Nate opened both cage doors at the same time and with a united screech of relief, the big birds spread their mended wings and flew up to the balcony, before soaring off, high above the rooftops and down towards the cliffs and the beautiful sea.
‘There they go,’ Rosa said, watching them. ‘But like I said, where are you off to, now the beach clear-up is nearly over?’
Without answering, Nate pulled his phone out of his pocket, saying hastily, ‘Er, sorry to be rude, Rosa, but Pete needs me down the front. I told him I was only going to be five minutes.’
Rosa let him out of the back gate then went inside the shop and shut the door behind her. Nate seemed to know an awful lot more about her than she did about him, she thought. On reflection, she didn’t even know his last name. And what a funny thing to lie about – how long you had worked somewhere… Oh well. Maybe she had just heard him incorrectly. But why was he so hesitant in answering her questions about the future?
There was something about him that made her feel uneasy. Maybe, like her mother, she had been gifted with some kind of sixth sense – but if so, right at this moment, that sense wasn’t making any sense at all.
CHAPTER 11
‘Oh Rosa, sadness is but a wall between two gardens. Josh will be back in no time and if I were you, duck, I would grab the opportunity to take a trip to New York before you have nippers of your own running around your feet.’ Mary hugged her daughter to her ample chest.
They were in the kitchen at Seaspray Cottage, Mary’s home that she had formerly shared with Rosa’s great-grandmother Queenie.
‘I miss him,’ Rosa lamented.
‘He hasn’t even been gone a week yet,’ Mary pointed out patiently.
‘I know, but we haven’t been apart for ages – and now I think about it, we still haven’t been on that honeymoon he promised and we’ve been married a year now. At least he waited until after our first anniversary to go.’
‘Think back to a few months ago when you were in a terrible place. Josh went off to London and you didn’t even know if he was ever going to come back to you.’
‘Thanks for reminding me, Mother.’ Rosa’s mind flashed back to her drunken night with Lucas when she couldn’t remember whether they had had sex or not. Instead of running out on her, the emotionally mature Josh had made sure that she received all the support she needed – and then came back to her when she was ready to move forward with their relationship.
‘You are right though, time will fly,’ Rosa conceded. ‘Yes, it’s only September but I have Christmas forward-planning to arrange for both the shop and the café. So I will be very busy. And there’s Titch’s wedding to help her with too.’
‘That’s the spirit, girl.’
‘Josh is in New York with his friend Carlton, you know. Goodness knows what the two of them will get up to.’ Carlton was a great single mate of Josh’s; Rosa had met him a few times and liked him.
Mary leaned towards her. ‘You are to go home and make sure the Peridot stone I gave you stays near, all right? You were getting so much better with this jealousy lark.’
‘I just don’t want anything to go wrong,’ Rosa said, close to tears. ‘I feel properly happy for the first time in my life.’
‘You know what Kahlil Gibran would say on the matter, don’t you?’ Mary smiled, causing the same reaction in her daughter.
‘No, but do tell. Not that I could stop you!’
‘That love and doubt are not on speaking terms.’
‘OK, your favourite prophet did pretty good with that quote. In fact, Sara was just saying a similar thing about her and Alec the other day. But I’m still scared, that it might all end.’
‘Well, if you keep putting that out to the universe, then it might. Stay positive, and life will bring you joy. How beautiful to find a heart that loves you, without asking you for anything else, only to know that you are happy. You’re lucky, my girl. Love found you.’ Mary’s voice tailed off.
Rosa sensed an underlying sadness in her mother’s words. They had never spoken about her previous relationships – or who Rosa’s father was, for that matter. All Rosa knew was that she had been the result of a one-night stand when Mary was in the dark and painful grip of her alcoholism. Mary had done everything to care for her but one night, under the influence of drink, she had dropped her baby daughter, causing the cut on the tiny girl’s cheek, which subsequently became a scar in the shape of a bolt of lightning. That scar was a reminder to them both of Rosa’s tough start in life, for from that day forward she had been taken away from her mother and brought up in care.
At that moment, Merlin mad cat came screeching through the cat flap and started munching noisily at his crunchies. Mary reached into her apron pocket and took a large puff on her inhaler. After silently counting to ten, she released her breath and looked at the clock. ‘Time for me to go up to get changed for work, love.’
Titch was serving a customer when Rosa arrived back at the Corner Shop. In his basket, Hot raised an ear, then after being tickled behind that ear, he dug himself in under his blanket again and went back to sleep, lying on top of the squirrel rag.
Rosa went to the back kitchen and put the kettle on. She hated the empty feeling she got when Josh wasn’t near her. Realising she was maybe getting overly reliant on him again she pulled her shoulders back and let her mother’s words soak in. She had to believe that Josh loved her, but after suffering so much loneliness and rejection as a child, she carried deep scars within and it was hard to stay present and correct sometimes. Giving up alcohol had helped with this though, massively. Her mind and emotions were on far more of an even keel now. And if she did feel nagging doubts rising, she could quite easily talk herself down from them. Alec had been and still was her rock for when she needed to talk things through. Maybe she should see him soon, Rosa thought, before this empty feeling started to engulf her.
She went through to the shop carrying two mugs of tea and the biscuit tin.
‘I’ve been dying to talk to you,’ Titch said. ‘Quick, sit here.’ She patted the empty stool behind the counter then reached for her mobile. ‘Look! You are only on the bloody Daily Mail Online.’
Rosa nearly splattered her tea everywhere. ‘What the…? Let me look.’ The headline read: Cockleberry Bay Resident to Give Shop Away For Free. There were several pictures of her and the shop, taken by Scott on that summer day.
‘How bizarre that they’ve only just picked up the story,’ Rosa said. ‘It was in the Gazette in July.’
‘Maybe it’s a slow news week.’ Titch munched on a custard cream. ‘Look at you being famous. There’s a good side to it though, as now everyone will know about the shop and that will surely boost sales. And I guess you will want to give the flat away with the shop, won’t you?’
Rosa put her hand on her friend’s. ‘Sorry for not discussing this openly with you before. I should have done when the story appeared in the paper, back in the summer. The thing is, I’m kind of not sure about it. Part of me knows it’s time to let it go, but this place is so ingrained in me that another part of me wants to keep it. But Josh tells me it’s not viable for our future plans. The way I dealt with that was, I decided to put a ten-year proviso on it, as I would hate someone to buy it just to make a fast buck.’