‘That can’t be nice to have hanging over you.’ He understood more about the sale of the cabin now.
‘He really, really doesn’t want to leave that bungalow. I don’t know what the law is, I’ve no idea how it all works, and it wasn’t a problem for my grandma thank goodness. But the man has a right to live out his days in the place he calls home.’
Leo put his thumbs up to Jonah who’d done a grand job with the top of the bookcase and now moved to doing the sides.
‘He’s made up his mind that he wants some extra money as a safety net and in order to have that it means selling the cabin.’ She put a hand to the step she was sitting on as though it connected her with the history, the memories, the possibilities. ‘It felt like the right thing to do, but …’
Wait, she was hesitating?
But he didn’t get to ask the question before she looked him straight in the eye. ‘It doesn’t matter how I feel. I don’t have a choice.’ And then she turned away, as if remembering they weren’t together any more, that she did things on her own now and had for a long time, or at least he assumed she had.
‘I can’t offer a magic solution I’m afraid.’ Although he found he really wanted to. ‘All I can offer is that if Walt needs any jobs doing around the bungalow then make sure he asks me. I’m not bad at DIY remember – and recently I fitted a handrail for my gran beside her front steps that get a bit slippery when it’s wet, I fixed my parents’ fence that fell down in the high winds – I’m a man of many talents. I can do things around his bungalow as needed and I can even help out with his garden if it gets too much, keep it shipshape for him.’
‘Why are you being so kind to me?’ She gulped.
And he smiled, nudged her gently. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not. I’m being kind to Walt.’
She looked back at him as though she was sorting through their personal history in her own head but didn’t know what to tackle first. ‘Thank you, I mean it.’
‘You’re welcome.’
When Leo saw a man up at the entrance to the boathouse waving across to them he hoped he hadn’t kept him waiting long, his mind and his focus on something else entirely. ‘I’d better head back over there.’
Nina got to her feet. ‘And I’d better start painting. Jonah is working harder than I am. Maeve might not let him back down this way if she thinks we’re both after slave labour.’
‘I think he’s loving every minute,’ Leo assured her before leaving her to it.
After Leo unlocked the boathouse and let the customer inside he hooked the doors open and looked across at the cabins again, the cabins that had been a feature of his life ever since he could remember. It didn’t feel right that soon one of them would be under different ownership, would belong to a stranger.
But he understood why. Walt needed the money and Nina needed the reassurance that Walt would be financially secure and able to stay in his bungalow for as long as he wanted. He just didn’t want Nina’s time here in Stepping Stone Bay to come to an end.
After all this time he finally felt he might be able to put his anger and resentment behind him, and thinking that way felt better than he ever would’ve imagined.
Chapter Ten
Nina
Nina worked hard over the next week to finish most of the work at the cabin. Jonah had helped much more than she’d expected and Maeve had even come in one evening after work when he asked to stay on for longer to finish a skirting board they’d started painting together. Nina wasn’t sure whether Maeve had noticed Jonah doing it but more than once Nina had seen him glance out of the window, over at the water, his longing to go out in the sea evident. Nina would’ve bought him a kayak lesson to say thank you for all his help but she knew she couldn’t and so she’d settled on buying him a doughnut and a hot chocolate.
Nina finished the sandwich she’d made quickly in the kitchen, still revelling in how bright and fresh the place looked with its new cooker, the cool white paint on the walls and the chrome polished to a sheen, all part of the cabin-by-the-sea feel she wanted to create. She’d just washed up her plate, smiling at the sleek new kitchen tap and her mind casting back to it being fitted earlier that morning when she heard a call from the steps that led up to the cabin and went to see who it was.
‘Camille, come in,’ she told her visitor, ‘I was just about to make a cup of tea.’
‘Wonderful.’ She came in from the late September sunshine. The weather could trick you in the autumn – some days were a reminder that winter was around the corner, others were clinging on to that summer buzz with bright days and clear skies that made you want to make the most of them.
‘Is it just you? No Grandad?’ She got a second mug down from the cupboard.
‘He’s outside soaking up the summer a while longer.’
When Nina went to the front door she looked this time to the big tree stump over past the bins and close to the water. Her heart went out to her grandad. No doubt he wanted to soak up the memories of the cabin too, while he still could; the sun-filled days he’d spent with her and William, the rainy days when they’d played board games all day, even the winter time when Nina and William had begged to come to the cabin and they’d all piled down here with armfuls of blankets because there wasn’t any heating in the cabin.
Nina could only really remember the boathouse and the two cabins being the way they were now, but watching her grandad, his back to them as he looked towards the sea, she knew he’d remember what it had been like long before she was born, and the passage of time that had brought such change. Stepping Stone Bay Boathouse had once built and repaired huge boats, but over time Leo’s family had responded to the market and the growth in population down this way, as well as their personal preferences, and altered their business model.
As Nina carried on making the tea Camille spotted the shiny mixer tap at the kitchen sink. ‘This is new.’
‘It is, put it on this morning.’ And because she knew aquestion was bound to come her way she added, ‘Leo did it for me.’
‘It’s nice to see you two together again.’
