Chapter Forty-Six
Effie desperately wanted to talk to Jake alone.
She sensed there was much more he wanted to say than he’d been able to voice in the shop.
It thrummed between them like a live wire.
However, as Sue had driven them over to Penzance in her seven-seater, which they were all now crammed into for the return journey, there was no space for a private conversation.
The car was full of unspoken desire, unuttered explanations and anticipation over what would happen next.
Everyone pretended that they weren’t dying to hear if Effie and Jake were getting together.
Effie snuck a glance at him across the back seat.
Jake reached over and linked his fingers experimentally through hers as they hurtled around the twisty country lanes.
When Effie gave him a small, encouraging smile, Jake squeezed her hand rather than pulling away.
Clive was bringing up the rear in his sports car, Maddie in the passenger seat, having proclaimed they could close the shop for an afternoon as she was not missing out on all the excitement.
‘I hope Clive knows we’re all doing this for you, not to save his arse,’ Jake said.
‘We’ve all missed you,’ Lola said. ‘Polcarrow isn’t the same without its resident mermaid. All the kids are scared of going into the shop because Zach banned them from picking up the books. Doesn’t want them getting dirty.’
‘I didn’t realise Zach cared about books,’ Effie said dryly, ‘only the money they make.’
‘He’s not been making any money,’ Alf put in. ‘He opens late, shuts early, glowers at anyone who comes in until they leave.’
‘Empty handed! Honestly, Effie, the amount of people I’ve had complain that the shop isn’t at all what it looked like on social media,’ Lola said. ‘His attitude is affecting all our businesses.’
‘Lola refused to serve him,’ Freya said.
‘What?’
Lola shrugged. ‘If he doesn’t want to serve anyone then I don’t want to serve him.’
Effie smiled as she thought about how full and rich her life had become since she’d arrived in Polcarrow with her bags of books and baskets of knitting.
She cast a glance around the car. Jake, Alf and Scruff, Lola and Freya, even Sue, all of them cared deeply about a business they’d known for about five minutes.
Not just the business, Effie realised, but her as well.
‘Thank you, honestly, I didn’t realise how much this all meant to you. In fact, I didn’t realise how much this all meant to me either.’ Her voice was choked with emotion.
‘We’ve learned to be more accepting of incomers,’ Sue explained as she took a bend at far too high a speed, jolting everyone over to the left-hand side of the car.
‘Sorry! Especially incomers who embrace being party of the community. If we want to revive the village, then we need a little bit of outside help.’
‘Watch it,’ Alf warned, ‘she’ll have you on the committee next!’
Everyone laughed and began to chip in with tales of Sue’s various hare-brained schemes, from reinstating the Fisherman’s Fair to a lobster pot Christmas tree. Effie snuck a glance at Jake only to find him watching her, his expression soft.
‘Do you know what you’re going to do?’ he asked.
Effie shook her head. ‘Nope! I’ll make something up.’
Jake brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. ‘You can do anything, Effie, you’ve got this.’
When Effie stepped out of the car, legs wobbly and stomach churning from Sue’s driving, she wasn’t so sure that she did have it. Wandering over to the harbour wall, she dragged in some calming breaths of sea air and waited for her stomach to settle.
‘Give her some space.’ Jake held everyone back, including Maddie, who jumped out of Clive’s car the second he pulled up.
Jake took a step forward and lightly touched her arm. ‘Are you OK?’
Effie nodded. ‘Sue’s driving,’ she explained.
‘Erm . . . yes,’ Jake laughed.
Eyes closed, Effie inhaled the sweet sea air before opening them and being greeted by Polcarrow bay spread out before her, welcoming her home.
She fixed her gaze on the horizon, steady and sure, to be relied on.
Her eyes moved over the waves as they washed onto the sand, then over and up the beach, the tiny grains worn down into softness over thousands of years.
All this had existed before them, and it’d be there long after they’d all passed.
Turning around, she fixed her eyes on the shop, her stomach churning for a different reason.
Her beautiful springtime window display had been cleared, the blinds pulled halfway down, and the cheerful daffodil yellow door hastily slapped over with blue paint.
Even from this distance she could see Zach had done a bad job.
Seeing how he’d ruined her vision, Effie balled her hands into fists and stormed across the road, then pulled open the door.
Effie glanced around. The shop looked familiar and completely unrecognisable at the same time.
The yellow chairs had been moved and Effie really hoped they hadn’t ended up in a skip, they’d been expensive but worth every penny.
There were gaps in the shelves where stock had not been replaced and a layer of dust on top of the till.
The rainbow-print rug she’d bought for the children’s area had been removed.
The whole shop looked sterile, its atmosphere oppressive and warning people away. No wonder takings had been down.
Where was Zach? She’d been inside long enough to have grabbed books, maybe even the till and run off. How dare he preach about the importance of running a shop and then leave it unmanned.
‘Zach?’ she called, her voice flaming with anger. She gave him enough time to emerge from wherever he was hiding before calling his name again. This time she made her way through the shop and found him lounging in the kitchen, headphones in, watching something on his phone.
Incensed, Effie reached across and pulled the headphones from his ears. Momentarily startled, he shot to his feet in a panic, before narrowing his eyes at Effie.
‘That’s assault,’ he growled at her.
‘So, have me arrested then.’ She shrugged, taking a step out of the kitchen, back into the shop, Zach matching her step for step. ‘Personally, I’d be more concerned about how you’ve left the shop unmanned. Something could’ve been stolen.’
‘Unlikely. Not like anyone comes in here.’ Zach shrugged. ‘Why are you here? Didn’t you get the message, you’re not welcome in this shop.’
‘What? The message that the shop was doing badly because of my management of it?’ Effie folded her arms, no longer intimidated by him. ‘Looks like you’re doing an even better job than I was of running a shop badly. Where’s all the customers, Zach? Have you scared them all away?’
‘People don’t care about books, Effie. It’s about time Dad realised that, got rid of the business, sold it off. I don’t want to keep running it after he’s retired.’
‘You were pretty keen on running it a couple of weeks back,’ she pointed out.
‘I was trying to help Dad. You were doing your own thing, and I didn’t like it.’
‘But your dad did,’ Effie said as it dawned on her. Zach was jealous that she had been trusted to open the new shop, not him.
‘You might think books are boring, Zach, but they’re important.
They offer escapism and information, and they’ve kept a roof over your head and food on your table for a long time.
Your dad might not have his heart fully in the business but that’s because he has people like me, Maddie and Zoey to keep it going, people who love books.
I’ve come back to Polcarrow to take back this shop and my flat. ’
Zach laughed. ‘Effie, you can’t be serious. You can’t tell me what to do, you’re just an employee, you’re lucky I didn’t just fire you. I let you go back to the Penzance branch, why can’t you just be happy with that?’
‘Because this is where I’m happy,’ Effie said in a moment of weakness.
However, she should have known Zach would seize any vulnerability and try and use it to his advantage.
‘Not happening, Effie. After your behaviour today I think you need to be fired. You’ve assaulted and insulted the owner of the business.’
‘You’re not the owner, Zach.’
‘I will be one day, and I’ll start as I mean to go on,’ he said chillingly as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone and pressed the screen.
Effie could hear it ringing in the silence between them. They never took their eyes off each other. Effie scowling, Zach looking smugly down at her.
‘Hi, Dad, yeah, yeah, are you having a good holiday? Uh-huh, uh-huh, you just got back? Oh, wasn’t expecting that but actually, it’s a good thing, you see I’ve got a bit of a problem with one of our staff members.
Effie, yeah, I know, well, she’s turned up, shouting at me, insulted me and really, it’s time she was fired, we can’t be putting up with that.
’ Zach turned his back on her as he continued his tirade.
Effie stood and listened as he spoke lies down the phone, a smile spreading across her face as the shop door slowly opened and Clive stepped in.
‘Yes, Zach, I agree, we need to discuss this in person.’
Zach froze. He dropped his phone from his ear and, as if in slow motion, spun around, horror washing over his face to see Clive standing in the shop.
‘Dad? What are you doing here?’
‘I could ask you the same thing,’ Clive said with a level of steeliness Effie hadn’t known he possessed. ‘What have you done, Zach?’
‘Dad, I can explain, honestly.’
‘Effie told me you kicked her out the shop and told her it wasn’t doing well, is that true?’ Clive asked gently. Even Effie could see that he was trying to give his son a way out of this mess.
‘But she wasn’t keeping in line with our scheme,’ Zach insisted.
‘Our scheme? You’ve not shown any interest in the business until now. What happened with the paddle board business?’
Zach shifted uncomfortably. ‘Didn’t take off.’
‘And the cocktail bar?’
‘The same,’ Zach admitted.
Clive glanced around as if looking for somewhere to sit, but without the chairs, there was nowhere to perch.
He rubbed his forehead wearily. ‘Zach, you and I need to talk. If you are serious about setting up a business, or being involved in this one, which I don’t actually believe you are, we need to talk properly.
This shop was my idea and I trusted Effie to get it going and she did really well.
I know you told her that it wasn’t making money, but that wasn’t true, the shop was a success.
I was pleased with what she’d done. But look what you’ve done to it.
’ Clive indicated the shop that had had its soul stripped out.
Effie shifted awkwardly as she watched father and son regard each other. Knowing she was intruding on something that should be private, she made a step towards the door. Clive stopped her.
‘Effie, wait, I want you to hear what I have to say too. I was thinking of retiring, but two things have happened. One, how beautiful this shop was gave me a new passion for the business I didn’t think I’d get at this age.
Two, Zach, you’re not ready to take over and I don’t even know if that’s what you want.
I need to trust you and if this is what happens when I go on holiday, then I dread to think what would happen if I stepped away fully.
‘This shop is all our lives whether we love it or not. Zach, like I said, we need to talk, but not today, I’m knackered from my flight and just want to go home. Effie is having the shop and the flat back as of now. And the shop goes back to how it was. OK?’ He looked at both of them.
Effie nodded.
‘Yes, Dad.’
‘Right, let’s get home. Give Effie back the keys.’
Zach reached into his pocket and threw the keys onto the counter. Effie didn’t make a move to take them. Her triumph sat uncomfortably on her. She watched as Clive pulled open the door.
‘Where are the yellow chairs?’ Effie asked.
‘Someone had them for some studio thing, I think,’ Zach said.
‘We can get some more,’ Clive reassured her.
Effie nodded and watched them walk past her rescue party. As Zach passed, she swore she heard Scruff growl. Once she’d heard Clive’s car disappear around the corner, she made her way over to the counter, picked up the keys and, holding them tight in her hand, brought them to her heart.
She was home.