Including Ryan’s, who’s standing in the middle of the group discussing something with Mr Barley.
‘Fliss!’ Tonya squeaks loudly, ensuring the dolphin population also know of my arrival.
‘I came to apologise,’ I say in a rush. ‘I brought cakes. I know I’m not a chef, and I know I shouldn’t have told you I was, but—’
‘You think we can be bought off with fancy cakes, do you?’ Morys says.
Well, I had been hoping … I shake my head. ‘There’s nothing fancy about them. They’re just plain vanilla fairy cakes with icing and a … well, it was going to be a cherry on top, but a strawberry seemed more fitting, so … enjoy.’
‘Lovely, Fliss, thank you.’ Cynthia removes the basket from my hand and puts it on the bench beside Godfrey.
The atmosphere is tense and awkward. None of them know what to say to me, and look torn between accepting the cakes and throwing me out. Possibly both.
‘I suppose your dad made those,’ Ryan mutters.
‘No. I did.’
‘So you think cooking a batch of cakes means you become the chef you’ve pretended to be?’
‘It wasn’t meant like that. Ry. Can we—’
‘One of you will have to mind the tree.’ He addresses the residents as he unclips the chain from around his waist and drops it on the ground. ‘I can see a campervan over there that looks like it might be stuck, and quite frankly, digging it out with a teaspoon is preferable to staying to listen to this carefully concocted tale, and then maybe I’ll book myself in for a nice root canal instead.’
‘Ry, please, don’t go,’ I call after him.
Despite their hesitations, the residents have descended on the basket of cakes, but I stand watching as Ryan crosses the coastal path, uses one hand to vault over a low gate on the other side, and jogs up towards the campsite.
At a loss for what else to do, I gather up the chain like Rapunzel’s hair and carry it back towards the tree, but it feels like I’d be overstepping a mark to attach it to myself now. I don’t know what to do. I can’t just insert myself into the middle of the group of residents and make conversation like nothing happened, and none of them look in the mood for whatever stumbling explanations I can try to give, so I end up standing in the middle of the strawberry patch, clutching the piles of chain in my arms.
‘Didn’t expect to see you again,’ Tonya ventures, holding a cake and breaking pieces off to feed into her mouth.
‘Are you the only one talking to me?’ I ask as she approaches.
‘For now.’ She pops another bit of cake into her mouth. ‘But wait ’til the sugar rush kicks in. They’ll come round.’
I laugh despite how uneasy I feel. ‘It wasn’t supposed to end like this. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The tree wasn’t supposed to be here. Ryan wasn’t supposed to be here. I wasn’t supposed to get into this much of a tangle.’ I jiggle the metal, meaning it figuratively and literally, and the heavy chain chooses that moment to slide from my arms and land straight on my toes.
There has got to be some karma in that.
‘I always said he was waiting for someone,’ she says while I shake my throbbing foot.
I look towards where the residents are gathered near one of the flowerbeds. Godfrey is sitting by himself on his bench, his eyes closed and his face turned towards the sun, one leg crossed over the other, his foot tapping to an unheard rhythm.
‘Godfrey?’ I ask. This confusion happens way too often.
‘No, silly. Him.’ She sweeps her hand towards the campsite, where Ryan has now got his head under the bonnet of the stuck campervan.
‘So it wasn’t just an excuse to get away from me,’ I say more to myself than anyone else.
‘Ryan can fix anything.’ She gives me a meaningful look. ‘The only thing he can’t do is tell a girl when he’s in love with her.’
She must be talking about his ex. He said people hadn’t been happy with him about it. ‘He wasn’t in love with her. That’s why he broke it—’
‘Oh, not her, you daft thing. Honestly, you’re as twp as he is. I mean you, Fee.’
It’s the first time anyone other than Ryan has called me Fee, and it makes my stomach drop as butterfly wings simultaneously burst into life in my belly. I do something that’s a half-laugh half-scoff and couldn’t really be considered a noise at all.
‘And you,’ she continues. ‘Like Baaabra Streisand’s human counterpart, I know a “Woman in Love” when I see one. We’ve all seen the carving, you know …’
‘What carving?’ I look over my shoulder towards the tree, like it might provide the answer.
‘I’ve always wondered if the “Ry” in it was him, but we never knew who the Fee was, not until you walked in anyway.’ She wags a finger at me. ‘That love heart isn’t for nothing.’
‘It’s still there.’ My eyes inexplicably well up again when I realise what she’s talking about. If they’ve seen it, it must still exist. ‘Does Ryan know?’
‘He’s never mentioned it, but I’ve seen him looking sometimes.’
‘I thought it had faded – another sign we were never meant to be. I keep looking but I can’t find it.’ I’m aware that I’m giving her exactly the gossip she’s fishing for, but I can’t seem to stop myself talking. ‘Do you know where it is?’
‘Of course, this way!’ She marches off towards the tree, pink curls bobbing behind her and I have to hurry to catch up.
‘Right about …’ She squints at the tree when we reach it, examining it like an artist deciding which colour to paint next, probably in much the same way as Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel in the 1500s. ‘Here!’ She suddenly squeals and a nearby seagull squawks in fright.
Her finger is pointing towards the tree like E.T. trying to phone home, and at first I don’t see what she’s pointing at, but then all at once, the carving Ryan did on the day I left is right there.
I reach out and run my fingers over it. The faded heart shape containing the words Ry + Fee etched into the wood forever, long-standing proof of why I risked that kiss.
‘It’s really there.’ I half-thought I’d imagined it. Maybe I’d got caught up in the emotions of it being my last day and he’d just carved a circle or something, and since I came back, I’ve been one hundred per cent convinced that the fact I couldn’t find it was a sign we were never meant to be.
It’s in exactly the place I thought it would be, but higher up. I’ve misremembered it as being lower, but it’s there. It’s been there all along. Nestled between a carving of a carousel horse and an Edelweiss flower.
‘Maybe the tree waited until you were ready to show you,’ Tonya says, doing nothing to allay my fears about her mind-reading abilities.
The thought makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, but I force out a fake laugh. ‘More like I was looking in the wrong place.’
‘It’s never too late to fix something that was broken. The tree brought you back here for a reason. You and Ryan have given a lot of us a second chance with the strawberry patch – why shouldn’t it give you a second chance too?’
‘Because he’ll never forgive me? You heard the venom in his voice just now. He hates me.’
‘He could never hate you, Fliss. He’s hurt and shocked. People react in the heat of the moment when they find out things like that. He needs some time to process things. Apology cakes might not work for a while, but you should keep bringing them in; we’ll be sure they don’t go to waste.’
It makes me laugh again, but it’s not a real laugh. An actor with a cue card up reading “laugh now” would come across less wooden. ‘I think I’m going to have to go home.’ I say it to the tree so I don’t have to look her in the eyes.
‘Come back tomorrow, won’t you?’
‘No, I mean to London. Maybe I can still salvage my job out of this mess.’
‘Oh, Fliss.’ She pulls me down and forcibly hugs me. ‘You’re not happy there. You don’t even like your job – why would
you want to salvage it?’
‘Because I’m an adult and I have responsibilities.’
‘The only responsibility you have is to make yourself happy. If you stay, there is always a chance to fix things with Ryan. If you leave now, there never will be.’
The tree rustles above us like it’s whispering an agreement.
I’m about to burst into tears again when my phone rings, and I can’t hide the groan at the name onscreen when I pull it out of my pocket. I’m going to use talking to Tonya as an excuse to avoid him for a bit longer, but she must clock the look on my face because she gestures towards the punnet table where the first few customers are starting to filter in. ‘I’d best get back anyway before Mr Barley does something unspeakable to that Jacob Rees-Mogg scarecrow. He’s having far too much fun sticking that pole in.’ With that, she’s gone, and my phone is still ringing in my hand.
‘Harr—’ I say as I reluctantly answer it, but he interrupts before I can get the full word out.
‘Ah, Felicity—’
‘I quit.’ I don’t realise I’m going to say it until the words burst out before I can think about them. I can’t take my eyes off the carving. It’s still here after so many years. What if Tonya’s right? I didn’t want to come back here, and maybe the fact that mere weeks later, I don’t want to leave does mean something. Even if it’s nothing to do with Ryan. Being back here makes me feel more alive than I have in years. Spending time with my dad and sister makes me wonder why I’ve stayed away for so long.
‘Oh, that’s useful,’ Harrison says. ‘Because I was phoning to sack you. Saves me the trouble. We’ll mark your date of departure down as the day you left the office, so don’t expect me to pay you for the sabotage you’ve done on my time.’
‘I haven’t—’
‘I’ve just had a very interesting chat with Steffan, Felicity. He’s burnt the paperwork I sent him and apparently the land is no longer for sale.’
I squeal in delight, which will certainly tip Harrison off about what I’ve been doing here. Several residents turn to look at me and I duck further behind the tree because I can’t share the news while still on the phone to Harrison.
‘He says he was talked out of it by a woman with blue hair,’ Harrison continues. ‘I wonder who that could possibly be …’
‘Talked out of it is a bit too strong. I only suggested how he could make better use of it. I didn’t …’ I stop myself because I’m still lying and there’s no need for it now. ‘You know what? Yes, I did try my absolute hardest to talk him out of it. What your hotel company is trying to do to these residents is unthinkable. This place is beautiful. There’s a tree here that’s simply magic.’ My fingers are still tracing the outline of the heart shape. ‘So many people love this tree. This patch of land is special. It’s something that money can’t buy – something that can’t be sold and bought as an object. It has a personality. It has a family.’ I look at the residents who are doing all they can to run a strawberry patch despite being mostly octogenarians who probably had no plans to go back to work anytime soon. The number of people we’ve met who’ve shared their stories of the tree, knowing that those are just a handful of the people it’s touched over the course of its life.
And then there’s Ryan. I push myself up to see over the hedge, where he’s now attempting to tow the broken-down campervan out with his own truck. Someone who would literally chain themselves to a tree in an attempt to save it. Someone who hasn’t been home all summer, who hasn’t slept in a bed for weeks, and judging by the activity over on the campsite, was more than likely needed there but made saving the tree a priority instead, because making the world a better place was a priority to him. Nothing changes that, no matter what he thinks of me now.
‘What you do is wrong. What we do is wrong. We have never, ever made any place better.’ I realise that’s true as I say it, and I’m as guilty as he is. ‘I don’t want to work for a company who would even consider cutting down a three-hundred-year-old tree that’s touched countless lives, and that’s without even taking into account the residents who live here.’ I think of what Ryan said about his father’s time living here. ‘For some of these people, the brightest thing they have in their lives is waking up every morning and seeing this incredible view. Property companies should care about that. Money is not the most important thing in the world.’
‘Well, I’m glad you think that because this property company no longer requires your services. We’re business-people, Felicity. We have no room for sentimentality. I hope you know how much you’ve thrown away.’
‘I don’t care.’ The branches of the sycamore rustle above me, and when I glance up, I’m almost positive they’re bending down towards me, the arboreal version of encouragement.
‘Well, then.’ He sounds taken aback. To be fair, it is the most forthright thing I’ve said to Harrison since I joined Landoperty Developments. ‘I’ll be sure to inform all my friends in the industry of your insolence, should you try to get a job with any of them.’
I expected as much, but it still stings a bit, and makes my already sweaty palms produce so much extra moisture that the phone is in danger of sliding out of my hands. I still have a flat in London. Am I really giving that up? Am I really intending to stay here? I know Dad and Cher won’t mind for now, but without a job, and with whatever penalties I’ll owe my landlord for quitting without notice, however much it will cost to go back up and collect my stuff … I try to stop the racing thoughts and quieten the little voice in my head that’s screaming about not thinking things through.
‘I hope some crummy old tree was worth it,’ Harrison says down the line.
‘It was,’ I say confidently, stamping out my own doubts for a moment. ‘It’s about so much more than the tree. It’s the people here, the village, my family, the whole landscape.’
The line goes dead mid-sentence. I stare at the blank phone screen in my hand. That’s it. Four years of my life, over. I expected more, somehow. More yelling. More anger. More acknowledgement of how flipping hard I’ve worked these past few years, of how much overtime I’ve done, how many ridiculous errands I’ve completed on his whim-of-the-day.
He doesn’t care. People like him never will. They see nothing but monetary gain. People, lives, nature … none of it will ever matter to a company like that, but it does matter to me. I don’t want to be the person Ryan thinks I am.
I sink down on the grass and lean against the trunk, and the branches wave above me. It doesn’t feel as bad as I thought it would. For years, I’ve struggled and strived to do my best in fear of Harrison firing me, terrified of this very moment, but sitting here with my back against the tree, its solid strength holding me up … It was worth it. There will be other jobs for other people at other companies less morally bankrupt than Landoperty Developments. There will never be another seaside sycamore tree.
‘Felicity!’ Steffan is marching down the patch towards me, attracting the attention of all the residents who are watching him curiously. ‘I want to talk to you.’
I scramble to my feet because that doesn’t sound good, but he stops halfway down and looks around. ‘Actually, I would like to talk to all of you. You all deserve to hear this.’
The residents gather around as I walk up from the tree.
‘I’ve decided not to sell.’
The residents cheer so loudly, but my eyes are still on the campsite and I see Ryan turn to look at the commotion.
‘Everything you said the other day is right,’ Steffan continues, nodding to me. ‘That’s why I’ve decided to keep the strawberry patch, and I want you to run it.’
‘Me?’ I can’t hide how taken aback I am. I did not see that coming.
‘You used to be a gardener, and you obviously still know your stuff. Everything you said the other day made more sense to me than anything has in months.’ He leans a bit closer like he’s telling me a secret. ‘I think we both know you’re not going to get your old job back, but no matter, I want you to
come and work here.’
I never even admitted he was right about who I was. It makes a shiver creep across my skin. There really is no one I haven’t lied to.
‘Head gardener,’ Steffan continues. ‘Full time, all year round. You can manage everything to do with the strawberry patch in the summer, take charge of the tree visitors in autumn, and do maintenance and preparation during the rest of the year. It has to be you. Everything here changed when you arrived. I can’t think of anyone better to turn this place into something truly spectacular.’
‘What made you change your mind?’ I say so nervously that I trip over the words and ask him what made him mind his change by mistake. The idea of getting to stay here is tainted by the idea of Ryan never forgiving me and when I look down at my hands, they’re shaking.
‘I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Dithering, reconsidering, questioning, flip-flopping back and forth. Admittedly I didn’t expect the residents to react to the sale the way they did, nor did I expect how pushy Landoperty Developments would be, and I certainly didn’t think our little overgrown garden area could mean anything to the general public, or that anything could ever come from it other than a bramble farm. But seeing Henrietta yesterday was the final straw. How happy it made her to come here because of what you and Ryan did. I took over this place to honour a lifelong friend, and he would shove me off the cliff himself if he knew I’d thought of selling it. I’ve known Godfrey and Henrietta for years; she lived here before her illness took hold. They used to sit by the window in the dining room and hold hands for hours, just looking at the view. Seeing the joy it brought her yesterday made me realise how preposterous it would be for any resident to look out and see the brick walls of a hotel.’
I don’t think it had much to do with me, but it still makes me blush with pride. I don’t know what I thought the outcome of all this was going to be, but we’ve all been so focused on saving the tree that I never stopped to imagine what it would feel like if it actually happened.
‘I can see what this place means to all of you,’ Steffan is saying. ‘Talking to you the other day, Felicity, invigorated me in a way I haven’t felt since before my best friend died. I’ve been trying to keep things ticking over since then, but you’ve made me realise that I can do better. I can strive to make it the best it can be rather than keep treading water. Your passion for this place is inspirational, and that’s exactly what we need. People who can see the best in things, rather than money-grabbing old fuddy-duddies like me.’ He looks around at the group. ‘And I assure you I’ve been called much worse than that, and I undoubtedly deserved it.’ He turns back to me. ‘I hope you don’t think I’m being presumptuous, and of course you can refuse the job, but I could tell how much you loved this place from our conversation the other day, and I can’t think of anyone I’d trust more in the role.’
The Wishing Tree Beside the Shore: The perfect feel good romance to escape with this summer! Page 28