Seven Days in Summer

by Marcia Willett

  Sofia gives a little snort of amusement. ‘Do you think I should?’

  Liv is faintly surprised by her reaction. ‘Yes, I think you should,’ she says firmly. ‘And, listen. Matt’s probably at the Beach Hut by now. Why don’t you come over in the morning and meet him?’

  Sofia hesitates. ‘I’d really like that,’ she says. ‘But are you sure? I mean, if he’s only just arrived …?’

  ‘Of course I’m sure,’ Liv says. ‘After all, you’re going back soon, aren’t you?’

  ‘Sunday morning,’ says Sofia. ‘I’ve got to find a job. It’s been great, though. I’ve loved it and everybody has been so kind.’

  She looks slightly sad and Liv is seized by affection for her.

  ‘So what did you think of Andy?’ she asks mischievously, and Sofia laughs.

  ‘I thought he was utterly sweet with Flora and Freddie, and he’s very good-looking. But it’s no good matchmaking, Liv. The vital spark was missing for both of us.’

  Liv laughs, too. ‘I did get that. Pity, isn’t it? It would have been just perfect.’

  ‘Well, it’s sweet of you to say that,’ Sofia begins, and then hesitates, as if she might have said something more, but El joins them.

  ‘I can’t quite see this going on until tea-time,’ she says in her direct way, ‘despite Annabel’s expectations. Do you?’

  ‘Good grief, Charlie Brown,’ says Liv, imitating Baz. ‘You have to be kidding. Anyway, I have a good excuse. Matt’s arriving any time soon, if not already, and I want to see him. Apart from which poor old Meggie’s looking after Flora and Freddie so I have a really good get-out clause. What about you?’

  ‘I don’t need a get-out clause,’ says El, smiling serenely. ‘Annabel would never miss me.’

  ‘But Miles might,’ says Sofia gently, and the other two women look at her with surprise.

  El bows her head, as if she is accepting Sofia’s suggestion.

  ‘He might,’ she says. ‘Miles and I are old friends. We don’t go back as far as I do with Baz, but we have good times together when he comes to Bristol. We all go to concerts at St George’s and Colston Hall.’

  ‘It sounds wonderful,’ says Sofia. ‘Perhaps, if I get my job in Bristol, I might join you sometimes?’

  El smiles at her, and it seems to Liv as if some message has passed between them.

  ‘I look forward to it,’ says El. ‘Oh dear, here comes the fellow that Annabel always pairs me with. Poor Jeff. We have not a single thing in common but he does his best. Be nice to him, girls.’

  She slips away and Liv and Sofia stop laughing and smile at Jeff as he approaches them.

  Baz goes out with El, to say goodbye and to have a quick glance at his phone. He’s expecting a text from Andy. But even as they go out of the gate, the phone rings and Andy’s name comes up.

  He makes a gesture of apology to El, turns away and speaks to him.

  ‘What news?’ he asks.

  ‘Good news,’ Andy’s voice says. ‘The offer of a very good job in New York in a bank she applied to last year. She’s already on her way back to London.’

  ‘Oh, my God.’ Baz collapses on a garden wall. ‘Does she suspect?’

  ‘Oh, I think so but she can’t make the connection. It’s all too nebulous and she can’t quite see where the paintings come in, though she might in due course. She’s very bright, our Cat.’

  ‘Oh, my God,’ he says again. ‘And did you go down and take them away?’

  Andy begins to laugh. ‘I did indeed. They are tucked up in my car, and just as well.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because Joe gave me a call. Catriona went down after lunch and asked if she could buy them.’

  Baz can’t speak. He sits in silence, his heart beating fast.

  ‘Joe, under my instruction, told her that a customer bought them earlier, didn’t know who he was. Cat was, apparently, rather upset.’

  ‘Christ!’

  ‘Thank God you thought about the paintings, Baz.’

  Baz glances down the road where El stands, calmly waiting.

  ‘I didn’t think of them,’ he says. ‘Someone else thought of them. I hardly know what to say.’

  ‘I believe we’re out of the woods. She’s got a great job, any kind of leaking would be career suicide, and we’ve got the paintings.’

  ‘I don’t know how to thank you, Andy,’ Baz says shakily. ‘You’ve saved our lives.’

  ‘And another thing, Baz. Just in case you’re thinking of making a clean breast of things, don’t tell Liv about Cat knowing anything. I honestly believe that we have nothing to fear, but simply knowing that Cat knows or suspects something will destroy Liv’s peace of mind for ever. The fear that Cat might one day reappear will haunt Liv. And there’s no advantage. If you feel you need to tell them that you were a naughty boy forty years ago, well, fill your boots, as my old dad would say. But I should keep it simple.’

  ‘Do you know, I think you’re right,’ says Baz. He is swamped with relief. ‘I don’t know how to thank you, Andy. I don’t know how you cottoned on so quick. But thank God you did.’

  ‘Enjoy your time all together,’ says Andy. ‘I’ll be over next week.’ He hesitates and Baz hears him chuckle. ‘Bonne chance, mon brave,’ he says, and the line goes dead.

  Baz stares at his phone, puzzled by this French sign-off. He thinks for a moment and very slowly he makes a connection.

  After a moment he begins to chuckle, too. ‘Young devil,’ he mutters.

  ‘What are you laughing at?’ asks El as he comes back to her.

  He shakes his head. ‘I’ll tell you one day,’ he says. ‘But not here.’

  ‘We must be off,’ Janet says regretfully to Annabel. ‘So sorry to have to slip away but we have … um … a committee,’ and Dave nods quickly.

  Annabel gives them a little acid smile. ‘More good works?’ she asks. ‘Goodness. Well, don’t let us keep you from them.’

  Janet glances around. ‘It looks like the rain is causing everyone to leave,’ she observes. ‘Such a pity.’

  Annabel looks at her sharply – is Janet being sarcastic? – but she and Dave are beaming, making their goodbyes as they hurry away arm in arm.

  Annabel realizes that soon she will be left only with dreary Jeff and decides to shut up shop. Her day is ruined. She hasn’t even been able to tell Baz the plan to buy a flat in Bristol. This is something to be told privately with nobody else around. Her spirits rise slightly at the prospect of this treat yet to come.

  ‘I’ve printed off some properties for sale in Clifton,’ says Miles, coming back from seeing off the last guests. ‘Shall we go and look at them?’

  Annabel allows herself to smile at him. The flat in Bristol offers new opportunities; a new life. The people there are bound to be better value than the ones in this small, dreary village.

  ‘Make me some tea first, could you?’ she says. ‘I’ll be in the drawing-room. We can clear up later.’

  She goes into the drawing-room, heaves Daffy off the sofa, and sits down. Miles has left the sheets of properties on the little davenport and she picks them up and begins to study them.

  Miles makes the tea. Daffy appears and he finds a biscuit for her and strokes her head.

  ‘Life is good,’ he tells her.

  He feels so confident, so positive, that it’s almost frightening. Last evening he spoke to Lily, telling her his plan, explaining his hopes that she and Jenny will visit the flat in Bristol.

  ‘That’s great, Dad,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘Let me know when you’ve found something. Email me the pics. And listen, I’ve got to come over to Paris at the end of August. Jenny’s coming with me. Any chance you could pop over?’

  ‘I’d love to,’ he answered at once. ‘Of course, I would. Let me know where and when. Though I can’t speak for Mum …’

  ‘No, no. I get that,’ she said. ‘But it would be so good to see you. And maybe in Bristol, given time …’

  Now, as he makes the t
ea, he wonders if the flat in Bristol really will make opportunities for reconciliation and understanding.

  ‘We can only hope,’ he says to Daffy, as he loads the tea things on to a tray, and she wags her tail encouragingly and follows him out of the kitchen and into the drawing-room.

  ‘You look happier,’ Sofia says to Baz, out in the village street, as he waits for Liv to bring the car along. ‘Liv has invited me to coffee tomorrow morning to meet Matt. Are you OK with that?’

  ‘Very OK,’ he answers, and she feels pleased and suddenly less nervous.

  ‘Good,’ she says. ‘Well, back to the Store Stump for me.’

  Baz laughs, as if at some memory. ‘I wonder if we’ve got that a bit wrong,’ he says. ‘I’m beginning to wonder if it isn’t more like the Dragon’s Den.’

  The car pulls up beside them with Liv at the wheel and Baz opens the door. He mimes a private little kiss to her and she walks away feeling full of happiness and expectation. She tests herself again, hunching her shoulders against the misty rain and thinking about Rob; but these memories are losing their power to hurt her and she knows that soon she will be able to think about the positive things, the fun she had with Seb, and she will not need to regret it.

  The cottage gardens are full of the scent of sweet peas and climbing roses, and she can glimpse tall canes of runner beans in vegetable patches. Foxgloves grow in the dry-stone walls, and at the edge of the churchyard there is a stand of creamy-pink willowherb. Drizzle mists her hair and the skin of her bare arms, but the air is warm and the low cloud is diffused with light as the sun’s strength begins to burn off the cloud.

  Sofia wonders how it will feel to meet Matt tomorrow, to be with Baz and his son, and all his family. He sounded so confident when they parted that her usual feelings of apprehension are in retreat and she can’t feel anything except this unexpected optimism that all will be well.

  Feeling sad at the thought of leaving Dave and Janet, who have been so sweet, thrusting her fingers through her damp hair, Sofia turns in at the gate of the Store Stump.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  WHEN MATT ARRIVES at the Beach Hut Liv and Baz are still out, and the twins and Jenks are being looked after by a rather weary-looking Meggie, who smiles at him and relinquishes her charges to his care.

  ‘Meggie,’ says Matt, giving her a hug. ‘How are you? How’s Phil?’

  He tries to listen to her answers but the twins hug him, cling to him, and she smiles and nods at him as he is dragged away to see their treasures and Uncle Andy’s toys: the digger and the boats. Jenks bounds to and fro, beseeching him to throw stones, and Matt feels a light-heartedness that he hasn’t experienced for a very long time. The sun is beginning to draw up the low cloud and a light breeze has sprung up. He kicks off his shoes and walks barefoot in the soft, gritty sand; he paddles, enjoying the cool caress of the water on his feet and ankles.

  Soon he is put to collecting pebbles and shells and he sits sorting them, feeling the sun on his back, and revelling in the freedom. He loves it here at the Beach Hut. It brings back so many memories from childhood upwards, and now here he is with his own children in this idyllic place.

  When the car comes jolting down the track he goes to meet Liv and Baz, the twins and Jenks racing ahead, and he holds Liv tightly, regretting those foolish moments with Catriona and wondering how he could have been such an idiot.

  ‘Well, what a relief that’s over,’ says Baz, coming round the car to hug his son. ‘Let’s have tea outside, shall we? The sun’s coming out and there’s something I want to discuss with you both.’

  Matt lifts his eyebrows at Liv but she shakes her head, puzzled, and follows Baz into the Beach Hut to make tea and to find the twins’ colouring and sticker books, and soon they are sitting under the awning with a pot of tea before them.

  ‘It’s just this,’ says Baz. ‘I won’t beat around the bush. For quite a while now Liv has talked about her longing to have a try at glamping. I’ve thought about it from time to time and suddenly a few days ago I had an idea. Supposing that both of you agree that it is a good project, well, why not here? Obviously you would live here in the Beach Hut and, from what I’ve read about glamping, the meadow sounds a perfect site for those yurts or whatever they are. We’ve got water laid on here, and electricity. Plenty of parking. The visitors could sail and swim and walk the coastal cliff footpath. The meadow is sheltered, protected from the westerlies, high enough not to be at risk of flooding. I know there would have to be some kind of planning agreed but I’m just wondering if you feel seriously enough about it to have a go?’

  There is a silence. Matt is taken totally aback. Partly he feels slightly cross at being put so suddenly on the spot and then he looks at Liv and when he sees her expression – joyful disbelief, excitement – he knows that the battle is already won.

  She looks across the table at him, expecting some kind of protest, and then at Baz, who smiles at her.

  ‘We’d become a business partnership,’ he says. ‘After all, this is all going to be yours one day, isn’t it, so why not now? I could still come and stay, but to be honest it’s getting less easy to get down from Bristol, to make sure it’s all looked after here, though I don’t want that to be any kind of pressure. So what do you think?’

  He sits back in his chair and picks up his mug, looking rather apprehensive.

  ‘It’s an amazing idea,’ says Liv. ‘I don’t know what to say. It’s the perfect site, and I can’t imagine anything more wonderful. But it’s a bit unfair to poor Matt to spring it on him like this. He’s never been quite as committed to the idea as I have.’

  She looks at him again and suddenly he thinks of Catriona, of how he nearly put everything he loves most at risk, and he speaks out quickly.

  ‘I think it’s a fantastic idea, Dad. Liv would probably agree that we both feel in need of a change and this would be an extraordinary project to work on together. There’s lots to think about. What we do with The Place, for instance, checking out the planning and so on, but I’d certainly like to explore the possibilities.’

  ‘Phew,’ says Baz, and drinks some tea.

  Liv looks as if she might burst into tears.

  ‘I can’t believe it,’ she says. ‘It’s my absolute dream. To live on the coast with Matt and the twins, and sail and swim, and have a dog …’

  And suddenly she does burst into tears, which is so unlike Liv that Matt jumps up and goes round to her and Jenks anxiously licks her face as she buries it in her hands.

  ‘Sorry,’ she says. ‘Honestly, no, I’m fine. Sorry.’

  As Matt kneels beside her with his arm around her, Baz says, ‘I think this calls for a little celebration,’ and goes inside.

  ‘Liv,’ Matt says. ‘Are you OK?’

  He feels a bit emotional himself and then, quite suddenly and silently, Flora and Freddie appear beside them and gently begin to stick small shiny pink hearts all over Liv’s bare arms. She watches them, her face full of love and wonder, and Matt sinks back on his heels and smiles at her.

  ‘All loved-up,’ he tells her, and Baz comes out with some glasses and a bottle of prosecco.

  ‘So much to celebrate,’ he says, ‘so many blessings.’

  Liv smiles up at him and all is well.

  After supper Liv and Matt walk in the wild-flower meadow. The long feathery grasses brush their arms and the sweet scents drift on the warm, still air. Jenks runs ahead and then comes back again to check that they are still with him.

  Liv looks around the field, seeing it as she has occasionally dared to imagine it before, visualizing the yurts, how it might look. She’d never believed in her wildest dream that Baz would give up the Beach Hut to this wondrous possibility.

  ‘I feel guilty,’ she says, holding Matt’s arm tightly. ‘It wasn’t ever really your thing. It was mine.’

  She can hardly believe that this can be true but she wants it to be right for Matt, too.

  ‘I think it’s time,’ he says. ‘We were
getting too on top of each other. The hours at The Place are awful and we have no proper time together. We need a new project and this is it. Obviously there’s a great deal to check out, but we’ve got to have a go. We’d never forgive ourselves if we didn’t try.’

  She hugs him gratefully. ‘I can’t wait to tell Andy,’ she says. ‘Oh, by the way, I had a text from him earlier. He ran into the dreaded Cat. She’s at the cottage in Rock and he’s at Polzeath just down the road. Apparently she’s been offered an amazing job in New York and she’s selling the cottage.’

  ‘Actually,’ says Matt, after a moment, ‘she came in last weekend.’

  ‘What? Into The Place?’ She stops walking and looks up at him. ‘Why didn’t you say?’

  Matt looks uncomfortable and Liv feels anxious. Suddenly she remembers those odd telephone conversations and texts and she tugs at his arm.

  ‘What happened?’ she demands.

  ‘Nothing happened,’ says Matt. ‘Well, yes, she rather pulled the sad orphan act. Did you know her mother died earlier this year?’

  ‘Yes, but I can’t imagine Cat being devastated by it.’ Liv can’t help her bitchy tone of voice. Anything to do with Cat raises her worst instincts. ‘So what happened?’

  ‘Well,’ Matt looks away, sighs, ‘she asked if I could help her move some stuff in the cottage and I didn’t know how to refuse.’

  ‘You went to the cottage?’

  Liv feels incredibly hurt, almost betrayed. Matt knows what she feels about Cat and the thought of him there … how Cat must have enjoyed it.

  ‘And then?’ she asks coolly.

  ‘And then nothing,’ he answers almost impatiently. ‘Well, she bought me lunch at Outlaw’s as a thank you, and yes, it was nice just to sit in the sun and relax for a while, but when she asked if I could do another trip to help I told her I couldn’t.’

  ‘But why didn’t you tell me? I guessed something was happening.’

  ‘Because I couldn’t do it on the phone because I knew how you’d feel and I wouldn’t be able to reassure you. Nothing happened.’

  They are not touching now; they stand apart, and there is discord between them where moments earlier there was only happiness.