Chapter Four
Brodie Robertson had just bought himself a coffee from the bakery and taken it onto the beach, happy to sit and enjoy the warmth of the early summer sun while he took a break from the paint fumes on his current project.
It felt good to be out in the fresh air for a while.
Usually, he was outside throughout the summer months as everyone wanted their garden landscaped or new sheds or summer houses built.
But his latest project had been renovating the flat above the bakery.
It had required the works — everything had to be ripped out — and he had started renovating it in the spring: a new bathroom and kitchen and complete repaint.
But almost eight weeks later, working flat out at night and at weekends and pulling in a few favours from friends, he was almost finished and couldn’t wait to unveil it to Gillian.
He smiled and waved at Emmet, who jogged past, on his way to open up the outside sauna.
‘Hey, Brodie. How are you?’ he said with a wide smile.
‘Good, thanks.’ Brodie hadn’t been to the sauna for ages and knew his aching limbs would benefit from it. He must make time to book himself a session. ‘How’re you?’
‘Great.’ Emmet stopped and started doing his quad stretches. ‘Just been for a quick run before I open up the cabin.’
Brodie had to suppress a smile. Emmet was a man who never stopped moving; out cycling, running, training for an Ironman competition or bustling around the sauna that he’d opened last year.
A quick run meant he’d done ten kilometres minimum — no wonder he was so slim.
Brodie didn’t recall ever having seen him sit down for more than five minutes.
The man had ants in his pants. ‘I’ll need to get in and have a session soon. ’
‘Be good to see you, mate.’ Emmet gave him a thumbs up, stretched his arms over his head and jogged on.
Brodie drained the rest of his coffee, stood up and started to walk back to the high street.
The next project he was moving on to would be outside and he was looking forward to it.
Iris, a retired teacher who lived in the converted old boathouse in the village, had been asking him for a while to come and ‘do something’ with her huge garden.
He was looking forward to the challenge.
It was currently a tangle of weeds and overgrown shrubs.
It was a fantastic space and he had lots of ideas for making it more user-friendly and accessible for Iris.
He glanced down at his arms which were covered with spots of white paint, noticing how pale his skin was.
The tan he had from his Christmas holiday to Costa Rica had faded long ago.
The sloths and surfing in Nosara were but a distant memory and felt like a lifetime ago.
Especially that relaxed version of himself when he could laze in the sun and then cool off in the sea.
Real life had crept back in as soon as he’d come home.
Brodie had been so busy with work since the start of the year but he wasn’t complaining.
He liked being his own boss, loved the fact he worked outdoors for the most part and lived in the beautiful village of Rowan Bay.
There was nowhere else he’d rather be. But he could do with a better work-life balance.
As he contemplated how he might achieve this, and what that might look like, he heard his name being called and saw Jessica walking towards him.
Jessica had recently moved to Rowan Bay after giving up a high-flying career as a lawyer in London.
She was like a breath of fresh air to the village.
Not only had she driven a community buy-out of the bakery — which was at risk of closure — but she had secured jobs for Gillian who worked there and a part-time role for the previous owner, Struan.
From what Brodie could see, Jessica was making a huge success of the bakery and made the best cakes he’d ever tasted, which spoke volumes as he had a very sweet tooth.
She had also bought the flat above. Jessica wanted Gillian and her daughter to move into the flat and had asked Brodie to get it ready.
And she had also put the smile back on the face of his friend, Reuben, who had vowed to Brodie he would never find love again after the breakdown of his marriage.
In Brodie’s eyes she was a bit of an all-round superstar.
‘Hi, Jess. All’s on schedule. Worry not,’ he teased before Jessica could speak. He knew she was excited for her friend to move in. ’Do you want to come up and have a look?’
‘I’m so tempted but I think I’d rather wait and see it all finished.’ She smiled warmly at him. ‘Even though I’m dying to see what you’ve been up to. I know you’ll have done a brilliant job and Gillian and Millie will love it.’
‘Thanks, Jess,’ Brodie said with a smile, ‘but I think you deserve the thanks, helping Gillian out like that.’ Gillian had been living with her mum since a relationship break-up when Millie was a baby.
But now Millie was six years old, her mum’s small house was no longer a realistic living arrangement for them all.
Brodie was glad to be able to help out. He knew having their own space would make such a massive difference to the family.
‘I better get back to it, then,’ he said, gesturing towards the building.
‘I just had my coffee break on the beach.’
‘Gorgeous morning, isn’t it? Shame I need to get to work, too. I’ve left Gillian holding the fort. It’s good to see you. Hopefully you and Reuben can get together for a beer soon. He’s been working flat out.’
Brodie chuckled. ‘I know, he seems to have vanished off the face of the earth.’ Reuben was an architect and had taken on a massive design project for a house near Drymen which was consuming him.
‘Tell me about it,’ said Jessica drily. ‘I’ve hardly seen him either. Maybe one of these days he’ll come home and not fall asleep before nine o’clock.’ She rolled her eyes but couldn’t keep the grin from her face as she talked about Reuben. ‘Anyway, I’d best get on. See you soon.’
Brodie made a mental note to contact Reuben for a catch-up, wondering if he would ever meet someone who would make him smile the way that the two of them did together.