at the wind.

  “Can’t string lights in this kind of wind,” Doug shouted up to her. “We’ll have to wait and see if it calms down.”

  Joe and his brother were standing at the harbor wall, also shaking their heads. Mia called out to them, and Joe explained, “Sea’s too choppy for pleasure rides. We’ll have to ground the boats unless it calms.”

  Mia turned to Ditsy. “Right. So. We’ve no lights, no boat trips, no bunting, and I’m pretty sure the inflatable rides won’t stay upright in this weather.”

  “So what do we do?” Ditsy asked. “Cancel?”

  It was tempting, Mia had to admit. Circumstances beyond their control and all that. But the whole town had put such effort in to this festival. Besides, what would happen to the Coliseum then? Walt Hamilton had come to stand beside his wife, looking just as miserable.

  “No,” Mia said, still staring out at the beach and along to the cliffs. In the distance, something caught her eye; a figure, moving closer to them. Charlie, maybe?

  “No,” she said again, pulling her attention back. “We’re not going to cancel. We’re going to fix this. I need you to call everyone on the committee, get them down here immediately. We’ll start working on a job list, ready to delegate. We can do this. I’m sure we can.”

  She must have sounded a lot more certain than she felt, because Ditsy ran off to make the calls without argument. Mia took the steps down from the Esplanade to the beach and started to walk across the sand to the cliffs, mentally checking off all the required tasks. It was going to be a big job.

  As she drew closer to the cliffs, the figure started running, and she realized it wasn’t Charlie.

  It was her father.

  “Mia,” he called once he was near enough for his words to reach her. “You’ve got to come and see this. Now.”

  * * * *

  The sound of someone crashing through his new front door jerked Charlie awake, and he stumbled to his feet just in time to catch Mia as she barreled into the lounge and into his arms.