Coming Home to Heritage Cove

by Helen J Rolfe

  ‘I wonder who bought the old shop,’ Harvey speculated, briefly turning to glance back past the bus stop at the almost hidden derelict building at the far side of a big patch of grass. Zara had been talking with another customer about the place that had once sold buckets and spades, inflatables, and other beach paraphernalia.

  ‘You’ll have to keep me informed of any developments.’

  The reminder she wasn’t back here permanently was sobering. ‘Here, hold this.’ Harvey handed his ice-cream to Melissa while he removed Winnie’s lead. ‘She’s good to go from here.’

  ‘She knows where she’s going,’ Melissa laughed, watching Winnie run off as fast as her legs could carry her. The sound of her laughter rolled with the breeze that already carried with it the smell of the sea, the distant swoosh of the waves, the screech of the gulls.

  ‘I bring her down here a lot. She’s had me panic more than once, running into the water.’

  Harvey led the way, battling the brambles and careful not to let them ping back in Melissa’s direction. Although he came down to the cove often he hadn’t come here with Melissa in a long while and already it felt different. This had always been their special place. It was where she’d come to grieve after her parents died, where he’d come to yell away his frustrations over his father, a place they’d shared a romantic picnic of croissants, fresh cream and strawberry jam as a surprise for him when he’d landed his first job. He could still remember Melissa shrieking when a seagull snatched his croissant from his hand. She said the seagull had ruined the picnic; he thought it had made it. To see the expressions on her face had always got to him in a way he couldn’t explain. And the night he hadn’t gone with her as planned, when he hadn’t met her at the bus stop to leave Heritage Cove behind, he hadn’t seen the look of sheer disappointment on her face but he hadn’t had to, it had still been embedded in his mind ever since.

  The track got even narrower as they went the same way as Winnie. The sounds of the sea, the salty tang in the breeze grew stronger the closer they got. There was nothing like it. He’d thought that back when he and Melissa floated ideas of cities around the world they could visit – London, Tokyo, New York, Paris, Sydney – the beaches they could lie on in France, Spain, the Maldives if they were lucky. Their list had been endless but when circumstances had forced him to stay in the village he’d realised that he hadn’t been all that sorry. He would always regret the way he’d let Melissa down, but at the same time he’d had to let her go. She might have resented him if he hadn’t because, given how long she’d been gone, it was clear she was more suited to a life away from Heritage Cove than he ever would be.

  He stopped at the best vantage point to look out at the sea as it broke and crashed down below on the shore. Finishing up his ice-cream, he turned to Melissa when she came to his side brushing away a few crumbs from her cone that had fallen on her top. He tried to ignore the soft wisp of sweet-smelling hair that blew against his cheek when she stood close enough to share the view, the waft of light and flirty perfume he didn’t recognise.

  He started to head on down when Winnie, impatient, bounded back up to get them both, tongue hanging out with exertion. ‘Come down when you’re ready,’ he told Melissa, venturing further to follow the crooked path down towards the sands. Narrow, uneven with small rock formations catching the least suspecting out, there was a rickety wooden rail on one side that probably wouldn’t do much if you reached out and expected it to hold your weight, but Harvey didn’t need it anyway, he knew this place too well.

  By the time Melissa joined him on the sands he was on to the third game of throwing a stick for Winnie to retrieve and bring back to her master.

  Melissa took off her sandals to feel the cool water between her toes. ‘I’d forgotten how beautiful it is down here.’ The cove, despite its restricted entrance leading the way here, opened up to a wide oval coastal inlet with golden sands and a calm, shallow sea that only got deeper when you waded farther away from the beach.

  ‘You must see stunning beaches all the time.’

  ‘I’ve seen plenty, but travelling takes it out of you. The time between flights isn’t always long either.’

  He threw the stick again and this time watched Winnie take it over to her rather than him. ‘Thanks, Winnie, nice to see where your loyalties lie.’

  She laughed but picked it up and threw it in the other direction. ‘She’s a great dog, I’d love to have one eventually.’

  ‘Might not fit in with the job.’

  ‘No, it wouldn’t.’

  They had the whole cove to themselves, the way it had been more times than Harvey could remember. The way they liked it. And when she stood smiling, face tipped up to the sun, it shocked him back to the day he’d gone to London after her, many months on from when she’d left. Tracy had heard from Melissa, had her new address, and he went to find her – if only to explain why he hadn’t gone through with their plan, why he’d kept his distance for so long, and the reasons he needed to stay in the Cove. He’d been about to cross the road when he saw her come out and stand on the top step leading up to a house that was probably made up of several flats. Head tilted up exactly like it was now, she was smiling at a man, she kissed him, their bodies close, before waving him goodbye. Harvey had frozen on the spot, she hadn’t seen him, and so he’d left. She had a new life and one he wasn’t a part of. He’d gone back to Heritage Cove, asked Tracy not to mention his little trip, and he’d done his best to move on.

  ‘So…Barney,’ Melissa began, throwing the stick once again for Winnie. ‘How do you think he’s doing?’

  ‘Same as last time we had this discussion.’

  ‘Exactly as I thought. I haven’t mentioned us organising the Wedding Dress Ball to him yet.’

  ‘Whoa, hang on a minute, who said we were definitely doing that?’

  ‘Please, Harvey, I think this is the only way the ball will go ahead and I also think he needs the event as much as everyone else does.’ She turned to face him, one hand holding back the lengths of hair that the wind insisted on wrapping across her face. His hand twitched and almost reached out to lift her hair and hook it behind her ear for her.

  He didn’t argue because, he suspected, she was right. ‘You’re not the only one to suggest I help,’ he admitted. ‘Tilly and Ashley both seem to be thinking along the same lines.’

  ‘Barney agreed to it? He’ll let it go ahead if he doesn’t have to be the one organising?’

  ‘None of us agreed to anything and I haven’t mentioned it since. I didn’t want to upset him, you know what he’s like.’

  ‘He does seem to get wound up when the topic of conversation isn’t one he approves of.’

  He grinned. ‘I never thought I’d see the day he’d tire of any topic of conversation.’

  ‘Me neither. And I want to ask him more about that dress too. Don’t you think it’s weird?’

  ‘I do, but don’t go there, I’m telling you. The look on his face the day I asked is one I’ll never forget. Whatever he’s hiding, he doesn’t want any of us to know.’

  ‘I really think it might give us some answers though.’ She picked up the stick and threw it for Winnie yet again. ‘He was a bit odd last time I was there too.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘It started when I accidentally knocked the model ship off the mantelpiece. I caught it just in time, but when I was dusting the shelves in the kitchen I looked over at him and he had it on his lap as though it was precious, as though it has memories attached with it.’

  ‘He used to sail, I suppose that’s why.’ He let the calming sounds of the sea wash over them both. As much as he was worried about Barney, one of the positive things to come out of all of this was that the shared common ground when it came to the man who was so important to them both was helping to bridge the distance between him and Melissa. They weren’t focused on what had happened between them, they were too busy trying to move things forward for Barney, and he wasn’t all that sorry. />
  A memory came to him. ‘Do you remember when you were younger, burning your hands on the rope that used to hang from the tree beside the barn?’

  ‘How could I forget?’ She clasped the palm of her hand instinctively even though the mishap had happened a long while ago. ‘It hurt like hell. Barney took me inside, washed my hand, applied some special lotion. He started talking about sailing and the ropes that would chafe his hands, how he dealt with his skin afterwards. I could see the love he had for boats, he told me how much time he’d spent in a local marina as a boy.’

  ‘He hasn’t mentioned any of that to me for years. When I was building the stage in the barn, he talked about it a lot. He told me about hauling boats out onto the water, the strength needed to sail, how he was frustrated his strength wasn’t what it used to be. But then, it was as though something clicked and he stopped talking about it just like that.’ He threw the stick for Winnie this time. ‘What else did you think was odd about him the other day, apart from his staring at the model ship?’

  ‘He started saying how he understood exactly why I’d left the Cove. He told me I shouldn’t put off making peace with those I love. He said “My biggest regret is that I didn’t try harder”.’

  ‘Try harder with what?’

  ‘I’ve got no idea. But then he told me not to do the same, he said he lost something and it was his own fault, he hadn’t fought hard enough and he’d let his pain get in the way of everything else. I was so focused on not talking about the reasons I left, my own pain, that I moved the conversation on. It was only later on that I wondered what he’d meant by all of it and what he hasn’t told us. Because it’s obvious now that there’s something. You don’t think…’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Perhaps he lost someone in a sailing accident – it would explain the sadness and the way he’s had that model ship in prime position ever since I’ve known him.’

  ‘Most people would keep a photograph front and centre if that was the case, surely.’

  ‘You’re right. I keep Mum and Dad’s photograph in a frame beside my bed in my flat.’ Her voice caught. ‘Maybe I’m grasping at straws with all this.’

  ‘Maybe. But only Barney can tell us the truth.’ He took a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. ‘He’s said he doesn’t want to talk about the dress and it looks like the same goes for the marina. I don’t think we should push it, not while he’s in his current state of mind anyway.’

  ‘No, I suppose not.’ She hooked her hair behind her ears again but it didn’t want to stay put in this wind.

  ‘The fall has changed him. He’s detached, he sits in that chair way too often.’

  ‘When I’m with him I’m torn between letting him recuperate and nagging him to move,’ she admitted. ‘Then I think about mentioning the dress and the letter that was written to him, but I’m not brave enough. I guess now I’m here I don’t want anything to come between us.’ Winnie brought the stick back, dropped it at her feet and then settled down on the sands, gnawing at the wood. ‘Perhaps I’m making more out of that dress than there actually is. I mean, it could be a spare for a guest at the ball, couldn’t it?’

  His expression said otherwise. ‘Doesn’t explain the letter.’

  ‘I wish I’d read all of it.’

  ‘I felt bad that we were prying, it felt wrong.’

  ‘Do you ever wonder whether he was married once? He’s never said, not in the whole time we’ve known him, but he must have had someone special at some point.’

  ‘He probably has, but not everyone ends up married. Some people would be better off if they weren’t.’ His mum certainly would’ve been. ‘It doesn’t mean there’s some mystery we need to solve.’ He took a step back as the sea crept a little closer along the shore line. A seagull circled up again, higher and higher until it reached the path they’d followed to get down here. ‘Apart from asking Barney, I don’t see how we can find out anything more.’

  ‘I think that if we found out more about the dress, we’d find out why he started the Wedding Dress Ball in the first place. It wasn’t something either of us ever questioned, but what if it’s what’s holding him back now? What if it isn’t just the fall, or old age, what if it’s something buried in his past that still has a hold of him? Maybe he won’t be right until he lets it go.’

  ‘Perhaps we should leave it be. Maybe we don’t have the right to snoop.’

  ‘I don’t want to snoop either. I want to respect his privacy but at the same time I want him to be back to his old self, and I don’t think he can be unless he sorts his head out.’

  ‘Are you that convinced there’s something lurking in the background?’

  ‘I honestly believe that whatever it was that made Barney start up the Wedding Dress Ball in the first place is the key to all of this. And if we understand his reasons, we may be able to get through to him and make him realise what the event means to him, why he can’t give up on it or anything else.’

  He didn’t miss the sheen of tears in her eyes. His arm lifted briefly, he almost reached out to her but at the last second he drew his hand firmly to his side.

  ‘I’m convinced there was a Mrs Barney once upon a time,’ she went on.

  ‘Your imagination is running away with you. But I suppose it’s possible.’

  ‘See,’ she grinned, ‘you agree.’

  ‘And maybe,’ he said with as much seriousness as he could find, ‘maybe he got rid of her, perhaps she’s buried in the old barn and he runs the ball every year to dance on her grave.’

  In true Melissa style she gritted her teeth and stomped away back towards the steps. ‘If you’re not going to take me seriously I won’t bother talking to you anymore.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he called after her, he’d only been trying to add a bit of humour into the moment. She looked like she was getting all wound up and worried and her homecoming or whatever this was shouldn’t be like that. ‘Come on, Winnie,’ he said when he realised Melissa wasn’t going to stop and wait.

  *

  Melissa had forgotten how pig-headed Harvey could be but she couldn’t be too annoyed when Winnie caught her up and trotted by her side. She stopped before they reached the road, waited for Harvey to put Winnie’s lead back on, and together they all set off for Tumbleweed House.

  Harvey reheated the elderberry tea and poured both of them another cup as Melissa tried again to work out a way forwards with Barney. She was well aware she wasn’t going to be here all that long. ‘I don’t want to leave without knowing he’s back to normal.’

  ‘I get it, you have a timeframe,’ said Harvey. ‘But not everything can work to your timetable.’

  ‘I wouldn’t even suggest that it could.’ She refused to rise to it. She wished he’d just come out with it and tell her what he was thinking, but as usual he kept it all in. ‘I’ve extended my stay, which means I’ll be around for the ball. I’ve taken unpaid leave, booked in for longer at the Heritage Inn, I’m doing everything I can. I just want that ball to go ahead, see if it’s the secret ingredient to get our Barney back.’

  Phrasing it that way seemed to calm Harvey down. ‘I hope you’re right. And it’s good you’re staying, for Barney I mean. He’ll be happy about that if nothing else.’

  She relaxed a little with fewer accusations flying her way, whether in words or the way he looked at her. Sometimes it was hard to guess what he was thinking. ‘It’s the talk of the old folks’ home that scares me the most,’ she confessed. ‘I saw a brochure for Aubrey House residential care home at his place, it must’ve come through the door.’

  Harvey shook his head. ‘He asked Tilly to have her friend who works there drop it round.’

  Her heart sank. ‘I didn’t realise he’d requested it.’

  ‘He’s still our Barney, whatever happens,’ said Harvey. ‘Perhaps it’s you and I who need to accept that things change.’ He laughed at his own remark when he saw her reaction. ‘Didn’t think for one minute you’d agree with me.’


  She let out a groan of frustration and gave her tea another stir to mix in the tiny pieces of dried elderberry that had slipped through the strainer.

  ‘Trying to persuade Barney to do the rehabilitation exercises is impossible,’ Harvey went on. ‘Have you had any luck at all?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  ‘If he does them, he’ll feel better, and if he feels better, he’ll be back to himself. It’s a vicious circle he’s stuck in.’

  ‘Look, I know you don’t want to, but I really think we need to step up and take on the task of the Wedding Dress Ball. If it was already suggested to you it means he’ll be on board, and I can’t see him objecting to my help.’

  He groaned. ‘How did I know you were going to mention that again?’

  ‘Because you know I’m right. If we tell him we’ll take on all the work to get the barn ready, he won’t have to do anything, he might just agree.’

  ‘You know there was a time he would’ve hated not being involved.’

  ‘And maybe that time will come again, but this year it’ll be down to us.’

  ‘I haven’t got a clue where to start.’

  He looked about as panicked as any other man left in charge of an enormous wedding-related event. ‘We’ll manage.’ She smiled tentatively, unsure whether he was going to agree or push her away. Since she’d arrived and bumped into him on and off, she’d found herself permanently trying to read his moods, his reactions, his words. She put down her empty tea cup. ‘I know you may not believe me, but I have felt guilty over the years, about not seeing him.’ She felt guilty about not seeing Harvey too, but talking about that was much more difficult. She still wasn’t ready to tell him how she’d felt a part of her ripped away when she left, then how let down she’d felt that he hadn’t gone through with their plan. She wasn’t ready to admit how she’d pictured him by her side many a time enjoying a new life away from Heritage Cove, one she’d pined for and thought he’d wanted too.

  ‘Why don’t we both go over to Barney’s and start making firm plans?’ she suggested when a tiny muscle in his jaw tensed and he made no further comment. ‘No time like the present. I just hope he hasn’t officially cancelled everything already or it’ll make our job so much harder. And the barn…I mean, it looked fine when I saw it the other day, but is it in a good state of repair or is there work that needs carrying out?’