Second Chance Summer, page 17
Hoping she wasn’t doing anything as gauche as blushing, Lily went silent while Sam reined back the throttle on the approach to the jetty. He needed all his concentration to steer the Hydra through the narrow entrance. Perhaps she should have waited to ask him until they were safely on Stark.
With the boat alongside, he jumped off.
‘I’ll help tie up,’ she said, as he secured the bow rope to an old iron post.
‘OK.’ He threw the rope to her and she looped it around the cleat on the stern, tying it off with two hitches.
‘I’ve been practising,’ she said. ‘With the curtain cord in my cottage.’
He laughed. ‘We’ll make an islander of you yet.’
Finally, they were together on the quay, in the deep blue twilight of a June evening.
‘I have no problem with you staying on,’ he said.
‘I also thought it would give me the chance to help you finish Samphire and Starfish.’
‘It would, but you don’t need to do that. What about your own business? Aren’t you desperate to get back to it?’
‘Not as desperate as I was,’ she said, walking by his side up to the retreat, conscious of his quiet, solid presence beside her. It felt good, yet she was also conscious of the supermarket deal looming in the corner of her mind.
‘Is that a good thing?’ he asked.
‘When I arrived, I didn’t want to let go. Not even by a millimetre. I was clinging onto the business, my work – to all kinds of things – so hard, I was exhausted. I had to let go, let myself fall a little way, to realise that.’
They stood side by side, gazing out over the Atlantic where the horizon was still tinged with pink, a reminder of the day that had passed. Soon, the sky behind them would lighten again, hinting at a new day full of possibilities.
Lily had to seize them.
‘You understand what I’m saying?’ she said to Sam.
He let his eyes rest on the horizon. Lily waited, her pulse beating faster, hardly daring to imagine what might happen next.
‘I’m pleased you’re staying,’ he said, with a brief smile, before stretching and yawning. ‘Now, it’s late and I’m knackered. I think I’ll get an early night. I’ll take you to Bryher first thing so you can try to rearrange your flight.’
To her relief, he didn’t add ‘again’.
The next morning, Lily lay awake for a good while, wondering whether she’d made the right decision to stay – and why Sam had blown hot and cold the evening before. Were his mood swings the result of his break-up with Rhiannon? Had one woman left such scars on him that he was too scared to open himself up to another?
Lily wouldn’t know unless she asked him straight out and she wasn’t going to do that and risk shattering the fragile connection they’d built – or that she thought they had. She wondered which Sam she would see today: wounded lover, tender man or reluctant host.
In the end, he was polite and pleasant over breakfast but seemed preoccupied. She’d heard him talking on the radio to Aaron about soil pipes so decided she was being over-sensitive and that Sam was too busy worrying about finishing the bathrooms to give much thought to anything else.
He dropped her at the Bryher quay and immediately headed over the channel to Tresco where he said he was meeting Aaron.
Lily had her own list of tasks and the first was to break it to Richie that she wanted to stay on for the craft fair. Boss she might be, but she had an inkling he wouldn’t understand why she was staying away to open a few market stalls. She kept privately questioning the wisdom of her decision and was steeling herself before the call with a slice of carrot cake on the café’s terrace.
In the event, the surprise WhatsApp video call she received from Étienne felt like fate.
‘Hello, Lily! Thank goodness I got you,’ he said, sounding almost out of breath. ‘My God, that sky looks blue. It’s pissing down here, which is why I’m standing under the car-park machine shelter outside the hospital. Now, listen up,’ he said, holding up a Greggs paper bag. ‘I’ve got exactly ten minutes to down a cappuccino, eat a cardiac-inducing doughnut and ask you a bloody enormous favour.’
Did he need her to dash home for some emergency? He sounded agitated – or perhaps he was simply buzzing from adrenaline, sugar and caffeine.
Lily’s stomach clenched. ‘Are the girls alright?’ she said with sudden alarm, knocking her cake fork onto the terrace.
‘Oh, they’re fine. They’re more than fine. They’re bouncing off the bloody ceiling and that’s why I’m asking you a favour. Look, a miracle has happened: the teachers are on strike the Friday after next.’
‘And that’s a good thing?’
‘Yes, because I also have the weekend off duty and a day owing … so basically, we could come and see you. We’ll need a place to stay, though, and I haven’t even checked if there’s any way of getting to you, but the girls have already worked it out and seem to think they can click their heels three times and be beamed up to you. Now I’ve said all that, it’s probably a ludicrous idea …’
‘Not ludicrous. It sounds absolutely amazing. I’d love to show you Stark but I was supposed to leave the island that day.’
‘What? Oh, shit.’ He pulled a face. ‘I’d lost track of time. Sorry. Forget it.’
‘No, Étienne! I can alter my flight home. If you can get here, you and the girls could have Samphire Cottage because we’ve almost finished renovating it.’
‘You’ve been renovating a cottage?’
‘Only the odd lick of paint and some styling. And don’t worry about flights – I’ll talk to Sam and Richie. Between us all we’ll get you here. I want you to come so much and actually it would fit in with some new plans. I’ve been invited to open … to help with a craft fair next Saturday so I was planning to stay on a few more days.’
‘You’re opening a craft fair?’ Étienne echoed, his brow creasing in concern. ‘This all sounds like serendipity, but Lily, are you absolutely sure we’re not causing you trouble by disrupting your plans? What about work? The business?’
‘The business? Oh, that can wait for a couple of days. I’ll phone Richie and sort it.’
He peered at her. ‘Lily, are you sure you’re OK?’
‘Why?’
‘Because …’ he began, before murmuring, ‘Nothing. Don’t worry. If you’re certain we won’t add to your stress, we’d love to come. Now, I need to eat this doughnut and get back to the blood and guts in A&E.’ He held up the doughnut, squeezing it so the jam oozed out.
‘Do you mind not doing that, please?’ Lily muttered.
He gave a wicked grin. ‘Send me the details when you can, but please don’t pile pressure on yourself over this visit – you sound as if you’ve enough on your plate already. I won’t tell the girls until it’s all arranged. They’d be totally wild with excitement and refuse to sleep at all.’
Lily ended the call and heaved a sigh. She was ecstatic at the prospect of seeing the twins, yet her elation was tinged with dismay. Étienne was astonished she was putting anything other than the business first. Perhaps, she thought with sadness, he didn’t trust her to keep her word.
Well, this time, she would. She’d move heaven and earth to make sure Étienne and her nieces found some way of reaching Stark – and she would also show the islanders that she was far from the person portrayed on TV.
Nothing would stand in her way.
There was more serendipitous news later that afternoon that made Lily feel she was obviously meant to stay. One of the islanders had been offered a last-minute medical appointment on the mainland and was only too keen to take her place on the Friday flight.
Sam had put the word out to Elspeth via the radio the previous evening. By now, everyone on Bryher – and probably beyond – would know she was staying longer. Any illusion of privacy was blown out of the water, but that couldn’t be helped. She was, after all, going to be the star guest at the craft fair.
Étienne had managed to get spaces for him and the girls on a late afternoon plane from Exeter for the following Friday, so they were sorted. She only needed to ask Sam if they could stay at the retreat, but first she needed to text Penny to confirm she’d be able to attend the craft fair, and then call Richie.
He was lounging in her office chair, his West Bromwich Albion mug on her desk. Lily decided not to say anything about him having commandeered her office temporarily.
‘Hello, you look very well,’ he said cheerfully. ‘The seaside is doing you good. Sea air is a tonic for all ills, my nanna says.’
‘Your nanna is a wise woman,’ Lily replied. ‘Actually, I’ve been busy painting.’
Richie beamed. ‘Oh, how lovely. Watercolours?’
Lily laughed. ‘Um, a bit – though yesterday it was emulsion.’
Richie pouted. ‘Emulsion … okayyy. Was it some kind of experimental art class?’
‘In a way,’ Lily said, feeling rather guilty for teasing him. She didn’t think he’d understand if she admitted to helping paint the cottages. ‘I didn’t call you to tell you about my artistic efforts. There’s been a slight change of plan.’
‘Slight?’ His expression turned wary. Lily knew she was throwing him a succession of curve balls. Well, it would do him good. She’d been too predictable over the past few months.
‘Yes, Étienne wants to bring the twins over for a long weekend, but it means I need to stay on until next Monday. I’ve already amended my flight home. Another islander wanted to swap as it suited them better so that’s fine. I don’t think there’s anything you can’t handle, is there? I can do all my scheduled meetings over FaceTime.’
‘Oh …’ He was clicking the top of his lilac biro anxiously. She knew that look. ‘I’ll double-check. The director of our ad agency is coming in to present the Christmas campaign but we can take the meeting if you like.’
‘Are you sure?’ she asked.
‘We can handle it and brief you later … only I thought you’d like to know as you usually want to be in the thick of those meetings.’
Lily loved meeting – and grilling – the ad agency creatives but she couldn’t be in two places at once, and while the prospect of missing the next one gave her a flutter of anxiety, she squashed it down. ‘I’m sure you and the team can deal with it very well. I have total confidence in you.’
Richie’s lips parted in amazement. ‘You do?’
‘Of course. Now, if anything genuinely urgent crops up while I’m on Stark, there’s always the radio. You have Elspeth’s number, and she’ll contact Sam and me if necessary. So, we’re good?’ she added firmly.
‘Yes, I think so …’ Richie’s pen-clicking increased in tempo. ‘You’ll be back in the office a week on Tuesday, then?’
‘Of course.’
‘OK, then. See you soon.’
She knew Richie too well. The hesitation in his voice, the frantic clicking – he was wondering if she would be going back at all.
Judging by the butterflies in her stomach, Lily was wondering the same.
Immediately, she dismissed the very notion. Giving up her business wasn’t an option. Too many people depended on her. She loved being her own boss and she’d worked far too hard to reach this point, to pack it in.
Yet she was also determined that her real obituary – no matter how far off it might be – would not read like the one that had been prematurely released.
Richie cut into her thoughts. ‘Is there anything else, hun?’
‘No, I don’t think so. I’m happy to leave everything in your capable hands. Byee!’
She ended the call, grinning like a Cheshire Cat at the look of amazement on his face.
Now, all she had to do was ask Sam if Étienne and the girls could stay at the retreat. To think, only days ago she’d have moved heaven and earth to leave this place. Now, she was rearranging her life so she could stay.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
On Saturday morning, Sam was up at five-thirty, taking advantage of the fine dry morning to put some final touches to Samphire. All it needed was some bathroom fixtures and fittings, which he could complete before making breakfast for Lily.
In the end, she had beaten him to it, turning up with a flask of coffee and a bag of pastries that made his mouth water. Lily herself looked edible to Sam in her denim cut-offs and an oversized T-shirt he’d loaned her.
She rattled the paper bag. ‘Found these in the freezer and bunged them in the oven,’ she said. ‘I baked three for you, thought you’d be hungry.’
‘You thought right,’ he said. ‘Thank you. I was ready for this.’
They ate on the terrace, watching the sun climb higher and the glittering sand flats appear as the tide retreated.
‘Thank you for letting Étienne and the girls be your first guests in Samphire,’ she said. He had agreed to let them stay in the cottage and had let her use the radio to get a message to Étienne.
‘It’s not a problem. They can be my next guinea pigs.’
‘They’ll be so excited! I can’t wait to talk to them later when they’re back home from school. Their nanny is going to set up a FaceTime. Étienne works such erratic hours as a doctor, and my parents live too far away to be more than occasional babysitters, so he has to have a live-in nanny.’
‘It must have been tough for him, suddenly being a lone parent.’
‘I don’t know how he’s coped. He’s wrestling with his own grief yet having to put on a brave face for the girls and hold down a tough job.’ She smiled at Sam. ‘You’ll like him,’ she said, with steel in her voice. ‘Everyone does.’
Sam got the message that liking Étienne was non-negotiable. Briefly, he experienced a pang of jealousy and wondered if Lily felt something more than brotherly love for the man. Then he dismissed it: even if she did have feelings for her brother-in-law, it was none of Sam’s concern. He wanted her to be happy – and she could never be happy with him.
There had been moments when he’d sensed a spark between them – moments when they’d been working together, eating together, laughing together and putting the world to rights. She was devoted to her family, cared about her employees and was deeply loyal. All of those things he valued and shared – yet he was acutely aware she was only in his world for a fleeting time, living a fantasy that he dared not allow himself to share.
He was providing that escape: he should be thrilled it was working and forget the cost to himself.
‘Sam?’
Lily was on her feet, flask and mugs in her hands and a serious frown on her pretty face.
‘Far be it from me to crack the whip but shouldn’t we get back to work?’
He laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of her statement. ‘I am dreading the reviews you’re going to post: I almost drowned, had to cook for the hotel boss and build my own room!’
‘I haven’t had to build my own room,’ she said with a cheeky smirk that sent the temperature soaring. ‘But I am having to build one for Étienne and the girls.’
Sam couldn’t deny this and he was extremely glad of the help. Samphire was a suite, like her own cottage, with a bedroom and separate lounge area. Lily insisted on making up the bed and left a spare duvet and pillows in the sitting room for the twins.
‘Amelie and Tania are going to love sleeping on this sofa bed. I doubt Étienne will get much sleep though. They’ll be hyper with excitement.’
‘You’ll have to take them for a very long walk.’
‘I’d like to take them rock pooling,’ she said.
‘I thought we could have a fire on the beach after dinner, toast some marshmallows, hot chocolate …’ Sam said. ‘Maybe something a bit more exciting for the grown-ups.’
‘That would be fantastic.’ She held up crossed fingers. ‘I just hope the weather stays fine so their flights take off and they can see how lush the islands are.’
On Sunday they worked until lunchtime before Sam insisted that Lily take a break. Already he felt a huge weight had lifted from his shoulders with two cottages complete and the cavalry arriving to finish the third and fourth. Aaron was coming over the following day, along with an electrician and plumber.
Lily had urged him to start advertising all the units on the hotel booking sites. At her instigation, he’d also advertised for a seasonal chef and housekeeper, both locally and more widely on hospitality recruitment sites.
Lily made herself a sandwich for lunch and, at Sam’s insistence, took herself off for a break. He shifted some boxes of slate tiles to Starfish, meaning to finish the stone planter he’d built on the terrace.
He saw her strolling down the slope from the South Hill, wearing her bucket hat, carrying a bag with her sketch pad and paints. She looked relaxed – jaunty almost – and he was glad to see it. A moment later, she vanished amid the foxgloves and bracken.
The temperature rose but he had to push on, so he slathered on more suncream and fetched an old cricket hat of Nate’s. His brother had played for the island team for all of two games before he’d grown bored of ‘having a rock chucked at me’. He’d been a decent batter too, but couldn’t be bothered to stick at it. Only computer games had ever held his interest.
Time ticked by and the sun felt even hotter. Sweat trickled down Sam’s neck and his arms ached but the planter was finished. He swept up debris from the terrace. Once Aaron and his mates had spent a week at the retreat, Starfish would be ready for letting and Sea Holly and Scallop on their way, making a quintet of cottages in all. Maybe he could even invest the revenue into developing the ruined ones by the bay.
He checked his watch. Wow, it was past four! He picked up his flask for a drink of cool water.
‘Sam!’
Lily’s shout reached him on the terrace. Sam dropped a slate on the ground and took off around the side of the cottage.
There she was: scrambling up the slope from the middle of the island, gasping for breath. He hurtled down to meet her and she flung herself into his arms.
‘What’s happened?’ he said, holding her tightly.
‘I saw it again! In one of the old cottages. This time, it wasn’t just a shadow, I’m sure it was a person.’
