Nina
A couple of days after the party, Nina had only just finished sweeping the front steps of the cabin when she saw the postman coming her way. He usually left the post for Leo’s cabin in the little lock-up mailbox at the top of the track and the O’Brien cabin wasn’t often on his radar. All Walt would usually get was important correspondence, but that hadn’t been for a very long time, at least not until today when the postman handed her a letter and told her how good it was to see her back in the bay. She didn’t have the heart to correct him and tell him that really she was only here to ready the cabin for sale and leave Stepping Stone Bay all over again. Because even if she came back this way, to the south coast, it wouldn’t be right here.
She walked back to the cabin and tore open the letter which was from the estate agents containing the formal valuation and contract ready for signature. The paperwork was pretty much there, the photographs were too and had already been emailed across to her. This was it. She looked around the cabin, all the effort she’d put in and she tried to think about it in a business sense, but that was easier said than done.
And so instead of sitting there getting all melancholy, she picked up her bag ready to head out. She’d take the contract to her grandad for his signature and the long walk would do her good, because it was scaring her the way it felt so much like coming home here, especially since the party for Walt, the company and how filled with happiness and laughter the cabin had been. It was as though that night the cabin had been resurrected from the past to the present.
The sun was out and so she didn’t need much more than a light zip-up top over her t-shirt, but rain was forecast later and so she put her umbrella into her bag.
She was walking past the boathouse when Leo called over to her from the doorway. ‘Great day,’ he smiled. ‘Been writing letters?’ he eyed the envelope in her hand.
She lifted it up as though that would explain things. ‘It’s the contract for the estate agent, ready for Walt’s signature.’ She didn’t miss the slump of his shoulders. ‘They don’t want to hang around.’
‘That’s because they’ll be rubbing their hands together getting this place on their books.’ And now she didn’t miss the reservation in his voice. ‘Did they value it fairly?’
She wasn’t sure how much to share, but it was hardly going to be a secret when it would soon be advertised. She told him what price the estate agent suggested they could get and he whistled.
‘And your grandad is happy with the valuation?’
She nodded. ‘Very. And he’s very happy with the photos, we both are. I sent those to him too so he’s had a good look.’
‘Don’t you love technology.’
The wordloveseemed to have hovered in the air as helooked over at the cabin wistfully. ‘Another family is going to fall in love with it.’
‘If they’re half as happy as our family was down there, then that’s a good thing.’
‘And Walt doesn’t want to hang on to the cabin for a bit longer, might go up in price?’ he suggested.
‘He doesn’t want to leave it to the last minute. He keeps going on about being prepared, talks about if he needs a carer at some point and how pricey they are.’
‘True.’
‘He’ll be fussy choosing one as well.’
Leo’s laughter had her smiling. ‘I can see it now, Walt interviewing carers to make sure they’re the right fit.’
‘I’m glad he has Camille.’
‘Me too, the pair of them get along well, they’re good friends.’
Nina wondered was that all she and Leo would ever be now?
‘So may I see the photos?’ he asked before she could go on her way.
‘You’ve seen the cabin. You were inside two nights ago, for a long time.’ Her pointing it out had her thinking about how close they’d got on more than one occasion, not much room with the party in full swing, and then the way they’d talked on the steps outside, the truths that had surfaced.
‘Good point. Show me anyway.’
She took out her phone and brought up the email. He’d come closer to her and she felt the warmth of his skin when his arm pressed against hers as they both looked, him shielding the phone from the sunlight with his hand.
‘They’ve done a good job, the pictures will sell it easy.And that’s before anyone comes to look at it in person.’
‘Do you think so?’ The photos were good; some images made the interior look bigger than it was of course, but they’d captured the new décor brilliantly with its blue and bright white colour scheme, the epitome of a beach hideaway.
‘I know so.’
And as Nina made her way up the track she turned back briefly to see Leo still lingering outside the boatshed. And he wasn’t waiting for a customer, he was watching her.
