Chapter 9 #2
‘I’ll let her tell you, but you couldn’t have picked a better time to come home.
Annie’s here too, on a week off from the hospital.
So the whole gang will be together.’ Tabitha hugged her again and Hope let go of a long breath.
She was home, in the heart of her family, and all of a sudden, it felt entirely possible that she’d be able to go through her whole life without ever needing to tell Joe Carter that he was her biological father.
Why on earth would she need to when she already had the best family she could ever have asked for?
‘Dad, what in God’s name have you got those on for?
It’s twenty-six degrees out there – beach weather – and you look like you’re ready to hit the slopes.
’ Hope’s dad had just walked into the house wearing a pair of fluffy red earmuffs and she was the first one to look up from the lively conversation she’d been having with her mum and sisters and spot him.
He lifted one of the earmuffs slightly away from the side of his head. ‘Pardon?’
‘I said, why are you wearing earmuffs in a heatwave?’
‘I’m surrounded by my five favourite people, the best women in the world, but if I don’t wear these, I’ll have permanent hearing damage by breakfast time tomorrow. The safe limit is eighty-five decibels, and I had a call from St Catherine’s Fort to say they could hear you from the island.’
‘Yeah right, and they probably thought your snoring last night was an impending earthquake. I’ll be taking ownership of these tonight, thank you very much.’ Alison stood up and playfully twanged his earmuffs.
‘Well, there’s something to look forward to. Just you, me, and a pair of fluffy red earmuffs.’ Dave wagged his eyebrows and all four of his daughters groaned, but it was Annie who protested first.
‘Please don’t, Dad. I’ve had to see all sort of gruesome sights since I started my medical training, but the image you’ve just put in my head is far worse than any of it, and we’ve got to eat dinner soon.’
Bea wrinkled her nose. ‘Don’t get your hopes up on the dinner front.
Dad’s on a nostalgia drive and he’s been recreating the meals of his youth.
Last week we had meatloaf, it looked like something even Teddy would turn his nose up at, and as for the seafood mousse…
’ Bea clamped a hand over her mouth and blew out her cheeks.
‘As the only other male in the house, Teddy is on my side and the seafood mousse was delicious,’ Dave insisted, earning a snort of laughter from his wife.
‘It tasted even worse than it smelt, and it smelt like rotting fish.’
‘Dare I ask what’s at the root of this sudden nostalgia?’ Hope gave her parents a questioning look.
‘It’s you girls all moving forward with your lives.’ Alison rolled her eyes. ‘Your father’s every bit as proud of that as I am, but it’s also a stark reminder of how quickly time is passing, and it’s got him all fired up with reminiscing.’
‘And your mother has signed up for the Pembrokeshire Coast Triathlon, so we all have our coping mechanisms.’ Dave winked at his wife.
‘Maybe, but at least Mum and I are the only ones in danger of injuring ourselves in the triathlon, now that she’s roped me in to train for it too,’ Tabby said reasonably.
‘From what Bea said, we could all be at risk if you’re going to insist on cooking us some kind of throwback dinner.
There’s a reason the seventies is called the era that taste forgot, and that goes for the cuisine too. ’
‘If it’s seafood mousse again, I’m going on a run and I’m not stopping until I get to Anglesey.’ Bea folded her arms across her chest.
‘Maybe Dad should be a personal trainer, because running well over a hundred miles would be very good training for you getting into the army.’ Annie’s eyes had a mischievous glint as she made the suggestion.
Hope hadn’t been entirely surprised to learn that her youngest sister was considering officer training at Sandhurst, and then studying for a degree related to whatever specialism she eventually chose, but Annie hadn’t finished yet.
‘And that kind of distance should be just about far enough to outrun the smell of Dad’s mousse. ’
‘Maybe swim to Middle Mouse when you get there, just to be sure?’ Hope tried to sound serious as she suggested that her sister escape to the uninhabited island at the most northerly point of Wales, but laughter was already bubbling up, even before her father shook his head in an exaggerated way.
‘You girls are so mean to your poor old dad. I’ll have you know that if I wanted to follow Bea to Middle Mouse, I could strap a Tupperware pot of seafood mousse to my chest and reach her with a delicious dinner still fully intact.’
‘Hmm.’ Annie sounded doubtful. ‘Mum’s the triathlete around here, so if that’s out and cooking is also out, I think you might need to find another way to try and recapture your youth. Plastic surgery, maybe?’
‘To be fair, that might result in me getting two new hobbies.’ Dave was deadpan. ‘Because I’d probably have enough spare skin left over to be able to take up chair re-upholstery.’
‘What a prize I won when I married you.’ Hope’s mother laughed, seeming completely unfazed by the image her husband had put into all of their heads.
Wrapping her arms around Dave’s waist, the action betrayed her true feelings.
They adored one another, every bit as much as they loved their four daughters and it wouldn’t have been a Masterson get-together if there hadn’t been as much ribbing of one another as there was.
The shared laughter felt like home every bit as much as it had when Tenby Harbour had loomed into view.
Port Agnes had reminded Hope of Tenby as soon as she’d arrived.
Maybe that was why she’d felt as at home as she had from the moment she’d got to Cornwall, and why she didn’t doubt that she’d made the right decision taking a job at St Piran’s, even though she was never going to tell Joe Carter who she was.
‘I don’t know why I’m doing this when you are all so horribly cruel towards me.
’ Dave pulled away from his wife and rested a hand on his chest, releasing an overly dramatic sigh.
‘But there’ll be no seafood mousse tonight, or even meatloaf, because I’m taking you all out to Il Caminetto to celebrate the fact that Hope has come home to surprise us and that I have all my favourite girls under one roof again.
Even if that does mean I’ll spend the next few days being relentlessly ridiculed. ’
‘Ah, Dad, you know you love it!’ Tabby planted a kiss on her father’s cheek and the rest of the girls piled in for a hug.
Il Caminetto had always been Hope’s favourite local restaurant and where she’d chosen to go to celebrate momentous occasions, like graduating from university.
As her father pulled her into his arms and held her tight, she knew she’d made the right decision coming back to Tenby.
For the first time since she’d met Joe, it didn’t feel like there were unspoken words screaming to get out, because she was free to say exactly what needed to be said.
‘Thanks, Dad, I love you.’
‘Love you too, sweetheart. More than you’ll ever know.
’ Her father’s response was perfect, just as it had been whenever she’d desperately needed him to say the right thing.
When she went back to work at St Piran’s, she’d be able to see Joe without wondering what kind of difference it might make to her life if her biological father was part of it.
Now that she was back with her family, she was certain it would be enough just to know that Joe was a good man.
She might be right at the start of her new life in Cornwall, but her heart would always live here, with the people who’d made Hope who she was.