Chapter 15
Hands on hips, Beth glared at him.
‘I don’t need your help,’ she snapped. ‘I can manage perfectly well by myself. Just like Aunt Lizzie did.’
Unmoved by her declaration, Jake was running an assessing eye over the dilapidated hut. ‘You are not Lizzie Brandon,’ he said in a matter-of-fact tone. ‘And from what I can see you certainly do need help.’
Turning to Sam, he smiled and nodded. ‘Unless I’m stepping on your toes. Are you a builder?’
‘Merchant navy, over 50 years!’ replied Sam with a small, snappy salute.
‘Ah. No building experience then!’
Sam grinned, his eyes twinkling. ‘I’ve spent most of my life putting together and repairing anything that came my way,’ he said cheerfully. ‘But this is all new to me,’ he said, waving his arm around the hut.
‘It’s good of you to help.’ Jake had tilted his head to one side, as though considering why a total stranger would offer to pitch in and offer his support.
‘I knew Lizzie,’ offered Sam. ‘Many, many years ago. But she was the sort of person you don’t forget.’ The twinkle had been replaced by a hint of sadness, a twinge of regret. ‘It seemed the least I could do when I came across Beth here, struggling with this on her own.’
‘That was kind of you.’ Jake had never used such a gentle, appreciative tone with Beth. ‘Because there is a lot to do,’ he grumbled, tutting as he examined the pile of rotten boards on the kitchen table.
‘I agree. And that roof worries me.’
‘Mm. I think…’
‘Excuse me!’ bellowed Beth, making both men jump and turn to see her outraged face. ‘I am still here! And although it’s very kind of both of you to offer to help,’ the words stuck in her throat slightly, thanking Jake didn’t come easily, ‘I can cope.’
Their raised eyebrows told a different story and Beth wished her hair wasn’t dripping down her back or her t-shirt clinging to her midriff as she tried to look haughty. ‘I know what I’m doing.’
‘Really?’ asked Jake, a smile twitching his lips.
‘Absolutely.’
‘What are you going to do about the roof?’
Beth resisted the urge to look up at the lopsided roof held in place by a hefty length of rope and goodwill.
‘I have a plan,’ she said stiffly.
‘Good, because it needs lifting and resetting square before you go any further.’
Beth hoped her face hadn’t gone as pale as she felt. How on earth was she supposed to lift an entire roof?
‘And those repairs to the back wall?’
This time she did let her eyes swivel towards the hole she and Sam had just created.
‘That’s a major repair.’
‘And that’s exactly what I will do,’ growled Beth. ‘Repair it. In a major way.’
‘Have you sourced the boards you’ll need?’
Of course she hadn’t. In fact, she had spent the morning wondering where the beach hut board shop was. She was fairly sure she had never seen one in Welby.
Lifting her chin, she glared at him. ‘It’s next on my to-do list.’
‘And the windows?’
‘Also on my to-do list.’
Sam was watching the exchange with interest, his eyes swivelling from one to the other and Beth could see the twinkle was back.
‘It may be an idea to accept any help Jake is offering, my dear,’ he suggested. ‘You do have limited time to finish.’
‘No! I mean, I would rather not.’
‘Why?’ asked both men in unison and Beth began to feel cornered as they both stood waiting for an answer.
‘Because…because…’
Because he had been mean to her. Because he had sneered at her declaration to carry out the repairs herself. Because she found his very presence uncomfortable and his green eyes difficult to meet.
Jake turned to Sam. ‘I’m afraid I was unkind to Beth when we first met,’ he said, the gravity of his tone belied by the smirk on his lips. ‘And she has yet to forgive me.’
‘I’ve accepted your apology, you don’t need to make any more amends.’
‘But I want to. I want to do my bit in memory of Lizzie.’
She bit her lip hard. It was a low blow and he knew it.
‘You surely can’t turn me away under those circumstances,’ he wheedled and Beth saw Sam put a hand to his mouth to hide a grin.
She was beaten. And the truth was that she needed every bit of help she could muster.
‘If you want to do it for Lizzie…’
‘Oh, I do!’
‘If you want to do it for Lizzie,’ she muttered ungraciously, ‘then I suppose I will have to accept.’
The triumph in his eyes almost made her change her mind but it was too late and with a clap of his hands and a nod in her direction, he switched into brisk builder mode in a second.
‘Then we need to get started. I can’t be here all the time, I’m midway through a job in Craggy Heights but I can help out as and when I’m able and I can certainly get that roof sorted for you. In the meantime, I’ve brought some supplies.’
He was walking out, covering the gaping hole in the deck with one long stride. ‘You need to get that sorted out,’ he threw over his shoulder leaving Beth glowering at the back of his head.
‘Yes, I know…’ she began testily but he hadn’t waited for a reply, jumping off the deck onto the sand and waiting impatiently for her to join him.
She jumped down next to him, refusing to look at Jemima who was watching the events with keen interest, her head swivelling as she watched Jake walk down the beach. At the end of the cobbled lane a few meters away, was a beaten-up truck, the rear of which was packed full of boards.
‘I always have plenty of boards lying around the yard,’ he told her casually. ‘I thought you could use some.’
‘I can’t take…’
‘I can bill you for them if you like.’ He sounded as though it would be extremely inconvenient to do so. ‘But for now, let’s get them out of the truck and stacked up inside. And I’ll take all your rotten ones away while I’m here.’
He was already striding towards the van, his long legs covering the distance in no time as Beth scurried after him.
‘I can’t take...’
‘You’re not taking anything, I’m giving. There’s a difference.’
He unclipped the tailgate and let it fall down, reaching in to grab a stack of planks.
‘But I…’
‘I used to give Lizzie boards when she needed them.’
The sunglasses were back in place, his expression as inscrutable as ever. ‘She always accepted them,’ he challenged. ‘She would say ‘Thank you, Jake, how kind,’ and let me give her as many as she needed.’
Gritting her teeth, Beth’s hands formed fists by her side. Oh, how she would love to wipe that smug look from his face!
‘Thank you, Jake,’ she managed without choking. ‘How kind.’
‘It’s my pleasure,’ he said with a grin. ‘Why don’t you stay at the hut with Sam? I’ll carry them over and you can stack them up.’
‘Because I am renovating my hut,’ growled Beth, ‘and I can carry planks.’
Shrugging, Jake heaved a large stack of boards from the back of the truck, balancing them over his shoulder with ease. ‘They’re heavy,’ he said and turned his back, walking swiftly in the direction of the hut.
Infuriated, Beth reached in to pull some boards towards her. Nothing happened, except for a fingernail snapping and with a frown she tugged harder. He was right, they were heavy, and gritting her teeth she grunted and heaved until she managed to drag two planks the few inches needed to stick out from the back of the truck
Goodness me, she thought panting with effort. They weighed a ton! She could hear voices floating over from outside the hut, Jake insisting that Sam shouldn’t carry anything too heavy, followed by a discussion as to the best place to stack the wood. Refusing to even consider admitting to Jake that he was right, she continued pulling, groaning and gasping until the planks were sticking a good way from the back of the truck.
Deciding there was no way she could follow Jake’s technique of throwing the boards upwards and onto his shoulder as though he were flipping pancakes, Beth turned her back and squatted down, wriggling backwards until the planks reached over her shoulder. Then with a monumental effort and a grunt worthy of the most dedicated weightlifter, she tried to stand up, taking the planks with her, finely balanced as she had seen Jake manage.
Absolutely nothing happened. As soon as Beth’s body came into contact with the boards, all movement stopped and she was stuck in a semi-squat, her face turning purple with effort as she strained and heaved, all to no avail.
‘Shall I help pull them out for you?’ asked Jake with interest, appearing by her side.
A puce-faced Beth peered at him between the rivers of sweat rolling down her face as she tried to heave herself upright.
‘You don’t seem to have your technique worked out quite yet,’ he said in a thoughtful voice.
Beth was putting far too much effort into lifting to answer him.
‘Or I could take them all up to the hut and you could help Sam stack them?’ he suggested helpfully, his head tilted to one side as he watched the epic battle between Beth and the planks.
With one last groan, she had to admit defeat and she fell to her knees beside the van, panting hard with the effort of achieving precisely nothing.
‘Good plan,’ she agreed weakly, breath still in short supply. ‘’Let’s do that.’
The afternoon flew by. Hot, sweaty and slightly reluctant, Beth followed the orders given by Jake whilst making sure that Sam didn’t overexert himself. She couldn’t help worrying whether the savings she had would be sufficient to pay Jake back for the materials he had produced. Or for his time, which was obviously valuable judging by the number of phone calls he received demanding his attention
Taking a short break while he explained to someone that he was too busy to drop everything and build a new porch in time for a party they were holding the following weekend, Beth helped herself to some water and tried to ignore the baleful looks coming from Jemima’s deck.
‘Waste of money,’ mumbled Beth, staying in the protective shade of the beach hut.
‘What is?’
Jake had returned, having taken off his t-shirt and with a rush of blood to her head, Beth looked away from the bare chest before her, refusing to acknowledge the very lean physique and rippling muscles he had exposed.
‘The people who have these beach huts,’ she complained. ‘The Beach Hut Club have made all this fuss about Aunt Lizzie’s hut and yet they’re never here!’
Jake took a deep drink of water, his head tilted slightly back as he relished the coolness and Beth peeped at his biceps, looking away hurriedly as he stopped drinking.
‘The folks at Craggy Heights are all too busy earning money during the week to spend any time on the beach,’ Jake informed her. ‘But wait for the weekend and they’ll be here in their droves, all trying to out BBQ each other, all watching their neighbours to see if anyone has anything bigger and better.’
Beth scowled. ‘Well, it seems like a waste for the huts to be standing empty all week,’ she grumbled. ’Apart from Jemima, I haven’t seen another soul. And she never looks thrilled to be here.’
Jake grinned. ‘Jemima is a typical Craggy Heights wife,’ he said. ‘She has everything she needs and nothing she actually wants. There are a few of them around. All determinedly happy in an unhappy kind of a way. Jemima and Dom live in the biggest house up there. And she takes her responsibilities as Queen Bee very seriously.’
Beth thought back to her conversation with Jemima. She had said they lived in the house in Craggy Heights. How disappointed she must have been that Beth hadn’t known which house she was talking about.
Taking a moment to catch her breath, Beth walked outside to stare at the white-crested waves rolling in. The sea was sparkling, a myriad of tiny sunbeams dancing happily across the surface and Beth closed her eyes, as always soothed by the sights and sounds of Welby.
‘I thought you said you couldn’t afford a builder?’
Unfortunately, there was always somebody nearby to drag her back to earth.
‘Hello Jemima.’
‘You said you were going to do it all yourself and now you’ve got two builders.’
Did Beth detect a touch of disappointment on Jemima’s face? Had she been secretly impressed by Beth’s foolhardy declaration that she was going to carry out the repairs to Number 4 completely by herself?
‘You told me I should get a builder,’ Beth pointed out, for some reason unwilling to admit that both Jake and Sam were helping her purely out of pity.
‘And you said you couldn’t afford one and now you’ve got two!’
Beth wondered if Jemima was peeved because of the number of builders Beth had, or that Beth had let down the cause of feminism and turned to men for help.
As Jemima stared back at her, a glass of champagne in her hand, her face slightly sulky, Beth decided that she probably didn’t subscribe to feminism.
‘I thought you would be pleased,’ Beth said. ‘It means the hut will get finished on time.’
‘I am pleased.’ Shrugging her bony shoulders, Jemima tossed back her hair. ‘I knew you wouldn’t be able to do it yourself. Just keep the noise down, please,’ and she slipped inside, throwing herself on a mound of cream cushions to read a magazine.
Beth shook her head. She didn’t care how unhappy Jake thought Jemima was, the woman was a nightmare and with her break over, she went back inside to continue following Jake’s orders.