The Secret Seaside Escape: The most heart-warming, feel-good romance of 2020, from the Sunday Times bestseller!

by Heidi Swain

  There were just a handful of us gathered on the beach before five the next morning to watch the solstice sun come up. Most people were clearly more interested in turning out for the party and watching it set under the merry influence of Sophie’s legendary rum punch, but I was pleased I had set the bedside alarm and made the effort. As I watched the day dawn and the sun slowly climb over the horizon, I wondered how many more Wynmouth sunrises and sunsets I was going to be privy to.

  ‘Penny for them,’ asked Sam, who had also turned out and was standing between me and Hope.

  ‘I was just thinking what a relief it was that the sun has decided to turn up for his own party,’ I told him, the fib tripping easily off my tongue as my gaze flicked up to his.

  ‘That’s funny,’ he smiled down at me with a knowing look in his green eyes. ‘I was thinking exactly the same thing.’

  *

  ‘What do you think are the chances of everyone who said they were coming, turning up tonight?’ I asked Hope as we worked through the checklist of things we were going to set up on the beach.

  ‘I’m not sure, to be honest,’ she said, then added, ‘but I do know someone who definitely won’t be with us.’

  ‘Oh, who?’

  ‘Joe.’

  ‘How do you know that?’ I questioned, feeling marginally more awake all of a sudden.

  ‘He sent me a text when he got back to the farm last night,’ she explained. ‘He said he was sorry, but he wouldn’t be able to make it after all.’

  ‘He messaged you?’

  To be honest, I was more surprised that he knew her mobile number than I was about him not coming to the party.

  ‘Yes,’ she said, stacking the compostable cups in neat rows to count them. ‘He said that something had come up and that he wouldn’t be able to get away. I’m not sure I believed him though.’

  I wondered if his decision had been prompted by the sight of seeing her and Sam standing cosily together behind the bar. It hadn’t made me feel all that great.

  ‘What do you think?’ she asked me.

  ‘I don’t think Joe would just make something like that up,’ I answered, still deliberating the fact that the pair of them were privately in touch.

  I wondered how Sam would react if he knew his girlfriend was exchanging late-night texts with her ex, especially given who the ex was.

  ‘I guess not,’ she sighed. ‘You aren’t too disappointed, are you?’

  ‘Me?’ I frowned.

  ‘Yes,’ Hope carried on. ‘He said he would have let you know if he could, but as you’ve refused to so much as even turn your mobile on since you arrived in the village, he had no way of contacting you. What’s that all about, Tess?’

  Clearly, she and Joe had talked and messaged about a whole lot more than just his decision not to come to the party. Perhaps their conversation in the lane wasn’t the only time they’d got together for a bit of a catch-up.

  ‘Have you really abandoned your phone?’

  ‘Pretty much,’ I told her, knowing there was no point in denying it because if I was still a slave to my screen then I would have had it with me, and it was nowhere in sight.

  ‘But why?’ she asked.

  ‘Lots of reasons really,’ I began, ‘but mostly because I felt I needed a proper break from it,’ I carried on. ‘I decided the day I arrived here in Wynmouth that I would be eschewing all technology for the duration of my stay. No emails, no texts and no social media.’

  She narrowed her eyes and chewed thoughtfully on the end of her pen. It was an annoying habit and I knew someone else who did it, but for the moment I couldn’t think who it was.

  ‘Everyone thinks that their lives have to revolve around their phones,’ I carried on when she didn’t say anything, ‘and to a certain extent I suppose they do these days, but I’ve found the ban truly liberating. It’s done me the power of good not to be constantly checking and updating.’

  I didn’t point out that I had needed to borrow her mother’s laptop on more than one occasion since my arrival because that had never been for private use. Logging on courtesy of Sophie had happened purely so I could help her, Sam and the village.

  ‘Oh well, that’s all right then,’ Hope smiled as she released the pen long enough to speak. ‘To be honest, I’m relieved we were wrong.’

  ‘Wrong?’ I frowned again, ‘about what?’

  ‘Well,’ she confided, fixing me with her pretty dark eyes, ‘we were beginning to think that the reason you weren’t using your phone and were hiding out here in Wynmouth was because you’d run away from something.’

  I wondered who the ‘we’ was that she was referring to – her and Sam or her and Joe, or her and the pair of them or perhaps even the entire village.

  ‘That’s ridiculous,’ I bluffed, ‘I’m hardly in hiding, am I? I’ve spent more time out of the cottage than I have in it and there can’t be many people left in Wynmouth who don’t know who I am. I’m just here for a holiday.’

  ‘A really long one.’

  ‘Well, yes, I suppose it is a bit longer than average, but it’s what I needed.’

  ‘Along with the tech break.’

  ‘Along with the tech break,’ I swallowed.

  ‘Fair enough,’ she shrugged.

  She seemed to accept what I had said, but having run through it all, I wouldn’t have blamed her if she didn’t.

  ‘I can’t help thinking there is someone around here who’s on the run though,’ she said, sucking the pen again.

  ‘Oh,’ I said, happy that her thoughts had moved on from me, ‘who would that be then?’

  ‘Joe, of course,’ she said, as if I should have known. ‘He’s definitely someone who’s on the run.’

  I was inclined to agree with her, but thinking back to what George had said, I knew it was important not to interfere.

  ‘How can he be on the run when he’s come back?’ I pointed out.

  ‘You know what I mean.’

  ‘I think he’s most likely just finding it hard to settle back in,’ I said, offering her my take on the situation. ‘What with the trouble at the farm and everything, it’s bound to take him a while.’

  ‘That’s as maybe,’ she said, ‘but I still think there’s more to it than that.’

  ‘You do?’

  I was fast beginning to feel that I was fighting a losing battle. She might not have intended to do it, but her words were wearing down my non-interfering resolve.

  ‘Yes,’ she carried on, sounding more convinced than ever, ‘and you’ve spent a lot of time with him, don’t you feel it too?’

  ‘I haven’t spent that long . . .’

  ‘And I’m getting exactly the same vibe from Sam.’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘Well, whenever we talk about how he feels about Joe being back, he starts off all right and then he just clams up. I don’t think it’s just Joe who is holding something back, I reckon Sam is too.’

  ‘Maybe it’s the same thing,’ I suggested, before remembering my conviction to keep out of it, ‘but whatever it is, there’s nothing we can do. We can’t force them to talk about it and I don’t think we should try.’

  ‘Do you not?’

  ‘No,’ I said firmly, ‘absolutely not.’

  ‘But if they don’t properly get their heads together soon,’ she pointed out, ‘they might carry on like this into their forties.’

  ‘Oh,’ I said, eager to scotch her fear, ‘I don’t think it will come to that. I mean, look at how they worked together at the beach clean yesterday. That was amazing progress, wasn’t it?’

  ‘I guess,’ she said, ‘but I still think a little extra encouragement wouldn’t do any harm.’

  I really thought it might, but once Hope had a bee in her bonnet, I knew it was impossible to flush it out until she was ready to let it go.

  ‘What are you thinking?’ I tentatively asked.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ she said, biting her lip, ‘but you’ll help, won’t you?’


  I didn’t know what to say. On the one hand I wanted to follow George’s sage advice and let the situation carve out its own course, but on the other, I wouldn’t have minded hurrying things on a bit. And, I reasoned with myself, it probably wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye out, just from the sidelines, to make sure Hope didn’t do anything too obvious or OTT. Given what was at stake, I didn’t want to see any of my friends getting hurt further, especially as they’d now started to find their way back to each other.

  ‘Oh god, Tess,’ she said, noisily dropping her clipboard and making me jump before I had even tried to form an answer. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I shouldn’t even be asking you,’ she said, slapping her forehead in frustration. ‘I keep forgetting that you’re here on holiday.’

  ‘Sometimes so do I,’ I told her.

  That was totally true, because the more time I spent in Wynmouth, the harder it was to believe that I had another life somewhere else. A life that I was going to have to face up to at some point in the not too distant future, whether I wanted to or not.

  ‘It’s because you feel so much like one of us,’ Hope smiled.

  ‘I do?’

  ‘Yes,’ she laughed, ‘you do. These days, you feel like more of a local, than some of the locals!’

  ‘Sometimes,’ I admitted, getting carried away and thinking how wonderful it would be to live in Wynmouth forever, ‘I wish I was.’

  ‘You just fit in so well,’ she told me, her smile then disappearing as quickly as it had arrived. ‘I wish you didn’t have to go.’

  I swallowed hard and blinked away the tears her kind words had prompted.

  ‘Same,’ I whispered.

  She came over and grasped my hand and I could almost hear the cogs whirring as she chewed her lip and frowned, deep in concentration. I was a little afraid of what she was going to say next.

  ‘Stay longer then!’ she wildly suggested. ‘Ask Sam to let you stay in the cottage for the whole of the summer.’

  I suddenly remembered that I had already asked him if he would consider lengthening our agreement, but given what happened after, the subject hadn’t been broached again.

  ‘But he wants to take the cottage off the rental market,’ I reminded Hope, squeezing her hand before she let mine go.

  ‘Only so he can try and sell it while the sun’s out,’ she told me. ‘He wants cash in the bank now he’s depleted his savings by buying his new leg.’

  I wasn’t sure she should be divulging Sam’s plans and financial position, but that was Hope all over. Her enthusiasm often ran away with her and this latest lapse was a timely reminder that it might be a good idea for me to stick around, if Sam was willing, so I could, if necessary, temper her passion to get things between him and Joe settled.

  ‘But as you’re in already,’ she rushed on, ‘I’m sure he wouldn’t turf you out.’

  ‘Well . . .’

  ‘But could you take more time?’ she asked, her eyes wide, as she flitted from one thought to another faster than a fairy could fly. ‘You must have a job you need to get back to? We’ve never talked about that, have we?’

  ‘No,’ I said, ‘we haven’t.’

  I had already decided that I was leaving the firm but, with savings in the bank, affordability wasn’t currently an issue. It was a nice position to be in, but I didn’t know how to explain it for fear of coming across as big-headed.

  ‘And I do have a job,’ I told her, ‘but I could probably wrangle a little more time away from it.’ She began to squeal even before I had finished the sentence. ‘But only if Sam agrees to me staying on, of course.’

  ‘I’ll talk him round,’ she grinned, clapping her hands together, ‘but I know he won’t say no.’

  She sounded very sure about that. Perhaps they were so in love that he would give her anything she asked for.

  ‘And now we have a bit more time to play with,’ she said as if it was all a fait accompli, as her eyes darted back to her clipboard, ‘we needn’t worry about how we’re going to sort the guys out just yet. We can come up with devising the perfect plan after tonight.’

  The fact that ‘we’ were now sorting them out as opposed to Hope flying solo wasn’t lost on me and I hoped George wouldn’t find out about my involvement and, in light of their former requests for me to steer clear, I hoped Sam and Joe wouldn’t suss it all out too soon either.

  ‘Let’s just focus on the party for now,’ said Hope, sounding much more business-like. ‘And finding someone to help us hang this bunting.’

  *

  With the bunting eventually untangled and hung, everyone agreed that it looked so good it could stay in situ until the autumn, and we set about arranging the finishing touches which we hoped would make the evening one to remember.

  A few people had asked if there would be fireworks to see out the end of the longest day, but Hope explained that as you never knew where the spent waste was going to end up, they weren’t the best idea for an area which had just undergone its first volunteer-led beach clean. As an alternative, I had suggested sparklers which could be plunged into buckets of damp sand for collection and efficient disposal.

  ‘They’re not exactly eco-friendly,’ I said, thinking of the cocktail of chemicals which went into them, ‘but they’ve got to have less impact than fireworks.’

  Hope hadn’t been sure about the idea, but when someone suggested sky lanterns, she hastily relented.

  ‘I think I’m going to give a little talk about the dangers of some of the things that get washed up before I start each of the beach-cleaning sessions,’ she said seriously. ‘Those lanterns might look pretty but they’re an absolute hazard and I’m amazed that so many people still don’t know that they’re banned around here.’

  ‘That’s a good idea,’ I said, thinking back to a story in a local paper which had covered a minor celebrity’s birthday celebration on one page and on the next, the fire which had been caused by the thirty lanterns which had been released to celebrate the three-decade milestone. ‘You’ll have a captive audience.’

  ‘I don’t want to come across as all preachy though,’ she frowned.

  ‘It’s not preachy if you’re raising awareness,’ I told her.

  ‘That’s all right then,’ she nodded, ‘and with any luck, the lanterns will be banned nationwide before long. Joe told me that Charlie had found a barn owl completely tangled up in one the other day. It had been dead for a while.’

  ‘That’s awful,’ I shuddered, thinking of the beautiful bird before wondering when this conversation had taken place.

  ‘Charlie was devastated,’ she said sadly.

  The sparklers were stored in a box under one of the three trestle tables which had been lined up and covered in a vibrant patterned oilcloth borrowed from Sophie. She had closed the café early to ensure she had enough time to transport all the food she had made, along with Hope’s cookies and a vast amount of secret-ingredient rum punch, down to the beach.

  ‘I’m so pleased that the sun has decided to put in an appearance,’ she said, puffing out her cheeks as she handed over a heavy box to one of the many people who had turned up to help. ‘When I watched the forecast at the beginning of the week, I thought we were going to be celebrating the longest day under a blanket of cloud!’

  ‘Oh blankets,’ tutted Hope, scouring her list. ‘I knew there was something.’

  A few of the hardier souls were planning to sleep out under the stars and Hope had collected a big box of blankets and sleeping bags for anyone who forgot to bring one.

  ‘They’re all still at the pub,’ she tutted, sucking the end of her pen again.

  ‘I’ll go,’ I said. ‘You stay here and hold the fort.’

  ‘Thanks, Tess,’ she said, taking out her phone and waving it about. ‘I would text Sam and tell him but there’s absolutely no signal down here.’

  It was only a short walk back from the stretch of beach where we’d decided to set up to the Smuggler�
��s but, given the problems Sam had been having with his leg, he was going to drive his car down as far he could. Not only was he saved some uncomfortable steps but he was also ferrying a few things he had been keeping at the pub. The box of blankets could go in with those.

  Having decided that as everyone was going to be at the beach anyway there was no point in staying open, he was just locking up as I arrived.

  ‘All right?’ he frowned, when he spotted me.

  ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘everything’s running like clockwork, but Hope remembered she hadn’t got the box of blankets so I said I’d come and get them.’

  ‘I’ve just loaded them into the back of the car,’ he said, wincing as he picked up the chalkboard from the path.

  ‘Here,’ I said, ‘let me take that.’

  ‘No,’ he snapped, pulling it away. ‘I can manage. I’m not completely useless.’

  I took a step back, my face burning with embarrassment. I realized I had made a mistake, but there was no need to bite my head off about it.

  ‘I’ll go back then,’ I said quietly.

  ‘You might as well come in the car with me now you’re here.’

  After his uncharacteristic flash of temper, I wasn’t sure I much wanted to.

  ‘Just go around the back to the car park,’ he said, before I could object. ‘It’s unlocked. I won’t be a minute.’

  I did as instructed, but he took so long I was beginning to think something must have happened. I was just about to go and look for him when he bumped through the beer garden carrying a guitar case. I could see he was struggling to manoeuvre it but knew better now than to interfere.

  ‘You might have helped,’ he muttered, climbing behind the wheel once he had managed to balance it on top of everything else stacked on the backseat.

  ‘Why would I do that?’ I shrugged. ‘You could manage. I mean, it’s not as if you’re completely useless, is it?’