‘Is that oil on your shorts?’ She put her fingers to the leg of his blue shorts, definitely oil, not easy to get out in the wash.
He looked down. ‘Don’t know,’ he tried. But then added on, ‘might have been Billy’s bike, his chain came off and I helped him put it on.’
It felt nice to know he was talking about other boys at school, it meant he was making friends. ‘Well that was kind of you.’ She ruffled the deep dark curls he’d inherited from her along with her brown eyes that ran in the family. She’d leave the nagging about the shorts for later on when she was trying to scrub at them with some stain remover. ‘Did you see Mr Tumbles outside the flat?’
He shook his head, already rooting through his pencil case for the right pen. Mr Tumbles was her parents’ cat.Her parents lived on the same side of the street as the flat Maeve was renting and it seemed Mr Tumbles was on to them and liked to curl up in the communal doorway hoping for a fuss. Jonah was rather fond of him and the feeling was mutual, but Maeve didn’t want the cat, who had been alive longer than Jonah, to get lost by wandering into the wrong flat so she tried to encourage him back to her parents’ house whenever she saw him.
As Jonah beavered away at his homework Maeve collected an empty cup from the next table, a cloth in her other hand reaching out to wipe the surface clean ready for the next person. She wiped down the counter again, made a couple of takeaway coffees for customers who drifted in, and when she got a moment, watched her son. It was a mother’s luxury, observing your child when they didn’t realise. When he was a baby she’d watch him for a long while as he slept; when he was a toddler she’d done the same, but it was difficult to do now he was getting older. He often asked what she was doing if he caught her staring, but really she was just appreciating the boy he’d become, the man he would be one day.
The café had a burst of customers as they came to the end of their working days and Jo, after wrapping Ava in a big hug, came back inside to rescue Maeve. They’d laughed about this, the busyness that seemed to happen at the time of day you assumed most would’ve gone home. Maeve had wondered why anyone would walk down the end of a pier after work or college or working in the town just to get a coffee or a slice of cake and Jo had shrugged as if it was obvious. Since then Maeve had realised exactly why it was; she’d remembered how much she’d enjoyed coming here and had done the same. This wasn’t just anycafé, it was a place for locals to come and hang out even if only for half an hour, a place to meet others, somewhere to talk away your worries or pick up some cake to take home to a loved one. It had already started to become that way for Maeve too.
Jonah had moved on to reading his book, his brow furrowed in concentration now as Maeve handed two cans of cola to the teenagers who’d come in and were mid-conversation about an annoying aunt. Jonah had always been a keen reader and Maeve wondered how much of that had come from the lack of outside space at their last and now current home. He’d always had access to green spaces but with his age he didn’t have much freedom to enjoy them at will. It was part of the reason she’d wanted to come home here to Salthaven, so her son could have the same upbringing as she’d once enjoyed. And the independence would come, he just had to be patient, and she had to learn how to give it to him. At least she’d made him happy by agreeing that he could go home after school and then meet her at work after some time on his own. That little bit of trust had buoyed him along and it was good for Maeve too. She hadn’t had to cut her hours to get home for her son or have him bored in the café for too long and so for now the arrangement worked.
As well as loving books Jonah seemed obsessed by the sea, something Maeve didn’t embrace but knew she had to accept. She’d been wary of the sea for a long time since Rhianne had drowned. She’d been part of the gathering that night, on the same boat Rhianne had fallen from and she’d seen her lifeless body dragged from the water. And hearing Jonah talk about the sea, how he wanted to go into the waves, how he longed to try out different watersports, filled Maeve with a dread she knew she had to move on from not only for her sake but for her son’s too. She couldn’t let her fears become his. But that was easier said than done. And now, he was asking to go along the beach again. But she wasn’t ready. It was part of what she’d loved about going over to Canada. For a long time Jonah had had swimming lessons and apart from those he didn’t talk much about the water. Here, he saw it every day, he woke up to the smell of the sea, the sound of the waves.
Maeve deflected from the subject of the water by telling Jonah to get on with his homework. ‘I won’t be too much longer, promise,’ she smiled at her son.
‘But Muuuum … I only want to walk along the sand.’
‘Don’t “but mum” me. And you’ll get me in trouble with Jo if you make a fuss.’
But Jo passed by and winked at Jonah and Jonah knew full well the café’s owner wouldn’t do anything of the sort. The first day he’d come in here he’d been shy, but Jo had put him at ease straight away and now they talked all the time.
‘Your mum’s right though, Jonah,’ said Jo, two empty plates save a bacon rasher someone couldn’t finish lined up on one arm to take to the kitchen at the back. ‘And the light is fading. Those waters out there get very dangerous.’
Jo knew the details of the tragedy. Jo knew about Rhianne. Everyone here did. But Maeve had never wanted to tell Jonah; it was a story she wasn’t ready to share, not yet.
But he was still watching the magnificence of those waves, mesmerised by the scene out of the window as he went over and knelt on one of the scatter cushions. It was as though he couldn’t help himself, it didn’t matter thathe had homework to do. ‘I love the water,’ he said almost to himself and every time he got this way it tore Maeve’s heart in two.
Jo smiled at Jonah and called over to him, ‘Steve told me you were asking all about his surfboard when he was in here last.’
As Jonah talked with Jo about Steve and his colourful surfboards Maeve’s insides did a loop-the-loop at the thought of her son asking anyone he could about the water. It was as though the universe was grabbing at every opportunity to remind her of her fear and that she didn’t want to let it affect Jonah. Her dad had even wondered whether she’d agreed to come back here partly because subconsciously, it meant she’d have to deal with her demons and perhaps he was right. Although it wasn’t only water that was her demon, it ran so much deeper than that.
Maeve hadn’t kept Jonah from the water or the beach completely. Of course there’d been the swimming lessons which she’d never once shied away from, their importance only too significant. She’d taken Jonah for a couple of beach holidays when they were living in Canada and like any other kid, he’d loved it – sand play, water fun. They’d taken towels, buckets and spades and the last time Maeve had even let Jonah buy a gaudy inflatable octopus he’d had hours of fun with. But from behind her sunglasses she hadn’t taken her eyes away from her boy and it had been she who’d ensured they were closest to the lifeguards on duty, she who’d cut their time short in the water when she thought her nerves might fry at any moment.
When Jo gave Maeve a nod that she could finish up for the day, Jonah saw his freedom and packed up the school books he’d left scattered over the table.
‘Home time,’ she smiled and got a beam of delight from Jonah in return as they left behind the little café at the end of the pier.
Maeve had rented a place in Salthaven and Jonah’s school was only a short walk away. Luckily his walk meant he didn’t have to go all the way up the hill that headed away from the town and also gave access to one of this area’s drawcards, Stepping Stone Bay. It was a beautiful spot and offered water-lovers a plethora of craft to choose from at the business that operated from the classic boathouse which still stood in place. Once he discovered that place, she knew holding him back would be even harder; he was born for it.
As they walked the short way home Maeve wondered how much longer before her son discovered Stepping Stone Bay and everything it came with. For Maeve the water and her nervousness around it was one of the biggest challenges of being back in Salthaven. There were plenty of others – settling into school, making new friends, finding his way around and for her, finding work and renting her own place. And for both of them she knew that sooner or later she had to answer the questions Jonah had about who his father was. Because his father lived in this same town and she couldn’t avoid him forever.
Chapter Four
Nina
Nina was back at the cabin today armed with buckets, cloths, sprays of all sorts and a heap of towels as well as Marigolds. She hadn’t done much at all yesterday because she and Walt had spent the morning together, enjoyed lunch at a tea room in a little village not far from Salthaven, and then gone to visit the cemetery where Elsie was buried. Nina and Walt had talked to Elsie – it hadn’t felt at all strange for either of them, but Nina hadn’t wanted to leave Walt after that and so all she’d done yesterday evening was pop to the cabin and change a few of the lightbulbs as well as prop open the front door to get some air fully circulating.
Today the O’Brien cabin smelt much better. And so far so good, no sign of Leo. She wanted a bit more time to gear herself up to face him. Pathetic really, given what he’d meant to her for so many years before she broke his heart.
What Nina had done yesterday was stand in the cabin and think about the finished job she wanted for the place. Given its proximity to the sea, a nautical feel was perfect and she already had a few ideas on that score. She could add finishing touches to each room with the same theme. The bathroom suite was close to new – she rememberedElsie talking about it a year or so before she died, how they’d had to bring it into this century. Looking around, Nina decided some of those wooden-framed seaside pictures that had shells inside and hung by rope on the walls would go perfectly in here. She’d keep the walls white to match the fittings and add lots of blue touches – perhaps a dolphin ornament, a sea-scene bathmat for young kids, some novelty soaps in the shapes of sea creatures could be arranged in the corner of the bathtub. Her grandparents had insisted the cabin needed the bath even though it was a squeeze and the bathroom small, and Nina knew her brother had appreciated it with his children, bundling them into the tub after a long day at the beach. The times he’d told her about it she’d kept her cool, she’d let him talk, because he had managed to find a sense of being happy and she was glad for him. He hadn’t let their parents’ behaviour dictate his future and she only wished she had been strong enough to do the same. She had no intention of ever making him feel guilty for the happiness he’d found.
As she filled a bucket with hot water and added some soap, bubbles formed and Nina thought about Leo making his permanent home down here in what had once been only a holiday cabin, not a full-time place to live. She’d known he’d done that because Walt had always seen it as his duty to keep his granddaughter more or less up to date about the locals, including Leo, in the briefest most bearable way possible and she hadn’t really minded. He meant well.
Nina picked up one of the cloths she’d brought with her and as the water got to a satisfactory level in the bucket, she dropped it in. According to Walt, Maeve was back inthe bay too. She had a son and that was one local update that really had piqued Nina’s interest. Like Nina, Maeve had turned her back on the bay and on Salthaven, but she’d ventured even further, to Canada. Nina had heard from Walt that the entire family had returned and that Maeve was working in the café at the end of the pier, but so far Nina hadn’t braved going anywhere local, let alone the café that was so busy all year round and hugely popular. Nina didn’t know Maeve all that well, but she could remember the summer before she left the bay behind when Maeve had started to hang around with their group a bit more. She’d sat with Nina on the beach a few times as Nina watched the Magowan brothers surfing, expressing her admiration at Leo’s love and adoration for Nina when he came running out of the sea, beads of water dripping off his jaw and running down his chest, just to give Nina a kiss.
Nina wondered whether the town and the bay were in their blood – Maeve’s, her family’s, her own, because something seemed to have pulled them both back and maybe it was more than the cabin for Nina, more than a family’s relocation for Maeve. It felt strangely settling to know someone else was in the same situation though, because it wasn’t easy coming back after all this time.
