‘I didn’t have it confirmed that Sam knew the truth about that night, that he wasn’t the cause of the crash, until earlier today,’ Joe told us.
‘The farm sale wasn’t the only thing we talked about earlier,’ said Sam. ‘And when Joe said he had something to tell me about the crash, I shocked the hell out of him by telling him that I already knew.’
‘I can’t believe you’ve carried it all these years, Sam,’ Joe said huskily.
Sam shrugged.
‘I would never have told anyone,’ he said, ‘but I did always hope that you would come and talk to me about it, and today you have.’
In that moment, I fell even deeper in love. Not only was Sam the best kisser on the planet, he was also the most compassionate and generous person. He had been prepared to sacrifice his reputation to save a friend’s family from further hurt. There couldn’t be many people willing to go to such extraordinary lengths to deliver an act of such unprecedented and unselfish kindness.
‘I would have said sooner,’ Joe began.
‘But you wanted to get the farm situation sorted first,’ Sam finished for him and Joe nodded.
‘I can’t tell you what a relief it’s been to get it all off my chest,’ he sighed, drying his eyes and letting out the longest breath.
‘Oh,’ Sam smiled, ‘I’ve got a pretty good idea.’
Hope leant over and kissed his cheek.
‘And,’ he added, ‘I want to keep this between the four of us. There’s no need to rock the boat by announcing any of it to the great and good of Wynmouth. It won’t change anything. Some would argue that Joe should have spoken up at the time, but I understand why he didn’t. I’m just grateful that he has now and I want this to be the end of it.’
We clinked our bottles together to seal the deal and quietly finished our picnic. After all the weeks of wondering what was really going on between the two men, it felt like a massive weight had been lifted.
When I thought back to the day Joe told me about the crash, I was certain that he’d never said that Sam had been the one driving. At the time it didn’t register because given that it was Sam’s car, I thought it was obvious, but now I knew the truth. Joe hadn’t pointed the finger of blame at Sam because he wasn’t the one responsible.
‘What a day,’ I sighed, as I thought back over everything that had happened with Dad and Sophie too.
Hope smiled and nodded in agreement. The guys didn’t know the half of it. It was little wonder I felt so exhausted.
‘I don’t know about you lot,’ Hope yawned, ‘but I’m all in. I think I’m going to call it a night.’
She stood up, stretched out her back and then offered a hand to pull me to my feet. She was clearly intent on giving the guys some ‘alone time’ and I didn’t think that was a bad idea at all.
‘I’m with you on that one,’ I said, quickly kissing Sam before she pulled me up. ‘I’ll walk back with you, Hope.’
Once off the sand, we linked arms and when out of earshot began quietly discussing our day.
‘Sisters,’ said Hope, squeezing me into her side. ‘Can you believe it?’
‘I couldn’t to begin with,’ I admitted, ‘but I’m quickly getting used to the idea.’
‘Well, that’s because I’m so brilliant,’ giggled Hope, with a hip-swaying swagger. ‘Who wouldn’t want me as a cool younger sister?’
‘Exactly,’ I laughed. ‘Brilliant and modest. Two very admirable Tyler qualities.’
‘You know,’ she said confidentially, lowering her voice even though there was no one else around, ‘this was what Sam and I argued about.’
‘What?’
‘I wanted to start searching for my dad,’ she told me, ‘but am said I shouldn’t. I think he was worried that it might upset Mum, but then lo and behold Dad turns up anyway and it turns out the pair of them have been in touch for years!’
‘And how do you feel about that?’ I asked her.
‘I was a bit miffed to begin with,’ she admitted.
I could understand that.
‘But it wasn’t as if I’d ever really wanted to know who he was before. I had always been more than happy that it was just me and Mum.’
‘So, what changed your mind?’
‘Going to visit family,’ she said without any hesitation. ‘Having seen everyone together, even if they didn’t live together, was the thing that did it. Everyone’s lives seemed so complete – not necessarily perfect, but full – and I was pretty certain by the time I came back that I was going to try and track my dad down. I was a bit nervous, but as it turned out, I didn’t have to worry about how he might react if I turned up on his doorstep, because he turned up on mine!’
I tried and failed to imagine what I would have said, had I opened the door at Dad’s house and found Hope standing there. I was just about to say as much when two other midnight strollers appeared out of the darkness and Hope and I practically jumped out of our skins.
‘Dad!’ I gasped.
‘Mum,’ Hope gulped.
‘What are you doing here?’ we all said at once and then burst out laughing.
‘Tess and I have been on the beach,’ said Hope.
‘And we’ve spent the day talking,’ said Sophie, looking fondly up at Dad, ‘so we thought we’d come out and get a breath of air.’
From the colour I could just about make out that Dad had turned, I wasn’t sure they had been talking all day. Hope looked at me and raised her eyebrows, but neither of us commented.
‘I thought you’d gone home,’ I said to Dad, then teasingly added, ‘you are aware, that’s it’s the middle of the week and there’s no Tyler to keep on top of things in the office?’
Dad laughed again.
‘I have to hand it to you,’ I said to Sophie, ‘you really must be one very special lady if you can keep Dad away from work on a Wednesday.’
‘Why, thank you,’ she smiled, ‘but it’s not all down to me.’ ‘
No?’
‘No,’ said Dad, ‘you’ve all played a part in dragging me away from my desk. Starting with you, Tess.’
‘Me?’
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘you. Your sudden departure got me thinking about a lot of things.’
‘Like what?’
‘Well,’ he said, ‘for a start, how terrible I felt when I realized that I’d been completely oblivious to how difficult you were finding things at work.’
‘I see,’ I nodded, thankful that he had finally noticed, even if Joan had had to help him get there.
‘And then,’ he carried on, ‘once I’d grasped how little of a decent work-life balance you had, I began to realize that I wasn’t faring any better myself.’
‘But when I called you . . .’ I began.
‘That was the conversation that really got me thinking,’ Dad cut in. ‘You said that I should take some time off, and I know,’ he carried on before I had a chance to remind him how scathing he had been about the suggestion, ‘that I was dismissive, but you were right.’