‘That’s funny,’ he smiled down at me with a knowing look in his green eyes. ‘I was thinking exactly the same thing.’
*
‘What do you think are the chances of everyone who said they were coming, turning up tonight?’ I asked Hope as we worked through the checklist of things we were going to set up on the beach.
‘I’m not sure, to be honest,’ she said, then added, ‘but I do know someone who definitely won’t be with us.’
‘Oh, who?’
‘Joe.’
‘How do you know that?’ I questioned, feeling marginally more awake all of a sudden.
‘He sent me a text when he got back to the farm last night,’ she explained. ‘He said he was sorry, but he wouldn’t be able to make it after all.’
‘He messaged you?’
To be honest, I was more surprised that he knew her mobile number than I was about him not coming to the party.
‘Yes,’ she said, stacking the compostable cups in neat rows to count them. ‘He said that something had come up and that he wouldn’t be able to get away. I’m not sure I believed him though.’
I wondered if his decision had been prompted by the sight of seeing her and Sam standing cosily together behind the bar. It hadn’t made me feel all that great.
‘What do you think?’ she asked me.
‘I don’t think Joe would just make something like that up,’ I answered, still deliberating the fact that the pair of them were privately in touch.
I wondered how Sam would react if he knew his girlfriend was exchanging late-night texts with her ex, especially given who the ex was.
‘I guess not,’ she sighed. ‘You aren’t too disappointed, are you?’
‘Me?’ I frowned.
‘Yes,’ Hope carried on. ‘He said he would have let you know if he could, but as you’ve refused to so much as even turn your mobile on since you arrived in the village, he had no way of contacting you. What’s that all about, Tess?’
Clearly, she and Joe had talked and messaged about a whole lot more than just his decision not to come to the party. Perhaps their conversation in the lane wasn’t the only time they’d got together for a bit of a catch-up.
‘Have you really abandoned your phone?’
‘Pretty much,’ I told her, knowing there was no point in denying it because if I was still a slave to my screen then I would have had it with me, and it was nowhere in sight.
‘But why?’ she asked.
‘Lots of reasons really,’ I began, ‘but mostly because I felt I needed a proper break from it,’ I carried on. ‘I decided the day I arrived here in Wynmouth that I would be eschewing all technology for the duration of my stay. No emails, no texts and no social media.’
She narrowed her eyes and chewed thoughtfully on the end of her pen. It was an annoying habit and I knew someone else who did it, but for the moment I couldn’t think who it was.
‘Everyone thinks that their lives have to revolve around their phones,’ I carried on when she didn’t say anything, ‘and to a certain extent I suppose they do these days, but I’ve found the ban truly liberating. It’s done me the power of good not to be constantly checking and updating.’
I didn’t point out that I had needed to borrow her mother’s laptop on more than one occasion since my arrival because that had never been for private use. Logging on courtesy of Sophie had happened purely so I could help her, Sam and the village.
‘Oh well, that’s all right then,’ Hope smiled as she released the pen long enough to speak. ‘To be honest, I’m relieved we were wrong.’
‘Wrong?’ I frowned again, ‘about what?’
‘Well,’ she confided, fixing me with her pretty dark eyes, ‘we were beginning to think that the reason you weren’t using your phone and were hiding out here in Wynmouth was because you’d run away from something.’
I wondered who the ‘we’ was that she was referring to – her and Sam or her and Joe, or her and the pair of them or perhaps even the entire village.
‘That’s ridiculous,’ I bluffed, ‘I’m hardly in hiding, am I? I’ve spent more time out of the cottage than I have in it and there can’t be many people left in Wynmouth who don’t know who I am. I’m just here for a holiday.’
‘A really long one.’
‘Well, yes, I suppose it is a bit longer than average, but it’s what I needed.’
‘Along with the tech break.’
‘Along with the tech break,’ I swallowed.
‘Fair enough,’ she shrugged.
She seemed to accept what I had said, but having run through it all, I wouldn’t have blamed her if she didn’t.
‘I can’t help thinking there is someone around here who’s on the run though,’ she said, sucking the pen again.
‘Oh,’ I said, happy that her thoughts had moved on from me, ‘who would that be then?’
‘Joe, of course,’ she said, as if I should have known. ‘He’s definitely someone who’s on the run.’
I was inclined to agree with her, but thinking back to what George had said, I knew it was important not to interfere.
‘How can he be on the run when he’s come back?’ I pointed out.
‘You know what I mean.’
‘I think he’s most likely just finding it hard to settle back in,’ I said, offering her my take on the situation. ‘What with the trouble at the farm and everything, it’s bound to take him a while.’
‘That’s as maybe,’ she said, ‘but I still think there’s more to it than that.’
‘You do?’
I was fast beginning to feel that I was fighting a losing battle. She might not have intended to do it, but her words were wearing down my non-interfering resolve.
‘Yes,’ she carried on, sounding more convinced than ever, ‘and you’ve spent a lot of time with him, don’t you feel it too?’
‘I haven’t spent that long . . .’
‘And I’m getting exactly the same vibe from Sam.’
‘How so?’
‘Well, whenever we talk about how he feels about Joe being back, he starts off all right and then he just clams up. I don’t think it’s just Joe who is holding something back, I reckon Sam is too.’
‘Maybe it’s the same thing,’ I suggested, before remembering my conviction to keep out of it, ‘but whatever it is, there’s nothing we can do. We can’t force them to talk about it and I don’t think we should try.’
‘Do you not?’
‘No,’ I said firmly, ‘absolutely not.’
‘But if they don’t properly get their heads together soon,’ she pointed out, ‘they might carry on like this into their forties.’
‘Oh,’ I said, eager to scotch her fear, ‘I don’t think it will come to that. I mean, look at how they worked together at the beach clean yesterday. That was amazing progress, wasn’t it?’
‘I guess,’ she said, ‘but I still think a little extra encouragement wouldn’t do any harm.’
I really thought it might, but once Hope had a bee in her bonnet, I knew it was impossible to flush it out until she was ready to let it go.