Karina looked up at me and smiled. “Beach good now.”
I didn’t know what to respond so I just smiled at her. I stood behind the girls so I had them in my line of sight as well as the direction from which Luke would come. When I saw his tall broad figure jog around the corner of Battery Parade wall, I nearly cried in relief.
His handsome face was etched with worry, his eyes immediately scanning over me and the girls. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
“Bad lady,” Karina said.
Luke raised his eyebrows. “What?”
I took him to the side, just a few steps away from the girls, and told him what happened. “I’m sorry if I've overreacted but she really freaked me out. I didn’t know what to do.”
“It’s ok, don’t apologise. I’m sure it was nothing. Just some crazy old woman trying to mess with your head.”
I fell silent for a minute and debated telling him what Karina had said. Was it all in my head? “What did you tell Joanna?”
“That another client called and needed some urgent help.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. That seemed viable. “If you think there’s nothing to worry about then I'll carry on as normal. Sorry to have troubled you.”
“You haven’t troubled me at all. You did the right thing. I’m glad you called me.”
I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath. Now what to do? When I opened my eyes again, I found myself immediately looking for the woman. I couldn’t stay here. I wouldn’t settle at all.
“I can’t stay here, not after that. I’m paranoid she’s going to come back.”
“Hey, it’s ok. She won’t come back.”
I frowned. “How could you possibly know that?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I’m just trying to make you feel better.”
I managed to crack a smile. “Thanks, but I don’t think it’s working.”
“I figured,” he said, grinning. “It seems a shame to cut the girls fun short. What if I stayed with you? Would that help?”
I hadn’t been expecting that. I didn’t know how to respond. “I…would you really do that?”
“Of course. You don’t feel safe. If having me stick around helps you and the girls have a better day then I’ll gladly stay.”
“But…but haven’t you got loads of work to do?”
“I think this takes priority. Stop worrying about my workload. That’s up to me to manage.”
I sighed. “I just don’t want you getting yourself behind because I got a little freaked out.”
“Caitlyn.” He put his hands on my shoulders. “Stop worrying about me. I’m offering to stay so either take me up on it or tell me to go away.”
I grinned. “Ok, if you’re willing to stay I would really appreciate it.”
“Great. Now I can build my own princess castle.”
I laughed as he sat down between the girls and started building his own sandcastle. Finally able to relax enough to not be on full alert, I laid down on my front, not caring the sand would get all over me. I watched the three of them shaping their creations, all with varying degrees of intensity. Cora kept asking her bunny for advice. Karina had her tongue stuck out of the corner of her mouth and her forehead had creased into deep lines.
Luke looked very intense, his eyes narrowed, and his shoulders hunched over as his shovel sized hands moulded the sand. It seemed to be taking more of the shape of a fortress than a fairy-tale castle.
I crossed my arms in front of me and laid my head on them, staring absentmindedly into the distance. Children’s joyful screams, the tinkle of donkey bells, the relentless squawk of seagulls, the gentle sound of the sea lapping at the sand all blurred away into nothing.
As I gazed out at the horizon, the blue of the sky merging with the blue of the sea, I couldn’t help but think about this morning’s strange turn of events. Who was that woman? Despite satisfying my mind with Luke’s explanation of a crazy old woman, my gut told me it was more than that. Much more than that. She knew my story. She could have accused me of lying but she didn’t; she specifically said that was my life. Whatever that had been this morning wasn’t random, it was targeted, specific, and had a meaning behind it.
Why had she mentioned the girls being special? What did that mean? Sure, they were developing at twice the rate of normal two-year olds but how had she known that?
The more thoughts bounced around in my mind, the cloudier everything seemed. Nothing made sense. I had a series of dots but none of them connected in a viable way. The harder I tried to join them, the more impossible it seemed to become. Frustration built up inside me to the point I soon gave myself a headache.
“Caitlyn. Cat. Hello. Anyone home?” I came back to reality to see Luke bending down in front of me, his hand on my back gently shaking me. “You were well away there. You ok?”
I blinked several times and then sat up. “Yeah, just daydreaming.”
“We should head indoors. Think there’s a storm coming.”
Glancing up at the sky, I realised he was right. Dark clouds gathered overhead, hanging low and full of rain. The air had turned chilly, the sun disappeared, and the threat of something electrical trickled through the atmosphere. We’d had a week of hot weather, no rain, and clear skies. It seemed about right for English weather to clear the air after a few days like that.
“Back to the house then,” I said, climbing to my feet.
“If we get a move on, we might be able to grab a table in the chippy,” Luke said, scooping up Cora in his arms.
She giggled and yelled out, “Weeeeee.”
He grabbed the pushchair and dragged it behind him as he marched back towards the parade. I picked up Karina and ran after him. It was hard work carrying a toddler and trying to keep pace with Luke’s giant strides through sand.
We made it into Mister Chips by the Beach, surprisingly half of the tables still empty. Everyone seemed to be rushing for their cars. After the waitress showed us to a table, I dug through the girl’s bag and pulled out their juice bottles. Karina asked for her toy sheep and then engaged in a battle with Cora and her bunny.
The more I looked at them, innocent, their whole future laid out before them, the creepier that woman’s words seemed to be. A shudder ran down my spine. I couldn’t shake this bad feeling.
“You alright?” Luke said, leaning forwards on the table.
“Yeah, just still a little creeped out, that’s all.”
“That’s understandable. Just forget about her. What are you going to have to eat?”
I grinned. “The same as I always do from the chip shop—chips, scraps, and two bread rolls.”
He chuckled. “You’re so adventurous. Seeing as we’re technically in a restaurant, why don’t you push the boat out and try something different.” He pushed a menu over the tabletop. “Be daring.”
I pushed the menu back and smirked at him. “I know what I like, thank you, and after today’s events, I don’t want to try anything new. I want comfort.”
“Can’t say I didn’t try. Now, comfort eating is a whole other discussion we probably shouldn’t have in front of little ears.”
I laughed. “That’s a whole other discussion we definitely won’t be having.”
“We’ll see,” he replied, grinning. “I was thinking if we each ordered a large portion and asked for two side plates, we could share our chips with the girls. They won’t eat a whole portion between them.”
I nodded. “Sure, makes sense. I’ll mash them up before we give them to them. Don’t want any choking escapades today.”
After the waitress took our orders and brought our drinks over, I’d started to chill out a little. The encounter with the woman seemed a whole world away instead of just a couple of hours.
“Have you spoken to Marcus yet?”
I stopped sucking my coke through the straw and froze. In the midst of all the chaos, I’d completely forgotten about him. “I was going to call him today actually but I’d kind of forgotten
until you just mentioned him.”
Luke grinned. “Is that the best start to a relationship? Forgetting about them before you’ve even committed?”
I rolled my eyes. “Who said I’d decided to accept his strange offer anyway?”
“Because no woman ever says no to Marcus Davenport.”
My heart sank. That made him sound like he’d been through hundreds of women. The thought of it made me very uncomfortable and yet again raised the question of why was he interested in me?
“Thanks for that, Luke.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Just telling the truth.”
I sighed and pulled my phone out of my pocket. “On that note, no time like the present.” I flashed him a sickly-sweet smile as I dialled Marcus’ number.
He answered on the first ring. “Hi there.”
My heart immediately started pounding and heat rushed to my cheeks. “Hi.”
“How are you doing? I was beginning to think I wouldn’t hear from you.”
“Sorry. I meant to call earlier but I’ve been a little distracted. How are you?”
“All the better for hearing from you of course.”
Luke stuck his fingers down his throat and pretended to be sick. I kicked him under the table. “That’s very sweet, thank you.”
“Dare I ask if this is a good news call or a bad news call?”
“Well, apparently no woman ever says no to you so I’m guessing you already know my answer.”
Luke narrowed his eyes at me, pulled his straw out of his lemonade and then flicked it at me, covering me in drops of sticky drink. Nice.
Marcus chuckled down the line. “I don’t need three guesses to work out who told you that. I’m delighted to hear from you. Perhaps I can arrange to see you this evening and we can work out the finer details of our arrangement?”
“That would be fantastic. I actually have the day off today so I’m free whenever. Although I do have Joanna’s twins at the moment whilst she cleans the rooms.”
“Well let me know when you’re child free and we’ll arrange something.”
We said our goodbyes and hung up.
“Are you happy now you’ve covered me in lemonade?”
Luke grinned. “It was well deserved.”
“You didn’t state that I wasn’t to repeat your little comment so fair game,” I replied, grinning and shrugging my shoulders. “Big boy like you, I’m sure you’re not worried about upsetting Marcus anyway given your ‘shared’ dislike for one another.”
He snorted. “I’m more scared of spiders than Marcus Davenport.”
I widened my eyes. “You’re scared of spiders?”
He shot me a glare and said, “I am not scared of spiders. I was merely pointing out—”
I simply stared back at him with a goofy grin on my face. When he realised I was winding him up, he shut up and motioned to his straw again.
“Alright, you win,” I said. “You’re not scared of Marcus, I get it.”
The waitress appeared then with our food. After we’d sorted all the plates out and mashed the girls chips up into soggy pieces, I realised our ketchup bottle was empty. I had to have ketchup. The tables either side of us had people on, so I couldn’t pinch theirs. I looked around and spied a full bottle on an empty table around 6 places back behind Luke. Perfect to make a swap with.
As I grabbed the empty bottle, it felt heavier than it should. I looked down to see it was now full. I froze. I sat and stared at it for several seconds, not quite comprehending what I was seeing.
“What…what…I…this was empty.”
Luke stabbed at some chips, not even bothering to look at me as he said, “I swapped it whilst you were taking too long to decide on what table to run to.”
But he hadn’t moved. He was sat right opposite me, and he hadn’t left his seat. I kept looking at the bottle and then at him, but I couldn’t work it out.
“Your food’s going cold,” he said.
Realising he had a point, I squeezed a big blob of ketchup onto the corner of my plate and ate my food, all the while trying to figure out what had just happened.
By the time I’d finished, I came to the same conclusion that I had with the strange woman—there was no viable explanation.
Chapter 16
We arrived back at the house just after two p.m. Joanna was in the utility room, loading up the washing machine.
She took one look at me and Luke and widened her eyes. “Is everything ok?”
Luke chuckled. “Everything is fine. I stopped in town and saw them heading back so gave them a lift. That’s all. Nothing to worry about.”
I let out a breath I didn’t realise I’d been holding. The girls giggled and cooed at their mum, loving her attention as she bent down to fuss them. I mouthed ‘thank you’ to Luke who gave me a warm smile in return.
“Ah, Cat. I’ve been waiting for you.”
I turned around to see Dad stood in the kitchen, smiling like a goofball. “What have I done now?”
“I just had a call from our lovely friend, Mr Davenport. He says you’ve accepted his proposal.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Of dating, Dad. Nothing more.”
He grinned. “I wasn’t implying anything more.”
I raised an eyebrow and tilted my head to one side, giving him my look of ‘really?’
“Obviously I am delighted that my daughter is now courting the town’s most eligible bachelor, but I do need to put a slight dampener on things I’m afraid.”
I glanced at Luke. He’d leaned back against the dishwasher, his huge arms folded across his chest and his thick legs crossed at the ankles. However, despite his initial relaxed look, his entire body was rigid and tense. A muscle twitched in his neck every few seconds. He didn’t return my wish of eye contact, keeping his eyes pinned on my dad.
“Go on,” I said to Dad, my pulse racing at what he could possibly say.
“You may think I’m being an old fart saying this, and I know it’s going back on what I said when you first moved in, but I’m afraid I’m going to have put a curfew on you after all.”
I calmed down instantly. “Is that it?”
“Yes,” he said, frowning. “It seems Marcus’ car is rather…loud. I’m sure he drives it as quietly as possible when it’s late at night, but it’s woken up several of the guests, and myself, a couple of times now. I know the whole point of your room was to give you some freedom, I’m sorry, pumpkin.”
I held my hands up. “It’s perfectly fine, I completely understand. I’m sure Marcus will oblige to have Cinderella home before midnight.”
Dad pulled his lips into a grimace. “Actually, I was thinking more like ten or ten thirty.”
I smiled. “It was an expression, Dad. Not a statement of the time. Whatever time you say, I’ll abide to.”
He fell silent for a couple of seconds then said, “Can we agree on ten p.m. to seven a.m.? Is that reasonable enough?”
“Dad, this is your livelihood, your business, your home. There is no negotiating. Just tell me the rules and I’ll stick to them.”
A cheesy grin unfolded across his face. “If only you’d been so happy to please in your younger years.”
I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Really, Dad?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Just saying. I know ten p.m. seems early for someone your age but most of the guests are not of your generation.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me. It’s fine. Just to be clear, is that strictly for Marcus’ car or a blanket rule?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if he dropped me off down the road and I walked back so his car didn’t come near the house?”
“Ah, yes. The corridor still has the old access doorway in it. A couple of the first-floor guests claimed they heard you closing the door and it rattled the old door in the kitchen.”
“I can remove it,” Luke said. “It’ll be a few days' work bricking up the doorway but it’s not a problem.”
Dad shook his head. “Thank you, Luke, but no. I want to keep the original entrance in case we ever need to use it. Once Cat locks the door from the inside, no one can get in, so if something happened to her and we didn’t have that old doorway, we wouldn’t be able to get in.”
“I can rectify that. Don’t think there isn’t a solution to a problem because I’ll always find one.”
“It’s ok, Luke, really. Thank you but you’ve already done more than enough.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “I’m happy to abide by Dad’s rules. Being home by ten p.m. isn’t bad enough to warrant brickwork and whatever alterations you had in mind, but thanks anyway.”
“Ok,” he said. “No problem. Just remember the offer is there if you change your mind in the future.”
“Thanks, Luke,” Dad said. He looked at me and smiled. “That was easier than expected, I have to say. What are you wearing this evening?”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“For your meal with Marcus. He's taking you to Jolene’s.”
I sucked in a deep breath. This was news to me. “You can’t be serious?”
Jolene’s was a very expensive suave restaurant at Staithes, about a twenty-minute drive north from Whitby. It sat on top of a cliff top, overlooking the sea. The views whilst eating a five-star meal were infamous.
“I am,” he said, grinning. “Your reservation is at eight. I explained about my desire for a curfew and whilst he said he’d try his best to have you home by ten, it may not happen.”
I held my breath. He wasn’t done. I knew his love for dramatic pauses.
“So we came to an agreement whereby if meeting the curfew isn’t possible, he will offer you his guest room for the night.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you joking?”
“I most certainly am not,” he said, clapping his hands together. “My daughter is not only courting Marcus Davenport but staying overnight.” He threw me a cheeky wink and flashed a mischievous grin.
“Dad! No, just no. Any thoughts like that you can get right out of your head.”
He pouted. “But I was hoping for grand babies before I—”
Love, Lies and Immortal Ties: A young adult paranormal romance (Love, Lies and Ties Book 1) Page 13