The Boardwalk by the Sea

by Georgina Troy

  She was relieved that Alessandro was also doing his best to calm the awkward situation. “That will be wonderful,” she said. “I’ll go and find him now and let you know as soon as I can.”

  Alessandro took a deep breath, and kissed her on the cheek. “Do not worry.”

  “I do not think we can resolve this,” she heard Mr Salvatore say, almost under his breath, as he wiped his mouth on his napkin.

  “We will try, Papa,” Alessandro said, his hand resting on his father’s arm.

  “Yes,” her aunt said. “We’ve all been expected not to mention Salva’s name in front of Thomas for too long now. Male pride can be such a ridiculous thing for others to deal with. It’s not fair on these youngsters for you two to carry on with things that happened decades ago.”

  “It does not feel so long ago,” Mr Salvatore said, his voice gentler than before. “But, I know you are right, Rosie.” He looked lovingly at Alessandro and then at Sacha. “History, it repeats itself sometimes, I think.” He shrugged.

  Sacha’s head ached. “I’m still a little busy here for the next hour or so, but I think it’s a good idea if Alessandro and I are there when you and Dad meet up. Shall we say eleven-thirty, up on the headland?” She looked at Alessandro. “It’s where we stopped to look at the view after the barbecue,” she said, hoping her face didn’t redden at the thought of their kiss.

  “I will be there with my father, but now I would like to talk with him about a few things.”

  “Thank you for coming for breakfast, Mr Salvatore, I’ll see you a bit later.”

  He stood up, and placed a hand on her shoulder. “It is good to meet you, Sacha. Thank you for inviting us here this morning. You run a good business.”

  Alessandro kissed her cheeks as he waited for his father to say goodbye to her aunt and Jack. “I’m sorry about this morning,” he said. “I do not know what happened between our fathers, but will try to ensure my father makes amends with yours.”

  She wasn’t so confident. Her father was stubborn, but she could only try. “We’ll do our best to sort them out.”

  As soon as they’d left, she glanced at the clock on the wall. All she had to do now was try and persuade her father to meet Mr Salvatore. She didn’t hold out much hope that he’d oblige, but she had to try. She doubted her father would have reached home yet and quickly went out to the back to call her mother. Her mother’s stunned silence at the other end told Sacha that there was much more to this fall-out than either she or Alessandro could possibly imagine.

  “Mum, are you okay?” she asked, nervously.

  “Your father’s just walking in through the front gates,” she said. “I’ll have to go, but you can leave this to me. Thanks for the warning.”

  What did her mother mean, ‘warning’? Sacha’s heart pounded. Just what had gone on between the two older men? Pushing her concerns away, she hurried back into the café to help Lucy and Milo.

  Thankfully, the next two hours flew by. It was soon time for her to go with her father to meet Alessandro and Mr Salvatore. She could see him pacing back and forth, smoothing his thinning hair down with the palms of his hands as she arrived at the house.

  “Dad, I’m relieved Mum persuaded you to come,” she panted, having run part of the way up the hill.

  “She can be a very persuasive woman,” he grumbled. He kicked the grass with the toe of his sandal. She noticed several strands stuck to his feet, but he seemed oblivious. Whatever had gone on between the two men, it had been serious enough to cause a lasting antagonism.

  Sacha put her arm around her dad’s waist. “Please tell me what happened between you two before the others arrive.”

  Her father hugged her, holding her tight for a little longer than usual, which made her feel more uneasy than she had before. “Quick, tell me.”

  He bent to pull the strands of grass from his sandal. “Stupid shoes, your mother insisted I bought these.” He mumbled something to himself and then added, “You never know people as well as you think.”

  “Dad, quickly.”

  He took a deep breath. Whatever it was had hurt him, deeply. She’d never seen him acting like this.

  “It was back in the sixties,” he said, eventually. “Salva came over to work on the island as a waiter and we worked at the same restaurant. He was my best friend,” he said quietly, going silent as he mused over this memory.

  “And what happened?”

  “He knew I was in love with your mother, because I told him. I’d been on a few dates with her and thought things were going well between us. Then Salva and I had a misunderstanding and fell out. Rather than doing the decent thing like most friends, that snake asked your mother on a date and to annoy me, she accepted.”

  Sacha held back her surprised reaction, not wishing to distract her father from continuing. It was hard to imagine her mother ever doing anything to upset her father. She’d always adored him and hated for him to be angry with anyone, let alone her.

  “I can’t believe Mum would do such a thing,” she said, unable to hide her disbelief.

  “Well, she did,” her father said, scowling.

  Sacha realised there was more to this than met the eye. She also knew her father wouldn’t leave things without reacting to them.

  “You paid him back somehow, didn’t you?”

  He stared at her briefly. He opened his mouth to continue, but didn’t get the chance.

  “He took the café from me,” Mr Salvatore said, coming up behind them, panting from the exertion of walking up the hill from the village.

  Sacha jumped when she heard his voice. “Summer Sundaes was yours?”

  “It was never yours,” her father snapped.

  “It should have been,” Mr Salvatore said to Sacha. “You took it as your first café, didn’t you, Thomas?” He turned to glare at her father.

  “Papa, please,” Alessandro pleaded, his voice quiet.

  He reacted by folding his arms in front of his chest. “Yes, it was my first café,” he said, looking satisfied with what he had done.

  “You took the café from him, how?” Sacha was upset by the thought of her father purposely hurting anyone.

  “It wasn’t his,” her father said, then hesitating, added. “Not at the time.”

  Mr Salvatore stepped closer to her father. “It was about to be. I showed you details of the lease and shared my costings with you. You knew how long I’d worked to get an opportunity like that and then you took it from me.”

  “You tried to take my wife from me,” her father shouted, finally giving in to his building temper.

  “She wasn’t your wife then, Thomas,” Mr Salvatore retaliated.

  “Papa,” Alessandro said, stepping in between the two men before one landed a punch on the other. He said something in Italian and his father looked a little shame-faced and stepped back. “The way I see it,” Alessandro said, “these actions are not something either of you should be proud of, but if you, Papa, hadn’t lost the café to Mr Collins, you wouldn’t have returned to Italy, met Mama and built your gelateria business. You, Mr Collins, wouldn’t have been able to pass on the Summer Sundaes Café to Sacha.”

  “So, Mr Salvatore did you a favour then, Dad,” Sacha said, relieved. She stepped up and linked her arm through her father’s so that he was forced to lower his hands and relax a little. “It wasn’t very nice, of either of you, to be honest. But you were young and, by the sounds of things, hot-headed. It appears that everything worked out all right in the end, for both families. Don’t you think?” She looked from one to the other.

  Her father frowned. “Not intentionally.”

  “Dad?”

  “I suppose you have a point, but—”

  “No buts, Dad.”

  Alessandro nudged his father lightly. “Papa? Remember what I said earlier.”

  Mr Salvatore closed his eyes, briefly. “Yes, I agree to, how you say, move on.”

  “Good,” Alessandro said. He looked tired. “I will come to see y
ou this afternoon,” he whispered as he walked past Sacha.

  “That’ll be lovely,” she said.

  He hurried after his father who was already striding away.

  Sacha ran after her father who was making his way up the hill to the house. “Dad,” she called, when he didn’t stop. “Wait. I’m glad you two have resolved this, even if it was for me and Alessandro.” Catching up, she kissing her dad’s florid cheek. “He’ll be returning to his job as soon as he finds a dig somewhere.” Her heart sank at the thought. “Now he’s taken on Finn to run the gelateria there isn’t any reason for him to stay on the island,” she went on. “I’d rather there wasn’t any aggro between us while he’s still here.”

  Her father grunted. “At least I can tell your mother we’ve sorted things between us,” he said grudgingly, looking at the worn tar on the lane as they continued walking. “She always thought I’d been a bit harsh by taking the café from under his nose, but what did he expect?” He looked at Sacha, as if she had the answer. “Age hasn’t improved him, I noticed.”

  “He probably thinks the same about you,” she said, giving him a smile to soften her reply. “I can’t believe this has been dragging on since the sixties, that’s way too long to bear a grudge, for either of you.”

  They arrived at the house and Sacha went in with him. She wanted to hear what he told her mother.

  “So, how did it go?” her mother asked, wiping her hands on a towel by the sink in the kitchen. “Tom? Did you manage to make up? Please tell me you did. This is so childish.”

  “Yes, Marion, I did as you asked,” he said looking, Sacha thought, a bit like a churlish schoolboy.

  Her mother gave him a quick peck on the lips. “You see, it wasn’t that difficult after all. I can’t see why it’s taken the two of you fifty years to sort this out.” She shook her head and winked at Sacha.

  “I’d better get going,” Sacha said, kissing her parents and leaving the house. As she strolled back to the village she amused herself by reflecting how much her father liked to believe that he made all the family decisions, when in reality it was her mother who managed to persuade him round to her way of thinking, every time.

  She reached the boardwalk and ran to the gelateria to look for Alessandro.

  “He’s not here,” Finn said, serving three holidaymakers. “You could try Bella’s, they were popping in there for a quick coffee before she gave him and his dad a lift to the airport.”

  She thanked him and hurried to Bella’s cottage, arriving just as the three of them walked out of the cottage. Alessandro raised his eyebrows in surprise to see her there.

  “Look,” Bella said, pointing to the largest rock on the beach. “One of those annoying symbols again.”

  “I can’t quite make it out?” Sacha asked, intrigued. She peered over at the arrangement of shells displayed on the rock.

  “It is not clear,” Alessandro said. “Maybe it is someone playing a game.”

  “Or leaving a message for someone else,” Sacha said.

  “It could be some sort of love token, maybe?” Bella murmured.

  “Whatever it is, the shells will go when the next tide comes or some children take them away,” Sacha said, hoping that Bella was right.

  Relieved that the marking wasn’t permanent, she remembered why she was there. “I just wanted to catch you quickly,” she said to him as he lifted his father’s suitcase into the boot of Bella’s battered Fiat while his father got into the passenger seat.

  “I’ll see you when I get back.”

  “I’d like that,” she said, looking forward to it.

  Glancing at the mysterious symbol again, she returned to the café and called the Parish Hall to speak to the Centenier. She explained about the symbols and small changes being made to the boardwalk and asked if he knew anything about it.

  “You’re the fifth person to call me this week,” he said, the irritation in his voice unmissable. “We’ve no idea what those ridiculous symbols are. They take me back to those peace ones we kept finding through the sixties and seventies, but we don’t even know what these stand for. Nothing, probably.”

  “And the painting of the railings?”

  “No idea, but we’re doing our best to find out. And find out we will, I can assure you.”

  “They are positive changes,” she reminded him. “But it’s a little strange that someone is doing this without being open about it. It must be costing them a lot of money.”

  “Never mind the cost, young Sacha, what annoys me is that they’re doing it without requesting permission first.”

  She thanked him and rang off, none the wiser. There was a lot going on and she wondered why she had ever imagined this was a peaceful place to live.

  Chapter Twelve

  Sacha hurried back to the café to give Lucy and Milo a break. She walked inside and saw Jack regaling one of his stories to them. Milo was doubled up with laughter and Lucy had tears rolling down her tanned cheeks. There were several customers, all of whom seemed equally amused by her brother’s tale.

  “Nice to see you working hard, Jack,” she teased, picking up three sundae glasses from a table behind him. “If you would like to take your lunch breaks now, I can look after everything here.” She lowered her voice and turning to Jack, said, “If it’s okay with you, I’ll be going out somewhere with Alessandro this afternoon. We’ve got a few things to discuss.”

  “I’m sure you have,” he said. “Mum sent me a text explaining what had happened between dad and Mr Salvatore. Honestly, I knew dad was a stubborn sod, but to hold a grudge for nearly fifty years is barking.”

  “I agree.” She took the glasses to the kitchen and Jack followed, carrying several plates and dirty napkins. “I think it’s some sort of macho thing.”

  He yawned. “Probably. Oh, and Nikki’s coming over.”

  “No, when?” She watched his amusement disappear and could see he wasn’t looking forward to her visit.

  “She wanted me to go back to the mainland this weekend and when I said I needed more time to think, she sent me an email with her flight details and said she was coming whether I liked it or not. She wanted to stay with me at Bella’s but I told her the cottage wasn’t licenced to have three adults staying there.”

  Sacha pulled a face. “But that’s not true.”

  “I know,” he said. “But I’ve booked her into the Prince of Wales up the road. She’ll be comfortable there, and at least I can go and chat to her away from the cottage. It’s cosy and the view is great, and she can walk down to find me whenever she likes.”

  “Makes sense,” Sacha said. “Hopefully you can finally sort everything out between you and make your mind up about whether to stay.”

  “Maybe,” he said, loading plates into the dishwasher and running water for the sundae glasses. “Also, I didn’t want to give her the wrong idea. If she stays with me at the cottage, then I can’t exactly tell her I won’t be going back with her. It wouldn’t be fair.”

  “No, it wouldn’t.” She returned to the café and took orders from Mrs Joliff and two of her friends. “All ready for the fête?” she said. “I know people are looking forward to your Jersey Wonders again, Mrs Joliff.”

  “I do wish you’d call me Rosemary,” she said, patting Sacha’s hand. “In fact, I was wondering if you might want a few to sell here at the café. I could bake you a batch in no time.”

  Sacha wasn’t sure why she hadn’t thought of this herself. She loved Mrs Joliff’s Jersey Wonder donuts. “I’d love you to,” she said. “Thank you very much.”

  Lucy came through from the kitchen followed by Milo, both carrying plates of sandwiches and a smoothie each. Sacha watched them take a seat at a table at the back of the café. Lucy took a sip from her smoothie and looked up at Jack, giving him a half smile.

  Jack smiled back, glancing guiltily at Sacha. She still didn’t know what it was about Lucy, but something didn’t seem right. Sacha was sure of it, but had no idea what it could be. She
couldn’t help wondering if maybe Lucy saw Jack as a protector, of sorts. If she didn’t have a crush on him, then what was it? Maybe, Sacha thought feeling a little uncharitable, it could simply be that Lucy saw Jack as a friend. He was a friendly guy, after all.

  A teenage couple came in. “Could we have a couple of strawberry Eton Mess sundaes to eat outside?”

  “Of course,” Sacha said. “Go and take a seat.”

  She made the sundaes and took them out, and Jack emerged to chat to a school friend he’d seen walking past. When she went back inside, Lucy had finished her lunch and Sacha gave her some cash and asked her to pop down to the local shop for a few bits.

  Sacha watched as she walked slowly past Jack and his friend, smiling at them both as she went. Jack, as was typical, smiled back. Sacha noticed a vulnerability in Lucy and felt sorry for her.

  Moments later, Jack came back in and Sacha waved him over, making sure Milo was out the back sorting dishes and couldn’t overhear what she was about to say. “I’m worried about Lucy.”

  “Will you stop being so soft,” he said, seeming bemused at the notion. “She’s fine, just being friendly that’s all.”

  “Jack,” she said, making sure to keep her voice low. “I’m sure something is wrong. I’d hate her to get hurt, so please be careful not to encourage her in any way.”

  “But…” Jack looked hurt at the thought of doing such a thing.

  “I know,” she said, placing a hand on his arm. “You wouldn’t do it on purpose, but I just need you to be aware, that’s all.”

  “I think you’ll find she’s the same with Alessandro,” he said. “It’s not just me she smiles at. Shall I have a word with her?”

  “No,” she said, horrified. “I don’t want her to be embarrassed. Only say something if you have no choice. Maybe mention something about probably going back to Nikki, or that your relationship hasn’t quite finished. I don’t know, but just be sensitive to her feelings when you do it.”

  “I think she’s just a bit lonely and doesn’t know how to express herself maybe,” he said.