‘Nice. I’m surprised I’ve not seen him down here though. Don’t suppose he got that much surf or time out on a boat when he lived in Leeds; he needs to make up for lost time.’
‘He certainly does.’ And hopefully he would, eventually.
‘When you next speak to him tell him I’m up for a beer any time. He needs to rediscover his love of living here.’ The avoidance of the bay clearly hadn’t gone unnoticed by Steve.
‘I wouldn’t phrase it quite that way when you see Adrian.’ And then more seriously he added, ‘Thanks for not giving up on him.’
‘Never would. He’s a local, a good mate, well thought of around here. But don’t you go telling him I’m not giving up on him either or he’ll think his little brother is trying to get people to be his friend.’
Leo laughed. ‘You’re probably right.’
Steve held his bag aloft. ‘Better get home and hide Jess’s present.’ But he stopped before he reached the door. ‘Talking of rediscovering the love for the bay, I’m sure I caught a glimpse of Nina yesterday.’
Any uncertainty disappeared when Leo nodded. ‘It’s very likely. She’s around.’
‘Back for good?’ Steve wondered, leaning against the open door.
‘No idea.’
Steve blew out from between his cheeks. ‘That’s three of them come back then.’
‘Three?’
‘You heard Maeve was back, right?’
‘Actually I didn’t, no.’ Salthaven and Stepping Stone Bay were big enough that you could go about your business without everyone else knowing what it was, but if you kept your nose to the ground you could find plenty out. The problem was he was so busy he didn’t have a chance to do that very often and relied more on people coming in here to keep him up to date with local goings-on.
‘She’s working in the café. The whole family is back in town,’ Steve announced. ‘They all had enough of the snow apparently,’ Steve joked before he left Leo to it.
And after the door fell closed it made sense to him. His little helper, Jonah, with his Canadian accent was Maeve’s son. Somehow she’d found a happiness and he was thankful that at least one of their friendship group had.
Leo had a steady afternoon after Steve popped in, but he managed to sweep most of the shop floor between customers, not lingering long near the front of the boathouse in case Nina walked past. And when Jonah came flying through the door just before four o’clock it was good to have the company. The boy chucked his backpack behind the counter as usual and talked at a rate of knots about how boring school was today. If Leo wasn’t mistaken he was trying to avoid the inevitable question of whether his mum had given her permission for him to be here.
‘Mate, slow down.’ Leo stowed Jonah’s backpack further under the counter so neither of them would trip over it. ‘How was school really?’
‘As I said, Boring. With a capital B.’
‘Sometimes boring is good.’ Leo would humour him for a bit before he started with the lecture. ‘It’s better than being terrible, awful, unbearable,’ he added clutching hischest, making them both laugh with his amateur dramatics playing out as though he’d been seriously wounded.
Jonah reeled off the lessons he’d endured, although he also shared a funny story of one of his friends emerging from the toilet cubicle with toilet paper coming out of the back of his trousers. Poor kid, he’d never live that down.
‘I told him before he went in the playground,’ said Jonah. ‘The other boys weren’t going to, but I know what it’s like being a bit different.’
‘You seem normal to me.’
He shrugged. ‘Still hard being the new kid.’
Jonah hadn’t said much about anything other than he had come to live on the south coast after living his whole life in a completely different country and that he loved the water and one day wanted to learn as many water sports as he could.
Before Jonah persuaded him to allocate him a chore Leo asked, ‘Did you talk to your mum?’ He knew the answer as soon as he asked. ‘We’ve talked about this. Call her, now.’ He decided not to let on that he knew Jonah’s mum was Maeve as it would sound as though he’d been doing some digging and didn’t trust Jonah.
Reluctantly Jonah took out his phone and while he called his mum Leo saw to the couple who’d borrowed kayaks for a session who came upstairs to let Leo know they’d returned the water craft downstairs at the shed. Leo booked them in again for the same time next week and then went over to Jonah who took the phone away from his ear.
‘She’s busy and will call back,’ Jonah told him.
‘OK.’ Leo could always call the café where he now knew she worked, but he’d give Jonah a bit longer, givehim the benefit of the doubt, and then he’d have to take matters into his own hands. ‘We’ll try your mum again after I’ve sorted out the kayaks. Want to help me clean them?’
Jonah didn’t need asking twice, he went and positioned the wooden sign out front of the boathouse while Leo locked up and they both headed down the internal stairs and through the shed to where the kayaks were waiting for them.
