3. Chapter Three
Chapter Three
May walked away from her best friend Paige’s house with none of the reassurance or peace she’d hoped to find there.
Instead, she’d found a triumphant Paige, who had just signed the lease on her very own beauty salon in Plymouth and, on the same day, become engaged to her long-term boyfriend and the love of her life, Ted.
May hoped she’d done a convincing enough job of sounding happy for her friend. Deep down, she truly was. But as she followed the narrow alleyway down to the beach, desperate to delay her return home, the overwhelming emotion filling her was jealousy.
Paige hadn’t even gone to university, and yet her life was on track. She was a local success story. May, with her A grades and bright future, had managed to stuff everything up.
In the end, she hadn’t told Paige just how badly she’d messed up.
She couldn’t tell anybody. All there would be was bitter disappointment, and after everything Alice had done to provide for her, to give her the opportunities she would otherwise have lacked, how could May possibly break her sister’s heart by admitting the truth?
May jumped the final metre from the path onto the sand. For a moment she was comforted by the familiar smell of salt hanging in the air. The air was still and warm, a group of older women swimming lazily in the calm sea.
She pictured the grumpy teenager she’d been when she first had to move to Saffron Bay.
Back then, she’d dismissed it as the middle of nowhere, a place to run from rather than embrace.
Now, at twenty-one and having ventured into the big, bad world, May considered herself a fool for ever leaving the comforting embrace of the village she had grown to love.
It had been stupid to think she was better than this place – stupid to think she could make her mark on the world.
May walked to the water’s edge, briefly considering how it would feel to carry on walking and let the tide do its worst. Then she pictured Alice at home waiting for her, and knew she could never do anything to hurt her sister like that. Things were bad enough as it was.
She turned her back on the sea and stumbled her way along the beach to the path. Her leg muscles cried out as she climbed the incline, and she tried to remember when she’d last done any proper exercise.
By the time May reached her road, she was out of breath, sweating, and desperate to put on her pyjamas and have an early night.
As she walked up to Seashell Cottage, the light in the sitting-room window went out.
May frowned. Had they had a power cut? Surely Alice wasn’t going to bed yet, it was only seven o’clock.
She turned her key in the lock and stepped inside the cottage.
All was quiet. The smell of baking hung in the air.
May kicked off her sandy shoes and padded through to the living room. As soon as she stepped through the door, she was met with a burst of light and a shout of ‘Surprise!’ Alice, Luke, Daniel, Solly, Sylvie, and Grandpa Jack all jumped out from behind the sofa, grinning like Cheshire cats.
May’s hands flew to her mouth. ‘What’s all this?’ she asked. ‘It’s not my birthday.’
‘No.’ Alice rushed forward and pulled her into a hug. ‘It’s a welcome-home and well-done party. You’ve made it through three years at Cambridge. That’s no small achievement, May. You’ve got to know how proud we all are of you.’
May stepped back from her sister’s arms. ‘You don’t even know if I’ve passed my degree yet.’
Alice laughed. ‘Of course you’ve passed. You’re May Tyler, the straight-A student. You’ve got nothing to worry about.’
As Alice spoke May’s full name, she saw Grandpa Jack dab his eyes with a handkerchief. Changing her last name from Green to Tyler had cemented their relationship and healed some of the rift May’s mother had created decades earlier when she’d left home, dropped the Tyler name, and never looked back.
The sight of the dining table, laid out beautifully with local greenery and candles, sent a pang through her. ‘This is too much. I don’t deserve it.’
‘Oh, nonsense.’ Sylvie grabbed May’s hand. ‘Come and sit down. You’re at the head of the table tonight. You’re our guest of honour.’
May cringed inside. The urge to curl up in a corner, close her eyes, and preferably never wake up overwhelmed her. This was so embarrassing. She caught Grandpa Jack’s eye as Sylvie led her to the table, and he smiled. His smile was enough to break her heart.
Jack must have seen something in her eyes. ‘Stop fussing over the girl,’ he muttered to Sylvie.
She tutted at him, but left May alone. Jack pulled out the chair for May to sit down, and leaned closer. While the rest of the party milled about, pulling out chairs and exclaiming over the pretty table, Jack took the opportunity to lean over May, his hand on her shoulder.
‘Is everything all right?’ he murmured.
Tears filled May’s eyes. ‘Yes,’ she mumbled, her voice tight as she tried to hold them back. ‘Everything’s fine, Grandpa Jack. Everything’s fine.’
Jack frowned as he studied her face. ‘I may be old,’ he whispered, ‘but I’m not blind. We’ll talk later. Can you make it through tonight?’
May nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Jack rubbed her back, kissed the top of her head, and found his own seat at the table.
‘Now,’ said Alice, carrying two large dishes through from the kitchen, ‘I can’t claim any credit for tonight’s dinner. Margot made the lasagne for me, and all I’ve done is heat it up.’
May forced herself to put aside her self-pity. ‘Who did the table decorations?’ she asked, waving a hand over the greenery. ‘They’re beautiful.’
‘Your sister,’ said Luke, ‘with a little help from Daniel.’
Alice’s father, Daniel, laughed. ‘All I did was collect a few leaves from Jack’s garden. Alice was the one who made it look pretty.’
‘Well, thank you all,’ said May. ‘This is very kind of you.’
‘It’s so good to have you back in the village,’ said Solly. ‘Have you thought about what you’re going to do next?’
‘No,’ said May. She didn’t want to think about it. ‘For the next few weeks, Alice will have my full attention as we plan the wedding of the year. I can’t believe after taking so long to get around to it, it’s ended up being so last-minute!’
‘You know it’s a double wedding?’ asked Luke.
‘A double wedding?’ May’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Who else is getting married, and why has no one told me?’
‘We wanted to see the look on your face,’ said Luke. ‘Nick’s finally grown up, and he and Kitty are also engaged. We thought it’d be rather fun to have a double wedding, not to mention cheaper.’
‘Such a romantic,’ said Alice, rolling her eyes.
‘How do you feel about a double wedding?’ asked May. After everything her sister had given up over the years, May believed she should get at least one day that was only about her.
Alice grinned. ‘I’m only pretending to be cross.
I love the idea. The thought of having to be the centre of attention all day made me squirm.
I’m delighted to be sharing the day with Kitty and Nick.
But it does mean you’re going to have to coordinate on wedding plans.
Kitty’s enlisted a relative to help, so the pair of you will be working together. ’
May inwardly groaned. Planning a wedding was so far out of her comfort zone as it was, and now she was going to have some bossy relative of Kitty’s to deal with. It made the situation even worse.
‘Fine.’ She fixed a smile on her face. ‘No problem. Who will I be working with then from Kitty’s side?’
Everyone around the table exchanged glances. No one spoke.
‘What is it?’ asked May. ‘Who is it? Why are you all being weird?’
‘That, my dear,’ said Sylvie, tapping May’s hand, ‘is a surprise we’ll leave for another day.’
As hard as May tried, no one would say any more.
And despite the worst-case scenarios she started throwing out there, no one would break their silence.
She just hoped whoever she’d be working with on the wedding wasn’t a total nightmare.
Because if they were, this was going to be one very long summer.