Chapter Forty-Seven
After Effie had regaled the growing crowd on the harbour for the third time about what had transpired between her, Zach and Clive, it was decided that the celebrations should be moved to the pub. Effie was happily swept along the seafront by the villagers and almost carried through the pub door.
‘There you go.’ Steve placed a pint of local cider on the bar in front of Effie. ‘On the house. Never did like that bloke. Came in here sniffing at my wine selection like he was some sort of connoisseur.’ The fact that Zach probably couldn’t tell his Merlot from his Shiraz didn’t need mentioning.
Effie sipped her drink and turned to everyone. ‘Thank you. It looks like I’m here to stay.’
A cheer went up, and Effie beamed. Other than being tucked up in the safety of her parents’ house, she had never felt like she belonged anywhere as much as she did in Polcarrow. The fact that the residents had mounted a rescue mission to bring her back brought a tear to her eye. She shook their hands, allowed them to bundle her into hugs and repeated the story to anyone who’d missed it. Through the melee her eyes met with Jake’s. Time slowed as he raised his drink to her. Effie couldn’t even begin to get her head around what him being back in Cornwall would really mean.
Once everyone had a drink in hand, they moved outside to the beer garden, having decided it was too nice an afternoon to spend indoors. The sun had peaked out from behind the clouds like a blessing for Effie’s return. Effie sighed at the sea view as she slipped into the bench of the picnic table. Jake threw a few bags of crisps on the table between them and asked, ‘Is it OK if I join?’
‘Of course,’ Effie said, waiting until he’d sat down to chink his glass against hers.
‘Effie, we really need to talk,’ he said, glancing around nervously.
She nodded. ‘Later, I don’t think we’re going to get a moment unobserved for a while,’ she said, cracking into a bag of cheese and onion crisps. Anxious about what he might say, Effie didn’t want anything to spoil her triumphant glow.
‘I’m not intruding, am I?’ Maddie asked as she joined them, pint in hand. ‘Only Daniel can’t make it until he finishes work, and I didn’t fancy sitting in the back of Clive’s car with that frosty atmosphere. Sounds like you kicked arse. I liked having you back in Penzance but I can see this place suits you better.’ She gave a not-so-subtle indication towards Jake.
‘Yes,’ Effie said, catching his eye before replying to Maddie, ‘I didn’t realise how much being here meant to me until I saw what Zach had done to the door. Lola was right about it being horrendous. I’m glad I have some yellow paint left. That’s my first task tomorrow. I just wish I knew where the chairs had gone.’
‘The chairs?’ Freya called over from where she was sitting with Angelo and Alf. ‘The yellow ones?’ When Effie nodded, Freya continued, ‘They’re in my gallery. He was going to throw them in a skip, so I paid him fifty quid to take them off his hands.’
Effie’s heart sank. At least they’d gone to a good home. ‘Oh, that’s great. I’m relieved they didn’t go in the bin.’
‘I saved them for you,’ Freya explained, ‘I knew you’d be back. Lola said.’
‘What?’
‘I did the cards,’ Lola told her as she joined them. ‘Zach’s reign of terror was always predicted to be short lived.’
Tears welling in her eyes, Effie glanced between Lola and Freya, overwhelmed by their kindness. ‘Thank you, I don’t know what else to say.’
‘We can move them back as soon as you’re ready,’ Freya said.
Effie glanced around the small gathering of friends, who’d once been strangers, who had gone out of their way to save her dream. ‘I’d like to say something,’ she said, standing up, her voice wavering and her resolve almost vanishing as everyone turned to look at her.
‘I’ve always been content with staying at home. I went away to university but didn’t like it. That made me feel like a failure. I felt like I didn’t know how to do life. Now I know I was just trying to do life the wrong way with the wrong people. I was scared of leaving home for so long but Clive’s proposition was too good to turn down and I’m glad I didn’t because if I had I wouldn’t have met all of you.
‘I know everyone talks about stepping out of your comfort zone, like the comfort zone is a bad thing, which I don’t agree with, but I stayed in mine too long. You’ve all made me feel so much more welcome than I’d ever imagined I’d be and I’m grateful for all your support, not just today, but when I opened the shop. I really couldn’t have done it without you.’ Effie exhaled and caught Jake’s eye. ‘Phew, that’s the longest speech I’ve ever made.’ She could feel her cheeks colouring. ‘So I’ll stop wittering on and just say thank you again.’
With a little bob of her head, Effie sat down and took a long slug of her cider as everyone erupted into applause. As she put her glass down, she caught Jake’s eyes. He was beaming at her as if she was the most wonderful woman on the planet. For the first time in her life, Effie felt as if his assessment of her was correct.
Chapter Forty-Eight
The evening drew in and Effie realised, as she waved Maddie off, that she was now stuck in Polcarrow and all her things were back home in Penzance. Grabbing her phone from her pocket she almost called Maddie, asking her to come back and collect her, but she remembered Jake and. the conversation they needed to have.
She’d phoned her parents earlier that evening to explain the situation and they were both outraged at Zach’s behaviour and gutted that they hadn’t been there to witness Effie’s moment of triumph. As she’d hung up, Effie glanced around the busy pub garden and over at the lazy evening sea, her heart swelling with just how loved she was. How lucky she’d been to be able to reclaim her dream life. She would never have felt confident to fight her battles if it hadn’t been for how much Polcarrow had got behind her.
Slipping her phone back into her pocket, she caught Jake’s eye and watched as he nodded towards the garden gate. Everyone was engrossed in their own conversations, so didn’t pay much attention when Effie slipped away. Jake was waiting outside the pub, bouncing nervously on his toes. He was here, in Polcarrow, that had to be positive, didn’t it? Her heart lurched and she tried to hold it back, needing to hear what he had to say before she got carried away with a romantic fantasy.
Effie walked slowly over to him, setting the pace of whatever was going to happen next. She stopped a foot’s breadth between them. They each drank the other in, desire for the truth and for each other thrumming between them. Effie shivered and Jake unzipped his hoodie and handed it to her.
‘Won’t you be cold?’ she asked as she snuggled into it, the residual warmth of his body wrapping around her. She just about managed to stop herself from lifting it to her nose to inhale his scent.
‘I’m fine,’ he said. ‘Effie, we need to talk.’
‘Now?’ she asked and hiccupped from her second cider. She felt nicely blurred around the edges but not drunk, just enough to soften any blows. ‘Yes, now, of course, of course we do.’
