Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Hoping Flynn might return and pick up where they left off, Lily stayed awake for as long as possible. There was no word from him until she woke with a start the following morning to find a message apologising for having run out on her, and promising to call her in the morning.
She’d only been awake for ten minutes and was waiting for the toaster to pop when her phone rang.
“Morning,” she said, then pushed the toast back down again when it came up too pale. “How was your night?”
“Busy.”
“Yeah?” She wandered back to the living room. “There was really a burglary?”
“Two,” he said. “We left one place and went straight to another call.”
“Did you catch anyone?”
“No. We spent a long time looking though.”
Lily sank onto the couch. “Did they take much?”
“Just some cash, a watch and a few pieces of jewellery. Whatever they could grab quickly, by the looks of it. They also robbed another house, but they went unnoticed there, so the homeowners only noticed this morning. We’ve just been out there.”
“You really have been busy.”
“Yes. This is more action than I’ve seen in the whole time I’ve been here. It’s typical that it’s when PC Hill is away.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “I’ll bet he won’t be too pleased to have taken his holiday time when there’s actually something to do.”
“How long will he be gone?”
“Just a week. Back next Sunday.”
Lily nodded, not wanting to dwell on PC Hill choosing to take his holiday time now – before Flynn left so he didn’t leave the sergeant short-handed.
“Sorry for rushing off last night,” Flynn said.
“Couldn’t be helped,” she murmured.
“You could have told me I had my T-shirt on back to front.”
“I tried! You wouldn’t stop to listen.”
“I think the sergeant enjoyed pointing it out, anyway.”
Lily chuckled. “Did he have anything to say about you being at my place and clearly having dressed in a hurry?”
“Not a lot. He seemed more amused than anything. And he suggested I have my uniform with me in the future, but I already learned that lesson after having to question people in the dark in jeans and a T-shirt. I got some strange looks, and didn’t feel as confident as usual.”
As she started to ask who he’d been questioning, a shrill, high-pitched tone filled the silence and demanded her attention.
Her logical brain knew immediately that the toast had burnt and set off the smoke alarm. It wasn’t her logical brain that pinned her to the couch, though. Goosebumps erupted over her skin, and her pulse skyrocketed.
“Is that your smoke alarm?” Flynn asked in her ear.
Her hand with the phone sank to rest beside her, and she glanced slowly around the room, trying to make sense of her thoughts and the overwhelming sense of déjà vu.
The intense beeping of the alarm dragged her back in time. Each pause between the beeps filled her with fear.
She’d been here before – on a couch in this exact spot, as the blare of smoke alarms pulled her from sleep.
Her uncle had swept her up in the blanket she’d been asleep in and told her everything was okay. But his eyes had been filled with panic, and she’d known that everything definitely wasn’t okay.
“Lily!” Flynn’s distant voice pulled her from her memories, and she hurried to the kitchen, putting the phone to her ear as she went.
“I’ll call you back,” she said, then deposited the phone onto the kitchen table and grabbed the nearest chair to climb up and put an end to the piercing beeps.
With the alarm silenced, she opened a couple of windows and tossed the black toast in the bin. Then she fired off a message to Flynn, telling him she’d just burned her toast.
In a daze, she moved to the couch to try and untangle her memories, with no luck. Finally, she pulled herself together and got on with her day.
With her mind all over the place, the morning dragged on. A busy day was what she needed, but the trickle of customers did nothing to help keep her mind occupied.
Absently, she was wiping down tables in the middle of the afternoon when Jessica appeared beside her.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, looking at Lily with concern.
“Fine.” Lily focused on her young employee. “Why?”
“I was talking to you, but you didn’t seem to hear.”
“Sorry.” She straightened up. “I was miles away. What were you saying?”
Jessica bit her lower lip. “You won’t need me in the winter, will you?”
A prickle of unease crept up Lily’s spine.
She’d barely needed Jessica in the past week, so she couldn’t imagine winter would be different.
“I guess not, but maybe we just need to come up with a new business plan for the quieter months.” She glanced around the room.
“Maybe we could offer kids’ birthday parties…
or different events…” Surely they could come up with ways to boost business and keep themselves busy.
“We can have a brainstorming session sometime, but you don’t need to worry – I’ll find a way to keep you on. ”
“It’s not that.” Jessica shifted her weight.
A jolt of panic hit Lily as it dawned on her why Jessica looked so uncomfortable. She’d been clear from the start that she was only looking for a casual job for the summer. Considering how well it had worked out, Lily had assumed she’d stay on. She hadn’t even considered her leaving.
“Are you looking for another job?” she asked. “Or have you decided on college or something?”
“No. I love working here, but I assumed it would be like most jobs on the island and you wouldn’t need me over winter.”
Lily smiled uncomfortably. “We’ll figure something out.”
Again, Jessica shifted her weight. “I appreciate it, but Rhys also won’t have much work, so we were thinking we might head over to the mainland and work over there for a bit.
His dad said we can stay with him in Bristol.
We won’t have to pay rent, so we can get jobs and save a bit of money.
We thought it would be good to have six months in a city and experience something different. ”
“Yeah.” Lily caught the gleam of excitement in Jessica’s eyes. “It’s a great idea,” she said, pushing down her disappointment. “I bet you’ll have a brilliant time.”
She nodded eagerly, and her face broke into a joyful smile. “It’ll be weird to live in a city, but I think it’ll be fun.”
“Definitely.” Lily fought to keep her emotions under control. “When will you leave?”
“We were thinking maybe the end of September.”
“That’s only six weeks away,” Lily pointed out.
“Yes. Things really quieten down around here. There’ll still be some holidaymakers around in autumn, but I don’t actually think you’ll need me. If you want me to stay longer, I can talk to Rhys.”
Lily inhaled deeply. She definitely wanted Jessica to stay longer. In fact, she didn’t want her to go at all.
“Sorry,” Jessica said. “Did I choose a bad time to bring this up?”
“It’s fine,” Lily said, blinking back tears. “You just make your plans and let me know when you’ll be leaving.”
“I’d really like to work for you again next year, if you’ll have me back.”
Lily nodded vigorously. “Whenever you want your job back, just let me know.”
“Thank you.” She wrapped Lily in a hug that almost made her lose control of her emotions altogether.
From the corner of her eye, Lily caught sight of Flynn walking up to the door. Perfect timing.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said, managing to smile at Jessica as she headed for the door.
Stopping Flynn with a hand on his arm, she turned him around and set off to the beach.
“Are you okay?” he asked with a puzzled expression.
“Not really,” she replied.
He was leaving, and Jessica was leaving, and she definitely wasn’t okay. She couldn’t say that, though.
Instead, she’d stick to the problem which seemed more manageable.
“Maria definitely lied to me,” she said on a ragged exhale.