The Boardwalk by the Sea

by Georgina Troy

  Sacha took off her clothes and dressed in her favourite shorts and slippers. Bliss. It might be raining, but it was still a warm evening. She would dress like this all the time if she could. Years of having to be made up, hair perfect, trussed in a suit and heels for the corporate world had taken their toll, and Sacha rarely wore anything smarter than a sundress and sandals these days.

  She would catch up with Lucy when she arrived for work in the morning. Maybe Lucy would give her some idea why Jack had been so quiet about their time working together in the café.

  The next morning, Sacha was up earlier than usual and dressed by six. The moaning of the wind, and the sound of waves crashing against the sea wall had woken her several hours before and she’d been unable to get back to sleep. She lay in bed, curtains left slightly open, which she did every night so that she could wake up naturally as the dawn broke, rather than be stunned into shock by a noisy alarm.

  This morning though, she lay in the dark, thinking about Alessandro until the sun came up. Spending time with him had been the highlight of her trip, and she wondered if he really would end up coming to the island this summer. She would have to be a friend to him and show him around. After all, hadn’t he gone out of his way to do the same for her? She felt a pang of regret at what she might never share with him. His kiss had been magical – the thought of his lips pressed against hers as he pulled her against him, still made her legs feel like jelly. But now she knew about him and Livia, and that he’d been planning to marry her. Maybe the kiss had been a momentary lapse for him. Or even a kindness he thought she needed. Whatever it was, she now knew what she was missing.

  Not wishing to dwell on her thoughts, and unable to resist a sunny dawn, she got up, showered, dressed, and went downstairs for her first cup of tea. She crossed the road, cup of tea warming her hands, and stood on the boardwalk looking out at the sea. It was so much calmer today as the small waves flopped over the rocks on the beach. Breathing in the familiar salty air, Sacha sighed happily. This place always cheered her up.

  Spotting Lucy arriving for work, Sacha ran across the narrow roadway back to the café.

  “Hi, Lucy,” she said as she entered the room. “How are you?”

  “Fine, thanks,” Lucy said, carrying her small rucksack through to one of the small rooms at the back of the café, where staff stored their bags and coats while they were working.

  “Everything here okay while I was away?” She joined Lucy behind the counter and began counting the petty cash. Satisfied there was a decent amount of till roll in the machine, she closed the lid and went to wash her hands.

  “Yes, er, it was fine,” Lucy answered, eventually.

  Sacha sensed something was wrong. “Are you sure?” she asked as she came back out to join her, watching Lucy pull on one of the pastel aprons they wore to protect their shorts and T-shirts. “You would tell me if there was something wrong, I hope.”

  Lucy’s pale cheeks reddened, making her look even younger than her twenty years. She turned her back on Sacha, pulling the band from her curly auburn hair and redoing her ponytail. “I’d better check that we have enough ice cream in the bunker.”

  Not wishing to hound her, Sacha let Lucy go into the largest storeroom in peace. The room was housed in a couple of tiny bunkers dug deep into the hill behind the café. It was perfect for storing food because the temperature never rose. Sacha had wondered many times what had been kept in there during the Occupation, when the Nazis had taken over the island, and when the bunkers had been built. She supposed it must have been ammunition, or maybe even food for the soldiers stationed down at the boardwalk, keeping watch over the bay.

  Lucy returned to stand in front of Sacha, her hands clasped in front of her. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “It’s Jack.”

  Concern coursed through Sacha. She’d only been gone ten days. She hoped he hadn’t been too distracted by Nikki to keep a proper eye on things here.

  “What has he done?” she asked, trying not to show how annoyed she was with her brother. Jack was a charmer, but could be oblivious to the effect he had on women.

  Lucy stared at her pink plimsoll-encased feet for a few seconds. “He hasn’t done anything wrong,” she said. “But you’re back now and he doesn’t have any reason to stay here.”

  Sacha frowned. “Sorry, what?” If he hadn’t done anything wrong then what was the matter with Lucy?

  “He is going to be leaving Jersey again, isn’t he?”

  So that’s what was upsetting her. Jack changing his mind and not going back to his girlfriend. She smiled and sat Lucy at the nearest table. She noticed how tired Lucy seemed, and that she had dark shadows under her eyes.

  “You’re going to have a cup of tea and one of the low-calorie chocolate brownies you like so much and gather yourself. We’ll have our regulars coming here, in,” she glanced at the retro clock above the door. “Four minutes. They come here to cheer themselves up and expect us to have smiles on our faces.”

  “Sorry,” Lucy said, resting her chin on her palm. “It’s just that I know he’s your brother and he seemed to love working here. He sounded like he was having a hard time with his girlfriend, too and I’m worried that if he stays you won’t need me working here anymore.”

  Sacha was relieved. When Lucy had first mentioned his name, she’d been concerned that her assistant might have a bit of a crush on Jack. Sacha had spent so much of her teenage years having to put up with besotted friends of hers hanging around her home, waiting for Jack to come back after being out with his friends. She made Lucy a mug of tea and gave her one of her favourite double chocolate brownies in an attempt to give her a bit of a boost.

  “You don’t need to worry,” Sacha said. “We’ll be busy enough for you to stay if Jack decides he doesn’t want to go back.”

  “But the winter time? It’s so much quieter then.”

  Sacha pushed the plate with the brownie on it towards Lucy. “Eat that, and stop worrying. Jack knows the score and you have nothing to worry about. Anyway, he’ll probably go home soon, whatever he says now.”

  Lucy’s head bobbed up. Her mood had lifted for some reason. “Probably?”

  “What?”

  “I don’t want you to think I don’t like him, I do, but I need this job more than he does.”

  Sacha could see their first customers walking hurriedly towards the café. She didn’t have time to go over what Jack had said. “Look, you finish your tea and brownie, and I’ll serve.”

  “Thank you, but I’ll have these around the back,” Lucy said, picking up her mug and plate.

  Sacha walked to the door and turned the sign to ‘Open’, smiling as her first customers of the day walked in. She welcomed the fisherman and his two children as they noisily entered the café behind him.

  “You have two minutes,” she whispered over her shoulder, as Lucy practically skipped to the storeroom.

  The fisherman, whose wife had died a couple of years before, brought his young son and daughter in to the café several times a week for their breakfast and Sacha always gave them a discount. She loved seeing the two blonde, angelic looking children, who always seemed happy to be in her café. It was the perfect way to start the day. She grabbed three menus, despite being aware that the three of them must know everything on it by heart.

  “Good to see you all,” she said, as they sat down at their favourite table near the counter. Sacha wished that when the handsome man in front of her smiled it would one day reach his eyes. He must have loved his wife very much to still be so sad at her loss. Seeing him acting so cheerful in front of his children always gave Sacha’s heart a bit of a tug.

  “Good morning,” the family sang in unison, taking their menus to study, before ordering the same thing they all had every day.

  Sacha smiled. “Coming right up,” she said, taking the menus back and going into the kitchen to cook a fry-up of two eggs, bacon, sausages and hash browns for the father, and one egg and two r
ashers of bacon for the children.

  “Bad storm last night,” she said, serving them each a mug of tea as she waited for the bacon and sausages to cook. “Woke me up and I couldn’t get back to sleep.”

  “I slept like a baby,” the fisherman said. “Always do in a storm. Love them.”

  Mrs Joliff arrived, wearing her usual straw hat and baggy linens. She seemed to have a wardrobe full of linens, Sacha thought, smiling at her and waiting for her to exchange pleasantries with the small family before taking a seat at a nearby table. Sacha served her a pot of English Breakfast tea and two slices of cabbage loaf toast with fresh raspberry jam, bought from the farm shop up the road.

  “This is my favourite bread and the best jam I’ve tasted,” Mrs Joliff said. “You’re a good girl, Sacha. You always make sure you serve the best ingredients.”

  “She buys my fish too, when she’s doing her summer suppers here,” the fisherman said. “You should make sure you attend the next one, you’ll be in for a treat.”

  “I will, thank you.”

  “Did you notice they’ve painted the railings above the beach?” Mrs Joliff asked.

  “I had,” Sacha said. “I didn’t realise they were going to be painted, but they look good.”

  “Trouble is,” Mrs Joliff said. “No one seems to know who did it.”

  Sacha found that hard to believe. “What, no one saw them being painted? It must have taken hours.”

  “There were two men,” the fisherman said. “But no one knows who arranged for them to do the work and when asked, they said it was booked and paid for online.”

  “Strange,” Sacha glanced out of the window at the smart blue railings. “It’s not as if something like that is cheap.”

  As the morning wore on, Sacha and Lucy served one customer after another. It was non-stop and the café was full most of the time. Lucy’s mood had lifted so much so that one of the customers asked her if it was her birthday. Sacha received several comments about Jack, and was asked if he was still going to be working at the café. She was pleased to be able to say that he might be staying a little longer than initially planned.

  It wasn’t until about two-thirty that she had a chance to take a proper break and sit down to eat a couple of toasted sandwiches with Lucy.

  “I’m grateful to you and Jack for looking after the café so well while I was away,” she said, when Lucy was blowing on the sandwich she was holding. “I know he’s easy to get along with, but it can be difficult working with someone you haven’t worked with before.”

  Lucy’s eyebrows knitted together. “Not really, he was lovely.”

  Sacha looked at the young girl in front of her. She worked hard, but there was a fragility about her and she suspected Lucy thought she was tougher than she was.

  “You don’t need to worry,” Lucy said, catching Sacha looking at her. “Jack was nice to everyone and we got on very well. I only said what I did before because I was worried you’d get rid of me, if he decided to stay.”

  Sacha studied her. She was pretty, with curly auburn hair and dark blue eyes. “It’s fine,” she said. “I know you did.”

  The door opened with such force that the handle hit the wall behind it. “Lazing around are you?” joked Jack. “What have you two done with all the customers? Scared them off?”

  “Careful,” Sacha shouted, relieved no one was in the café for the time being, and that his noisiness had alerted them to his arrival before he caught them chatting about him. “We’ve been flat out all morning,” she said. “This is the first chance we’ve had for a sit down, and you’re disturbing our peace.”

  “How’s my brilliant workmate today?” he asked, taking no notice of Sacha’s reply. He patted Lucy lightly on her shoulder. “We worked well together, didn’t we Lucy? I hope you’ve told her she can go away whenever she likes from now on and we’ll keep everything running.”

  “Where have you been, anyway?” Sacha asked. “I thought you might come and help out here this morning.”

  He sat down at the table and Sacha noticed Lucy stop eating and gaze at him from under her long eyelashes. So, she did fancy him. Jack, of course, was blissfully unaware of the effect he was having on the poor girl.

  “Well?” Sacha kicked him lightly under the table.

  “I’ve been carrying out a few errands for Mum.”

  “What did Nikki have to say?” she asked, noticing Lucy stiffened slightly at the mention of his girlfriend’s name.

  He shook his head. “We argued, again. I’m not sure what to do. I need to give this a bit more thought.”

  Lucy got up from the table, taking hers and Sacha’s plates and cups to the small kitchen. She was only gone a couple of seconds when she reappeared. “I don’t know why you don’t just stay here for the summer and take it from there,” she said, before disappearing back into the kitchen again.

  Sacha and Jack stared at the empty doorway, stunned by the girl’s uncharacteristic outburst.

  “She has a point,” he said. “Maybe I should tell Nikki we’re on a break for the summer and we can both see how we feel being apart for a couple of months?”

  Sacha groaned.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked. “I think it’s a great idea.”

  She just hoped it wouldn’t result in him and Nikki making up mid-summer and him leaving the island, and her, in the lurch. Thinking about it, she wasn’t sure what would be worse - not having enough staff to cover the customers, or Lucy’s devastation if she got used to working with him for a few months, and her reaction if he suddenly left.

  “It’s a great idea, only if you commit to it.” She shared her concerns, leaving out any mention of Lucy. “You must be sure though, Jack. If you’re going to stay here for the summer then you have to commit to it. I don’t want Nikki enticing you back when the café is at its busiest.”

  “Hey, sis, I wouldn’t do that to you.”

  “Probably not,” she admitted. “But don’t tell me you’re going to stay here and then change your mind. Give yourself a couple of days to decide. Then, tell your girlfriend and after that we’ll talk about your shifts. We open on Friday and Saturday nights, in July and August, because a lot of the parents like to have something to do with the children for supper during the holidays. I’ll need you to work those shifts sometimes, too.”

  “Sounds fine to me.” Sacha went to speak, but he raised his hand to stop her. “But I’ll do as you suggest and give it a few days to be certain. I’ll let you know when I’ve spoken to Nikki.”

  “And work out where you’re going to live while you’re here.”

  “Yeah, that too.” He stared at her thoughtfully. “You don’t happen to know of anyone around here with a spare room going, do you? I really don’t want to move back home with the parents.”

  She did. “Maybe, but I’ll have to speak to her before I tell you about it.”

  “Great.” He punched the air. “We’re going to have a brilliant summer together, Sis.”

  She closed her eyes to still her rising temper. “You just said you’d think about it…”

  “Teasing. Stop being such a misery.”

  She gave him a playful jab to his right shoulder. “You’re a pain, Jack, do you know that?”

  “How can I forget, when you’re always reminding me?”

  Sacha saw a couple of ladies making their way to the café. “Break over. I need to get back to work. And you,” she said, pushing him towards the door, “need to sort out your love life. I’ll find out about that room and let you know.”

  She watched him open the door with a flourish and greet the two women. “Ladies, it’s good to see you again,” he said. “Your usual table, I presume?”

  Flattered by his attention, the two women, who Sacha had never served before, sat down and began chatting to him. Well, if nothing else, it looked like business would be busier with Jack working here.

  She left him to it and went to find Lucy in the kitchen.

  “He’s stay
ing then?” Lucy asked, before she’d completely entered the room.

  “He doesn’t know yet, but I think he probably will be joining us for the summer season, yes.”

  Lucy beamed at her. “He’s brilliant with the customers, you know. You’ll be glad if he does stay.”

  “So, I gather,” Sacha couldn’t help being amused by the mystical whirlwind Jack always managed to cause. It was as if he lived in a haze of light and cheeriness, inducing everyone around him to feel the same way. “I’ll leave you to it,” she said, relieved to see Lucy happy again.

  Chapter Four

  Sacha closed the café, having tidied everything ready for opening the following morning. She ran upstairs to her flat and changed into a fresh sundress. Then, taking a bottle of prosecco, she’d let cool in the fridge, she walked along the boardwalk to the small blue cottage further along from hers. She stopped in front of the wooden sign with gold lettering displaying the name of Bella’s antique shop, The Bee Hive. Bella was one of her three closest friends, and she couldn’t wait to see her and have a natter.

  The brass bell jangled, announcing her arrival as she walked in.

  “Hello stranger,” Bella grinned, popping up from being her counter. “I saw your light on last night when I was out walking, but didn’t want to bother you. Have fun on your trip with your eccentric aunt?”

  Sacha smiled. “It was brilliant thanks. I’ve got so much to tell you. I thought we could catch up over a glass or two of this?” she suggested, lifting the frosted bottle, looking forward to sharing a bottle of their favourite tipple. It was always a pleasure spending time with Bella.

  “Perfect,” Bella beamed, waving a loose curl away from her face with the back of a gloved hand.

  “I see we’re sporting the pink floral gloves today.” Sacha said, raising her eyebrows, unable to resist teasing her friend.

  Bella waved her hands in the air. “My jazz hands,” she pulled a face. “If one more person asks me why I’m wearing gloves on a warm summer’s day, I’ll slap them.”