Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ruan drove himself and Tammy back to Tremain House in the evening sun, and – to his relief – this time it was via the normal roads.
While they’d been at the festival, the Porthmellow Garage breakdown truck had towed her van to its repair centre in the town.
The owner had known Tammy and her father for years and had made her a priority.
Fortunately, her van wasn’t a write-off and it would be back on the road in a couple of days. In the meantime, Ruan had offered to ferry her to the second installation at the festival.
‘My, this is posh,’ she said, wide-eyed, as they drove up the drive that led to Tremain House. ‘You do have friends in high places.’
Ruan laughed. ‘I only met Polly this morning. I was amazed when she dropped everything to ride to the rescue.’
‘It’s a shame she isn’t here so I can thank her in person, but she said she was going out to dinner with her daughter,’ Tammy said. ‘I must send her some flowers and a card.’
‘You could send some flowers to Lucifer,’ Ruan said. ‘She’d probably appreciate that more.’
Tammy laughed. ‘If you hadn’t been here early for your meeting, I’d have missed the first design.’
‘Let’s not think about that. Everything turned out just fine.’ He leaned over to kiss her and his body reacted to the touch of her mouth on his. If only they could repeat what happened in the cave here and now.
‘More than fine …’ she said, smiling at him with the kind of happiness he hadn’t yet seen from her. She’d let down her guard a little bit for him, but he guessed he was still on probation.
He drove her back to Porthmellow and dropped her outside the Harbour Gallery.
The lights were just starting to come on in the cottages around the pocket-sized port.
The outside tables at the Atlantic pub were full of drinkers in T-shirts and dresses, and from the opposite side of the harbour, music spilled out from the Blue Dolphin Bar.
It all seemed so idyllic, as if anything was possible. Ruan felt caught up in the vibe of the summer evening, of a post-sex glow, and of a happiness he hadn’t felt for years.
Was this what falling in love felt like? He definitely hadn’t experienced the same intense feelings for his ex.
‘I’ll pick you up tomorrow, then? Let’s go super early and grab some lunch at the festival. Kane’s doing tacos and cocktails at the bar and said we’d be welcome.’
‘I’d love that. Let’s hope there’s no drama tomorrow. On Sunday, after the last design, we can let our hair down. Lola and some of my friends are coming and it should be a real party with the bands. It’ll be fun.’ She kissed him softly on the lips. ‘Thanks for offering to be my chauffeur.’
‘No problem,’ he said, looking forward to being introduced to her gang. It felt like a big step on the road to being accepted into her life.
‘I’d like to meet your friends properly, rather than just seeing them flying over the water, as long as they don’t try to persuade me to do it,’ she said with mock sternness.
‘Oh, I can’t promise that. They think everyone ought to be a kitesurfer. Can’t understand why some people don’t fancy being attached to a board with some string and being dragged above the water at thirty knots.’
She grimaced. ‘Nooo!’ she said, half laughing, half horrified.
‘But if they do, ask them to join you in doing a design. That’ll freak them out.’
‘It didn’t freak you out,’ she said, more seriously.
‘Only because I had the expert guiding me. All I did was rake a few lines in the sand.’
‘If you say so. Davey said he’d come along on Sunday for the final design too.’
That figures, Ruan thought. The last design was to be Tammy’s sunrise tribute to her father. It would be an emotionally charged evening.
‘If you want me to leave that to you two, then you only have to say,’ Ruan said. ‘I’ll give you a lift, of course, but I can leave after that.’
‘No. No, I want you to be there too,’ she said, her insistence mirrored in her eyes. ‘After all, you were there at the start. Kind of.’
‘True, and I’m glad I decided to call into Porthmellow before my meeting.’
‘Me too. Oh, there’s Davey and Breda.’
Ruan saw the couple walking along the harbour front towards the studio. An elegant black woman in a white dress and the stocky figure of Davey, grey-haired but still in decent shape for a man of his age.
‘At least they’re talking again. Breda’s the best thing to happen to Davey for years. I’m not sure he realises how lucky he is to have her. Anyway, I have to go.’ She opened the door and climbed out. ‘See you tomorrow.’
Can’t wait, Ruan almost said but moderated it to, ‘Looking forward to it.’
He drove off, his rear-view mirror giving a glimpse of Tammy joining Breda and Davey on the cobbles outside the gallery.
He felt like the luckiest man alive, even if he’d loved to have spent the evening with her. Still, they had the whole summer stretching out ahead of them – and he could hardly wait.
On Saturday morning, Ruan woke early, brimming with enthusiasm to attack the Seaspray ‘garden’ again. He’d decided to focus on cutting back overgrown shrubs at the front of the house so he could actually get a proper look at the facade.
He wanted to make a start because Kane and some of their kitesurfing friends were coming early the following morning to do some serious clearing.
It was a warm but overcast morning, and like all the south-facing valleys in West Cornwall, it had its own microclimate. This helped the plants grow massive and kept conditions mild and humid day or night. Later on in June, the valley was a hot and sticky place to be doing heavy labour.
Mid-morning, he stopped for a cold drink and called his parents to tell them about his progress on the house.
It was obvious they missed having him in the same city, even though he’d been so busy with work and friends that he hadn’t seen them as often as he’d have liked.
Now that he was a four-hour drive away, he had even fewer opportunities to see them and he missed them too.
He owed them a lot for helping to put him through university, despite their financial difficulties. While he’d been home a few times since he’d moved to Cornwall, they hadn’t had a chance to visit him yet.
He sat on the caravan steps, knowing he dare not wander too far or the Wi-Fi would drop out. His parents, who’d been busy in their own garden when he called, were interested and enthusiastic about the grounds. After chatting about various plants and shrubs, talk turned to the building itself.
‘Have the builders been round yet?’ his dad asked.
‘Two of them have,’ Ruan said, anticipating where the line of questioning would lead. He was still in shock from the estimates supplied by doom-and-gloom gold-welly woman and Sean’s sharp intake of breath followed by, ‘That’s not going to be cheap, mate.’
‘And?’ his mum put in. ‘What did they say?’
‘That there’s a lot of work required. Nothing I couldn’t have worked out for myself, to be honest,’ he joked.
His dad frowned at the mobile camera. ‘Have they given you any estimates yet? Don’t accept the first figure they come up with. They’re probably trying it on.’
‘Maybe,’ Ruan said, knowing how suspicious his father was of any tradesperson doing work on his own home.
‘You need at least five or six estimates,’ his father added.
Ruan wasn’t sure he could find five or six people willing to do the work on Seaspray.
‘I’ve got two quotes so far. I’ve tried another couple of firms but they’re all fully booked until next year unless they get a cancellation.
There are a lot of renovation projects down here, Dad. The builders aren’t short of work.’
‘No, and I bet they can name their price, especially to an incomer like you who’s inherited a place.’
‘I won’t be ripped off,’ Ruan said patiently, ‘and I’ll get another quote if I don’t like what’s come in so far, but I want the job under way as soon as possible. Otherwise, I’ll be living in this caravan forever, which won’t be much fun in the winter.’
His mother tutted. ‘Leave the boy alone. He knows what he’s doing.’
‘I’m only trying to look out for him,’ his father grumbled.
‘Please, stop worrying about me,’ Ruan insisted. ‘I know you both care. Don’t forget I’m incredibly lucky to have the place at all. It’s sheer luck that Great-uncle Walter left it to me. I’ll be doing some of the work myself. My mates are coming round tomorrow morning to help clear the grounds.’
‘And please be careful on that kite,’ his mum piped up, apparently deciding to change the subject. ‘You were nearly killed the last time.’
‘I wasn’t nearly killed, Mum,’ Ruan said in frustration, though he was being economical with the truth for the second time in as many days.
‘I’d rather you spent your time clearing that jungle we can see,’ his dad muttered.
Ruan stayed calm, despite his frustration. ‘I will, and before you go, I still wish you’d let me sell Seaspray on when I’ve finished and give you part of the proceeds.’
‘No!’ they both declared in unison. ‘We wouldn’t hear of it. It’s yours alone to live in or sell.’
Ruan stood up, marvelling again at the handsome house behind the ivy and shrubs that had dropped into his hands like a gift from the gods. Except it had come from a man who was definitely not divine – probably the opposite.
‘I still don’t know why he chose me …’ he murmured.
‘Maybe he felt guilty for being such a bastard while he was alive,’ his father said.
‘Or maybe he was trying to do something good at the last?’ his mother offered.
His dad scoffed. ‘More like he hated everyone else in the family and Ruan was the only one he hadn’t managed to have a row with. Now you know why your grandma was so keen to get away from her own family.’
‘I don’t blame her,’ Ruan said. ‘And she clearly managed to avoid being dragged into their poisonous ways.’
His mum popped her head into the shot. ‘You know, I wondered if Walter was impressed that you’d gone into the law and he thought you’d look after his estate properly.’
‘By properly, you mean turn into an old miser like him?’ His father snorted. ‘No way. Walter Cavendish didn’t have a sentimental bone in his body. He told me where to get off when I asked him to help me out after I lost the engineering business.’
Ruan gave a sharp intake of breath. ‘I didn’t know that. I didn’t know you’d approached him for help.’
‘God, I wish I hadn’t but I must have been desperate and my mum and dad weren’t well and in no position to help. They’d have been worried to death if they’d known I’d asked Walter.’
‘I’m presuming it didn’t end well?’ Ruan said.
‘Walter told me I’d made my own bed by trusting a friend and I had to lie in it.’
‘Then perhaps he did feel guilty and was trying to make amends by helping me,’ Ruan said, hating the idea of his father going cap in hand to a nasty piece of work like Walter.
‘I doubt that very much,’ his father said. ‘We’ll never know and I should stop even thinking about it. The house is yours. Enjoy it. We can’t wait to see it.’
Ruan hoped his own theory was true. He didn’t like the version that his mother had put forward: that Walter had thought a lawyer would be careful with his inheritance and hang on to it as he had himself.
‘So, I’m going to get the place sorted,’ he said, eager to steer the conversation in a more positive direction. ‘It’ll be a while before I can invite you to stay in it but why don’t you come down and book in a B & B and I can show you the work in progress?’
Both his parents brightened up visibly at this offer and the call ended with everyone pencilling in some possible dates and Ruan promising to find some good B & B recommendations.
Once the call was over, his thoughts turned in an even pleasanter direction, one that made it difficult for him to concentrate on garden clearing.
After the festival this evening, he hoped that he and Tammy could spend the night together.
Looking at the state of the caravan, there was no way he was going to ask her back to his, even if he did make the decision to reveal it was parked in the grounds of Seaspray, so it would have to be at her place.
He would tell her after the festival when she didn’t have so much on her mind.
Tonight – or tomorrow – were not the times to be showing off his good fortune and he didn’t want to do anything to jeopardise their fragile but burgeoning relationship.