Christmas at the Little Waffle Shack - Helen J. Rolfe Page 0,13
he was with, he just remarked, ‘You need a sign for this place, out front.’
She went with the change of subject. ‘I know, I’ve got some ideas I’ll work on in the new year.’
‘Don’t tell me…something fancy?’
She smiled. ‘We’ll see.’ Perhaps less focus on her, more on him, was the way to go. ‘I’ll make your sign and all you’ll have to do is worry about hanging it up. ‘Now, is the sign going to be fixed to the log cabin or hanging independently?’
‘I was going to put in a lamp-post out front and hang the sign from two pieces of chain. Would that work?’
‘Perfect.’ She added detail to the sketch, putting two hooks for the chains onto the existing oval-shaped design with lettering in the middle. She pencilled a bracket design showing what it would look like with chains to hold the sign, scrollwork along its length. And she did her best not to let her hand shake knowing he was watching her as she worked. ‘Something like this?’ she asked when she was done.
‘Exactly like that,’ he smiled, his eyes soon leaving the design and finding her. She wished he’d look again at the sketch or her folder of previous work, or at least what she had on the shelves in here.
‘It’s a great name,’ she garbled, ‘I love it.’
‘Luddington?’
‘Very funny, you know exactly what I mean. The Little Waffle Shack – it has a good ring to it,’ she blathered on, making a complete fool of herself. At least, that’s what it felt like. ‘And locals will be thrilled. Despite what you may think, I reckon their stomachs will have the last vote. Just you wait.’
‘I admire your faith in human nature, Lucy. And I believe in the business – I wouldn’t be starting it otherwise. I just need some of the locals to get over what went on before and we’ll be good.’
She wondered, what had gone on before? She knew a handful of details from Melissa, Harvey’s girlfriend who was a flight attendant and working away at the moment, otherwise she’d be straight on the phone asking for more information. Harvey and Daniel didn’t speak, Melissa had tried to tell Harvey that maybe it was time to give his brother another chance but he’d shut down the very idea and that was that.
They worked out the cost of the sign, not dissimilar to Fred’s initial prediction, before Daniel pulled his jumper back over his head and shrugged on his jacket. ‘Pleasure doing business with you, Lucy.’ He held out a hand for her to shake and when she took it she knew he didn’t drop it as quickly as one normally would. And she wasn’t sorry either.
Daniel Luddington was here in Heritage Cove. And for the first time in a long while her heart skipped a beat at a man who was clearly interested.
Chapter Three
Before Lucy relocated to Heritage Cove she’d lived in nearby Southwold – lovely, picturesque and right by the sea. She had once thought she’d never leave, but her move had come at a good time. She’d been divorced for a year but her in-laws as well as her ex, Julian, all still lived in the area and bumping into any of them when she least expected – at the pub, the local shops, even a stroll along the beach – had begun to take its toll. She wanted to cut the ties, she knew it was the best thing, but it was hard to do when you saw them so frequently. And worse still, Lucy had been talked into a crazy plan of Julian’s to pretend they were still together for the benefit of his dear gran, Maud.
Lucy loved Maud, who had never been a crotchety old lady who didn’t want to know; she’d always had a smile, a good sense of humour and a welcoming demeanour that was hard to resist. And Julian was close to her too. So much so that he hadn’t wanted to break her heart by telling her about the divorce. He’d begged Lucy to keep up the pretence that they were still together and it was easily done given Maud had moved from her bungalow into Aubrey House, a residential care home. Lucy had agreed to act as his wife and accompany him on the odd visit to Aubrey House. The problem was, the odd visit had become frequent visits and here she was again on a Sunday morning to meet Julian.