They didn’t walk too much further before they conceded that it was time to get back to the boxes.
They’d just turned onto the street from the end of the track when Addie collided with thick strings across her path. She waved her arms as if she was stuck in a giant cobweb.
‘Sorry!’ came a male voice as Susanna helped Addie disentangle herself.
The man came to help too, and he was joined by a little boy.
‘No harm done.’ Addie smiled as she was set free and the little boy tried to rescue the rest of his kite from a nearby bush.
The man told them – or rather Addie, because she was the only one he seemed to have eyes for right now – ‘I told him to wait until we’re in a bigger space, but…’
‘No worries. I have a son of my own and telling him to wait is like asking for the impossible.’
The man smiled and seemed to remember his manners. He held out a hand first to Addie, then to Susanna. ‘I’m Samuel, by the way, and this is my son, Billy.’
‘Addie,’ her sister replied.
‘I’m Susanna. Good to meet you.’ He looked in his late thirties, maybe early forties, and she noted he wasn’t wearing a wedding band.
‘Dad… come on!’ Billy cried, his kite gathered up now.
‘I’d better go. But good to meet you both. I’ll see you around.’
‘Sure,’ said Addie.
Only when he was out of sight and they began to walk again did Addie notice Susanna’s grin. ‘What?’ she asked.
‘You tell me.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Addie, whoever that guy is, I’d say he’sveryinterested in you.’
‘Oh, come on, we met for a split second.’ She hooked her arm back through her sister’s.
‘That’s all it takes.’
‘Yes, well, the only man I need in my life right now is Isaac.’
‘If you say so.’ And she only let it go because Addie had steered her past the mouth of Evergreen Close. ‘Where are you taking me? I thought we’d finished our walk.’
Addie stopped when they were almost at the Sweet Life Café. ‘I don’t want us going inside for the first time on the day of the living funeral in six days. We need to do it now.’
Her heart thudded. ‘Wait a minute. I thought I was the decisive one,’ she said to her sister.
‘I’m all grown up now, and maybe sometimes I have to be the one to make decisions.’
She couldn’t argue with that.
A reel played over and over in her mind of the times she’d come here as a teenager, and then the time she’d come here the day she got back to the island earlier than expected. She’d wanted to surprise her little sister, but Addie wasn’t at the cottage and so she’d come to the café. She’d thought Addie would be inside at one of the booth tables doing schoolwork or having something to eat, desperately waiting to see her sister, but when Susanna went inside and up to the counter she’d seen through to the kitchen. There, next to Aunt Gayle, had been Addie with an apron on and the biggest smile on her face. Laughter ricocheted off the walls from Gayle and Addie over and over again, torturing Susanna that their world might well be different from hers and she’d felt like she was losing Addie bit by bit. She’d slunk back out and gone down to the harbour again, where she’d hung around for a couple of hours until she walked back up to the cottage. And when she’d asked Addie what she’d been up to that day, Addie had told her she’d been busy with school and homework and hadn’t uttered a word about Gayle or baking puddings with their aunt.
They were about to go inside when Susanna stopped. ‘Isn’t that Louisa?’ They watched the young woman putting something into the rear of the bright pink van used for deliveries, with the café’s logo emblazoned on the side panels. ‘So she’s on holiday but has a job working here?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ said Susanna. They were right outside the front door and her feet suddenly wouldn’t move.
‘Come on,’ Addie urged.
‘I don’t know if I can.’
