Chapter 5
A Resounding Yes
The evening was in full swing at the pub when Owen arrived. Holly smiled at him warmly as he came up to the bar.
‘Did you bring it?’
‘Bring it?’ he asked, looking confused until Holly gestured flicking a wand like she was one of the Sanderson sisters from her favourite Halloween film.
‘Oh, yeah… to show Natasha some magic.’ Holly noted he didn’t sound as excited as she thought he’d be at the prospect.
‘Natalie,’ Seb’s deep voice corrected him from somewhere behind Holly. She hadn’t realised he’d come out to the bar.
‘Seb! Long time no see. How are you, man?’ Owen bypassed Holly to move closer to Seb.
‘I’m good, thanks. But you’ve got to get her name right. You call her Natasha and you’ll have one angry little girl on your hands.’
‘Right, yeah, sure. I didn’t realise you’d moved back? How long have you been living in the Bay?’
Seb eyed Holly carefully as he answered, ‘A few years.’
‘What made you come back, last I heard you were working at some fancy hotel in Liverpool.’
‘I came back for the funeral and realised how much I missed the place. How much I missed being able to see Danny whenever I wanted,’ Seb offered simply.
‘What funer–’ Owen started, and then cut himself off. Holly could see the instant he remembered. If someone had kept him up to date on where Seb had been working, it was likely they’d also told him about the car accident.
It was a sore bruise for Holly that Natalie didn’t remember her grandparents, even though they had been besotted with her.
When she was nine months old, a van had veered onto the wrong side of the road and crashed into her parents’ car.
The paramedics had declared them dead at the scene.
It had taken Holly a while, but she had taken some comfort from the fact it had happened quickly.
Seb had come home for the funeral, and never left.
Mike and Sandra Loxley’s deaths had hit their little village hard.
Even more so, when they were all still reeling from the accident that had taken Hannah, Luke’s wife, from them only three years earlier.
She’d gone into the water to try and rescue her dog and had perished in the unforgiving tide.
For a bay brimming with love, the Loxleys had experienced more than their fair share of heartbreak.
It had been a dark time for Holly and her brother.
Natalie had been the spark that had kept them going.
And when she allowed herself to think about it, Seb had been a huge help too.
Owen turned to Holly, ‘Sorry, that was thoughtless of me. I’d heard about what happened. I’m so sorry, Hols.’
‘Wasn’t your fault,’ she offered matter of factly.
People were always apologising to her about her parents.
When they’d first started doing it, she’d found the hollow words insulting.
They weren’t sorry, because they hadn’t done anything.
It made the sentiment meaningless. But a chat with Eleanor had changed her mind.
She’d told Holly some people didn’t know what to say, and sorry was what came out.
‘Want me to go and get her?’ Seb directed the question at Holly, but Owen was still struggling to get his footing in the conversation and the question confused him.
‘Who?’ he asked.
‘Natalie… hello, Owen. Anybody in there?’ he reached across the bar and playfully knocked on Owen’s forehead.
Holly smiled at the Back to the Future reference.
She loved those films. Holly’s love of films rivalled Rose’s of books.
She escaped inside her TV more times than she cared to admit.
In the same way her friend found comfort in familiar stories, Holly had a rack of DVDs to turn to when real life was hard.
Looking between Seb and Owen, she said, ‘No, it’s OK.
You two catch up some more. I’ll get her in a minute. ’
Owen lent on the bar, pulled out his phone and handed it to Seb.
‘Give me your number. We should go for a drink some time. Have a proper catch up.’
Seb tapped his number into Owen’s phone and started to give him a succinct overview of the last seventeen years.
Holly slipped behind Seb, accidentally brushing his arm as she passed to make her way to the stairs.
She paused at the bottom step, giving herself a moment for her pulse to settle after the contact.
She was about to internally chastise herself for acting like a teenager, when she noticed Seb was watching her instead of looking at Owen.
As their gazes connected, he looked away…
but not quickly like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t.
He turned away slowly with a sadness in his eyes as if she’d somehow disappointed him.
She brushed off the feeling and headed up to Natalie’s room.
*
She found her daughter in a towering pillow fort she had clearly constructed by collecting every soft furnishing that was in their upstairs living space.
It was quite an impressive feat of engineering for someone so small.
Holly stood at the threshold to her old childhood room, remembering the time she’d spent in here with her friends as a child.
It had felt weird moving into her parents bedroom when Natalie had turned one, but they’d both needed their own rooms. Her parents had only been gone a few months at that point, and although it had been gut-wrenchingly hard to move their stuff out, and hers in, it had also felt wrong for their room to sit empty when it had been filled with love for so many years.
She had even sought the view of the Fortune Cube (as was its official name) on the matter when she’d agonised over whether it was the right time to make the room hers.
When she’d seen the words, A Resounding Yes, Holly had felt such a wash of relief.
It had been the sign she’d needed, and the cube had been right.
Somehow, she’d felt closer to her parents even with most of their things removed from the room.
Natalie suddenly leapt out of the pillow fort, brandishing a flashing pink plastic wand in her hand.
‘I come in peace, darling,’ Holly managed to get out before Natalie assaulted her with the wand. She knew from previous experience those little things hurt. ‘Owen is downstairs and has some magic tricks to show you.’
Natalie squealed excitedly and pushed past Holly to race down the stairs.
Holly considered calling out for her to stop, to be careful, even just a reminder to slow down.
Instead, she shrugged, knowing there wasn’t any point in saying any of those things, and followed her whippet of a daughter down the stairs.
*
‘Mummy said you’re a magishun,’ Natalie accused Owen, struggling over the last word as she stared up at him from beside Seb.
‘I can do a few tricks. Want to see?’ Owen offered kindly.
He wasn’t at ease with her as much as Seb was, but Holly didn’t hold that against him. She knew it was to be expected. It warmed Holly’s heart to see he was trying. Natalie nodded, but shimmied closer to Seb.
Owen reached into his pocket and pulled out a deck of cards.
He offered them to Natalie with some words of encouragement and she picked one, showing it to Seb excitedly.
Seb whispered for her to put it back in the pile, and then Owen dutifully tapped the deck, flipping over the top card.
Going by Natalie’s reaction, Holly assumed he’d picked the card she’d chosen.
Without giving Owen a chance to bask in the glory of his successful trick, Natalie asked, ‘What else can you do?’ Her eyes sparkling at him as she bounced on the balls of her feet.
He reached into his pocket again, and this time produced a small red ball.
Natalie strained to peer up at the bar. Before Holly had a chance to go and lift her up, Seb had reached down and Natalie gleefully looped her hands around his neck in anticipation for the action she knew was coming.
Not for the first time, Holly’s heart ached for the spot Seb had effortlessly filled in Natalie’s life.
In any other reality, Holly could see her, Seb and Natalie together as a trifecta force to be reckoned with.
But he had made his position clear with Holly all those years ago, and she couldn’t afford to waste any more time pining after someone who didn’t want her like that.
‘What can you do with that?’ Natalie asked as she prodded the soft ball.
‘Careful, it’s magic,’ Owen teased, ‘it might turn you into a frog.’
Natalie recoiled instantly, burrowing herself into Seb’s side.
‘Are you a real w-w-wizard?’ she asked, her voice shaking.
‘Owen can just do some tricks, darling, don’t worry - no one is being turned into a frog,’ Holly reassured her as she stepped in closer.
Owen mouthed a sorry to her before ploughing on with his next trick that involved the ball disappearing and then reappearing behind Natalie’s ears. She giggled each time, but still stayed glued to Seb - Holly could tell the threat of being turned into a frog lingered.