‘We’re hardly together.’
But Camille pulled a face that suggested she thought otherwise.
Yesterday Leo had walked over when she was sitting on the steps of the cabin scrolling through search results on her iPad and he saw she was looking at taps. He’d also noticed how bored she looked.
‘Why do there have to be so many?’ she’d grumbled to him. ‘If there were a couple to choose from it would be so much easier.’
He sat down next to her as she moved over. ‘May I?’ He had his hands out expectantly.
She handed him the iPad. ‘Be my guest, hardly riveting stuff. All I want is a kitchen tap that hasn’t got any scratches or damage – it’ll be that little extra to lift the kitchen that’s all.’
He’d laughed, scrolled himself. ‘Let’s see what we can find.’ Nina had leaned back on the step above and closed her eyes, but when she felt him looking at her she opened them and he snapped his head back round telling her, ‘Go for this one. Sleek, contemporary, it’ll look good.’
‘Is it easy to put in? Do I need a plumber?’
‘Don’t be daft. I’ll put it in.’
And so she’d gone to pick up the tap, and catching him helping a customer in the car park on the way back, he’d headed over shortly afterwards and fixed the tap on for her. And watching him helping out had brought with it unexpected sadness at what might have been.
But now, today, it was on to thinking about sofa coversrather than Leo’s company, as Camille took out those Nina had ordered from the big department store in town and her grandad had volunteered to pick up today.
‘I hope you don’t mind but I ironed these for you,’ said Camille.
‘Mind?’ Nina shook her head. ‘Of course I don’t mind. But you really didn’t have to do that.’
Camille dismissed the concern. ‘Your grandad said you didn’t have an ironing board when I suggested they’d be full of big folds from where they’d been wrapped around pieces of cardboard and shoved into plastic. So we unwrapped them to check and oh they were ever so creased. I live right near town, it only took me a moment. I know for a fact Leo doesn’t have an ironing board, so it’s not like I could borrow his.’
It was easy to forget Camille was Leo’s grandma, she was more like her grandad’s companion these days and it was good to know their friendship was so strong. More than once Nina had wondered whether it was anything else, but it seemed disrespectful to suggest it might be.
Nina headed outside with a cup of tea for Walt. She walked over to her grandad’s side and as he saw her in his peripheral vision he shuffled up on the stump so she could sit down too.
‘I sat here last night,’ she told him. She’d nursed a hot chocolate as it grew dark, able to see the lights on at the bottom of the boatshed, Leo’s form as he dragged in a couple of kayaks that must have been hired just before dusk from the ramp all the way into storage. She’d almost walked over to say hello but somehow going to his place of work felt intrusive. Instead she’d admired his build, remembered what it had felt like when he was hers, theirbodies pressed close together night after night with their whole lives ahead of them until everything had changed.
‘It’s a beautiful spot.’ She shielded her eyes from the sun so she could take in the view. She didn’t want to make it obvious, but she’d already glanced over at the boathouse to see whether Leo would emerge round the side from the shop part at the top to follow the path to the bottom, or whether he’d emerge from the boathouse beneath with a kayak or paddleboard, in a wetsuit, ready to give a lesson.
‘Why do you think I had the tree cut down but the stump left behind?’ Walt smiled, sipping his tea and Nina focused on him rather than looking for what might’ve been. ‘I never thought I’d see the day our family had to say goodbye to this place.’
‘You’re talking like you won’t ever come down here again.’
He made a face she wasn’t sure how to read. ‘You know we almost didn’t buy the cabin. Elsie wanted a beach hut instead.’
‘You never told me.’
‘Desperate for one, she was. And I wanted to be on board. I very nearly was, but then these cabins were being sold off. I was having a pint in the pub with Leo’s grandad when he got the call from Camille to say the two rickety cabins that were at the edge of their boatyard were up for sale. He’d asked what anyone would want with one of those, they were only fit to knock down, and when he finished the call I told him how much beach huts go for. He was floored and agreed the cabins were a far better option. Anyway, by mutual agreement we walked down to take a look at them. As soon as I saw the cabins I knew Elsie would fall in love with them and if we could buy oneit would give her a real slice of privacy, right here at the beach. Oh, she loved the beach.’
‘I know, Grandad.’ She put a reassuring hand on his arm at his melancholy but acceptance that Elsie was gone now and only memories remained. ‘So the Magowans didn’t want to buy both of the cabins when they knew how profitable they’d be?’
Walt shook his head. ‘I think Malcolm still thought it was a bit crazy to invest in one, but he’d have done anything for Camille and it turned out she wanted one as desperately as your grandma did. They’re similar in a lot of ways. And it worked out for the best. Camille always says that her fondest memories of the family are at their cabin, same as ours.’
Nina smiled in agreement.
‘And now her grandson lives in the cabin that brought them so much joy. It’s nice that, don’t you think?’
‘It is,’ she agreed, refusing to be drawn into another conversation about Leo. She sensed that was what he was trying to do in a roundabout way. ‘You know you could always move into the cabin. Leo would be next door if you needed help, it’s beautiful down here.’
‘What and have to negotiate that big hill every time I wanted to go into town?’ he laughed. ‘Not too bad now I’m able-bodied but it’s a young person’s game down here, or a place to visit. My bungalow is perfect for me. And Leo shouldn’t have to look out for an old man either.’
‘He said if you need any jobs doing at the bungalow then he’s very happy to help.’
