“Not like you’re going to get. I apologise for that.” He was smiling too much to actually mean that.
“Why am I special?”
“Because you’re with me and you’re a friend. And you’re Ivy’s sister. She wasn’t here long but everyone loved her. They’ll want to meet you for that reason alone.” He stood still at the tide’s edge, the path to the lighthouse completely underwater at this point.
“Hopefully they’ll like me just as much as her.” I’d never feltcomparedwith Ivy. She was older than me, enough so that we only crossed over at school for a year and we didn’t share friends. We were our own separate people, which made me think how hard it must’ve been in some ways for Gully being a twin.
“They will. You don’t need to worry about that.”
“How did you get into the lighthouse at high tide?” I pointed where I assumed the path would be.
“Waders. It’s actually not that deep at all, barely above my knees. There are a couple of points each year when it does go too deep, and you’ve got to decide at that point whether you hunker down at the lighthouse for a few hours or stay on the mainland. There’s never a tide here, so it’s safe enough to cross over. Want to go inside? I’ve got keys?” He pulled them out of his pocket and jangled them at me.
“Absolutely – but I don’t have any waders.”
“Come with me.”
Gully
Iknew Iris was worried about meeting everyone. I was worried about everyone meeting Iris, because they could be a lot. We were also a tight knit group, which didn’t mean we didn’t include new people, I just knew it could be intimidating when everyone shared a history of some sort or was related in some way. Thane was the brother of Ruby, which made him Finn’s brother-in-law; Amelie was practically our cousin as she’d been part of the Callaghan family since she was small as she’d grown up next door to them. Clover, Fleur and Romy had been friends since school. Grayson was the town’s doctor, and Cassian, who was Romy’s husband, was the headteacher at Puffin Bay’s primary school. Romy’s first husband was the man for whom the memorial was dedicated, losing his life saving that of a teenage boy, leaving behind Romy and Heidi, their daughter who was just a few months old. I hadn’t lived in Puffin Bay when that happened, but the memory of him was interwoven into the fabric of the town.
Seeing the place through Iris’ eyes was interesting. We knew everyone who lived here. We knew the town’s seasons and moods as well, dictated by the calendar and the moon. It wasall new to her. She’d notice things that would pass me by, she’d perceive things differently.
I was worried that she wouldn’t like this place, that she wouldn’t want to stay. If she didn’t, it didn’t mean that I would change my mind about the whole baby thing, but it would be a different life.
Iris loved the lighthouse and the views. She’d found the wading through the seainterestingand probably would repeat it, which had made me laugh as I wasn’t so sure, and we’d met Fleur and Thane when we waded back over. At least that was two introductions done.
I’d shown her Clover and Grayson’s house on the way back, as well as the doctor’s surgery which still had all the lights on, and pointed out the community centre, which was Amelie’s project, used for housing her cakery and Freya’s offices for therapy sessions, as well as the meeting place for the various clubs and societies in Puffin Bay and the surrounding villages.
There were lots of words about photos and angles, the light in her eyes brightening when she became enthused and sometimes technical about lenses. Iris saw the world in colour and light, her lens always full of beauty.
I was finding that was one of my favourite things about her.
This was hard. There were too many favourite things and I didn’t know what to do with that knowledge.
The Inn was already busy. Fridays at this time of year were traditionally when a lot of people who lived in Puffin Bay visited the pub, calling in for a pint or dinner to catch up with neighbours and friends. I knew Amelie’s goal had been to create a place for the community, not just to appeal to tourists and day trippers.
She’d taken on the building after it’d been derelict for almost two decades and renovated the whole thing, spending time with the people in town and working out what they wanted.
From that, she’d opened a pub that sold good quality beer and wines but didn’t cost a fortune, a revolving menu of cocktails and home-cooked food that wouldn’t win a Michelin star but had no intention of. There were roaring fires in autumn and winter, and a beer garden for summer which led onto the beach. Priority was given to locals, which was partly how she’d won the town over. The other way she’d won the town over was because of her – Amelie was one of those people who everyone fell a little bit in love with.
Four o’clock on a Friday in the depths of January meant that everyone who wasn’t still at work had gathered here. School had finished for the week, which meant the sunroom – which wasn’t so sunny right now – was reserved for parents and their kids and it was full. This was how a village took care of their kids – games, toys, space for them to play together with a large bathroom straight off – and space for the adults to have actual adult conversations while they collectively kept an eye on the kids. I knew when Ruby first had Elsie, just eleven months after having Elias, this place had been a sanity-saver. Two babies under twelve months had resulted in a lot of stress, even with the support she had around her, but having somewhere to go where there were people who would hold Elsie while she fed Elias or entertain them both while she fed herself if Finn was at work was huge, or so she’d said. I’d met her there some days, bringing my laptop so I could write or edit, and be another adult. Finn was great, sorting out someone to help with the distillery, but he was still running his business, so couldn’t be there all the time.
The rest of the pub was child-free most of the time, which Mavis and Dafydd and the rest of the older crew were happy with. There was dominoes set up in one corner and the preparations for a crib night in another, but most people were sat talking, chewing the fat about the week or the weather or the family that had moved into one of Dafydd’s cottages.
A few people glanced over at Iris and me when we walked in, some of those glances lasting for a bit longer than they would do normally. Word would’ve gotten round that Ivy’s sister was staying with me already, mainly because of Clover, who was one of my closest friends, but also the town’s second biggest gossip after Mavis. Mavis knew as well, and us being friends wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference to her making sure everyone knew I had a guest.
I led Iris through to the sunroom where Finn and Roe already were with my nieces and nephew. Finn was on the floor building some creation with his son. Elsie and Calla – Roe and Freya’s daughter – were giggling at each other with a combination of toy cars and stuffed animals.
“Hey. What’s everyone drinking? I’ll put it on my tab.” That took the attention off Iris.
“A pint of IPA.” Finn looked up, passing Elias a block. “Get Ruby a bottle of red too. She’s had a meeting with the Dean of the University and she’ll have spent about an hour stopping herself from trying to murder him and bury him under the floorboards. Hi, Iris.” He gave her a salute which made it seem like he’d met her every other day for the last four years.
“I’ll have an IPA too. Freya’s got a late session with clients so she’s on driver duty in case.” Roe leaned over to pull a teddy bear’s ear out of Calla’s mouth. “Let’s not eat that.”
Calla glared at him, looking exactly like her mother did.
“Cool. Are we all eating here?” I asked, as Cassian, the local headteacher walked in with his two boys, one who was still a tiny baby.
