by Kim Nash
Just opposite the house, there were ten or so steps, which took you down onto the golden sandy beach and then to the sea. It was shallow, if I remembered correctly. It was one of those beaches where the sea was quite close, not like some resorts where you had to walk miles out to paddle. It was the perfect beach.
We reached the bottom of the steps. To our left was the promenade which hosted rows of pastel-coloured beach huts. And to our right, a bustling café.
‘Which first?’
‘Beach hut I think, then coffee.’
‘Excellent choice, Nell. Excellent choice.’
The more time I spent with Dom the more I liked him. When we first spoke on the phone he’d seemed stuffy and formal. But he was like an onion, with many layers. He had a good sense of humour and when he smiled his whole face came alive and his eyes sparkled the most beautiful bright blue.
We walked down the promenade and he stopped outside a pale-blue-painted beach hut, which had blue, green and pink flowery bunting across the eaves. On one door was the number 136 and on the other a plaque which said, ‘Life is better in flip-flops’. I reached for the other set of keys from my handbag, the one with a small porcelain beach hut key ring. No way I could get these keys muddled up. Aunt Lil had thought of everything.
As I looked down, I saw a huge rock either side of the door. They had been painted in pretty pastel colours and then varnished. On the left one, it said Beach Hut along with an image of a colourful little hut. On the right one, it said Life is what you make it and there was picture of a house very similar to Aunty Lil’s. Perhaps she’d been into painting in her later years. They were so pretty and I loved the words. They seemed like just what I needed now I was here in Muddleford. I felt as if I had come home and that Aunty Lil’s messages could apply to me right now.
‘May I?’ Dom took the keys from me and moved forward to unlock the doors. ‘Stand back, Nell.’
What lay behind, took my breath away. It was the prettiest little room I had ever seen. Whitewashed walls were adorned with more of the colourful bunting; two pale-blue tub chairs with matching footstools were perched at the front on each side; pastel blue, green and pink cushions were scattered around; and there was a crocheted blanket over the back of each chair. There was a large whitewashed wooden sideboard at the back, with a kettle and tea-making facilities and a small tabletop fridge. The floorboards had also been whitewashed and the space had that same Lily of the Valley fragrance about it as the house. This was unmistakably Aunty Lil’s and I felt privileged to be here. But it wasn’t hers any more. It was mine. I wondered why she’d had this as well as the house, which was just over the road. But then again, I supposed, if you could, then why not?
‘Turn around,’ Dom whispered, bringing me back to the present.
The view out to sea was spectacular. A lone sailboat in the distance the only thing interrupting the horizon. The sun shone high in the sky and beyond the golden sand, and it created a picture-perfect image of a sea that seemed to shimmer with diamantes. It was purely stunning and left me stuck for words.
‘If you did want to sell it, they are selling for between two hundred to two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. We had it valued quite recently.’
‘You are having a laugh, aren’t you?’ I turned to face Dom.
‘I’m extremely serious. I never joke about money. I’m a solicitor.’ He winked. ‘Come on, let’s grab a coffee and I’ll talk you through some more details about the valuations we’ve had done on the house, the car and the beach hut.’ He really had thought of everything.
A sharp trill ring tone cut through my thoughts and Dom answered his phone, walking away from me slightly. In a low voice, I heard him say, ‘I can’t talk right now, I’m with a client. Yes, Lilian’s niece. Yes, it’s all going well.’
My thoughts drifted off as he talked and I studied him while I knew he had his back to me. He had an amazing body, a firm bum that fitted his jeans well, and broad shoulders. Now he wasn’t wearing his suit, you could see that he was the type of person who spent time in a gym. I honed in on his last few words as he turned, and I quickly swivelled back round, hoping he’d think I’d been looking at the sea all along.
‘Love you too. Bye, Tom.’
There went my fantasy of the fit solicitor and I having a more interesting relationship.
‘Nell, I’m so sorry for that interruption. My husband likes to keep in touch with me during the day.’
‘Please don’t apologise. Come on, I’m gagging for a coffee and I want to hear all about Tom.’ While I’d known all along, that we’d never be more than friends, after all, I’d only just come out of a relationship, I thought how nice it would be to have a friend in Muddleford while I worked out what to do before heading back home. I felt a huge sense of responsibility to do the right thing and try to work out what Aunty Lil would really want me to do with the inheritance.
We meandered towards the little beach café. Time seemed to have slowed down since I’d arrived here; the hustle and bustle of home truly behind me. I felt calm and at peace. I put it down to the sea air. The sea has always calmed me. When Mum and Dad used to argue when we were at Aunty Lil’s I used to slip out the kitchen door and come to the beach, which is where Jack would normally find me. Just sitting looking at the sea. Sometimes I feel like my body is a battery and being by the sea refills my soul with joy.
Dom asked me whether I’d like to sit outside or inside. I chose outside. I’m much more of an outside person, especially when I get to the seaside. I hated to be shut away when I could be out in the fresh air.
He asked me what I would like and made his way over to the counter, so I grabbed my phone. Twelve missed calls and three messages from Shivani asking me where I am and how it’s going. I dropped her a quick text.
Will message you later but all OK and oh boy do I have some stuff to tell you xx
I threw my phone back in my bag as Dom returned.
‘I know you haven’t had much time to think, Nell, but do you have any gut feelings about what you’ll do with the properties? There are lots of options. You could sell. I have the valuation details of the house as well as the beach hut. The house was valued at £750,000.’
I gulped. How could a house even be worth that? That’s three quarters of a million pounds. Crikey, if you added the value of everything Aunty Lil had left me, I suppose you could call me a millionaire. How could it be that one day, I was scratting around to get enough money to pay for my bus fare and a meal deal from Marks and Sparks, and a week later I had everything. I just couldn’t take it all in.
‘It’s weird, Dom. I’ve never owned a property and now, all of a sudden, I do. But it’s not where I live or where my friends are. I suppose staying here is an option but a very remote one because everyone and everything I know is back home in Staffordshire.’
‘But you’d already said that you hadn’t got your job any longer and that your relationship is no longer, so maybe you could stay here a while, and see how you feel about it.’
This was very true. The only person who I really had back home, now that Callum and I were no longer together, was Shivani. I needed her to come down and help me to make a decision. She’d be rational and talk some sense into me. I’d ask her when I spoke to her later.
‘Well, I suppose it’s not like I have anything to get back for,’ I said.
‘Whatever you decide, one of the first things you’ll have to do is to transfer all the bills for the house into your name. I have a list in the file of everything. You have all the time in the world to make a decision on the house. There’s no rush.
‘If you need any help to talk through any choices or decisions, I’d be really happy to help you, Nell. I know Lilian would have liked to know that you were in safe hands. There is one other thing we need to arrange… and that’s the funeral. Lilian is with the local funeral directors in the town and they know that we were waiting for you to come down. They have left it as long as they possibly could but have booked in a provisio
nal date but we can talk about that tomorrow. We don’t need to decide right now. I can help you with everything though. You’re not alone.’
‘Thank you, that really does mean the world to me. I don’t know how I would have done any of this without you’.
I looked out to sea. It continued to sparkle and I enjoyed the warmth of the late-afternoon sun. Aunty Lil always used to say that down here had its own little micro-climate and that the weather was always beautiful. I sighed. It really was stunning here. Maybe after a couple of weeks, I’d be bored of seeing the sea every day. What’s that saying? Be careful what you wish for, because one day, your wish might just come true.
Chapter Nine
Hammering on the front door woke me the next morning. My heart was pounding. I had been hoping that after my early start the day before I might get a lie in. Bleary-eyed, I grabbed my dressing gown from where I had flung it over the top of my case the night before and walked to the front door while tying the cord around my waist. As I passed the mirror on the landing, I smoothed my hair down. Whoever was at the front door, didn’t deserve to see my wild locks.
There it was again. Bang. Bang. Bang.
‘Alright! For God’s sake, stop the banging. I’m coming!’ I grumbled under my breath. I looked at my watch and was surprised to see that it was actually 8.30 a.m. I’m normally a 6 a.m. wake up girl so perhaps my big day yesterday had all been too much. I had felt exhausted when my head hit the pillow last night.
I flung open the front doors wondering who the hell was there at this time in the morning. Imagine my complete and utter shock and amazement, when I looked into the face of someone I had once known, so very well, nearly twenty years ago.
‘Oh my God! Jack Shepherd! Oh my God, is it really you?’
Despite me asking that question, it was unmistakably him. I would recognise those beautiful eyes and that floppy hair anywhere. The years melted away. How many surprises was I going to experience in Dorset?
I was greeted by his oh-so familiar grin and my heart did a little skip. I reached up to touch my hair and realised that this was the first time he would ever have seen me in my nightclothes as an adult woman, even though he’d seen me in them plenty of times as a child – we’d had pyjama parties together since we were toddlers. I pulled my dressing gown around me even tighter to cover my skimpy shorts and vest top.
‘Good to see you, Nellie-bum! I’ve brought you breakfast.’ He handed over a brown paper bag and I could smell the aroma of fresh baking. ‘Hope you still like croissants for breakfast.’ He spoke as if I’d only seen him the day before and not as if it was twenty years before.
The last time we’d seen each other was probably one of the most romantic and memorable moments of my life. It was all flooding back now and my neck and face began to get very warm and I was pretty sure it would be blotchy too.
‘Nell!’ He raised his voice. ‘Back in the room, Nellie-bum. Still a day-dreamer then?’
I couldn’t help but grin back at him. He had a one-thousand-kilowatt smile that made you smile back at him, no matter how you were feeling. It was something that I had loved about him as a boy. It hadn’t mattered what type of mood I was in, the minute I saw Jack I was grinning like a loon.
‘Jack! I can’t believe it. Don’t tell me you still live round here? How did you know I’d be here? How do you even remember what I like for breakfast?’
I had so many questions for this person stood before me. The last time I’d seen him he was a fourteen-year-old gangly, awkward boy, but one who gave me a fuzzy feeling in my tummy. It seemed he still did. That familiar skip of my heart when he was around, happened again. How could my body still do that after all these years? Perhaps it wasn’t so mysterious. The man on the doorstep was six-foot of pure gorgeous beardy man. God he looked so good. And I did love a beardy man.
‘Aren’t you going to invite me in then?’ he grinned. ‘The least you could do is make me coffee when I’ve brought your breakfast around.’
I was so glad that Dom had offered to drive me to the local supermarket before he dropped me back at the house last night so I could get some essentials in.
My heart thumped like mad as I stood back to let him in then followed him through into the kitchen. I turned away to fill the kettle, then flicked it on, trying to compose myself. It was unbelievable to see Jack, but he had moved to where I was and he was standing so close to me right now, I couldn’t concentrate on the simplest of tasks. I moved towards the kitchen window, flapping my hands to create some air.
‘It’s warm in here this morning.’ I excused myself and stretched up to open the window a little. It wasn’t that warm at all but my body was on fire.
A wolf whistle made me turn to look at him again. His eyes lifted from my legs, travelled up my body and met mine.
‘You’ve grown, Nellie-bum!’ he winked. God, he really needed to stop doing that.
‘And so have you, Jack. How on earth are you?’
‘I’m great. Obviously it took a few years for me to get over the fact that you left me heartbroken when you abandoned me that night without ever getting in touch.’ He looked deep into my soul as if questioning whether I remembered that night. ‘But eventually I got over it, moved on and found new, even better best friends.’ He smirked.
I couldn’t help but stare at him drinking in every detail. I had loved that face so much back then, and had dreamt about it so many times over the years.
He smiled then to show he had been joking. It lit up the room and I couldn’t help but grin back at, after initially wondering if he’d been really upset about what had happened. A little bit of me hoped that he had and that he hadn’t moved on too quickly, that he had missed me a little.
‘I’m so sorry about that. You know what my mum was like. She forbid me to have anything to do with anyone from down here. Even you. But surely you got the letter I wrote to you explaining everything I knew?’
‘You wrote to me? I never got a letter. So you did think of me then? I thought that you may have been running away from something or someone, maybe even me, on that night.’
‘I thought about you all the time, Jack. You were my best friend and… well… Mum found my first letter and ripped it up. Whatever had happened between her and Aunty Lil was so serious that she wouldn’t allow me to have any contact with anyone from down here. I wrote again a few weeks later, and Mum promised she’d post it, but from what you are saying now I’d say she clearly didn’t. I’d wondered why you’d not written back. I wonder now whether I’ll ever find out what happened. With both of them gone.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that you lost your mum, Nellie. That must have been so upsetting for you.’
‘Thank you. It’s been hard, I won’t lie, but it’s getting a little easier. It’s been a good few years now, although sometimes it seems like yesterday.’ I could feel a lump forming in my throat and knew I had to head off this feeling, like I always did before it overwhelmed me.
I laid the coffee pot, mugs and milk jug on a tray. I never did this anywhere else, but had always done this at Aunty Lil’s, and it amazed me how very quickly I’d reverted to my old ways in this house.
‘Come into the sunroom. I want to know all about your life. Where do you live now? What do you do? I want to know everything.’
I sat cross-legged on the sofa and Jack sat next to me. I’m sure he didn’t have to sit so close, there were plenty of other seats in the room. His knee touched mine and an electric jolt ran through my body. My heart was beating so fast, I’m sure he must have been able to hear it from where he was sitting.
‘Well to start with I don’t live very far away at all.’ He nodded to the house next door.
‘You have got to be kidding me.’
‘It’s true. Sad, isn’t it? Thirty-four years old and I still live with my parents. It works for us though. They had the garage converted years ago to a self-contained flat, which I live in. They’re really looking forward to seeing you Nellie-bum, if you’
d like to see them that is.’
I loved that he still used his childhood nickname for me. It made me warm and fuzzy, though it brought all my childhood feelings of unrequited first love tumbling back. I wondered if he’d ever known how I’d felt about him. I wondered what he would have made of that right now. I remembered that night again and could feel the heat rise up from my chest.
‘Well, is that a yes?’
‘I would absolutely love to. There’s honestly nothing I would love more.’ I hadn’t realised just how much I had missed his family.
‘Well, come for tea tonight. I’ve got to go to work for a few hours later, but hopefully not for too long, so I’ll come and fetch you.’
‘That would be amazing. Thank you. But how did you know I’d be here?’
‘Dom rang me. I’m good mates with him. Have been since… Well, you know. He probably shouldn’t have told me, really, because of client confidentiality, but he couldn’t help himself because he knew what good friends we had been. I think he thought that you could maybe do with people you know, and who care about you, around you right now.’
‘That was really kind of him.’ The part of that sentence that I honed in on was the bit where he said that he cared about me. I thought that after so long he’d have forgotten all about me.
‘Pass me your phone, Nellie-bum. I’ll put my number in it, then you can call me and I’ll have yours. Then if you get any issues while you are here, you can give me a yell.’
‘Fab, thanks.’ I fumbled to grab my phone from my dressing-gown pocket and it gaped open and exposed my left boob, which was barely contained in my vest top. I went bright red as I pulled the robe closer around me.
‘Thanks for the flash!’ Jack winked and I didn’t know where to look.
My face was on fire.
‘And you’ll get to meet Norman tonight,’ Jack said. ‘You’ll love him. I think you’ll get on like a house on fire.’
I’d forgotten all about Norman. I was very much looking forward to meeting him though. He sounded like he was someone really special if he had brought love to Aunty Lil in her later years. I couldn’t wait to meet him. It would also be nice not to be sat alone this evening with just my memories for company.