by Sue Watson
And so we drove to Appledore together, and despite the fact Lucie had never been here before, I felt like I was bringing her home.
28
The Cherry on the Sundae
Once Lucie was settled back at the apartment I called Gina who came over and we explained everything. Mum suggested we tell Josh at the same time, and organised the technical aspects of Skype. Waking him at some ungodly hour in Nepal to break the news that his nan was his great-aunt and his biological nan was a stranger to him wasn’t the easiest – but it was the right thing to do.
Both kids just sat open-mouthed thousands of miles apart and Lucie kept hugging my mum like this meant she’d never see her again. ‘But you’re my nan,’ she kept saying, producing fresh tears on top of the Thai ones.
Gina said she understood the kids’ shock and looked forward to getting to know them. ‘I’ll never replace your nan,’ she said. ‘And anyway – who wants to be a grandma? I’d much rather be a glamorous auntie – and by the way if anyone asks I’m fifty. And if ever any of you tell anyone my real age you’re dead to me,’ she laughed, sounding more like my cousin than my mother. And it reminded me how we were all family; Gina may not have been in our lives, but there was a place for her in all our hearts.
Later Lucie asked if she could stay a while in Appledore and work in the café. I loved the idea of my daughter working in the family business, or ‘the firm’, as Mum liked to refer to it in Mafia undertones.
Meanwhile Josh, as I would have expected, took everything in his stride. He and Aarya were due back to the UK soon and both asked if they could come and stay in Appledore too.
First Delilah, then Mum turned up, followed by another mother and Lucie and now Josh and Aarya would soon be on their way. This was supposed to be my ice cream summer of freedom, my chance to see if I could make it on my own, away from everyone else, but it wasn’t meant to be. Once Josh and Aarya turned up we’d all be together again, and despite what I thought I wanted – I couldn’t have been happier.
The day of the café opening dawned and the weather was magnificent. Bright blue, cloudless skies told us it was going to be a blistering hot day.
‘Mum used to call that “an ice cream sky”,’ Gina said as she threw open the doors and gazed out onto the beach. We were all hands on deck today with a new Assistant Manager, Dani, who was lovely and possibly the sanest person on the staff, but with Gina, Mum, Marco, and Sue now threatening to come and work for us, it was a low bar.
As I chatted to Marco that first morning as he baked the fresh brioche (and yes, can he make bread!) I kept thinking, this is my cousin, which was so weird. Of course I didn’t tell Marco of our connection; Gina and I decided to keep my heritage private out of respect to Peter.
But the icing on the cake – or the cherry on the sundae – emerged during Marco’s first kitchen shift. I asked him if he knew where Sophia’s recipes might be.
‘Sophia never wrote them down because she made them up as she went along,’ he said. ‘She always said each ice cream was a work in progress and could always be improved or altered. “Everyone brings something else to the ice cream,” she used to say. “A different perspective, a different flavour, a different experience.”’
And suddenly I got it. This was a creative, living, moving process, and it couldn’t be pinned down to a list of ingredients. Good ice cream was like any good baking or cooking, it was about the love, the passion and the spirit of the person creating this wonderful stuff.
Sophia was right, everyone brought something different and she wanted me back at the café bringing more ideas, introducing more flavours to new customers. She’d never wanted the rift, she wanted us all to be reunited – and she’d done this by leaving me the van, knowing one way or another Reginaldo would come through. In my view there is such a thing as fate and when people we love die they don’t leave us, they stick around and leave clues every day to guide us.
‘It was just another of Mum’s tests – for you to find your own way, make your own recipes,’ Gina said. ‘You’ve put a bit of yourself into all this and now it’s about Ella’s ice cream – not Sophia’s. It isn’t about the past,’ she said, ‘it’s about the future, and you’re the future, honey. I know it’s what she’d have wanted, for her granddaughter to carry on the business and make it fly – so you go girl.’
And I did.
The opening of the Ice Cream Café was a huge success and for what was left of the summer long queues stretched down the front, tables were booked days in advance and the forecast for the future was good. Thanks to Mum, our ice creams were featured in magazines, radio, online and on TV. Delilah was the original ice cream diva, photographed with children, local celebrities – and always, always with ice cream. She now featured on all our posters and had outfits to match every flavour, and trust me, her plum ginger designer coat with frosting hat was to die for.
Now I finally had a Facebook page worth looking at; sumptuous ice creams, heady cocktails and Devon sunsets – I had the lot! But the irony was, after all those years looking at other people’s bloody Agas and Dick’s sunburn in Marbella – I didn’t look at other people’s Facebook photos any more. I didn’t have the time or the inclination, because I was living my real life on a beach with the biggest sky – and you couldn’t capture the joy of that on a screen.
Josh and Aarya returned from Nepal at the end of August and we rented a big house overlooking the bay and filled it with family. Sue arrived in a flurry of sequins and dress jewellery and moved into the apartment. She’s renting it off Gina for the next six months, and loves it – who wouldn’t? As she says ‘It’s got all the modern contrivances.’ Meanwhile our new assistant manager Dani is about to move into the flat above the café, she lives for ice cream and like Gina she’s come back to Appledore having run away as a teenager. She’s funny and friendly and very sweet, but there’s a sadness behind her laughter – I wonder what her story is?
How ironic that this was to be my summer of escape – running away from home to start a new life – yet here we all are, they ran away with me! The kids are going to work in the café, Gina’s planning to stay on a little longer and Mum’s in her element. Best of all, I have my van; Reginaldo was my knight in shining armour and rescued me from another life, bringing me to a better one. Mum, Gina and I are contemplating a road trip with Reginaldo – it might be fun to travel to Italy, where it all began. We can catch up with family, sample real gelato and be inspired by Sorrento – where the lemons are as big as your head.
In the end it had been Sophia who had inadvertently revealed the family secret. I sometimes wonder if it was just a coincidence that Sophia hid the bag of secrets in the van she then bequeathed to me. Was this my aunt’s way of finally unburdening the secret and helping me to find out the truth about myself? I like to think so.
I’ve realised since I came here that family, heritage, and the happiness of my childhood and love for my children gave me strength and confidence to chase my dream. I’d stayed in the same place physically and emotionally for too long and until this summer I’d been scared to make the break. Appledore has taken me to its heart – without me realising, some special people were waiting here for me and made sense of my life. My anchor is here in Appledore, I’m not tied to it, I can go anytime – because I know this is my forever and I’ll always come back.
Epilogue
Today I sit with Delilah in my van on the beach, it’s early autumn, the weather is closing in and I don’t have many customers. Delilah’s asleep and everyone is at the café serving hot chocolate, decadent sundaes and warm breakfast brioches made fresh by Marco, sandwiched with cool, creamy ice cream in one of the many flavours we offer.
I love my new life and it isn’t closed off like the other one because I can always head off into the sunset in my van in search of adventure. Sometimes, when we’ve been really busy, or Mum and Gina are bickering and the kids are making too much noise, me and Delilah drive along the open beach, a big sky abov
e us and a never-ending sea in the distance. We park up among the sand dunes where Ben and I once kissed, and sometimes I’ll phone him and ask how it is in that great big blue Pacific and he talks to me about the sea.
I sometimes fantasise about him turning up on my beach, or better still, I could turn up on his. And who knows, one day Delilah and I might just keep driving until we get to Hawaii, two girls in search of an adventure, our futures spread before us, though we’d need to make sure Delilah had enough outfits packed first.
My ice cream summer has given me so many gifts – I’ve discovered a talent for ice cream and business and international relations (Mum and Gina!). I rediscovered my Mum, Roberta, who is bright and funny and clever, and of course the best mother in the world. I also found another mother, a wonderful woman who has always been there, watching from afar – and who will continue to enrich my life and that of my children.
Marco is also a kind of gift – albeit a monosyllabic and sometimes quite rude gift – but he passed on Sophia’s advice, to make ice cream from the heart, not from a recipe. He also happens to make the best Brioche in Britain – and what’s more, in a weird way I kind of like him. I lost a cousin in Gina and found a cousin in Marco and knowing this gives me faith in the world, that there is a kind of equilibrium and it will all come right in the end.
I remind myself of this on the days when all I can think of is Ben, and what might have been. And I remember what he told me: ‘Hold your breath, dive in and let the water take the weight, give yourself up to the universe and know she has your back.’ And from my little van I look out onto a vast sea, a huge sky and then down at Delilah in her prettiest dress – and I just know we have some great adventures ahead of us. All we have to do is hold our breath, and dive in.
Ella’s Ice Cream Recipe
This is so simple and you don’t need an ice cream maker just a plastic freezer-proof box. I often whip up a batch of this vanilla while I’m in the van, with the blue sky above, and the endless sea ahead.
For flavoured or ‘adult only’ ice cream, I add up to 3floz/85ml of fruit puree and/or alcohol to the egg yolk mixture. If I’m adding any delicious extras like choc chips, chopped nuts, praline or any little sweeties, I just fold them in before freezing. So gather the ingredients, put on some Italian music and imagine you’re in Sorrento – where the lemons are as big as your head!
Ingredients
•2 eggs, separated
•2oz/60g caster sugar
•10floz/300ml double cream
•1-2 tsp vanilla extract
Start by beating the egg whites until stiff, then beat in the sugar a spoonful at a time until the mixture is stiff and glossy.
In a separate bowl, beat the double cream until pillowy but not stiff.
Mix the egg yolks and vanilla extract.
Now, gently fold the whipped cream into the meringue with a spatula. When it is almost incorporated, slowly fold in the egg yolks one spoonful at a time.
Pour the ice cream into a plastic freezer-proof container and pop in the freezer for a minimum of 6 hours, until the ice cream is solid.
Take the container out of the freezer 10 minutes before serving, and scoop into cones or dishes then add toppings.
Enjoy!
Ella x
A Letter from Sue
Thanks so much for reading Ella’s Ice Cream Summer, I hope you enjoyed the delicious ice creams and didn’t mind waiting in the long queue at the van! If you’ve enjoyed this story, please feel free to pop in to the Ice Cream Café in my next book (out in June) to meet a new heroine, with a new story, and catch up with Ella’s adventures too.
Delilah the Pomeranian is the star of this book. Little Delilah was a rescue dog who’d had a difficult life until she was adopted as ‘an older lady’ by my friends Michael and Vic in San Francisco where she lived with her brother Chuggaboom, a miniature Pinscher. Sadly, Delilah and Chuggaboom both died in 2016, but they will always have a place in the hearts of those who knew and loved them. Delilah still has a Facebook page where her daddies keep us up to date on the adventures and crazy antics of her siblings, Popcorn, Little Eve and Millie Milkshake. You can find them all here on https://www.facebook.com/suewatsonbooks/
If you’d like to meet up again with Ella and Delilah in my next book you can sign up to my mailing list and I’ll let you know when it’s released. I promise I won’t share your email address with anyone, and I’ll only send you an email when I have a new book out.
If you want to taste a little of Ella’s Ice Cream Summer, do try Ella’s easy ice cream recipe and let me know what you think!
www.suewatsonbooks.com/email
Stay in Touch!
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Also by Sue Watson
Bella’s Christmas Bake Off
Love, Lies and Lemon Cake
Summer Flings and Dancing Dreams
Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes
Younger, Thinner, Blonder
The Christmas Cake Cafe
Snow Angels, Secrets and Christmas Cake
Acknowledgments
My thanks and the biggest chocolate sundaes EVER to Oliver Rhodes, Claire Bord, Jessie Botterill, Kim Nash, Emily Ruston, Jade Craddock and the rest of the delicious Bookouture team, who turned this ice cream story into a Knickerbocker Glory!
A very big thank you and lashings of hot fudge sauce to my lovely American friends Michael Angelo Torres and Vic Spinoza. Their very special little girl, Delilah the Pomeranian, turned up in this story in a doggie bikini, twirling and barking and stealing my heart, and they kindly allowed her to stay. Sadly, the real Delilah isn’t with us any more, but wherever she is there’s an extensive designer doggie wardrobe with tasteful accessories – and I know she’ll always make her daddies very proud.
I have so many blogger friends who take the time to read and review my books and I love all of them. Unfortunately there isn’t enough room on the page to thank everyone individually, so for now I’d just like to say a waffle-cone, heartfelt thank you to those who are always, always there for me, many from the beginning, who welcome each book and cheer me along my journey. Kathryn Everett, Sarah Hardy, Dawn Crooks, Suze Lavender, Rachel Gilbey, Kaisha Holloway, Ana Tomova, Sara Steven, Bethany Clark and Anne John-Ligali – thank you for being such lovely friends and wonderful champions of my writing, I would be lost without you.
Knickerbocker Glories to all my fabulous new friends at the Book Club at Mim’s; plus lashings of whipped cream and a special cherry on top for Marie ‘Mim’ Deakin, proprietor of Mim’s Café. With her bubbly warmth, amazing talent for making everyone feel at home, and creating wonderful sweet stuff, Mim was my inspiration for Ella’s story.
To my girls, Lesley McLoughlin (and the late and lovely Cocoa, who also appears in the book), Alison Birch, Louise Bagley, Jan Newbold, Sarah Robinson, Jackie Swift and Sheila Webb; thank you for providing regular scoops of ice cream for the soul, and for reminding me there’s a big and wonderful world outside my writing shed.
To Liz Cox, an enormous, calorie-free sundae for ‘the funeral scene’, for always making me laugh, and for inspiring me for so long, in so many ways.
Last, but never least, swirly vanilla cones with chocolate flakes and raspberry sauce to my Mum, Nick and Eve. Thank you as always for your love, patience and humour – and for allowing me to ‘research’ ice cream every day, without ever mentioning the word ‘diet’!
Published by Bookouture - an imprint of StoryFire Ltd.
23 Sussex Road, Ickenham, UB10 8PN, United Kingdom
www.bookouture.com
Copyright © Sue Watson 2017
Sue Watson has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publishers.
Published by Bookouture - an imprint of StoryFire Ltd.
23 Sussex Road, Ickenham, UB10 8PN, United Kingdom
ISBN: 978-1-78681-168-4