Rosa pulled away and yawned loudly. ‘How is the little boy, anyway? And who were they, do you know?’
‘I have no idea. Alec took the lead on getting them away from danger. Holidaymakers, I assume.’
Rosa sat up. ‘Right. We had better go down and assess the damage at the café.’
‘No rush. What’s done is done. It’s bright sunshine out there today so the drying out will already have started.’
‘You know me, I have to get up and get things sorted. I can’t believe I dropped off to sleep with the wind howling like it was. And that rain! I’m sure it’s worse than any weather we ever had in London when we lived there.’
At that moment Hot came pattering into the bedroom from his basket in the sitting room. He’d heard the voices and knew it must be breakfast-time. Josh leaned down and whisked him on to the bed. ‘Here’s our little sausage.’ He pushed his face into the mini-dachshund’s velvety neck and breathed him in. ‘Careful with Mummy,’ he warned the little dog. ‘She’s hurt her leg.’ Hot whiffled around them both and let out a bark.
‘Come on then, my lad, let’s get you some breakfast and then it’s walk time, to view our estate.’ At the mention of the W word, Hot started running around in circles on top of the covers.
‘Oi!’ Josh grabbed the excitable hound and held him tightly in his arms.
‘Wait for me,’ Rosa said. ‘I’ve scratched myself on the sea wall, that’s all, and I need to know what’s happening.’ She then crashed back down on her pillow. ‘I do feel really tired though.’
Josh put Hot back on the floor and placed his hand gently on Rosa’s arm. ‘It’s not surprising. I expect you are suffering from a bit of delayed shock.’
Ding! The shop doorbell signalled a visitor entering. Only two people had the front-door key apart from themselves.
‘Rose? Josh? You awake? I’m coming up.’ Titch Whittaker’s Devonian twang filtered up the stairs. ‘Put your tits and bits away, the pair of you.’
The nineteen-year-old paraded into the bedroom. Her cropped blonde locks and large breasts under her tight red T-shirt made her look like some kind of a computer game character. From the day they had met in the Ship Inn, when Rosa had only just arrived in the Bay, Titch had never called Rosa by her real name and ‘Rose’ had just stuck. As had their extremely strong friendship.
‘I just saw your mum,’ she told Rosa, as Josh went off to let Hot onto the balcony to do a wee. ‘She’s working in the Co-op till midday. She sends her love and said she’ll pop by and see you when she’s done. The damage is pretty bad down the front, evidently. The beach is a complete mess too. If you need any help with the café, I’ll come down after my shift here.’ When Hot scampered back into the room, she picked him up, cuddled him close and continued: ‘The sun’s out again, so I reckon the shop is going to be busy, especially now you’ve got those wildlife-shaped inflatables. The parrot one is my favourite, for sure.’ She suddenly stopped and burst out, ‘Oh shit, and more importantly, I forgot to say…’ She ran out of breath.
‘Take it easy, love, before you internally combust.’ Rosa swung herself out of bed while a scrabbling Hot released himself from Titch’s cuddles.
‘Guess what?’ Titch said importantly. ‘You were mentioned on the radio this morning.’ She assumed a newsreader-type tone. ‘“Local shop-owner, Rosa Smith, is the heroine of the moment after saving the young son of a London family who are down here on holiday.” I cannot believe I missed all this. Mind you, Theo just wouldn’t settle. The thunder scared him, and his crying drowned out most of the noise of the storm for much of the night, to be fair.’ She gave a lengthy yawn. ‘I’m bloody knackered. So, what happened?’
‘You always said you’d be famous one day.’ Josh poked his wife gently in the ribs as she walked past in her little nightie.
‘I’d much prefer infamous. And, well – look, Titch, it’s no big deal. A young kid ended up in the drink; luckily the surf was up so he had a soft landing. I just jumped in and managed to get hold of him before the tide swept him away.’
‘You ARE mad – it’s official. But, bless you, Rose, and thank goodness your arm is better now, or you’d have been swimming in circles like Nemo.’
Despite Rosa having a flashback to her drinking days, when she had fallen at West Cliffs and badly hurt her arm, she still managed to laugh.
‘You wait, the Gazette will be wanting a piece of the action soon. In fact, a storm in the Bay and a dramatic rescue, that’ll be at least six pages taken up and an award of some sort, I reckon.’ Titch sniffed, then went on, ‘Right, I’d better open up.’ She headed for the stairs, singing a very out-of-tune version of the song ‘Tell Me Why I Don’t Like Mondays’.
Highly amused, Rosa got back into bed and cuddled into the lovely, warm body of her husband, who had snuggled back under the covers himself. Hot, scurrying around the side of the bed, broke up the cosy moment with a ‘Get up and take me out, you bastards’-type yelp.
Rosa put her hand outside the bed so that the impatient hound could lick it, made a little contented noise and shut her eyes momentarily before opening them with a start. ‘Oh no! Shit!’
‘What is it, angel?’
‘I completely forgot about Jacob and the puppies.’
CHAPTER 3
Before they went up to the Lobster Pot to see the new arrivals, Josh and Rosa’s first duty was to check what had happened to the café. The beach, when they got there, mirrored a war zone. Rosa had never seen anything like it. So much debris had been washed up that the place was almost unrecognisable. What astounded Rosa the most was the number of plastic bottles and fishing line that were entwined with varying banks of seaweed. There were even dead fish and sea birds in the mix, and to her distress, some of the birds were still alive, flapping and cawing as they struggled to free themselves. Thankfully they were being attended to by people wearing branded green and white T-shirts with some kind of logo on them.
It seemed as if nearly half the inhabitants of Cockleberry Bay were also down there doing their bit. Some had begun placing the plethora of debris into different piles, while others were retrieving waste bins that had been blown around the Bay, and in the case of the Ship Inn, clearing up glass from windows smashed by the force of the storm.
Sara greeted Josh and Rosa at the café door and let them in.
‘How are you feeling, chick?’ she asked Rosa, hugging first her and then Josh. ‘I can’t believe you were so brave. I couldn’t have done what you did.’ Sara never failed to be astounded by Rosa’s strength and determination. She put it down to her tough upbringing in children’s homes and foster-care. A lesser person would be dining out for weeks on jumping into a turbulent sea and rescuing a child, but not Rosa.
‘I’m fine – a scratch on the knee and feeling a bit tired, that’s all.’ She made a little groaning noise. ‘I can’t bear that so much wildlife has been affected. How on earth does all this plastic get into our waters, anyway?’