‘I do the swim every year in her honour,’ Elijah told them all. ‘And I will continue to do so until the day I die.’
His words had them fall silent until Bridget said, ‘Or until the doc tells him to stop.’
As they all laughed Nina felt almost like she was in the way every time Maeve and Adrian exchanged yet another glance.
When Leo came in Elijah and Bridget decided to leave the youngsters to it.
‘Did you tell her?’ Leo asked his brother.
‘Didn’t get much of a chance.’
Nina wondered what was going on. Was it about the bank? She steepled her fingers in front of her face and put them to her lips. ‘Please tell me it’s good news.’
‘Actually it is.’ Adrian took the lead. ‘Leo and I had a meeting at the bank this morning.’
‘Wait, both of you?’
Leo couldn’t keep the smile off his face. ‘Adrian here is going to come into the business with me which means with him on board I can get the finance to buy Walt’s cabin.’
Nina almost threw her arms around him. ‘I don’t know what to say.’ Her voice shook. ‘This is amazing news – Grandad will be so pleased.’
Leo held his hand out to her. ‘So do we have a deal?’
She was about to point out that the final decision wasn’t hers, but she knew this gesture was about more than the sale of a property and so she put her hand in his. ‘Yes, one thousand times yes!’ And although it felt good to have her skin on his she wished she could hug him tight and let him know how much this meant to her. ‘I need to go tell Grandad, now!’
Leo reached out and put a hand on her arm. ‘Stay, just for a bit.’
Her gaze held his and she nodded, completely under his spell or the magic of their history, she didn’t know which.
‘Do you think you’ll move into the cabin?’ Maeve immediately directed her question to Adrian.
‘We haven’t got as far as thinking about what we’ll do, whether it’ll belong to Leo or the both of us. The main thing was to get the funding so we can move forwards and so Walt will get a fair price. Our talks are in the very early stages.’
‘So you’ve left teaching for good?’ Nina asked him.
‘Like I said, we need to iron out the particulars.’
‘But you’re staying in the bay?’ Maeve leapt in before Nina could ask much more.
‘Looks like it.’ Adrian’s focus solely on Maeve, it was as though he was announcing it to her and nobody else.
And when Nina looked at Leo she knew she wasn’t the only one who saw the sparks flying off these two.
Adrian turned to face them all. ‘It was strangely good to see Rhianne’s parents today.’
‘It was,’ Nina agreed before recounting their conversation to Leo who’d missed it all.
‘You know what this means though don’t you?’ Adrian went on. ‘Her dad does the Christmas Day swim every year in her honour.’ He shrugged.
Maeve suddenly got it. ‘Oh no, are you suggesting …’
‘We’ve got a few months to get our confidence in the water,’ Adrian told her. ‘If you’re worried, we could try going in the sea together. Might make it easier.’
Nina wanted to giggle like a schoolgirl when she felt Leo push his knee against hers beneath the table. Ignoring him she said, ‘The swim would be a way to honour Rhianne’s memory, but I’m still not sure about it when three of us have avoided the water for so long.’
All of a sudden Maeve began to smile.
‘What’s that smile for?’ Nina asked.
