“I do?” Bella smiled, putting down her half-empty bottle. She got up and, pulling on her puffy jacket, followed her mother and Jack outside and locked the door. She walked behind them as Claire chatted to Jack, almost slamming into the back of him when he suddenly stopped.
“Come on,” he said, putting his free arm out for her to take. “Let’s get a move on. We don’t want to get there after closing time.”
Sacha was standing at the café window, her arms folded across her chest, staring out to sea thoughtfully when they arrived.
“You okay, Sis?” Jack asked, leading Bella and Claire to a nearby table.
“Hi,” Sacha said, eyes widening as she spotted Claire. She rushed over to give her a hug. “When did you get back? Bella didn’t tell me you were coming home.”
Bella pulled out a chair and sat down. “That’s because Bella didn’t know either,” she joked.
Sacha frowned. “Where are you staying? Prince of Wales? Sea Breeze Hotel?”
“Never mind that.” Jack motioned for her to be quiet. “I’ll explain everything while Claire and Bella decide what they’re going to eat,” he said, leading her away to the counter.
Bella didn’t have to look at the menu, she knew its contents by heart. “I was wondering if you wanted us to try your new soup?”
Sacha shook her head. “No, don’t worry. I’ve decided I need to tweak the recipe just a little, though I’ve yet to decide exactly how.”
She chose a tuna and cheesy toasted sandwich and glanced at Jack, assuming he was explaining about Alessandro giving up his room for Claire. He always tried to be the peace-keeper if he thought there was going to be an argument. She was grateful to him. She didn’t want to be angry with her mother. She really was happy to see her again, but knew her well enough to be aware that with her mother came drama. She just hoped that this time things would be different.
◆◆◆
They finished their meal and Bella wiped her mouth on her napkin, surreptitiously watching her mother doing the same. Her heart swelled with love for the woman who had spent little time with her growing up, but who livened things up whenever she was around. She noticed her mother’s attention had wandered and followed her gaze out of the window onto the boardwalk. Seeing nothing, she asked, “Everything okay?”
Claire squinted and peered into the darkness, lit only by the café’s interior lights now that the coloured bulbs, strung from lamp post to lamp post during the summer, had been taken down for the winter.
“I was sure I saw someone walking along out there.”
“I didn’t see anything,” Bella said, scanning the area. “I doubt anyone will be strolling along the boardwalk tonight, not with the storm forecast later. Was it one of my neighbours?”
“No idea. Probably my overactive imagination.” Claire looked unconvinced by her own words.
“Does it feel strange to be back here again?”
Her mother looked thoughtful for a moment as she ate the last mouthful of fish from her plate. Setting her knife and fork down at twenty-five-past four, like Bella recalled her Nan insisting she always did at the end of her meal, Claire eventually said, “It always feels a little strange coming back. It’s like stepping into a childhood memory, a bit like entering a protected bubble. It always revives my spirit to spend time here.”
Bella liked her mother’s sentiment and wondered why she didn’t return more often. “I’m glad.”
They finished their drinks and after arguing briefly with Sacha about paying for their food, prepared to leave.
“You can come and help me set up in here for the Halloween party I’m giving for the boardwalk locals early on Friday evening before the children go out trick or treating,” Sacha suggested, as Bella helped her clear their plates.
“It’s a deal,” Bella said, following Sacha to the kitchen.
“Leave these, I’ll sort them out.”
They rejoined the others in the café just as spray covered the window.
Claire gasped. “It really is getting nasty out there tonight.”
“And it’s just gone high tide.” Jack grabbed hold of their jackets. “If you’re okay for us to leave, Sacha, we’d better get back to the cottage before we all get swept away.”
Sacha put down the plates and followed them to the door. “Please pull down the metal shutters for me, Jack, I don’t want any broken windows.”
“No problem.” He turned to Bella and Claire. “If you wait a sec, I’ll help Sacha close the shutters. She doesn’t need any pebbles shattering the windows.”
“I’ll do that with you,” Bella said, pulling on her gloves. “You go up and close the ones over your upstairs windows.”
“Will do,” Sacha said. “Then you must go and do the same at your cottage.”
Jack opened the door, holding it tightly as he and Bella went outside.
What a difference from a month ago, when the summer was still in force and storms meant thunder and lightning, without this chilly wind, Bella thought, grabbing one of the shutters and pulling it closed so that Jack could fasten the catch.
They went back inside.
“I didn’t realize it was going to be so bad,” Claire said, zipping up the cloth jacket that Bella reasoned wouldn’t keep out a shower, let alone a storm and sea spray.
Bella saw Sacha had begun cashing up her till. “You’ll be okay tonight?”
Sacha looked up. “As soon as you three have left I’ll lock up and go to bed. I love hearing storms from inside my flat, especially if I know everything is secure down here.”
“Right, if you’re okay for us to leave,” Jack said, staring out of the window with concern. “We’d better get going.”
“Not at all,” Sacha said, giving each of them a hug. “Thanks for coming. Now, go home before it gets even more dangerous out there. This wind is getting stronger by the minute.”
Jack held the door open, waiting for Sacha to lock it behind them. Then, taking Bella and Claire by the hand, the three of them hurried along the boardwalk. The wind almost took Bella’s breath away. She tucked her chin and mouth into the neck of her jacket, blinking back the sandy spray of the incoming tide. It was stupid of them to venture out on such a night, she reasoned, shivering as she jogged to keep up with Jack’s large strides. They could be hit by debris from the waves at any point.
She heard her mother yelp and Jack’s concerned tone as he checked that she was okay before pulling them onward once again towards the cottage.
Within two minutes they were home. Bella fumbled in her pocket for the key and unlocked the front door. As she turned the handle, a strong gust of wind forced the heavy door open, smashing it against the wall inside her living room.
“Go in,” she shouted. “I’ll quickly close the shutters.”
“No, you stay in here,” Jack said, pulling her inside the cottage. “I’ll do it.”
“I can manage perfectly well,” she argued, indignant that he thought she might be incapable.
“Both of you can do the bloody shutters,” Claire shouted, windswept and wet from their walk. “Just get a move on, you’re letting all the rain and cold in here.”
Jack hurried to the furthest window and carefully undid the metal clasps holding each shutter back, before making sure they were firmly secured. Secretly relieved he was saving her time by helping, Bella did the same with the window closest to the door. He waited for her to walk ahead of him and when they were both inside they took off their dripping coats.
“I must look such a mess?” Claire asked, brushing her messy hair and tying it back in a band.
“I think we all probably do,” Bella said. “I’ll light the fire and get some heat into this room.”
She walked over to the small grate and bent down. Reaching out for some newspaper to screw up to help to get the flames going, she heard Jack zipping up a dry, hooded jacket.
“Where are you going?”
“Betty,” he said, his face taut with concern. “I need to
check on her and see if she’s okay.”
She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t thought of doing the same. Bella always checked on the oldest resident on the boardwalk. Or, if she was away, that one of the other locals called in on her to ensure everything was secure and she had all that she needed.
“Shall I come with you?” she offered guiltily.
“No.” He shook his head. “You set that up. I shouldn’t be too long.”
“If you’re not back in fifteen minutes I’ll know something is wrong and will come down to find you.”
Jack shook his head. “Stop panicking, Bella. Betty has a phone and I’ll ring you if I need to. Now, you concentrate on setting that fire and I suggest you change into something warm. You’re soaked through.”
Bella took off her jacket and held out her hand waiting to take her mother’s.
Their wet hair and soaked clothes clung to their bodies and she noticed her mother’s teeth chattering. She took the jackets and hung them in the small boiler room at the back of the kitchen. Then, coming back into the living room, Bella drew the curtains.
“I don’t know why you’re bothering to do that,” Claire said, frowning. “It’s already dark in here.”
“It makes it feel cosier though, don’t you think?”
“I suppose so.”
“You look frozen, Mum,” she said. “Why not go upstairs, take a hot shower and change into something dry? By the time you get back down here, this room should have heated up a bit. I’ll do the same and then I can make us a couple of hot milky drinks.”
“Sounds wonderful,” Claire said, rubbing her arms.
Bella watched as her mother left the room. She looked even more petite than Bella recalled. Then again, her mother had such luscious wild curls, and always wore floaty skirts and tops so that it was difficult to decipher her exact size.
Seconds later Claire shouted down from the upstairs landing. “Do you mind if I borrow something of yours to wear?”
“No,” Bella replied, trying to think what best to suggest. “You’ll find several tracksuits in the large cupboard in my bedroom. Help yourself.”
She could hear her mother’s footsteps as she walked across the creaking bedroom floorboards, amused to imagine her looking through the clothes in her cupboard and discarding most of them as too tatty. Bella screwed up a couple of pages of the local newspaper and pushed them into the wood burner, then placing a few pieces of kindling and a couple of pressed lighters she had bought from the nearest garage, set about lighting it. She heard the light click on in the upstairs bathroom and then the water in the shower splashing against the tiles.
Too cold to wait for the fire to get going, she went into the small galley kitchen, half-filled a saucepan with milk and placed it on the Aga to heat for their drinks.
She heard the bathroom door open. “All yours, lovey,” Claire shouted before her footsteps could be heard running along the short corridor and into her bedroom.
Bella ran up to the bathroom and locked the door. Peeling off each of her items of clothing, she let them land on the floor in a wet puddle. Bella was glad of the steaminess of the usually cold bathroom as it made the room pleasantly warm. She turned on the shower and stepped in, sighing when the heat of the water coursed over her, instantly warming.
After washing her hair, she stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her wavy dark hair, before drying herself with a larger fluffy towel. She tidied up the room so that it was ready for Jack to shower when he returned and, bracing herself for the cool of the corridor, opened the door and ran to her room.
Dressed, and with her hair roughly dried and tied up in a ponytail, Bella hurried downstairs to check on the milk. She reached the kitchen in time to see the milk boiling and rising up the sides of the pan. Only just managing to rescue it before it overflowed, she quickly placed it on the back of the Aga to cool slightly and took out three mugs. She was spooning powdered hot chocolate into the third mug when Jack made a noisy entrance.
“It’s Baltic out there,” he said, shaking his head and sending droplets around him in an arc. “Betty’s fine though. I said I’d call on her at nine-thirty tomorrow morning and treat her to breakfast at Summer Sundaes. You and your mum are welcome to join us.”
Bella concentrated on pouring the hot milk carefully into the three mugs and stirring the liquid. There was just enough, she was relieved to note.
“Glad to know Betty’s okay,” she said. “Mentally she’s very tough, but I suspect she hides her frailties from us a bit.”
“I agree.” He took off his jacket.
“Give that to me,” she said, taking the dripping article. As she lifted it to hang it on a peg near the boiler, rivulets of water ran up her sleeve. “Yuck.”
“Sorry about that.”
She laughed and shook her arm. “Fine. I’ve made us all a hot chocolate, so if you want to jump in the shower quickly while it cools a bit, then we can all sit down by the fire.”
“Perfect,” he said, giving her a smile that made her heart melt and face redden.
Seeing he was oblivious to the reaction, Bella added, “Give Mum a call when you get upstairs, will you? Ask her to come down to the living room.”
“Will do.”
Bella took the drinks and placed them on an antique oak table near the fire. She added a couple of logs to keep the fire at its peak, ready for her mum and Jack to join her. Switching off the overhead light, she clicked on two table lamps, satisfied with the warm glow they gave the room, despite the howling wind outside.
Sitting down, Bella picked up her mug and cupped it in her hands, breathing in the milky chocolaty scent of her drink, and listened to the waves crashing against the sea wall, and pebbles hitting the shuttered windows. She loved stormy nights like these, but only when she was warm and cosy inside her cottage. She couldn’t help feeling sorry for Alessandro, aware how much he would have enjoyed being with them, rather than in a hotel with strangers.
Thinking of the hotel, her mind wandered to Nicki. Would she become friendly with Alessandro? Knowing what she did about Nicki, she wouldn’t put it past her to spend her time working on Alessandro until she found out all she could about Sacha and her café. From what she knew of Nicki, the woman wouldn’t hesitate to use any underhand tactics to keep Jack from staying on the island.
When Claire joined her, Bella laughed at how baggy her tracksuit was on her mum. “I didn’t realize I was taller than you by that much,” she giggled as Claire sat down. “You’ve even had to roll up the bottoms.”
“Yes, several times, and the sleeves.”
She was also wearing, Bella’s favourite fluffy bed socks. Bella didn’t mind. In fact, it was heart-warming to see her mother dressed in the fleecy tracksuit and looking so relaxed.
“This is yours,” she said when Claire had made herself comfortable on the chair nearest the fire. She handed her mum a mug and watched her breathe in the delicious scent, just as she had moments before.
“Hot chocolate,” Claire beamed. “I haven’t had this since the last time I stayed here when your nan was alive. Do you remember?”
Bella allowed herself to think back to a particularly freezing March when snowdrifts had blocked the roads, stopping Claire’s flight from leaving the island. She cleared her throat, determined not to get emotional at the memory. “I do. I remember you panicking that you’d miss your connecting flight when your plane was grounded.”
Claire laughed. “I couldn’t even get to the airport, so I don’t know why I was so bothered about the plane taking off.”
Each lost in thought for a few seconds, they then smiled at each other. “Your nan loved nights like these,” Claire reminisced.
“She did.”
“One of those mine?” Jack asked, breaking their sentimental thoughts.
“I didn’t see you there,” Bella said, glad for the interruption before she gave in to her still present grief. She handed him his mug. “Take a seat.”
&nbs
p; He sat down in the middle chair facing the fire, stretching his long legs out in front of him, his feet only inches from the metal log burner. “This is perfect.” He took a tentative sip of his drink. “I don’t often drink hot chocolate, but this makes me wonder why the hell not.”
Bella laughed. “Probably because you’re too lazy to make it.”
“Or,” Claire added. “Because you only think as far as a bottle of beer.”
“Hey, steady on, you two. No ganging up. Anyway, that’s not true.” He grinned.
“Okay,” Claire said, shuffling her bum to sit up straighter in her chair. “Tell me, when exactly was the last,” she winked at Bella. “Or even the first time you made hot chocolate?”
Jack contemplated his answer, taking a few sips of his drink as he did so to keep them waiting. “Fine. I don’t think I’ve ever made it, but I will do from now on, that’s for sure.”
Bella doubted it. “I look forward to tasting your efforts,” she said. She closed her eyes for a moment, warmed by the heat of the log burner and being in the company of Jack and her mum. It was an unexpected treat.
“I’m a little peckish,” Jack said, sitting upright.
“We only ate an hour ago,” Bella laughed, unsure whether or not she was ready to eat more food.
“Anyone want to join me in a few rounds of hot buttered toast? I bought a cabbage loaf from Sacha earlier today,” he added unnecessarily.
“I dream of cabbage loaf when I’m in Sri Lanka,” Claire said. “Only one piece for me though, thanks.”
“Do you want any help?” Bella asked, relishing the thought of her favourite snack.
“Nope,” Jack said, finishing his drink and standing up. “You two stay here.”
Claire and Bella looked at each other and nodded. “Fine by us,” Bella said.
She and Claire sat sipping their drinks, listening to Jack opening and closing drawers and cupboards in the kitchen as he searched for knives, plates and butter. Soon the tantalising smell of toasted cabbage loaf emanated from the kitchen and Jack appeared, carrying three plates of perfectly toasted slices the size of small doorsteps.
Autumn Antics: Escape to the seaside with the perfect autumn read! (The Boardwalk by the Sea Book 2) Page 3