That fact didn’t sit well with Addie. They’d all drifted apart, left it too long, and now it was too late.
Yesterday, when she’d spoken on the phone with her sister, she was glad of Susanna’s decisiveness and ability to be organised. She’d half expected Susanna to refuse to even set foot on Anchor Island again – she’d been resisting the suggestion they go and sort through their father’s things for long enough – but yesterday it was Susanna who had looked up train times, ferry schedules, and flights, and had them sorted out in no time. She was a lot like their Aunt Gayle; not that Addie would dare mention the similarity out loud to her sister.
Addie felt a sudden surge of panic. ‘Do you think whoever is organising the funeral has already cleared out Gayle’s house and the attic, including all of Dad’s things?’
‘Gayle wouldn’t have let that happen.’
‘We should’ve gone back a long time ago.’
Her comment was met with silence. She hadn’t pushed Susanna to go and sort through their dad’s things. Addie had wanted to go, to get it done, but she’d be the first to admit that she’d been waiting for Susanna to take the lead. Perhaps that was where she’d gone wrong. For years she’d wanted her sister to let her make her own decisions, jumped on her back if she tried to interfere. She should’ve been more forceful.
Instead of deliberating the fact that they hadn’t gone to the island until now, she asked, ‘Do you think Aunt Gayle made a will? I mean, I’d assume so. There’s the house, the business, all her personal effects…’
‘We’ve been gone a long time,’ Susanna interrupted, as if she needed the reminder.
Addie closed her eyes. ‘This all feels like such a mess.’
‘We’ll see what’s what when we get to the island.’
‘We’re going to need somewhere to stay.’ Addie pulled out her phone. ‘I didn’t even think of that.’
‘The inn is still running, but it’ll make more sense to stay at the cottage. We can sort things out better from there.’ Susanna stirred her coffee once again. Addie had long since finished her second cup.
‘The cottage?’ Addie had to wonder if her sister had thought it through. ‘It would be too weird. And besides, I don’t have a key any more. Do you?’
‘There’ll be a spare key in the bottom of the stone tortoise ornament outside.’ She smiled slightly. ‘I came back drunk one night, barefoot because it was so hot, and I stubbed my toe on the thing trying to locate it to let myself in and sneak up to bed.’
‘I suppose it would make it easier to go through Dad’s things, if they’re still there.’ But Addie still wasn’t sure about the idea.
Susanna finished her coffee, took the cup to the counter and brought them both back a bottle of water. ‘How did Isaac take the news that you’ll be away for a while?’
‘Better than me. It’s the longest I’ve gone without seeing him.’ The plan was to go over, sort out what they needed to, attend the funeral and head back a couple of days after that.
‘The time will go quickly, you’ll see. There’ll be a lot to do.’
‘I cried last night at the thought of being so far from Isaac.’
Susanna’s hand reached across the table and gave hers a squeeze. ‘If it’s all too much, you can nip home and see Isaac and then return to the island. I’ll cover the cost.’ She squeezed Addie’s hand more firmly. ‘And I won’t take no for an answer on that one.’
She didn’t argue. It was nice to know she had a get-out clause if she really couldn’t stand to be away from Isaac for that long, but she wished her sister wouldn’t assume she couldn’t manage. She could scrape together enough to visit her son, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. They’d be busy. Maurie and Jarrett were well versed at keeping Isaac entertained, and knowing he was in his element should be enough to keep her head straight.
When Susanna went off to call Alex, Addie let herself think about the island. Sometimes she didn’t. Sometimes she pushed the memories away, as it felt easier.
Addie had lived on Anchor Island since she was eight years old and slowly she’d begun to settle and feel happy again. She made friends, got through school easily enough, but at the back of her mind was always the pact she and her sister had made the day they were dragged from their beloved home in Oxford, away from all that was familiar.
The day Susanna announced she had got the grades she needed to go to university back on the mainland, Addie had been heartbroken. She’d known the day was coming but she also knew how hard it was going to be living here without Susanna. She was twelve, almost thirteen, when she and Aunt Gayle took her sister and her bags to the ferry and waved her off. Addie had known then that Susanna would never come back, not properly anyway, and it felt like the Rafferty girls were disappearing like the rest of their family had.
Addie missed Susanna more than she could explain and one night a month or so after Susanna had left, she’d been missing her sister like crazy and was so upset that she’d run upstairs as soon as she got back from school and buried her face in her pillow. She’d howled. She couldn’t remember crying that hard since her dad had died.
She’d been mid-sob when she heard the creak of the door opening, felt the sag of the mattress as someone sat down, and when she opened her eyes Aunt Gayle was there. She didn’t say a word, just opened her arms. It was the first time Addie had really let herself be hugged and comforted by their aunt, the first time it felt like Aunt Gayle was there when she needed her rather than Susanna filling the role of their absent parents. That night Addie had been allowed to stay up past midnight. They’d had apple and rhubarb crumble with hot custard, they’d talked about school, about what Addie missed on the mainland, what she liked on the island. Addie had gone to bed full of the pudding but with something else too, the feeling of family.
The following day Addie had gone into the Sweet Life Café after school and asked if she could help out and she’d gone in every day since. If Susanna was on the island visiting, she spent time with her sister, but when Susanna wasn’t there Addie was at the Sweet Life Café with Gayle, and slowly, things on Anchor Island began to subtly change.
As the days and weeks turned to months and years, Addie enjoyed her time at the café more and more, baking almost every day, sometimes to Gayle’s recipes and other times her own, and she began to wonder whether a university place was what she really wanted.
‘I love baking,’ she said candidly to Gayle one day, as she washed her hands after handling pastry. She had offers from three universities, had accepted her preferences, both with courses in web design, and was set to go to the mainland in less than six months providing her results were good enough.
Gayle put an apple and raisin strudel in the oven. ‘I can tell.’ She was smiling as she picked up a cloth to wipe down the surface.
