She stared at her husband and smiled faintly, still wondering, despite his denial, if he’d ever said this to Mrs Peterson.
CHAPTER SEVEN
TAWRIEGUNN
AUGUST2024
The Ilfracombe weather was a great dictator of mood. There were bright days with a wide Devon-blue sky that could lift the lowest of thoughts. Days when the kiss of sunshine on winter skin gave Tawrie faith that all was going to be right with the world, that somehow she’d make it through. And sometimes the little town laboured under the bruise of a storm. This dark veil was, in its own way, equally stirring, as the flash of lightning bounced on the water, thunder cracked across the quay and rain lashed the paths and windows, forcing under-dressed tourists to put newspapers, bags or hands over their heads as they headed for cover. And then there were days like this – in between days when the world looked grey, dull and quieter than was comfortable. Days when the water was calm, gulls perched silently and the atmosphere was a little sluggish.
Tawrie would be lying if she didn’t admit that she’d half expected Edgar to turn up at the café after their beach encounter, but he hadn’t. Worse still was that Connie had looked up every timea man walked in as if she too was on tenterhooks. It made them both jumpy. It was now three days since Tawrie had seen him and she was riven with fear that he might have gone back to wherever he lived. The thought left her a little out of sorts. How on earth could she explain it? A man she’d seen twice and spoken to briefly only once – how could she possibly justify the amount of space he took up in her thoughts or the level of distress she felt at the prospect of never seeing him again?
And as if that wasn’t bad enough, she knew nothing about him: not his surname, telephone number or even the city he called home. There were many holiday rentals on Fore Street, and with no clue where he’d stayed, it wasn’t as if she could make enquiries. And even if she knew who he was and where he hailed from, she wasn’t sure how it might help. The thought of tracking him down like a sad loner, only for him to tell her she’d got the wrong end of the stick entirely, was more than she could contemplate. This thought took her back to square one: the reality that she was preoccupied with this stranger. It was ridiculous. And yet the thought of him and all the romantic associations that followed thrilled her! She craved the image in her head: love, friendship and a future that was more than her biscuit-eating nan and her vodka-guzzling mother.
She threw herself into her morning swim.
‘So that’s it, Dad,’ she whispered, putting her words out into the surf. ‘As I said before, it was nothing; I didn’t even know him. So why am I so sad at the prospect of not seeing him again? What’s going on? What do you think I should do?’
The silence of the waves bothered her.
With her heart pounding and her limbs aching from a strong session, she made her way to the middle of the bay and lay on her back, part of her morning ritual, letting her eyes take in the majesty of the big sky and feeling the water embrace her. As ever, a littleoverwhelmed and in awe of the vastness of the sky and the ocean below her.
‘I’ll be back tomorrow,’ she whispered. As she turned to swim back, she became aware of a figure on the beach. Instantly she trod water and stared at his outline. Her heart leapt at the sight of him and the happy realisation that all was not lost.
‘Your friend’s back!’ Maudie yelled playfully, pointing in his direction.
‘So he is.’ She turned and beamed at the woman whose eyes glinted with delight.
Edgar lifted his hand in a wave. She waved back, wishing again that she was half-decently dressed and not in this wetsuit that showed all her lumps and bumps. Jago continued to pull through the water, seemingly oblivious, and Maudie did her best to catch him up.
Making every effort to look calm and collected, she tried as elegantly as possible to tread the shoreline and make her way up the beach. Overly conscious of her walk, she faltered and tripped, something she never did! It was typical, and she decided there and then not to attempt to remove her suit, but instead to put her dry robe over her wet stuff, therefore avoiding the mortification and possible repeat of the knicker-dropping incident of a couple of days ago.
‘Hey!’ he called as she approached, his manner and tone suggesting they were meeting by arrangement, which suited her just fine.
‘Hi!’ She felt her pulse race as she got closer to him. Connie was right, whowasshe?
‘So, was it cold?’
She laughed as she reached for her towel and rubbed it over her hair and face, trying not to let her eagerness at the sight of himburst from her, swallowing all the glittery rainbows and hearts of joy that she was sure would rush from her throat if she were to sing.
‘As I’ve said to my nan on more than one occasion, about as cold as yesterday and probably the same as it’ll be tomorrow. No matter how I dress it up, this ain’t the Caribbean!’
‘True.’ He sat on the sand and it felt like the most natural thing in the world to sit next to him. Aware that time was marching on, she hoped Connie would understand that this was an emergency – or at least an opportunity. Either way, she was staying put. Gordy and Nora could wait for their bacon sandwich or carrot cake with two forks, and Gaynor would simply have to step up her game.
‘So what brings you up to Hele Bay at this time of the morning?’ She hoped he might say ‘you’ and braced herself accordingly.
‘I like to walk and I like it when it’s quiet before the whole town wakes up and the streets and paths become crowded.’
‘Yep, that’s the downside. When you live somewhere like this, you can’t mind sharing it with crowds when the sun comes out. I’m not complaining; I’m always ready for the summer when it arrives, but I do like the winter months, and the quieter times in the day. It feels like an entirely different place.’
‘I’ve only ever been here in the summer.’
‘You should come back in the winter.’ Her words filled her with instant regret. Why had she said that? The last thing she wanted him to think was that she was making a plan, asking him to come back, assuming something!
‘I will.’ And just like that her nerves dissolved and she was again filled with something light that felt a lot like happiness.
‘So where do you live?’
‘London.’
