Outside she stepped onto the first stepping stone that linked her cabin with his and although they were only steps, thirteen in total, it was like a tiny piece of her heart cracked that little bit more at what she’d lost when she moved from one stepping stone to the next. When she got there she took the steps up and pushed the container to the farthest part of the table which was out of direct sunlight and she smiled at the little paper note his gran had left on top of it beneath an elastic band. It simply saidTo my Leo.Like Nina, he was close to his grandparents. The only difference was, he had his parents too, whereas hers were disinterested at best.
As she turned to go back to her own cabin, Nina’s eyesfell on the windowsill the other side of the window, or namely what was sitting on top of it, angled enough that she could see what it was. It was a photograph ofTheWildflower, Adrian’s boat, the same boat they’d all been on that night for the party. Nina wondered whether it was still kept at the marina a short distance on from Stepping Stone Bay. She wondered, did Leo go out on it? She shuddered at the thought as the past washed over her once again, at the same time as the crashing waves she could hear beyond the cabins and the boathouse where Leo must be now, either in the shop or down below, instructing, cleaning craft, working with his hands the way he’d always wanted to. She admired him for his strength, the way he’d been able to stay here when she, Maeve, Adrian, all three of them had left the bay behind. Nina couldn’t remember everyone who’d been on the boat that day; some of them she’d not known well at all, and she wondered whether part of the reason was that she tried to blank out the memories as much as she could.
Back in her cabin Nina finished wiping down the lounge walls; she scrubbed the kitchen surfaces, put bleach in the sink to get the chrome clean and shining once again, and it was time to sort herself out a bit.
She pulled on a pair of jeans that didn’t show the dust and grime from this morning and grabbed her teal cardigan, given the slight chill in the air that came along with September as the onset of autumn approached. It was time to get out and about in Salthaven, head held high, and stop avoiding it the way she’d been doing up until now. If she was going to enjoy her time here even a tiny bit, she had to get used to people seeing her face. And so, car keys in hand, she went to the car and set offup the road to where it joined the main street that would lead down and into Salthaven and all the way to the little café at the end of the pier.
Nina should’ve known when Molly and Arthur weren’t in their home in Spain, they would be here in Salthaven, even though they’d retired from the café and left their granddaughter Jo in charge. And she should’ve known they weren’t going to let a local who’d been away for more than a decade get away with a simple passing hello.
‘I thought they’d never let you go,’ Jo laughed when Nina finally went inside the café.
‘Your grandparents are lovely, I don’t mind at all.’ And it was true. In fact, it was something she hadn’t had in a really long time, having locals interested in what she was doing, and she found that although she was hungry and couldn’t wait to see what was on Jo’s menu, talking to Molly and Arthur had given her a tiny sense of coming home. Up until now she knew of course that this was where she’d grown up, but feeling it, absorbing the warmth of being welcomed back, was another thing entirely.
‘When are you due?’ she asked Jo, looking at her healthy baby bump.
‘Mid-December, so a way to go yet. But thank goodness I’ve had Molly and Arthur stepping in over the summer when it’s crazy busy, and I’ve taken on some full-time help.’
‘Good for you.’ Nina knew Jo had her hands full with this place and with one-year-old Ava because Molly and Arthur hadn’t only asked about Nina, they’d volunteered lots of updates on their own family and shared their ownstories since their retirement – the way they lived between Spain and the UK, rotating every six months; how they couldn’t believe how much Ava changed even between FaceTime calls, let alone visits.
‘Now what can I get you?’ Jo asked her.
Nina put a hand to her tummy as she perused the specials board and decided on the cheese and bacon quiche along with a garden salad and an apple juice. As Jo went off to make the order she picked up a magazine from the collection on a shelf at the side of the main counter and sitting back with her fresh juice when Jo brought it over, she flipped through the pages of the glossy gossipy publication and began to relax.
Every time the door opened she could hear the sea, the cry of the gulls, locals chatting their way up and down the pier. And when the door went yet again as Nina finished her last mouthful of quiche she realised this time it was the newest member of staff arriving. The woman hurried behind the counter, then hung a cardigan in the cupboard to the side of the kitchen and tied on an apron as she had a brief conflab with Jo who soon afterwards, bag slung over her shoulder, smiled at Nina and told her she was nipping into town to meet her husband, Matt.
‘Say a hello from me,’ said Nina. Everyone knew who Matt was, his family owned the local fruit and vegetable farm and he was a familiar face in town.
‘Will do.’ And with that she left her assistant to look after the café.
‘Can I get you anything else?’ A voice came from over Nina’s shoulder.
Nina turned. ‘Maeve,’ she smiled, ‘it’s me, Nina.’
‘Nina!’ She finally registered who her customer was;obviously Jo had had other things on her mind other than updating her employee on specific clientele. She flung her arms around Nina as Nina stood. ‘I heard you were back, it’s great to see you.’
Nina felt her own emotions surge. ‘And you too, welcome back. Although I’m sorry to hear your mum’s sister wasn’t well. How is she?’
‘She’s getting better, I think having Mum around has helped a lot.’
‘Good to hear.’ They smiled at one another as Nina sat down again and straightened her cardigan.
‘I meant to come and find you and say hello before now but I’ve been crazy busy, what with the job, Jonah …’
‘Who’s Jonah?’
Maeve smiled, long, dark hair that was tied back into a low ponytail snaking across her shoulder until she pushed it away. ‘He’s my son.’
‘Of course, I knew that. Grandad keeps me up to date,’ she explained. Life really had moved on. Maeve, a mother; it was hard to fathom. And when Maeve took out her phone to show Nina a photograph of her little boy Nina’s mind clicked. ‘Were you both down at the boathouse yesterday by any chance?’
Maeve pulled a face. ‘You didn’t see me screeching at poor Leo did you?’
‘I didn’t see that, no.’ She’d only seen them hugging and that had been enough. To think Leo had a son had been a shock to the system, to see a mini-Leo standing right there with him, wetsuit on and ready to go in the water. But now she realised the boy couldn’t be Leo’s because Maeve had left around the same time as Nina had and everyone had known how Leo and Nina felt aboutone another. Nobody else had been responsible for destroying that other than Nina herself.
‘I mean, I really overreacted,’ Maeve went on, talking hurriedly as other customers filed in. ‘I didn’t want Jonah in the sea, it scares me, because … well you know.’
‘I do know,’ she said sympathetically, her heart still fluttering at the realisation she’d jumped to a pretty huge and incorrect conclusion when she’d seen Leo and Maeve together. And although she had no right to lay any claim to what Leo did or didn’t do, she felt nothing but relief. Which made her a bit selfish, and for that she was slightly ashamed. ‘Go, serve your customers, we’ll catch up once they’re sorted.’
‘Can I get you anything first?’
