Chapter 29
T he edges of Pretty Beach looked as if they had been painted here and there in little dabs of gold; on the corners of the buildings, on the top of the lighthouse and on the crevices of the clouds.
Daisy was on her way to clean for Suntanned Pete.
She’d taken one look at the weather and had decided to ditch her car and walk down to the ferry to enjoy the sunshine and crisp air.
The corporations might be coming for Pretty Beach, but they’d never be able to get its air.
There was something about crossing Pretty Beach on the water that always meant a good start to the day and a sort of settling in her bones.
Now she was back in Pretty Beach itself, she tried to make the most of it whenever she could.
When Daisy had arrived at the wharf, the east-to-west ferry was halfway through its regular half-hourly loop around Pretty Beach.
Daisy had clambered on with her tote bag, a thermos of Earl Grey ready for her day, three packets of wine gums and after a busy morning with the school run and a bookshop delivery, she was ready for a little spot of time to quieten her brain.
Tucking herself into the lower deck on the seaward side, near a crate of tangled rope and an old sign warning NO STANDING NEAR EDGE IN ROUGH CONDITIONS, she put her bag on her lap.
One of her favourite spots on the ferry, a slant of sun reached her sleeve and she inhaled clear, crisp sea air.
Unscrewing the lid of her tea, she stared out over beautifully behaving water; calm, glassy, just a few ripples catching the light and throwing up a few diamond sparkles here and there.
Above, on the main deck, she could hear one of the crew greeting passengers and the low sound of a group getting on.
Voices, laughter, a little tap-tap of feet on the old stairs.
Tucked away in the little spot, she saw a group of mums from the school pass on the other side, walk around the front of the ferry and then take a bench seat not far from her alongside the railing.
Though in spitting distance, a large pillar rattling with life jackets in pigeonholes and a pile of coiled rope meant Daisy could not be seen.
Daisy didn’t move, kept her head down and her hands wrapped around her cup, and hoped the women didn’t turn around.
Georgia’s voice was clear. ‘Isn’t it glorious today? I didn’t even bother with a cardi. This sea today is something else.’
‘It’s got that end-of-summer thing going on. Where you can still wear sunglasses, but you need a scarf in the shade.’
Georgia laughed. ‘Exactly. Do you know, this is the first time in weeks I’ve actually sat still. Between the charity gala, the meeting about the newsagent’s building and the reading rota, I feel like I haven’t had time to breathe. It’s so hard being a stay-at-home mum.’
‘I know, same here. What have you been up to?’
‘Oh, you know, busy, busy, busy! I don’t know where the time goes, I really don’t.’
Daisy sat and sipped her tea and couldn’t help but listen to their tittle tattle as they chatted about reading levels, Georgia’s new car and a discussion about whether or not Georgia was going to boycott her usual twice-yearly jaunt to Spain the following year because of Spain’s issue with tourists.
She went cold as she heard the twins mentioned.
‘Did you see poor little Margot’s graze on her cheek when she went flying in the playground? Poor thing had half her skin whipped off!’
‘I know! Gosh, they do tumble on that playground. I must remember to put it to the committee about getting it resurfaced.’
‘Daisy must have been upset to see her like that. It seems to be healing okay, though.’
‘For sure. Any updates on that situation?’
‘No idea! She’s still just swanning around in her little bookshop, all boho lampshades and cinnamon candles as far as I can see.
It might not last long, though, if that building gets sold.
’ Georgia made a horrible cackling sound.
‘Thing is: all along she’s been playing at business when her Mum is the one paying for it all.
Yeah, we could all do that if Mummy was paying our bills. Am I right?’
Daisy’s top and bottom teeth locked together and she closed her eyes for a second.
‘Oh, I know. I know, I know.’
‘As if she’d ever make it otherwise. I thought that at the meeting but I decided that no one would like to hear that about the Henleys.’ Georgia lowered her voice and was in full-on, rub-her-hands-together, snark mode. ‘Have you seen the mystery man recently?’
‘Miles?’
‘Yes.’
The other one snorted. ‘No one’s seen him. He’s vanished again, hasn’t he?’
Daisy felt the words land squarely on her chest. She pressed her thumb against the seam of the flask and stared out at the sea. A single seagull floated low across the surface and little sparkles of sunlight glinted on the top of the water as anger bubbled in her stomach.
Georgia continued. ‘We said it from the start, didn’t we?
It had all the markings of a fantasy, but we all know how that goes down here.
The brooding city type came along and swept her off her feet.
What did she think he was going to do? Settle down with her and her kids and run the book club? My left foot.’
‘It was romantic, in theory. It was only a matter of time, though. We said that, didn’t we?’
‘In theory, yes, but this is real life. People don’t change postcodes and priorities like that. Not unless they’ve got a reason. She’s got so much baggage, too and even more with the impending threat about the sale of that building. What a shame…’
‘Do you think they’ve broken up then?’
‘I don’t know. I tried to have a little dig in the bakery, but Holly was having none of it. But I do know that the moment someone like that goes quiet, it’s usually for a reason. And not a good one.’
There was a pause. Daisy could hear the clinking of the chains on the side of the ferry. One of them tutted.
‘I mean, poor Daisy. Honestly. It must be embarrassing for her because everyone else could see it coming.’
‘Well, that’s the thing, isn’t it? She always looked like she was playing house. The twins, the bookshop, the handsome hero. I think she just wanted it all to be true so badly, she convinced herself it already was. We all knew better.’
‘And now look.’
Georgia sighed. ‘I mean, I don’t want to sound awful…’
‘But you’re going to.’ The other mum tittered.
‘No, I just think it was always a bit performative, wasn’t it? The hampers, the flowers, the late-night fairy-light bookshop lock-ins. We heard about all of that on the grapevine. All very romcom vibes, but we’ve all been there and know that sort of thing has a shelf life.’
‘Do you think he’s gone back to his old life?’
‘Wouldn’t surprise me. Men like that always do, if you ask me. It’s in their blood. The whole rugged coastal, small-town charm thing wears off once they remember they’ve got a corner office and a fancy gym membership.’
‘Still, poor Daisy. It must be mortifying . I mean, the bookshop’s sweet and everything, but it’s hardly a safety net when something like that happens. The GayesBooks thing, too. Double whammy.’
‘She’s a Henley girl, that’s her safety net. But yeah, she’s supposedly got a business to run, two girls to raise, a whole building to maintain. Although, from what I’ve heard, she’s had Suntanned Pete and Annabelle’s husband doing everything for her. The woman is like the local charity case.’
‘You can’t run your life on herbal tea and optimism.’
‘That’s the point, though. She can because she’s always bailed out by her family.
I mean, look at all the support she gets.
Her mum and her two sisters look after those twins more than she does.
I know they say it takes a village and all that, but she takes that to the ninth degree and now there’s the whole bookshop owner thing.
Yeah right, because of course Boho Daisy runs a bookshop, although its days may now be numbered. ’
Daisy wanted to deck Georgia. Instead, she stayed rooted to the bench.
‘Do you think she saw it coming?’
There was a pause. ‘Who knows? She fell for the whole thing, hook, line and sinker. The posh hamper, the way he looked at her at The Orangery. Fair enough in some ways. Come on, who wouldn’t want that?
But when a man disappears at the first sign of real life happening, you’ve got to ask whether he was ever really in it. ’
The other mum made a soft, sympathetic sound. ‘It was always going to happen, if you ask me. We called it and we were right.’
‘I think she wanted a fairytale and we all know how that ends. Sad really.’
A long pause followed and the slow churn of the ferry’s engine filled the air.
‘Do you think the bookshop will be here long-term if that company moves into the laneway? GayesBooks?’
‘Who knows? I reckon one day the bookshop will just quietly disappear, and the shop will have a lease sign on the door. We’ll all get fed the story by the Henleys that Daisy had a wonderful time, but is now on a new journey or some old rubbish like that.
When in reality, it was a big fat failure.
The Henley girls don’t do failure on the outside, though.
It was the same with Maggie at school. She was always a high achiever from the get-go and didn’t we know about it. ’
‘Oh, I can imagine. They strut around as if they own the place. I saw the three of them in the curry house the other weekend acting as if they were in charge.’
‘No change there.’
They both went quiet after that. From her hidden spot behind the lifejackets and the huge coil of rope, Daisy sat very still.
Shaking her head, she felt each word settle in her chest. Georgia was brutal, that was for sure and had no idea what was going on, but did she have a point?
Here she was with a flask of tea, listening to two women dissecting her life one bench over.
Sighing, she took a sip and watched the coastline come into view on the other side, where pastel coloured beach huts stood in a neat row, and a little jetty caught the light just right.
Part of Daisy was fuming, part upset, part in freefall.
She could have stood up, marched around the life jackets and said something and reminded them both that she wasn’t a story they were allowed to gossip about on the ferry.
However, she remained precisely where she was and told herself they weren’t worth her words, headspace or energy.
She also knew that saying something and causing a scene would go around Pretty Beach in seconds and she definitely didn’t want that.
She wasn’t going to give the likes of Georgia and her cronies the satisfaction.
Instead, she sat until the ferry bumped against the wooden posts of the wharf and watched as a rope was thrown and the engine shifted into idle. Waiting until the mums clattered back up the stairs, still talking, she gathered her bag and quickly walked up to get off.
Mulling it over as she walked off the ferry, tapping her card on the payment pad, Daisy sighed and tutted.
In actual fact, she didn’t know what would happen next with Miles and didn’t have a clue how it would all unfold with the bookshop.
What she did know was that she was not a fool and for sure she was not playing house.
Her bills which she paid herself told her that.
Let them think what they wanted. In her heart, she knew she’d grafted and hustled to get where she was and actually, she was very proud about that.