Chapter39
In winter, Penrigan Pier was only open in daylight hours. Aside from one mobile coffee and snack van at the entrance, all the other food and retail ports were closed up against the elements. Pensioners, reliving their youth and glad of the lack of crowds, could be seen wrapped up warm taking a leisurely stroll along the boardwalk or sitting with a blanket on their knees on a bench in one of the alcoves that ran down the middle of the pier, many with a shopping bag containing a flask of tea and a packet of sandwiches. At weekends, teenagers would hang out in the alcoves smoking, drinking, shouting and play-fighting. The historic Penrigan Pier had most certainly given to the area a legacy of first-time lovers and lasting loves.
‘I feel most honoured you’ve shut up shop for me.’ Jack took a sip of hot chocolate, and some foam ended up stuck to his moustache. He wiped it off, then licked his finger.
‘Hardly. I need to be back by eleven – one of the joys of running my own business.’
‘D’you know, Star, I haven’t been on a pier for years,’ Jack said. ‘Shame it’s not all open or I’d have whipped your arse at the Dolphin Derby at the end. Sad to admit, I’ll even go for a bit of Bingo in places like this.’
‘Me too,’ she confided, ‘but I would never confess that to Skye. I just thought it would be easier if we came here – and I do love a bench.’
‘You’re so funny.’
‘No, Jack, I think everyone should have a special place to think. I have two. This is one of them. Nature gives me such an energy boost, clears my mind. I can get my thoughts straight when I’m away from people and my phone.’
‘Where’s the other one then?’
‘Up on Hartmouth Head car park near my mum’s place. And when I’m down here in town, I come to the pier as it’s near my auntie’s flat. I’ve been coming here all my life, in fact. Just sitting and staring and thinking.’ She looked at him. ‘Have you ever checked out inscriptions on benches?’
‘Er, no, can’t say I have.’
‘Well, I know all the ones here off by heart.’
Jack’s own heart skipped a beat at this beautiful woman’s quirky ways. She really was something else.
‘I mean, read this one.’ Star stroked her finger along the engraved plaque attached to the bench they were sitting on. ‘This is why I chose to sit here.’ She began to read aloud. ‘“To my Molly. There’snever anend to the sea, so why for you and me? Your Ronnie.” So sweet. I don’t even want to know if either or both of them has died. I prefer to imagine that they are infinitely happy.’
The unobscured view of the dark grey sea blew Jack’s mind. The sound of the waves licking the edge of the pier struts was hypnotic, the shelter from the wind in the little alcove creating a sense of warmth and safety.
‘I’m not sure if life allows that luxury.’ Jack smiled at Star’s endearing ways, her innocence and her wisdom. ‘I would probably more likely remember this graffiti on here.’
‘If we look close enough you might see “Star loves Danny.”’
‘Did you? Love Danny?’
Star laughed again. ‘Doesn’t everyone think they are inlove at fifteen?’ She then said shyly, ‘Your beard looks good shorter.’
‘Thanks. I trimmed it especially.’ Then Jack cringed at this revelation.
To fill the awkward silence, they started to talk at the same time.
‘You go first.’ Star was conscious that her hands were shaking slightly. Just sitting next to him in the twenty-minute car journey to the pier had engulfed her with the exact same feeling she had experienced when she’d first set eyes on him in the market earlier that year. Memories had come flooding back; the moment she heard his voice; the passionate lovemaking in her flat; the soulful connection that she had never experienced with anyone else, ever.
It felt like she was dreaming to have him back here with her, especially when she had expected never to see him again. To see him had been such a surprise, but of the nicest kind. And now she was sitting this close to him, the cloud of connection between them was like a soft golden glow that illuminated them both. Maybethiswas love.
‘Why did you lie and tell Kara you were somebody else?’ she asked.
‘I er … I didn’t want my girlfriend to know that I was coming here. She has a habit of checking my messages.’
‘Ah, I see. And I thought you were leaving at5a.m.’
‘Yes, I was but I was tired and it makes no difference to me getting a later flight as I’m not due back at work until Wednesday.’
‘Why didn’t you let me know you were here? I don’t get it.’ Star felt hurt.
Jack took another sip from his now not so hot chocolate. ‘I’m working on a new screenplay and I just wanted thesilence,’ he lied eventually. ‘I love the peace of this place. The whole estuary thing, it’s just gorgeous and so far removed from New York and my life there. I guess it’s running away without running away, if you get what I mean.’
‘None of us can run away forever, Jack.’ Star had found it so hard to put into words what was missing from her relationship with Conor, but this was it. This natural chemistry. The kind of magnetism that drew two individuals together when they met for the first time. A bit like the everlasting bond that her auntie had described between mother and child – this is what she felt for Jack.
