Miranda beamed. ‘I would like that a lot.’
Getting off the island was something she needed to do for herself. But getting to share some of that journey with the man who’d made her realise she needed to leave in the first place could only be a good thing.
‘So would I.’
They held each other’s gaze for a long moment, until Miranda heard her father clearing his throat, and realised that Dafydd was introducing Birchwood onstage.
‘You’d better go,’ she told Owain.
Swearing, he kissed her again, then ran to catch up to the others. ‘We’ll talk properly later though,’ he called back to Miranda, and she nodded.
Talking with Owain was definitely on her list for tonight. Along with doing lots of other things with Owain. Not entirely limited to planning the travel itinerary.
‘So,’ Iestyn asked, as they headed back out front to watch. ‘Should I be worried about my daughter running off with a rock star?’
‘Folk-rock,’ she corrected him. ‘And no, not really.’
She wasn’t running off with Owain. She was stepping out into the world on her own, at last.
Owain being with her was just an added bonus.
The gig was electric. All the bands today had been great, but Owain and the guys blew the rest of them out of the water. The energy, the musicality, all of it had the whole field of people vibrating in time. She’d thought she’d known how good they were from their impromptu performances on the terrace, but those had nothing on this.
Even her dad was tapping his feet. ‘OK,’ he said, between songs. ‘Maybe I’ll let you run away with this one. Just for a little while. As long as you promise to come home again, now and then, to tell me about your adventures.’
‘Always,’ she promised. ‘As long as you do too! You and Mum, the Lighthouse, Juliet and Leo, Seashell Island . . . this is home, and it always will be. I could never stay away for too long.’
Miranda smiled, and let her dad put his arm around her while they listened.
‘So, I can tell your mother you’re not heartbroken about Paul then?’
‘You can definitely tell her that,’ Miranda replied. ‘In fact, you can tell her that I’m happy. And I’m heading out into the world to find out what can make me even happier.’
‘Good for you, my girl.’ Iestyn kissed the top of her head. ‘Good for you.’
By the time Owain and the band reached the last song of their set, the others had all made their way from the corners of the festival to join them. Juliet was there, her hand clasped in Rory’s, which made Miranda smile. Abby and Mia were right up by the stage, dancing their hearts out, while Mark and Emily stood nearby watching them. Leo and Christabel stood on the other side, whispering – or probably shouting – into each other’s ears to be heard that close to the stage. Josie and Iestyn stayed a little further back, but Miranda knew they were watching all of them, checking in on them all.
She wondered if they saw what she saw. Three siblings, all finding their right paths again after too many wrong turns.
She looked up at the stage and saw Owain singing down at her, his eyes focused on her own.
Maybe he was her right path. At the very least, she wanted to walk it a while to be sure.
For a moment, she let the music carry her away, on a wave of energy and fun and possibility. And then she smiled.
Because it was all out there waiting for her.
LEO
As night started to fall, Leo gathered up Abby and Mia, and led them away from the stage where they’d been dancing to the music. Owain’s band had been the last official act to play, but now makeshift combinations of musicians from all the bands were creating new tunes and playing old favourites up on the stage, much to the crowd’s delight. It seemed that no one wanted to go home just yet.
The sun hadn’t fully set yet, and the moon was still on its way up – the magic hour between the day and the night.
And time for something really special.
‘Where are we going?’ Mia asked, testily.
‘You’ll see,’ Leo told her.
‘Can Lucy come?’ Abby pointed to where the llama was grazing, far away from the rest of the petting zoo, uncontainable as always, her tutu fluttering in the breeze.
He shrugged. ‘Why not?’
Llama in tow, he led the girls up the winding path, past the B&B, to the old lighthouse on the crest of the cliff. His parents, sisters, Emily and Mark, Christabel, Owain, Rory and even Tom were all already there, watching and waiting. The fairy lights Juliet had twisted around the fence beside it twinkled in the fading light. Lucy trotted over towards them and grazed happily on the fresh grass there.
‘Are we ready?’ Iestyn asked.
‘For what, Grandad?’ Abby asked.
Mia gasped. ‘It’s time to light the lamp, isn’t it!’
Iestyn beamed. ‘That’s right! You two girls want to come up and help me?’
They both nodded, and raced through the lighthouse door before their grandfather.
Leo wandered over to the fence, where Christabel had joined Lucy, and hopped up to sit on it, the way he always had as a boy.
‘Will you come join us up at the house after?’ he asked Christabel, as they waited for the lamp to spill its brightness into the gloom. ‘There’s bound to be at least one or two nightcaps, and Dad will want to tell all sorts of stories about their travels.’
Christabel smiled, but shook her head. ‘I’d love to, but I’ve got an early ferry to catch tomorrow. Need to go pack up the ambulance.’
Leo froze. ‘You’re leaving?’
‘So are you,’ she reminded him. ‘Tomorrow or the next day. You’re going back to London, and I’m going wherever the wind takes me next.’
‘Like Mary Poppins.’ She’d blown into his life and made him look at it differently, and now she was leaving again. She’d told him that they had a time limit, that at the end of the summer it would be over between them. And now it was September. The wind had changed and she was on her way.
He’d known it was coming. He just still didn’t feel ready for it.
‘If Mary Poppins drove an ambulance, I suppose.’ Head tilted to one side, she bit her lip as she looked at him. ‘You know, normally at this point I’m desperate to get on with the next new thing. I spent so long stuck in a life that didn’t suit me, that these days I just want to keep hunting to find something that does.’
Was she suggesting that she didn’t want to leave? Except, as she said, he wouldn’t be here anyway. So it wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of their romance.
They’d both known, from that first night they fell into bed together, that this thing between them wasn’t for ever. The end had just crept up rather quicker than Leo would like. In the back of his mind, he supposed he’d been imagining coming back to visit Seashell Island next summer and finding Christabel here waiting for him.
Which was half his problem. Imagining that other people would just wait for him to have time for them, rather than getting on with their own lives.
‘You don’t feel ready to leave Seashell Island?’ he asked, as neutrally as he could.
She rolled her eyes. ‘Yes, I think I’ve got everything from the island that I can. And with Miranda leaving . . . it’s time for me to move on too.’ Moving a little closer, she whispered close to his ear, ‘But I will regret not getting at least one more night with you.’
Blood rushed through his body, and Leo hoped he wasn’t blushing as the lighthouse lamp suddenly flared to life and illuminated the whole sky. A cheer went up – first from the family gathered around them then, a fraction of a second later, from the festival field below.
Abby and Mia came racing back down the lighthouse stairs and shot out the door into his arms. ‘Did you see! We turned on the light!’
‘I saw!’ He gathe
red them close and held them to him, grateful for everything this summer had given him. Over their shoulders he saw Emily smiling too, and knew that between them they were going to make all this work. Somehow.
‘Let’s get back up to the house,’ his mum said, clapping her hands together. ‘I think it’s time for a nightcap, don’t you?’
No one disagreed with that.
The festival had most definitely been a success – one he suspected would carry on late into the night on the camping field, and one that would start early again the next morning with the clean-up. But as the moon rose high over the waves out beyond Gull Bay, Leo watched his family wending their way back to the B&B, and knew that the biggest successes today had been the personal ones.
Juliet had her head on Rory’s shoulder as they walked. He didn’t know if she’d told their parents about the baby yet, but he thought she would, soon. Miranda and Owain, meanwhile, had snuck away together – he was betting back to the cottage – for some time alone.
Everything had gone to plan.
Well, almost everything.
He hung back a little to say a final goodbye to Christabel as they reached the crossroads with the path down towards St Mary’s.
Christabel reached up on her tiptoes, and placed a kiss against his cheek, her hand reaching round to rest in the back pocket of his jeans for a moment. ‘I’ll see you around, Leo Waters.’
‘I hope so,’ he said, with feeling. ‘I mean, it’s a big world out there, and I know you want to explore it. But I would love to see you again.’
The smile she gave him was half mysterious, half pleased.
‘Then I imagine you will,’ she said. ‘I mean, even an explorer has to come home for supplies, right? And there is that bike shop in London that I still technically own half of. I should probably stop by there sometime soon and check in, don’t you think?’
‘Wait, what bike shop?’ he asked, confused, but then she was gone, off into the crowds heading back through the gates, onto the road into town.
Out of his life. But maybe just for now.
He stuck a hand into his back pocket and pulled out a card that definitely hadn’t been there when he got dressed that morning.
Aphrodite Bikes, he read, smiling as he realised that the address on it was only a short way from his flat.
Then, still grinning, Leo turned back towards the house, and followed his family home.
He had plenty else to be getting on with, until Christabel blew back into his life again.
JULIET
‘So, you and Rory are an item again are you?’ Josie asked, as she and Juliet made the tea in the kitchen. Everyone else had retired to the sunroom, apart from Leo and Emily, who had gone upstairs together to put the girls to bed. ‘I always liked him. Seems like you’ve all been making some big changes while we’ve been away.’
‘It’s . . . a possibility,’ Juliet admitted. ‘Things are a little complicated right now.’
‘Because you live in London and he’s here?’ Josie guessed, reaching for the biscuits. ‘Although Miranda did mention you might want to stay here for a while . . . ?’
Juliet took a breath. Now or never. She just hoped she hadn’t used up all her brave for one day.
‘Because I’m pregnant with another man’s child and I’ve decided to move home to Seashell Island to raise the baby and hopefully run the Lighthouse and a new restaurant with Rory and please God don’t disown me or anything.’ The words came out like a babbling stream, an unstoppable force of nature.
Josie put the biscuits back and took down the emergency bottle of vodka.
‘Right. Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?’ she said, after she’d poured one shot and drunk it. ‘And no more of that silly disowning talk. You’re my daughter, and that’s all there is to it. Now, tell me what happened.’
It was easier this time. Juliet tried to imagine having this conversation with her mother at the start of the summer and, even though that’s exactly what she’d intended when she came home, she couldn’t picture it. But having already been through it with Miranda and Leo, and with Rory; having already learned that it wasn’t the end of everything, but only the beginning . . . that made it all easier.
‘Oh, my baby girl.’ Josie put her arms around Juliet as she finished the story. ‘I’m so sorry that happened to you. But I’m not sorry that I get to be a grandmother again, however it happened. Only . . .’ she trailed off, and Juliet looked up to see a pensive expression on her mother’s face.
‘What is it?’
‘Are you really sure you want to stay on Seashell Island? You were always so adamant about leaving . . . I’d hate for you to feel you had to come back just because you’re having a baby. Being a mother doesn’t mean giving up all your dreams, you know, or your you-ness. You can raise this baby in London if that’s what you want. You know we’ll support you however we can—’
‘Mum. I want to come home. I . . . I don’t think I appreciated this place the first time around. Now, this summer, maybe I’m starting to.’
‘Because of Rory?’ Josie asked, a little sceptically Juliet thought, especially since she’d just said how much she liked him.
‘Actually, because of the Lighthouse,’ Juliet replied. ‘I’ve been running it while you were away – I know you didn’t have any bookings, but we couldn’t bear the idea of the place sitting empty, so that’s how Owain and the band ended up staying here. And I was thinking about some ideas to maybe bring the place up to date, if you didn’t mind . . .’
Josie beamed. ‘Love, if you really want to take over this place, you’d be doing your dad and me a favour. We’ve done our time here, and it’s been the most wonderful home for us and for you kids. But now it’s our turn to get back out in the world and explore again. We’d thought we’d have to sell it, which would break our hearts. You make this place your own. Just make sure there’s always a room for us, when we come home.’
Relief, and gratitude, and love, and happiness all swelled up in her at the same time.
The Lighthouse was hers. Her future, hers and her baby’s. ‘I promise.’
‘And don’t forget, if you ever need us, we’ll be on the next plane back. You only have to call.’
‘I will.’ Juliet looked up, and saw Rory standing in the doorway, waiting for her, that patient smile on his dear face. ‘But you know, I think everything is going to be all right.’
Maybe not straight away, maybe not always. She knew there’d be obstacles to clear to get the Lighthouse to how she saw it in her mind’s eye. She knew things wouldn’t always be easy with Rory – and knew for certain that people would talk.
But this was her right path. And she was ready to walk it, at last.
Josie followed Juliet’s gaze, and smiled. ‘You know, I think it will too, love.’
Festival clear-up took the whole of the next day, and then, impossibly, it was the third of September, and summer was over.
Emily and Mark had headed back to London the day before, and now Leo and the girls wheeled their cases out to Harriet’s horse and carriage, ready for the journey back to the ferry. Tom was travelling with them; apparently, he’d be driving Leo’s car back to London, while her brother took the girls back on the train, ready to start school again the next day. Tom was looking positively gleeful at the opportunity, and to her surprise, Leo barely looked nervous at all.
‘You will look after Lucy for us, won’t you?’ Abby asked, as they said their goodbyes.
‘I promise,’ Juliet said, solemnly. ‘After all, she’s part of the family, now she’s married in.’
‘I’ll come and visit again soon,’ Leo said, as he hugged her goodbye. ‘Make sure you’re doing OK.’
‘I’d like that,’ Juliet admitted. ‘I’m going to miss our monthly dinners in London.’
Next up was Miranda, who hugged Leo goodb
ye as well. ‘Maybe I’ll stop by and see you for dinner instead,’ she suggested, and Leo grinned.
‘I’d really like that,’ he replied. Then the girls were dragging him away to Harriet’s carriage – although Harriet was rather busy enthusiastically kissing Suzi goodbye, too.
Owain and the rest of the band were loading their bags and equipment into Rory’s van again, and Miranda turned to Juliet.
‘I can’t believe you’re going off to become a groupie,’ Juliet said, as she hugged her sister goodbye. The morning air was fresh, with just the tiniest hint of autumn in it.
‘I am not!’ Miranda objected. ‘Well. Maybe just a little bit.’
‘I want postcards from every single place you go.’ It was hard to imagine Miranda being the one out in the world, while Juliet stayed home on the island. But for right now, it felt exactly as it should be.
‘I’ll be home for Christmas,’ Miranda promised. ‘And when the baby is born. And definitely for the Lighthouse Festival next year. I want to see how you top this summer.’
Juliet stood on the driveway to the Lighthouse, and looked around her at the family she loved, all scattering to the winds again. Mum and Dad were already packing, ready for their next adventure. Leo and the girls were still waving from the back of the carriage as it headed down the hill, Suzi blowing kisses behind them. Owain was waiting for Miranda by the van, the others already inside. Lucy the Llama was munching the flowers in the beds by the front door.
And Rory was smiling at her, her whole future waiting to happen.
‘Top this summer? I’m not sure I could,’ Juliet said.
Miranda’s smile was soft and mysterious. ‘Oh, I’m pretty sure you will. And I can’t wait to see it. Oh, and this is for you.’ She pushed an envelope into Juliet’s hand, and then she was gone. Rory put his arm around her shoulder as they all waved them off, Josie and Iestyn walking halfway down the hill behind them, still waving.
Summer on Seashell Island: Escape to an island this summer for the perfect heartwarming romance in 2020 (Riley Wolfe 1) Page 31