‘Hope you catch something,’ she said, making her way back to the sea captain, who was waiting for the gossip with his arms outstretched in a theatrical way.
‘Letitia, you were gone too long,’ he boomed, before bursting into hearty laughter that rumbled around the bar, making everyone look over. The pair were soon cloistered again and whispering intently about Monty.
He could predict with full confidence his name was now in Mrs C.’s matchmaking book alongside Joy Foley’s and, even though he was sure Joy would be horrified if she ever found out, he didn’t mind so much.
Monty had just enough time to shower and change out of his chef’s whites and into dark trousers and a favourite oversized jumper in deep indigo. He pulled on boots and styled his hair – which for Monty meant running serum through his damp curls for shine. Out of habit, he rubbed sunscreen across the back of his neck – something his father had taught the boys they must always do at sea – and he was ready.
He stowed the picnic inside thePeter’s Bounty, having made up a few Tupperwares of snacks from the pub fridges. Bella had topped it up with fresh peaches, the last of the morning’s croissants, the chilled Cava, two tall glasses and, of course, the ice cream.
Monty trained his eyes on the slope where he could just make out the straight and elegant shape of Joy advancing Down-along and beside her a skipping, twirling blur of lilac.
He couldn’t help sniffing a happy laugh of recognition and the feeling of excitement spread through him.
Tonight had to be special. He had to make sure Joy enjoyed it. She didn’t strike him as the kind of person who had much time off, or indeed someone that, while on their travels, went on impromptu sailing trips with local guys. He had seen the way she would try to shrink herself in company. He also hadn’t missed the way it had taken her a long time to relax at the shelving party, or the horror she’d shown at the idea of being set up in Mrs C.’s matchmaking madness.
Tonight he was going to keep her safe, make her happy, show her how beautiful his village looked from the water, and then he’d deliver them both safely home. If there was a way to lessen Joy’s alarm and help her relax around him, he’d find it. He wasn’t going to do anything whatsoever about the way he felt himself blush when she was near him, other than trying his best to stop it happening. Tonight he was just a skipper and Joy and Radia a private charter. At least, that’s what he told himself as they approached along the harbour wall, Radia running ahead of her mum in her pyjamas with Charley fox under her arm, practically sending out sparks of excitement.
Monty’s heart cracked a little at the sight of the five-year-old in her pink glitter jelly shoes and Joy telling her toplease slow down, trying hard not to actually shout and draw attention to herself. He could feel the panic coming off Joy, so he stepped in.
‘Woah, Radia Pearl, careful on these stones, you might trip,’ he called out, and he could swear Joy’s shoulders dropped in relief as Radia slammed on the brakes and walked up to him by the side of theBounty.
He was already helping her into her life jacket by the time Joy reached him.
‘Ready?’ he asked the little girl.
Radia held up her drink bottle and told him she was, ‘Really ready.’
Monty lowered Radia into the boat by her arms like he was dropping a bundle of wriggling, giggling net into the hull.
Joy told him he didn’t need to lowerherin like that, she’d use the steps, and when Monty laughed he could hear the nerves in his own chest.
‘She’s cute with her milk and PJs,’ Monty remarked, while Joy clambered into the boat, determined to do it without assistance.
‘Sometimes I forget she’s only little,’ Joy replied, watching Radia bouncing around and trying to look at everything at once, screeching so much she scared the seagulls. ‘But at night-time, she’s somehow tiny again. A baby.’
Monty caught her wistfulness but didn’t know how to respond. After all, he wasn’t a parent. Didn’t have so much as a kitten to care for. He told himself he couldn’t understand how Joy must feel about that little girl.
‘Are we going to catch a big fish?’ Radia asked. ‘Like the one you brought us at the party?’
‘Maybe. If we’re lucky,’ said Monty, and once he’d made sure his guests were sitting on the fixed plastic seats inside his cabin, he started the engine.
Joy drew Radia to her and put a blanket over them both. Radia sipped milk between excited exclamations about the other boats and the birds on the water.
‘And Mum? Arewegoing to swim?’ she asked, watching a bird, which Monty told them was a shearwater, diving beneath the waves and disappearing.
‘It’s too cold for swimming,’ Joy told her.
‘I’ve been in cold water before. In St Petersburg.’
‘You mean the Gulf of Finland?’ Joy said, taken aback once more at Radia’s elephant’s memory. ‘God, I’d forgotten about that. We swam at eleven o’clock at night. It was the summer, so the Russian white nights. The sun didn’t set at all and our sleep patterns were all over the place. Rads, that was two summers ago.Howdo you remember that?’
‘I remember everything,’ said Radia proudly.
Not everything, thought Joy, with some relief.
Monty navigated the harbour mouth and out onto open water where the waves made the boat bob and dip, and he cut a course through the evening swells more carefully than he’d ever done before, his awareness that he had two special guests with him burning in his brain, telling him to go gently.
The fishing hadn’t quite gone to plan. Once the engines were cut and Monty had set up the fixed reel over the side, Radia had watched for a bite for over an hour and none came.
