Chapter 49
49
I’d texted Mum and said I didn’t want to talk about it but would be on the first train out of Paddington at 6a.m. Dad picked me up from Truro and I arrived back in the bay just before twelve and decided to go straight to the shop for a few hours. When I arrived, it turned out Mum and Dan were already there, as well as a steady stream of customers. I got to work straight away, trying to welcome the distraction and avoid the pitying glances that Mum and Dan were giving me.
I knew we were a funny bunch in Driftwood Bay and we were properly stuck in our ways and when Mum said we’d be having tea at the bistro before going to the pub, I said that I didn’t feel like going after my long day of travelling.
‘Well, I’m not taking no for an answer. Otherwise you’ll just sit at home and mope. And we don’t do that in our family. So we’re going and that’s that! It’s the Christmas pub quiz tonight, so we have to go.’
I felt the huge loss of not having Dennie in our team. There were a handful of questions that we all knew that he would have been able to answer but thankfully no one mentioned it. I’d hoped that Vi would have come along but Mum said she wasn’t feeling great and didn’t fancy a night out.
It was cold on our walk back to the house, crisp with a frost forming but a clear inky sky, lit up by a million twinkly stars.
‘I’ll be in shortly, Mum. I’m just going to have five minutes down in the harbour.’
She kissed my temple. ‘OK, darling. Don’t be long though. It’s cold.’
I sat on a bench in the harbour, watching the boats sway on the water, a feeling of heaviness within that wouldn’t lift. The halyards clinking was a sound that I didn’t normally notice that much after living here for so long but tonight it was the only sound in the air. In my fairy tale, my film star boyfriend would come and sit next to me on the bench and after a few moments of silence just say hi. Then he would declare his undying love for me, take me in his arms and kiss me passionately before taking me home, throwing me on the bed and, as Vi would say, roger me senseless.
I looked across at the empty space beside me on the bench and sighed loudly, wondering what Dennie would be doing right then. Was he with her? Were they planning to spend Christmas Day together? On her yacht? Had he forgotten about me already? Were all those words of his lies? Did he mean any of it?
Heavy footsteps interrupted my thoughts and a shadow fell across my lap, blocking out the light from the street lamp. The bench dipped as someone sat next to me and snaked their arm around my shoulder and I found myself folding into them, crying quietly into their parka jacket.
‘It’s OK, sis. I’ve got you.’
And my brother rocked me until, sniffing loudly and wiping at my nose with my sleeve, I suggested that we went home. I fell into bed and slept like a log.