Chapter 2 #2
‘I said the same. We’ve often joked about putting up a ship’s sail or getting a big mermaid to sit there at the front.’
She laughed and stuck her arms out either side of her like she was flying and started singing Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On.
He couldn’t help but smile at her recreating the famous scene from Titanic when Rose and Jack are pretending to fly at the front of the ship.
So he did what every self-respecting man would do faced with this situation.
He moved behind her and stretched out his arms so he was flying too.
She looked behind and laughed so hard at him joining her and that made him feel warm inside.
She rolled her fingers over the top of his, entwining them with his just like Rose did to Jack in the movie, but stroking his fingers made his heart leap.
It felt strangely intimate to be almost holding hands with this woman he barely knew.
She turned around laughing, her eyes alight with joy, and god damn it if she didn’t steal a little bit of his heart in that moment.
He was shocked by how much he suddenly wanted to cup her face and kiss her, but he’d never been one of those men who would seize the day.
He was always the sort who would worry about the consequences of such an action and mostly how awkward it would be if she was horrified by it.
And she probably would be horrified, they’d known each other for a few minutes so he was surprised by this sudden need to kiss her.
This feeling, this pull to her didn’t make any sense.
He didn’t know her. He wasn’t the sort to believe you could fall for someone as soon as you’d met, he’d never believed in love at first sight and, while he was pretty sure this wasn’t that, he had never wanted to kiss a woman so soon before.
Maybe it was that they shared a common ground in books or that she made him smile so much.
But whatever it was, knowing how inappropriate these unexpected feelings were, he took a step back instead, letting her move away from the railings.
‘I love that film,’ she said. ‘I once went on a cruise and was so excited I’d get to recreate that moment, albeit on my own.
I was so disappointed when I realised that part of the ship was closed off to the public.
I wonder if they started doing that after too many people fell overboard recreating that Titanic moment. ’
‘Probably,’ Luke said, moving over to the sofa and sitting down, hoping she hadn’t noticed that he’d wanted to kiss her.
She sat down next to him on the sofa and tucked into her toast. He did the same, watching her as she looked out on the bay .
‘It’s so beautiful,’ she said, softly.
‘It is, I shall miss that view when I’m gone.’
She looked at him in surprise. ‘You’re leaving?’
He frowned. ‘Yeah, did your nan not tell you?’
‘No, I’m afraid I don’t know anything about you other than you’ve lived with my nan for the last six months and that you’re “a nice boy”.’
Luke smiled. ‘Is that what she said?’
‘Yeah, she’s very fond of you.’
Nice was a word a lot of women had said about him but never in favourable terms. Too nice was the most common description as if it was something bad. Although he didn’t mind Audrey describing him in that way.
‘Where are you going?’ Flick asked.
‘I’m moving to the Isle of Skye.’
‘Oh that’s a beautiful place, I’ve hiked around there, it’s so pretty. They have a gorgeous little harbour village called Portree.’
‘That’s where I’m moving to, I have a house right on the water’s edge.
It has a massive studio out the back to do my work.
It’s a beautiful old house and I’m looking forward to doing it up, making it my own.
And Skye is one of my favourite places. I’m going to get myself a dog and hike all over the island every day.
It will be peaceful and remote and honestly I’m so excited. ’
‘What made you want to move all the way up there? It sounds like you’re swapping one beachside house with a studio for another.’
He chewed his lip as he thought about how to answer that question.
In truth, since everyone in the town had found out who he was, life in Lovegrove Bay had become untenable.
He wanted to walk the streets without people giving him funny looks or striking up a conversation with him purely because of what he could do for them.
He’d always considered himself to be a kind and generous man but that generosity was starting to wear a little thin.
But he couldn’t tell Flick any of that, not yet anyway.
‘There are… things that have happened recently that I’d like to get away from,’ Luke said, cringing at how ambiguous and mysterious that sounded. She was bound to want to know more.
‘Women,’ Flick said, knowingly.
‘Well, that’s part of it,’ Luke said, truthfully. There were lots of women around the town who he’d like to avoid lately. Some of them had made it their mission to get him to date them, making him retreat into his shell even more.
‘Relationships are hard,’ Flick said. ‘And when they come to an end, sometimes it’s only natural to run far away from them. I get that.’
He frowned. She thought he was running away from an ex. Oh well, that was easier than explaining the truth. ‘I’m looking forward to making a fresh start,’ he said, honestly.
‘Funny, I was just thinking the same about coming here. I’m not sure there’s anything for me in London anymore.
And I love it here, it’s one of my favourite places.
And not to be rude or opportunistic but with you gone, maybe I could move in with my nan for a few months while I save up enough money to get my own place. ’
‘That doesn’t sound rude at all,’ Luke teased.
‘It was a little. And so is my next question. When do you leave?’
He laughed. ‘Three weeks. Well maybe four. I exchanged contracts yesterday actually and the official date I get the keys is just over a week from now. Although I’m having some work done on it before I move in, so it’ll probably be four weeks until I actually go. Is that soon enough for you?’
She laughed. ‘It’s a shame actually. You know when you meet someone and you just know you’re going to be very good friends?
I get that feeling about you. There’s not many people who would have reenacted the famous scene from Titanic with me.
I think we could have been good together.
We’d have had fun. Still, we can make the most of the time we have left. ’
He looked at her because he got that feeling too, there was something about her he knew he could really connect with. If only he’d been staying long enough to find out.
‘So what is it you do?’ Flick asked.
He thought about whether to bypass the earlier part of his working life.
He really didn’t want her to know who he was, at least not yet, but he didn’t want to lie to her either.
‘Well, I used to make music for adverts or products, a ten or twenty-second music clip that would become synonymous with that brand. It wasn’t something I particularly enjoyed, I fell into it somehow but it turned out I was quite good at making a catchy little ditty.
But I’ve, erm… made some good decisions in my life which have meant I can concentrate on doing what I love, which is wood carving and sculpting. ’
‘Oh you’re the wood carver, that’s cool. Nan showed me some of the pieces that have gone on sale lately, you have an incredible talent.’
He smiled. ‘Thank you. And what is it you do? Audrey said you’re quite crafty yourself. Will you be opening up your own studio space?’
‘Oh no, it’s just fun stuff, it’s not real art.’
‘What is it?’
She looked embarrassed and he felt a bit bad for pushing her.
‘Well, they’re not in the same league as your work.
You’re an artist and I… I love what I do but it’s not art.
I make wish jars. I use real dandelions which I pick with the fluffy heads.
The stems are hollow so I use craft wire up each one to keep it upright and then I stick it in a jar with some fairy lights and little handmade toadstools, leaves, berries, moss, so it looks like a little piece of an enchanted woodland inside the jar. ’
She pulled her phone out of her pyjama pocket to show him some pictures of them and he couldn’t help smiling at how cute they were. ‘These are wonderful and I can see they’d be really popular.’
‘You really like them?’
‘Yes, they’re sweet, whimsical, magical. Do you sell a lot of these? Is this your job? ’
‘They’re popular when I do craft shows but no, I don’t make a living from them.
They’re just something fun for me to make on evenings or weekends.
No, employment-wise, I’ve had too many jobs to count, nothing particularly fun or fulfilling.
I worked in a bank, a hotel, a plastics factory, sold double glazing, worked in a bingo hall.
Nothing glamorous but it’s paid the bills.
I recently was made redundant from the marketing department of a company that sells and rents coffee vending machines. ’
She looked at him as if expecting him to laugh at that but there wasn’t anything funny about someone working hard for a living. He had got ridiculously lucky to be able to spend his days doing what he loved. He wondered if he could do that for her.
‘What’s the dream?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Your dream job, what would you want to do more than anything?’
‘Oh, that’s not showy or glamorous either. Some people’s dreams are big, life-changing dreams but mine are quite small really.’
‘Go on.’