‘Could I have a quiet word, in private please?’ I asked Sam in the pub later that evening.
‘Come through,’ he said, lifting the bar hatch so I could follow him into the back.
‘Thanks,’ I swallowed.
‘You haven’t gone blabbing to Upton, have you?’
For someone who had the ability to make my temperature soar his tone left me cold.
‘Of course, I haven’t,’ I tutted.
If only I’d kept my mouth shut, we wouldn’t be destined to part on such unsatisfactory terms. It broke my heart to think that I would be leaving Wynmouth feeling that I would never be welcome to come back.
‘What is it then?’
‘I’ve just come to say that I’m going to be leaving tomorrow.’
‘Oh,’ he faltered, looking completely taken aback.
‘I’m going in the morning, but of course I’ll pay for the extra time you said I could stay.’
‘There’s no need for that,’ he frowned.
‘It’s the least I can do,’ I swallowed. ‘What shall I do with the key?’
He looked at me and chewed his lip and I made a point of looking anywhere but into his spellbinding green eyes. I wasn’t sure how I had been expecting him to react to my announcement, but the fact that he wasn’t reacting at all was horrible. He could have at least asked what had prompted my decision or whether I might change my mind. Not that I would have known what to say in response.
‘You can leave it where you found it.’
‘Under the pot on the doorstep,’ I said for confirmation and he nodded. ‘Okay,’ I said, walking back into the bar. ‘That’s where I’ll leave it.’
‘You know, Tess,’ he suddenly said, closing the hatch between us again, ‘you really aren’t the person I thought you were when you first arrived.’
‘Oh?’
‘Yeah,’ he carried on, not caring to lower his voice. ‘For a while, I had you down as someone who had fallen in love with Wynmouth. I thought you got the place and really wanted to see it thrive, but now I know it was all a sham. I daresay you actually wanted everything you suggested to fail, didn’t you?’
‘What?’
‘We all thought you were the sort of person who could make a difference,’ he said bitterly, ‘and you did have us fooled for a while, but you’re not the girl I thought you were, Tess Tyler.’
I had no idea what he was talking about and it was on the tip of my tongue for me to blurt out that he hadn’t been the boy I’d thought he was either, but I’d learnt my lesson when it came to making rash announcements in packed bars so instead I turned away and walked out.
Chapter 25
I didn’t pack properly before I went to bed, thinking that a good night’s sleep would be of more benefit than time spent sorting and tidying. And besides, that would be a welcome distraction to busy myself with when I got up and was waiting for the courier to deliver the phone I no longer needed. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep, but lay awake scrutinizing Sam’s words and wishing that I’d never set foot in Wynmouth again.
I wasn’t in the best of tempers by the time I realized sleep was never going to come and my mood slumped even further as I trundled down the stairs only to be disturbed by a far earlier than expected knock on the door.
‘This isn’t the slot I booked,’ I snapped. ‘What’s the point in me paying for timed delivery when you don’t stick to the schedule?’
I wrenched the door open, my best scowl in place as I made ready to take my annoyance out on the driver, but it wasn’t the courier.
It was my father.
The words died in my throat as I stopped dead on the threshold, staring at him, but not really believing what or who I was seeing. This had to be some trick, some joke my brain was playing, the result of not having slept and all the recent emotional turmoil.
‘I told myself I wouldn’t come,’ he said huskily as his eyes met mine, ‘but when you didn’t respond to my letter, I just couldn’t stay away any longer.’
Now, not only did the vision look like my father, it sounded like him too, so I had no choice but to accept that it was him, standing on the doorstep of Crow’s Nest Cottage at some ungodly hour of the morning on the day I had finally decided to leave.
He looked careworn and almost as tired as I did, and just for a second, before the memory of Mum’s diary tapped me on the shoulder and I checked myself, I very nearly gave in to instinct, threw my arms around him and told him that I loved him.
‘I haven’t read your letter,’ I replied, my voice every bit as husky as his. ‘The package only arrived yesterday and I haven’t opened it,’ I added, a little louder. ‘I didn’t even know there was a letter inside.’
‘I did wonder if I should give you more time,’ he said, a frown pulling his brows together, ‘but I was scared that you would move on once you knew that I knew where you were and I couldn’t risk that. I couldn’t risk losing you again, Tess.’
I didn’t know what to say. Dad hadn’t been an emotionally demonstrative father for a very long time and confessing that he was scared, of anything, was something I didn’t think I had ever heard him admit before.
‘I suppose you’d better come in,’ I said, opening the door wider.
I was mindful that George would soon be walking Skipper and didn’t want to add more fuel to my holiday story which was weaving its way among the great, good and downright grumpy of Wynmouth.
‘Although you won’t be able to leave your car parked there.’
If Charlie came bowling along on the beach tractor, he wouldn’t be able to get through the gap and that would cause even more talk than if George spotted me in conversation with an unknown man on the cottage doorstep.
‘It’s all right,’ Dad said, still standing in the same spot. ‘I don’t want to come in. I was rather hoping that you would come with me.’
I looked at him and raised my eyebrows. I knew it was a work day, and a miracle that he was so far from his desk, but if he had plans to get me to the office and clocked in for nine, then he was in for a rude awakening.
‘I’ll only keep you for a few minutes,’ he said, ‘and I promise I’ll bring you back.’
No plan to charge back to Essex just yet then.
‘All right,’ I agreed, thinking that now he was here, I really had no choice, ‘wait there.’
I padded back upstairs, pulled on some clothes and tamed my hair into a ponytail.
‘You’re looking really well,’ Dad smiled when, just a couple of minutes later, I locked the cottage door and climbed into the car. ‘That tan looks more West Indies than Wynmouth and it’s been years since I’ve seen you with so many freckles.’
That was most likely because it was years since he’d seen me without make-up.
‘And I’d forgotten how much your hair curls,’ he carried on. ‘It looks just like your mother’s used to before she started to straighten it.’
I wasn’t much in the mood to listen to him harking back to the good old days, especially when his reminiscing included Mum.
‘So, where are we going?’ I asked, shrugging off his seemingly light-hearted chat.