‘Thank you, honestly, I didn’t realise how much this all meant to you. In fact, I didn’t realise how much this all meant to me either.’ Her voice was choked with emotion.
‘We’ve learned to be more accepting of incomers,’ Sue explained as she took a bend at far too high a speed, jolting everyone over to the left-hand side of the car. ‘Sorry! Especially incomers who embrace being party of the community. If we want to revive the village, then we need a little bit of outside help.’
‘Watch it,’ Alf warned, ‘she’ll have you on the committee next!’
Everyone laughed and began to chip in with tales of Sue’s various hare-brained schemes, from reinstating the Fisherman’s Fair to a lobster pot Christmas tree. Effie snuck a glance at Jake only to find him watching her, his expression soft.
‘Do you know what you’re going to do?’ he asked.
Effie shook her head. ‘Nope! I’ll make something up.’
Jake brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. ‘You can do anything, Effie, you’ve got this.’
When Effie stepped out of the car, legs wobbly and stomach churning from Sue’s driving, she wasn’t so sure that she did have it. Wandering over to the harbour wall, she dragged in some calming breaths of sea air and waited for her stomach to settle.
‘Give her some space.’ Jake held everyone back, including Maddie, who jumped out of Clive’s car the second he pulled up.
Jake took a step forward and lightly touched her arm. ‘Are you OK?’
Effie nodded. ‘Sue’s driving,’ she explained.
‘Erm . . . yes,’ Jake laughed.
Eyes closed, Effie inhaled the sweet sea air before opening them and being greeted by Polcarrow bay spread out before her, welcoming her home. She fixed her gaze on the horizon, steady and sure, to be relied on. Her eyes moved over the waves as they washed onto the sand, then over and up the beach, the tiny grains worn down into softness over thousands of years. All this had existed before them, and it’d be there long after they’d all passed.
Turning around, she fixed her eyes on the shop, her stomach churning for a different reason. Her beautiful springtime window display had been cleared, the blinds pulled halfway down, and the cheerful daffodil yellow door hastily slapped over with blue paint. Even from this distance she could see Zach had done a bad job. Seeing how he’d ruined her vision, Effie balled her hands into fists and stormed across the road, then pulled open the door.
Effie glanced around. The shop looked familiar and completely unrecognisable at the same time. The yellow chairs had been moved and Effie really hoped they hadn’t ended up in a skip, they’d been expensive but worth every penny. There were gaps in the shelves where stock had not been replaced and a layer of dust on top of the till. The rainbow-print rug she’d bought for the children’s area had been removed. The whole shop looked sterile, its atmosphere oppressive and warning people away. No wonder takings had been down.
Where was Zach? She’d been inside long enough to have grabbed books, maybe even the till and run off. How dare he preach about the importance of running a shop and then leave it unmanned.
‘Zach?’ she called, her voice flaming with anger. She gave him enough time to emerge from wherever he was hiding before calling his name again. This time she made her way through the shop and found him lounging in the kitchen, headphones in, watching something on his phone.
Incensed, Effie reached across and pulled the headphones from his ears. Momentarily startled, he shot to his feet in a panic, before narrowing his eyes at Effie.
‘That’s assault,’ he growled at her.
‘So, have me arrested then.’ She shrugged, taking a step out of the kitchen, back into the shop, Zach matching her step for step. ‘Personally, I’d be more concerned about how you’ve left the shop unmanned. Something could’ve been stolen.’
‘Unlikely. Not like anyone comes in here.’ Zach shrugged. ‘Why are you here? Didn’t you get the message, you’re not welcome in this shop.’
‘What? The message that the shop was doing badly because of my management of it?’ Effie folded her arms, no longer intimidated by him. ‘Looks like you’re doing an even better job than I was of running a shop badly. Where’s all the customers, Zach? Have you scared them all away?’
‘People don’t care about books, Effie. It’s about time Dad realised that, got rid of the business, sold it off. I don’t want to keep running it after he’s retired.’
‘You were pretty keen on running it a couple of weeks back,’ she pointed out.
‘I was trying to help Dad. You were doing your own thing, and I didn’t like it.’
‘But your dad did,’ Effie said as it dawned on her. Zach was jealous that she had been trusted to open the new shop, not him.
‘You might think books are boring, Zach, but they’re important. They offer escapism and information, and they’ve kept a roof over your head and food on your table for a long time. Your dad might not have his heart fully in the business but that’s because he has people like me, Maddie and Zoey to keep it going, people who love books. I’ve come back to Polcarrow to take back this shop and my flat.’
Zach laughed. ‘Effie, you can’t be serious. You can’t tell me what to do, you’re just an employee, you’re lucky I didn’t just fire you. I let you go back to the Penzance branch, why can’t you just be happy with that?’
‘Because this is where I’m happy,’ Effie said in a moment of weakness.
However, she should have known Zach would seize any vulnerability and try and use it to his advantage.
