‘No,’ I said. ‘That’s not it . . .’
‘Your boss even turned up here this morning looking for you,’ he cut in, ‘so you can hardly deny it, can you?’
‘Tess,’ Joe frowned. ‘How did you know about the land sale?’
‘I heard you on the phone and I saw the paperwork when I stayed at the farm,’ I admitted. ‘Bruce knocked it off the table and I spotted it when I picked it up.’
‘And you told everyone?’
He sounded absolutely wretched.
‘Yes,’ said Sam, ‘she did. Although I’m still trying to work out her motive for doing that. How she thought that telling us what was going on was going to create some good PR for the cause, god only knows!’
That was the last straw. I couldn’t cope with any more. I was going to pack up the last of my things, turn my phone back on and let Dad know that I was getting the hell out of Wynmouth for good.
Chapter 26
It didn’t take long for me to fling the rest of my things into the bags I had just a few weeks ago so carefully packed in anticipation of my seaside escape, but I found myself lingering in the cottage and reluctant to turn the key in the lock for the last time. I sat on the sofa, with my head in my hands thinking how impossible it was to comprehend that I had arrived in the village with so much mental baggage and now I was about to leave with even more.
Not only was I trying to get my head around the truth behind what had really been happening in my parents’ marriage and having to rethink everything I knew about the woman who had taken pride in her simple sundress, I was also assimilating the knowledge that I had a sister. The fact that I loved her as a friend, hated myself for having betrayed her and was already having to leave her behind, was too much. It was all too much!
And that was even before I factored in the complications surrounding the Sam and Joe scenario. In my attempt to help Hope find a way to push the pair back together, I had ended up pulling them even further apart. And now Sam hated me, just as I was daring to admit, if only to myself, that I had fallen in love with him.
I knew that his being in love with Hope made my being around him unbearable, but now he’d got some skewed idea about me being Joe’s spy and there really was no chance of my ever returning to Wynmouth. The long-lost family get-togethers which Sophie was doubtless already arranging were always going to be missing one family member.
I glanced up at the kitchen clock, amazed that so much of the day had already disappeared and knowing that I couldn’t drag my departure out any longer. I took my mobile out of the drawer where it had lived, for the most part, undisturbed since my arrival and thought how I was going to block my confused thoughts out until I had put at least a hundred miles between me and the village. I was just about to turn the phone on and message Dad to ask where he was and let him know that I was leaving, when Joe came bursting through the cottage door, only this time, with Charlie in tow.
‘What the hell?’ I shouted, jumping back in surprise.
‘Come on you,’ said Joe, pulling the phone out of my hand and tossing it onto the sofa. ‘You need to come with me.’
‘Don’t be so ridiculous,’ I snapped back. ‘I’m not going anywhere with you.’
Joe shook his head.
‘In fact,’ I pushed on, ‘I’m beginning to wish that I’d never set eyes on either one of you.’
‘You don’t mean that,’ said Joe.
‘Yes,’ I resolutely carried on, ‘I do, because my life has been nothing but a disaster from the moment you walked back into it.’
He didn’t catch my faux pas and I bit my lip to stop myself adding another revelation to the drama the day had become. All I had wanted when I came back from the café earlier was to sit and quietly think about all the things Dad and Sophie had told me, but now this post-pub argument was going to be the cause of even more stress. I could feel something was coming and cursed myself for lingering in the cottage when I could have been long gone.
‘Please, Tess,’ said Charlie, sounding far more reasonable than his sibling. ‘It would really help if you could just give us a minute.’
The words were sincerely spoken and, as I was the person responsible for letting the cat out of the bag about the farm sale, I supposed I did owe them something. I looked at Charlie’s forlorn face and felt my resolve to refuse Joe’s demands crumble a little.
‘Please,’ Charlie said again.
I let out a long breath.
‘Where exactly is it that we’re going?’ I asked, as I reached for the cottage keys.
This wasn’t going to be the last time I locked the place up after all then.
‘To the Smuggler’s,’ said Joe, peering through the window as a van pulled up.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ I gasped, taking a step back again. ‘After what happened earlier?’
‘A hell of a lot has happened since earlier,’ he said mysteriously. ‘Trust me.’
Given his track record, I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
‘Are you expecting a parcel?’ Charlie asked.
I took delivery of the phone I now didn’t need and the three of us walked back up the lane to the pub. The brothers were far keener to cross the threshold than I was, and I felt my heart kick in my chest as I discovered the place was even more packed than the evening I had arranged for the Sea Dogs to entertain us.
‘Is this everyone?’ I heard Joe ask Sam.
‘It’s as many as I could rally at such short notice,’ Sam told him.
‘Okay,’ said Joe, puffing out his cheeks, ‘thanks.’
Sam nodded, looked at me for the briefest moment and then turned back to the till. The pair sounded almost civil and that was the last thing I had been expecting. When Joe had said back at the cottage that a lot had happened since earlier, he clearly wasn’t wrong. Exactly how long had it taken me to pack my bags? Long enough for the pair of them to come to some sort of tolerance agreement, by the looks of it. At least I could rest easier knowing I hadn’t been dragged in to witness a barroom brawl.
‘Do you know what’s going on?’ I mouthed to Hope as Joe pulled me further inside.
She shrugged in response, looking as clueless as I was and then came over.
‘No idea,’ she said in a low voice. ‘Joe sent me a text a few minutes ago, asking me to come and wait in here and it was already packed like this when I arrived.’ She turned to Joe. ‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ she asked him, laying her hand lightly on his arm.
It was the tiniest gesture, but it spoke volumes.
‘I will be in a minute or two,’ he smiled at her.
My guess was that he had gathered everyone together, somehow with Sam’s help, to confess about the Sunny Shores deal, but what I was thrown by was the fact that he was looking so calm about it. He took Hope’s hand and squeezed it before following Charlie further into the room.
‘Have you seen . . .’ I began to ask Hope but then hesitated, not quite sure how to frame the question. I supposed there was only one way really. ‘Have you seen your mum and dad?’ I swallowed.
It would have been too much of a mouthful to say ‘your mum and my dad’ and besides, it wouldn’t have been accurate either because as it turned out, the man who was my dad, was every bit as much hers.