Chapter 2
You Can Count on This
A chill brought her back to the here and now as the pub door opened and Tony and Lucy walked in.
Lucy’s return had been the talk of the Bay during the recent beer festival.
Last year, she’d moved to Bristol for work and had left Tony heartbroken.
He’d thrown himself into making a success of the coffee shop across the street, but he hadn’t been the same without her.
Judging by the strained look on their faces though, things weren’t slotting back into place as easily as he’d hoped now she was back.
Once they’d ordered their drinks, they sat themselves by the window.
They both immediately dropped into a deep conversation.
‘Mummy…’ Natalie’s tired voice called from the bottom of the stairs.
‘Yes, darling?’ she called back, pushing away from the bar to go to her daughter.
‘I can’t sleep,’ she moaned, as she twisted her loose blonde curls.
‘Want me to read you another story?’ she offered.
She didn’t mind tonight either. Some nights, she’d inwardly groan when Natalie would demand another story.
But tonight she didn’t feel the usual conflict of juggling her responsibilities in the pub and her daughter’s somewhat demanding bedtime routine.
The pub was quiet tonight, and she also knew Rose or Luke were happy standing in for her behind the bar.
‘No,’ was Natalie’s simple reply and then with a pout a model would be proud of, she pointed towards the kitchen.
‘Oh no you don’t–’ Holly started to say, but Natalie was already moving towards the door that led to Seb’s sanctuary. ‘Natalie Sandra Loxley, don’t you dare–’
But she did dare. She ran, much quicker than Holly thought she was capable of after a busy day with Eleanor, and pushed open the doors to the kitchen before she could stop her.
Holly stumbled in after her to find Natalie giggling as she hid behind Seb.
‘I’m so sorry, Seb,’ she apologised, reaching for Natalie, just as she dodged Holly’s grasp. Three and half year olds were nimble, Holly groaned to herself.
‘It’s no bother,’ he replied in that deep soft voice of his.
A voice she hated she loved so much. She almost loved it as much as she did him.
But she swallowed that thought for… well she’d lost count of how many times she’d had to squash, trample, and in whatever other way she could describe, disregard her feelings for Sebastian Walker.
‘You’ve cut your hair,’ Holly blurted out before she could stop herself.
Seb self consciously brought his hand up to his clipper cut deep brown hair. Gone were the corkscrew coils she always liked, but this look still worked for him.
‘Sorry, that was rude. Let me start again. Your hair looks good, Seb.’
He huffed out a little laugh, but it didn’t reach his obsidian brown eyes. ‘Thanks, Holly. Danny is home for a bit and you know how he prefers my hair shorter.’
Holly nodded, ‘He’s not been home for a while. Things going alright for him at the new residential place?’
Seb turned and bent down to lift Natalie up onto this hip, before turning back to Holly, ‘Yeah. This new assisted living place seems great. Me, Mum, and Dad take it in turns to go and visit every few days, but they’ve booked some time off so he’s coming back here to spend some proper time with us.
He’s going to stay at mine for a couple of nights too now I’ve been able to find somewhere that hires out mobile hoists. ’
It was another thing she hated to love about him.
He was the perfect big brother. Nineteen years ago, as everyone was recovering from the fact the world didn’t end with the Y2K, Seb’s parents had surprised everyone when his mum had announced her pregnancy.
Seb and Holly had been fourteen - so it had been a shock for him to become a brother as a teenager.
When they’d all found out Danny had cerebral palsy, Seb had stepped up as a brother and a son.
He doted on Danny something chronic; they had a beautiful relationship.
Since he’d moved back to the Bay, Seb was taking every opportunity for the lost years when he’d been away.
But once Danny turned 18, his care package had started to fall apart and so they’d had to look for long term solutions to keep Danny happy and safe - albeit not at home with his parents.
Thankfully for the family, Kingsbeck Court was a residential setting twenty miles away, and Holly was relieved to hear he was settling in well.
‘I liked your curls though,’ Natalie interrupted them, pouting as she poked Seb in the head.
‘Sorry Tally, but you know what Danny wants, he gets. And the curls will grow back,’ he offered, to placate her precocious daughter.
‘Come on, Natalie. Let’s leave Seb to get on.’
‘Don’t want to.’
‘Natalie.’
‘I don’t mind, Holly. She can keep me company for a bit.’ He shrugged one shoulder, as if it really wouldn’t be a pain to have a pre-schooler hanging around the kitchen.
‘Are you sure?’
‘I’ve always got time for my best friend.’
Natalie’s face lit up with the moniker he’d so easily bestowed upon her.
‘OK. If you’re sure?’ When he nodded, she turned to Natalie, ‘Just twenty minutes, and then you need to go to bed.’
But Natalie wasn’t listening as she launched into a rambling account of making madeleines with Eleanor. Seb, however, caught her eye and nodded, before giving Natalie his full and undivided attention.
Holly left the kitchen and sank back into the reassuring wall behind her.
Normally, she was fine around Seb. She’d had twelve years to get over him breaking her heart and most days she coped surprisingly well.
But when he interacted with Natalie like that, or caught her unguarded with his deep voice, she found herself back in 2007 when she was utterly in love with him, and hopeful he loved her too.
Instead of going back to the bar, she snuck upstairs quickly to find her swim bag from earlier.
Taking out her talisman, she held it close to her chest, as she whispered, ‘Will it ever get easier?’ A reassuring calm settled over her when she saw the words You Can Count on This flickering on the LCD screen.
Feeling ready to face people again, she headed back downstairs.
‘Everything OK?’ Rose asked as she stepped out from behind the bar, and moved to the other side, settling herself on a stool.
‘Natalie is just being a tweenager. God, how am I going to cope when she’s actually a teenager?’ Holly groaned.
‘What did she do?’ Rose asked on a laugh, as Holly offered her a wine glass. When she nodded, Holly reached down to the fridge below the bar and found the bottle of pinot she knew Rose liked.
‘Oh, she refused to go to bed and pouted at Seb so she can stay up and chat with him instead of listening to me,’ Holly explained as she poured her a glass.
‘Seb? So Natalie is a fan?’ Rose brought the glass to her lips and sipped, her eyes dancing with the possibility of finding more out about Seb.
Ever since her brother had let slip Seb was at her 21st birthday party, a party no one is allowed to talk about, Rose had been annoyingly interested in him.
‘Yes…’ she offered warily, ‘Natalie is a fan. In truth, everyone loves Seb. In almost every way, he is the epitome of the best guy you can envisage.’
‘Just not the guy for you?’ Rose probed and took another sip of wine, her eyes still fixed on Holly, ‘You’re sure he isn’t a contender for my challenge?
’ Rose gestured to the beer mat fixed to the wall in the corner of the bar.
The date of Natalie’s fourth birthday written in black ink set it stone Rose’s challenge to find Holly a boyfriend before the 18th November - seven months away.
‘Not the guy for me,’ Holly confirmed, refusing to be pulled into a conversation she didn’t want to have.
‘He must have really messed up at your 21st birthday.’
Holly gently bit into her bottom lip to stop herself from rising to the bait. She had to give Rose credit for her tenacity when it came to this, even if her stomach dropped every time she was reminded of that night.
‘Nice try, Rose, but I’ve told you. We don’t talk about my 21st.’
‘But why?’ she quietly wailed, ‘Luke still won’t tell me anything.’
‘What do you mean still?’ she quizzed, mimicking the stress Rose had put on that word.
And then it dawned on her. ‘Urgh, you mean he didn’t tell you in a post-sex haze?
Jeez Rose, I’m all on board with your ship, but please refrain from any references…
explicit or otherwise. I cannot deal with that. ’
Rose had the good grace to look a little sheepish. ‘I didn’t mean post-sex per se… I meant now we’re together, I thought he might have told me.’
‘Well good. I’m glad the Loxley Sibling Code remains firmly intact.’
‘The what?’
‘The Loxley Sibling Code. 1. We keep our secrets. 2. We come when called, no questions asked, no matter what’s going on.’
‘That’s a pretty short code,’ Rose said, her eyes crinkling in delight, ‘I assumed you were going to add more to that list. Do two things even constitute a code?’ Rose screwed her face up, her scepticism visible through the set of her mouth.
‘It has served us well over the years.’ Holly shrugged, before shouting out, ‘Hey Luke?’
‘Yeah?’ he called back from the dartboard.
‘Loxley Siblings–’
‘Do not let each other down,’ he responded, with a hint of reluctance, that Holly reveled in. She knew she was embarrassing him, and she loved it. It served him right for all the embarrassment he had caused her over the years.
‘Oh God. You two are the cutest,’ Rose squealed, her eyes gleaming.
In three quick strides, Luke joined Rose, and slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her flush against him, peppering her neck with light kisses.
‘Urgh. Get a room,’ Holly groaned, her earlier delight at embarrassing him gone.
‘What’s with the Loxley call out?’ Luke asked, ignoring Holly’s brusque tone.
‘I was just explaining it to Rose here. She asked me again about my 21st.’