Chapter 19
Evie
Evie went in search of her father and found him helping a family of four with their bikes.
She felt shaken and unsettled, and not only because of the drama that had played out in her office.
She watched as her father patiently adjusted the seat for the youngest child in the group and helped her steady the bike as
she got used to it.
“There you go,” he said. “You’re getting the hang of it. Well done.”
It stirred memories. Happy ones. She remembered him doing the same for her when she was six. She’d learned to ride in the
grounds of the hotel, with half the staff ready and waiting to catch her if she fell. She thought about Abby, who had never
had a father ready to catch her. Never had a father ready to put himself between his daughter and the rest of the world.
She waited as he waved them off on their trip. They were kitted out with puncture kits, picnics and big wide smiles. The happy family scene was the perfect antidote to the tension of the past few hours.
He turned and saw her. “Is everything okay?” He frowned. “I walked him off the premises and I made it clear we didn’t want
to see him on the property again. I think he got the message.”
“Let’s hope so.”
He glanced back at the family, his eyes on the youngest. “How is Alexandra doing?”
She noticed the shift in his tone. “I left her with Abby in my office. She didn’t look too good, so I thought I’d give them
space.”
He nodded. “Let me know if they need anything.”
That was it? That was all he was going to say?
She hovered, feeling awkward, unsure how best to ask the questions she wanted to ask. She should probably walk away but she
couldn’t. She needed to know.
He watched as the family cycled away, the youngest gaining confidence as she got used to the bike. “There she goes. She’s
got it.” He smiled as the wobbling stopped and the little girl’s feet worked harder on the pedals. “That child reminds me
of you at the same age.”
She didn’t tell him that she’d been having the same thoughts. “Are you getting nostalgic on me?”
“Maybe I am.”
“Talking of the past, I have questions.”
She expected him to ask her what questions or at least give her some sort of prompt, but he said nothing. Instead he kept
his gaze fixed firmly on the family cycling away from them.
Never before in her life had she felt there was something she couldn’t ask him, but she felt it now. As if she was stepping
somewhere she shouldn’t be stepping.
“Dad?”
“We’re at work, Evie.”
“I know, but—” Yes, she should probably wait, but she couldn’t. Not after what she’d seen. Part of her knew she shouldn’t
be asking, but another part of her had to. “You know her, don’t you?”
“Know who?”
“The boss. Alexandra.”
He didn’t respond. The family rounded the corner and headed the cycle path that wound its way cross-country and then down
to the coast. Another couple of minutes and finally they were out of sight.
Only then did he turn to look at her.
“What makes you think I know her?”
“Oh, come on, Dad! I was there. I saw the two of you. You have oil on your fingers, by the way.”
“I had to fix the chain.” He pulled a cloth from his pocket and scrubbed at the oil on his fingers. “What do you think you
saw?”
She thought about that look. That single burning look that had lasted less than a couple of seconds but communicated a depth
of emotion and intimacy that had made her catch her breath. She’d felt as if she was watching something she shouldn’t be watching.
As if she was somehow intruding. “I saw the way you looked at each other. I’m not imagining it, but if you don’t want to tell
me then I’ll respect that. But—” She sighed. “I’m being selfish, I know, making this about me. What about you? I assume you
weren’t expecting to see her?”
He scrubbed at a stubborn oil stain. “No,” he said finally. “I wasn’t.”
He was shaken, she could see that now. And she was shaken too, because this was her dad and she’d na?vely thought she knew everything there was to know about him.
She’d thought they had no secrets (although now she thought about it she was keeping a fair few herself).
And now she was seeing him differently. Not as her dad, but as a man with a past and a life lived.
A past full of details of which she knew nothing.
A man with his own life and his own secrets.
“I didn’t know you knew her. You never said anything.”
She stepped closer and touched his arm, conscious that although there was no one close by, they were still in public, still
at work.
And it wasn’t only intimacy she’d seen, it was protectiveness. Of course her dad was a born protector, but this was something
different.
“You care about her.”
“I owe her a lot.”
“Owe her? How?”
He folded the cloth he’d been using. “Things were tough when you were born. I was struggling to cope with the shocking loss
of your mother, and I had to care for a newborn. That included earning a living. I had to be everything, and I couldn’t see
a way to do that. You’d lost your mother and I wanted to be there for you, but the teaching job I was doing didn’t allow for
that.”
“And that’s when you took a job at the hotel.” She knew that part of the story. He’d told her many times that it had been
the best move he’d ever made.
“I’ve always made it sound easy, haven’t I?
As if switching was simply a matter of stepping off one path and onto another.
” He gave a wry smile. “It was a little more complicated than that. I was a mess—not exactly the type of reliable worker people were queuing up to hire. I wanted to be a good father—and I knew that’s what Phoebe would have wanted.
She was excited about being a mother and the fact that she never managed to do that—” He paused.
“I had to work, but I wanted something flexible that would let me fit around your needs. It—I was struggling.”
He’d never talked about this part of his life. He’d never talked about how he’d coped. He brushed over it, told her she was
the best thing that had ever happened to him, that having her to care for had helped him heal. And it was true, but now for
the first time she was seeing the true hardship of that time. The struggle. And she felt ashamed that she hadn’t asked him
more about it. Encouraged him to talk. He’d always seemed capable and in control. Even though she’d known he was devastated
by the loss of the woman he’d loved, she’d never pictured him struggling.
“It must have been hard,” she murmured, knowing that was an understatement. “How did you manage? Who helped?”
“Plenty of people helped, but no one was able to help with the employment side of things. No one would hire me. Or at least,
not under terms I could live with. And then I tried the hotel. Alexandra had been there for a couple of years by then. I had
to take you to the interview because at that stage I wasn’t ready to leave you with anyone.”
“I was at your interview?”
“Yes, and there was a great deal riding on that interview—I was desperate and ready to do anything. Afterwards, I told myself
that was probably why.”
“Why what?”
“Why I embarrassed myself. I intended to go in there and impress her with my knowledge of local history and legend. I intended
to show her I was confident and personable and exactly the person she was looking for to deal with the needs of the guests.
Instead of which—” he ran his hand over the back of his neck “—all these years later it still embarrasses me to remember it.”
“Remember what?”
“I cried.” He let his hand drop. “And I don’t mean slightly watering eyes. I sobbed.”
She stopped breathing. Her heart felt as if it was being squeezed. “Oh, Dad—”
“She stood up and I thought she was going to leave me to pull myself together, but instead she picked up the phone and ordered
two cups of strong coffee, and when they arrived she met the person at the door to take the tray, so that they didn’t see
me.”
Now she was the one with tears in her eyes. “That was thoughtful.”
“Yes. She put the coffee in front of me, along with a plate full of chocolate biscuits and said she knew what it was like
trying to get through a day while dealing with grief and sleepless nights. That’s when I found out she had a daughter, too.
Madeleine. She was two years old.” He stared into the distance. “We talked about the pressure of being a single parent. She
told me she’d lost someone she loved, too, in difficult circumstances. She was easy to talk to and a good listener.”
“And what happened then?”
He shifted and looked at her. “I thanked her for the coffee and her kindness and apologised again for losing control. Then
I stood up to leave. She stopped me. Asked me where I was going. I said I assumed the interview was over. Who would employ
someone struggling as much as I was? I wanted to spare us both the awkwardness.”
“But she didn’t let you leave?”
“No. And I remember exactly what happened next. What she said, word for word.” His voice was rough with emotion. “I said something
like, you’re looking at a man on the edge, and she said I’m looking at a man who cares. A man who is committed to his family. And that was it. She gave me the job. She told me not to worry about juggling work with parenthood because we’d make it
work somehow.”
Evie’s eyes burned with tears. “She said that?”
“Yes. And you started to cry at that point—I had to take you to the interview—and her little girl arrived and was intrigued
by you. You liked her and you stopped crying. I remember she gave you her toy giraffe to hold and you wouldn’t let go of it.”
“And that was Madeleine? But—” she broke off “—wait—if she was two and I was a baby—” And then she remembered what Abby had
told her. “Abby is Madeleine?”
“Yes. Madeleine Abigail. Back then I just knew her as Maddy. We all did. Alexandra started using her middle name when they
moved to Boston. I suppose she wanted to leave it all behind.”
“So you knew Abby?”
“Well, she was two years old,” he said dryly, “so I wouldn’t exactly say I knew her. Alexandra was living in the hotel at
the time and she had a nanny for Maddy. Abby,” he corrected himself. “She let me share the nanny whenever I needed to. That
extra flexibility was exactly what I needed.”
Evie blinked to clear her vision. “So she helped you.”
“More than that. She saved me at the lowest point of my life. I owe her everything. She enabled me to work and still be there
for you. She gave me hope.”
Was that what she’d seen in that look they’d exchanged? Gratitude? A debt never forgotten?
No, it was more. Something deeper, she was sure of it.
“If you worked together for a couple of years, you must have got to know her.”
It was a moment before he answered.
“Yes,” he said finally. “I knew her well. In the end we were friends.”
Friends?
“Did you know about her dad?”
“She told me the story. That he left when she was eleven. I knew how badly it affected her, but it happened long before we
met. When I first saw that man loitering around the hotel it didn’t cross my mind there could be more to it than a developer
deciding whether he was interested or not.”
“Will you be spending some time with her now she’s here?”
“I don’t know. That’s up to her.” He turned away and smiled at a woman who was approaching. “Mrs Slater. Are you off to lunch?
I called the restaurant to confirm, and your table is all booked for midday and it’s the one by the window as you requested.”
“Edward, what would I do without you?”
They chatted for a moment and Evie waited. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Abby and her mother walking across the driveway
towards a taxi.
Abby spotted her and waved and Evie sprinted across to her.
“I’m sorry to ask this,” Abby said, “but would you mind if I took a few hours with my mother? It’s been a rough morning, and—”
“It’s fine,” Evie said. “Of course. What do you need? Can I get you anything?”
Her head was still reeling from the revelations, so she couldn’t imagine how Abby must be feeling. Her grandfather turning
up out of nowhere was enough of a shock without the discovery that he’d caused the accident that had injured her grandmother.
And then there was the stress of her mother turning up unannounced when Abby was already exhausted after her dramatic rescue
of little Holly.
It was enough to make anyone want to lie down in a dark room.
“Nothing, thanks. We’re going for a walk. Fresh air would be good, I think. It has been a bit of a difficult morning.” Abby
glanced towards the car where her mother was waiting, her head turned away.
Evie touched her arm, wanting to offer support. “How are you doing?”
“Me? Oh, I’m fine.” She smiled at Evie. “An eventful week. Thanks, Evie. We’ll talk properly soon.” As always Abby was poised
and in control.
Evie knew that if she’d been in the same position she would have been an emotional wreck.
There was so much she wanted to say, but didn’t know where to start and anyway this wasn’t the time because Abby was already
walking towards the car.
Did Abby know that they’d once shared a nanny? That Abby had once shared her toy giraffe with Evie? Was it fanciful to think
that they’d had a bond even back then?
As the car pulled away Evie turned to where her father had been standing but there was no sign of him.
She suppressed the feeling of disappointment. That was another conversation that was going to have to wait until later.
And in the meantime, she still had a hotel to run.
She walked back through the front door and past reception where she heard Donna enthusiastically selling the benefits of the
special wellness package that the spa was offering.
Smiling, she headed back to her office and closed the door.
She checked her email and saw that the hotel in London had invited her for a face-to-face interview. The last stage in the
process.
She felt a surge of elation that she’d got through to the final stage.
They’d told her the position was competitive (had she known just how competitive at the beginning she probably wouldn’t have had the nerve to apply) so the fact that she’d made it to the final hurdle was dizzying.
It was a brilliant job, and would give her exactly the type of experience she needed.
She sat down in her chair and stared at the screen.
London.
At least there wouldn’t be seagulls trying to steal her ice cream.