He leant forward and lowered his voice. “You know, I was a lousy waiter and I think your dad only employed me to keep the youngsters coming in. He used to tell me off for flirting with the girls.”
She could imagine her father being none too impressed with George wasting time when he should have been working.
“I didn’t realise Alessandro was famous,” he said. “I thought I recognised him, but it was only when Rosie pointed out a couple of pictures of him online with his fiancé that I remembered him. I think I met her a few times, she was nice, but kind of distant.”
They ate their breakfast and Sacha couldn’t help feeling guilty for not helping with the stalls outside. “I’d better get going,” she said, after he’d finished eating. “Do you need me to give you a lift up to the cottage?”
“No thanks, I love the walk and it isn’t far. It’s uphill and walk will do me good after eating this delicious food.”
“It’s my pleasure. Please come again, any time.”
She saw him out and then helped Lucy and Milo with the breakfast rush, and made up three large flasks of smoothies for the stall.
“Right, I’d better get ready,” she said, going into the storeroom and loading a large hamper with low-calorie chocolate brownies, several cabbage loaves, and a few jars of black butter. “I’ll take a couple of menus to fix to the side of the stall,” she said to Milo, taking them from him. “Are you sure you’ll be okay to stay here and help Lucy, or would you rather help on the stall?”
“I can do a bit of both, if you like?”
“Thanks.” She pointed to the plastic plates she’d taken out of the store cupboard. “If you bring those and the flasks, I’ll take these hampers and we can get set up.”
Just before noon, Jack came running up to Sacha’s stall. “Have you seen George?”
“No. Why?” Panic coursed through her. She couldn’t imagine her aunt would let him be late for his opening speech. “Haven’t you seen him, yet?”
“I chatted to him about ten minutes ago, but no one can find him now.” Jack raked his hands through his long hair. “Damn, what are we going to do if he doesn’t appear?”
It dawned on Sacha that she hadn’t seen George since breakfast. She searched the crowds milling around the stalls, but only managed to spot another symbol on the wall near the bottom of the door on the cottage next door to her café. What the hell did those symbols mean? She assumed that whoever was doing them had a point to make, or a message to give to someone. Now wasn’t the time to get caught up in that mystery though. She waved Milo over.
“Please stay here and wait to serve anyone, I’m going to look for George.”
She ran into the café and almost bumped into Lucy holding a tray in one hand as she kicked closed one of the cupboard doors in the storeroom. “Have you seen George?”
Lucy shook her head.
Sacha was about to carry on searching when she noticed Lucy reddening as she glanced back at the cupboard. It dawned on Sacha that maybe Lucy was trying to hide her belongings. She didn’t look as groomed as usual, and there were black shadows under her eyes.
“Lucy, do you need a place to stay?”
Lucy’s eyes widened. “I need an address to keep a job,” she said, confusing Sacha. “I promise I’ll find somewhere soon.” She looked as if she was about to cry and Sacha gently took the tray from the girl’s hands and placed it on the worktop.
“Where have you been sleeping, if not at home?”
“I was staying with my aunt, but she’s moved back to Ireland,” Lucy said, tears spilling over and rolling down her cheeks. “I told her I was staying with a friend and she believed me.”
“So, where have you been sleeping?”
“Here,” Lucy said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Confused, Sacha looked around. “Where?”
When Lucy didn’t reply, Sacha took her by the shoulders and smiled at her reassuringly, hoping she would tell in her.
“I waited on the beach until I saw your bedroom light go off and then crept through the back door and slept in one of the store rooms.”
Sacha had to concentrate on not showing her horror. “But it must have been freezing in there. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Lucy hesitated and sniffed.
Sacha pulled some kitchen paper from the roll nearby and handed it to her. “It’s fine. Look, you can’t possibly spend another night in there. You can sleep on my sofa tonight, but it isn’t really big enough. Leave it with me and I’ll speak to someone,” she said. “My friend Jools might have a room you can rent. Would you mind me asking her?” She hoped Jools wouldn’t mind. It might even work well, Sacha thought. Jools was always worried about leaving her mother alone and Lucy needed to feel like she belonged somewhere, so it could be the answer to all their needs.
Lucy blew her nose and shook her head. “No, of course I don’t mind. Thank you, Sacha.”
Sacha gave her a hug, swamped by guilt that the girl had been sleeping rough in her store room and she hadn’t noticed. “It’s fine, but if ever you have any other problems I’d rather you come to me and we find a way to resolve it. Okay?”
“I promise.”
“Good,” she said. It was difficult at times, having to deal with family issues - like Jack’s relationship with Nikki, and her father’s reaction to anything that didn’t work as he expected it to, but she preferred being part of an awkward family than being lonely like poor Lucy. Sacha was happy to think that she was making things better for the young girl, then, remembering why she was there in the first place, panicked. “I need to find George Newton.”
“Good luck.”
She shot back outside to see if George had made an appearance. Hearing the crackle of a tannoy that Finn had helped Alessandro set up the afternoon before, she jumped when she heard George’s voice, welcoming everyone. Breathing a sigh of relief, she watched as he proceeded to give a short speech and open the fête.
As the afternoon wore on, Sacha didn’t have time to think further than serving the next person at the stall, hurrying to the café to collect more supplies and make fruit smoothies, leaving the stall in Milo and Jack’s capable hands. Every so often she emptied the cash tin and took the money to the café to store away until later. By the time she’d checked on the other stall holders, to see if anyone needed any help or change, it was almost five o’clock and her feet were beginning to ache.
She noticed Betty leaning against the railings, looking a little pale, and took a chair over to her.
“Here, I think you need to sit down for a bit,” she said. “I hope you haven’t been standing all afternoon.”
“No, she hasn’t.” Mrs Joliff frowned as she handed a brown paper bag containing some freshly baked Jersey Wonders to a customer. “Alessandro accompanied Betty home for a rest about an hour and a half ago, so she’s not too bad.”
Betty waved at them. “I am here, you know, so stop fussing. If I get tired I only live over there.” She laughed. “I could do with one of those to perk me up though.”
Sacha smiled fondly at her friend and willed the attendees of the fête to spend enough money that they could pay off the extension to her lease. “Do you want me to go and make you a latte at the café, or would you like a cool drink?”
“I’m fine, my love, stop your worrying.”
Sacha hugged Betty and offered Mrs Joliff a drink. “No, you’re all right, love, I have a bottle of water here. Go and get on with what you’re doing, you’re looking pretty shattered yourself.”
Sacha tidied up her hair, which was probably a little wild by now. It was hot and she hadn’t stopped for hours, but like the rest of her friends who were working so hard, now wasn’t the time to stop and think.
She passed the gelateria and waved at Alessandro who hurried out to speak to her. “It’s going well, no?”
“Yes, I think so,” she said, realising that the apron she was wearing over her T-shirt and shorts was tucked up on one side in her pocket.
“We’ll have to wait until later and hope that we’ve done enough.”
“Sacha,” he said, taking her hand and leading her away from Finn. “I must speak with you about something.”
She knew he was leaving and that he saw her as a friend, what could there possibly be for them to discuss? Nothing she wanted to hear, she was sure of that. “Sorry, I can’t stop now,” she said, taking her hand from his. “I have to get back to the stall, but we can talk later, if you like.”
“Okay.”
He looked a little crestfallen, but she pushed away the guilty feeling inside and hurried back to the stall to help Jack and Milo.
By the end of the day, all the stallholders had helped each other load cars, carry trestle tables back to a van to be taken to the Parish Hall, and return what little stock they had left to their homes and back to the café. Sacha stopped for a moment, leaning her hands on the metal railings and breathed in the warm sea air. They’d done it. Now they just needed to count out the money and hope that they’d made enough.
“Come on dilly daydream,” her mother called from the café. Sacha was glad she’d been able to come down and help Lucy run the café while she had been working at the fête.
She spotted Jools returning with her mum to their cottage and remembered her promise to Lucy to ask about letting a room. “I’ll be a couple of minutes, Mum,” she said, running off to speak to them.
“Sorry,” she said, reaching their cottage and standing in the open doorway as Jools settled her mother in her favourite chair. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but Lucy who works at the café has had to move out of her digs and needs somewhere to stay for now. I was wondering if you’d consider renting her your spare room.”
Jools looked at her mum, who nodded straight away. “We were only talking about letting out the room just this morning,” Jools said. “Lucy’s a lovely girl, she’ll be perfect, won’t she Mum?”
“Yes, she will.” She smiled up at Sacha. “We’d love her to move in here. She can come tonight, if she likes, there’s no reason to wait.”
Sacha thanked them, grateful the issue had been resolved so easily. She ran back to the café to let her know. Afterwards, she helped Lucy serve cool drinks to Jack, Alessandro, Bella and a few others as they sat and counted the money. Tapping her foot as she tidied up in the kitchen, she waited anxiously for them to work out if they’d made enough money to cover the lease extension.
Hearing a commotion and lots of excited chatter, Sacha went back to join them, stunned to see that it wasn’t excitement at all, but shock that was causing the outburst.
“Well?” she asked, unable to stand it a moment longer.
“It’s not enough.” Jack stood up and raked his hands through his messy hair. “How can it not be enough? I thought today had gone well.”
“We all did,” Sacha said. “How much are we short by? Maybe we can raise it ourselves.”
He looked at his calculations. “Just over a thousand pounds,” he said.
Alessandro glanced at her and she wondered whether he looked so uncomfortable because they still hadn’t spoken about whatever was troubling him, or whether he wanted to say something about the money.
“Please, I would like to donate the money to Betty’s Fund,” he said, quietly.
“No.” Jack scowled at him. “It’s not for you to do that. We’ll think of something.”
To divert an argument, Sacha took hold of Alessandro’s arm. “You wanted to speak to me about something.”
He frowned as if trying to recall what he’d wanted to say and then slowly stood up. “Yes, I will come with you. To the beach?”
Relieved to be able to leave Jack to mull over what they were going to do next, she agreed. “Fine.”
They left the café and as they walked along the boardwalk to the steps, Alessandro said, “I would very much like to help Betty. I do not see why Jack doesn’t want me to.”
She explained that it was Jack’s pride and his fierce ideas about the locals looking after each other.
Alessandro shrugged. “I understand loyalty,” he said. They walked down the granite steps taking off their shoes and carrying them. “Which is why I must speak with you now.”
Here it is, thought Sacha. She really didn’t want to speak about him kissing her, or about Livia and his loss. However, if she didn’t want him going back inside to argue with Jack then this is what she’d have to do until they both cooled down a bit.
They walked to the water’s edge, dropped their shoes on the sand and paddled. “I have some news,” he said looking at her. “I have been accepted to join a dig that will begin here in two months.”
Relieve coursed through Sacha. “But that’s wonderful,” she said. She stared at him for a moment. “You should be happy, but you don’t look it.”
He walked a little deeper into the sea and she followed him, enjoying the coolness of the water up to her knees.
“You were angry with me for kissing you.”
Here it came, she thought, holding back a groan. “Yes, because I know how much you were in love with Livia and how you must miss her and as much as I love you,” horror at what she’d said shot through her. “I mean, as a friend, of course.” She struggled to think where to go next with what she was saying. “Yes, well, as much as you’re my friend and I’m glad you’re staying here, as least for the time being, I think that if we’re friends, which we are, then we should act like friends.”
“And friends don’t kiss?”
She saw the twinkle in his eyes and it made her angry. “No, not in my book they don’t.”
“Your book?”
“Shut up, you know what I mean.” She could see that he did and turned away from him.
They paddled in silence for a few minutes, then Alessandro said, “I was in love with Livia, but things between us hadn’t been good for a while. Days before she died I discovered that she was having an affair with one of the photographers on a shoot. I was furious with her for betraying me.” He hesitated. “I meant to end our relationship as soon as she returned home.”
Sacha turned to face him, saddened by the sorrow etched on his handsome, tanned face. “Go on,” she said quietly, taking hold of his hand.
He cleared his throat. “She died in an accident the day before she was due to come home, so I never told her I knew. This is why to everyone we were still engaged, because I had not been able to finish things with her. I didn’t think it was anyone’s business and did not wish to sully her name to speak about our troubles to anyone, in case someone sold the story to the newspapers.”
“I don’t blame you,” she said, stunned. “It’s no one’s business but your own.”
He pulled her gently to him. “I was upset when she died.”
“That’s understandable.”
Ignoring what she’d said, he continued. “We were happy for a long time and she shouldn’t have died so young. It was tragic, and for a long time I was devastated, my anger with her forgotten.” He stared at her in silence for a moment his thumbs lightly grazing the top of her hands. “I only tell you this because I want you to know that when I kissed you it wasn’t because I saw you as my friend, but because I was attracted to you. I want to be with you Sacha. You are beautiful, but also real, not pretending. I love you, Sacha.”
“I…” She looked down at his hands holding hers, trying to unscramble her brain and think how to respond to his unexpected declaration.
Alessandro let go of one of her hands and bringing his fingertips to her chin raised it gently, kissing her lightly.
Her thoughts raced. He’d been going to finish with Livia, who had betrayed him, and now Alessandro loved her. Loved her? Her mouth drew back into a wide smile and she stood on tiptoe and kissed him back.
“Do you think you can love me too?” he asked.
“I think I can just about manage it,” she said, kissing him again. “If I try hard enough.”
“You are joking?” he asked.
“
I am.”
Alessandro grabbed her waist and swung her round, placing her feet back into the sea and, pulling her to him, kissed her hard.
After a while, Sacha thought of Jack at the café. “We’d better get back and see what’s happening.”
They returned to find that everyone apart from Jack and Bella had gone home. Bella stared at Sacha, as if trying to fathom out what she and Alessandro had been talking about.
“We’ve decided that Betty’s had a long tiring day today,” Jack said. “It might be best to leave speaking to her about the money until tomorrow morning.”
Alessandro looked like he wanted to argue, but Sacha took his hand and smiled up at him. “That’s a good idea. Bella and I will speak to her in the morning. I think everyone needs to relax and get some sleep, now, it’s been a long few days.”
“We’ll leave you two to chat,” Bella said, taking Jack by the arm and pulling him away.
“You’d better go with them,” Sacha said to Alessandro. “I’ll come and see you in the morning. I need to speak to Jools about something.”
“Jools has been here,” Bella said. “She collected Lucy and her things and said there’s no need for you to worry about anything. So, there’s no need for Alessandro to come with us just yet.”
Sacha watched Bella and Jack leave. He glanced at Sacha and Alessandro over his shoulder and opened his mouth to speak, but Bella dragged him away, making him laugh by whispering something into his ear.
Alessandro bent to kiss Sacha and stood by the open door. “You wish me to go now?” he asked.
She wanted to say no, but wrestled with her conscience. What was wrong with her? She was twenty-nine-years-old, single, and in love with this gorgeous man. But what if he stayed and she made a fool of herself? She could see he was waiting for her to reply, but couldn’t form the words to ask him to stay.
“Good night, Sacha.” He turned to leave.
“I want you to stay,” she said, embarrassed to have to say it.
“You are sure?”
He looked so concerned and, she noticed, almost as awkward as she felt. The realisation boosted her confidence a little. She walked past him and closed the door, locking it.
The Boardwalk by the Sea Page 23