‘It sounds to me like you have a very entrepreneurial family, Sophie.’
‘We’re a resourceful bunch of women, that’s for sure,’ she laughed. ‘And all pretty gifted in the culinary department – if it isn’t too conceited to say so.’
Given how delicious my curried crab and rum-laced hot chocolate had been, I didn’t think that was conceited at all. It was more a statement of fact.
‘But what about you, Tess?’
‘Me?’
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘what are your family like?’
I didn’t really know what to say. My current experience of family life wasn’t anywhere near as comforting as hers.
‘Well,’ I said, dropping my gaze. ‘I haven’t got much. No aunts or cousins or anyone. It’s just me and Dad really.’
‘No Mum?’
‘No,’ I said, my voice catching, ‘she died a while ago.’
‘I’m very sorry to hear that,’ said Sophie, reaching across the counter and giving my hands a squeeze.
I nodded and blinked hard.
‘Please don’t be nice to me, Sophie,’ I said, sitting up straighter and trying to smile. ‘Otherwise you might find me crying all over you.’
During the last few months I had learned, mostly thanks to my punishing work schedule, how to keep a tight lid on my emotions, but Sophie’s warmth and genuine kindness felt capable of undoing my efforts in moments. Her daughter was a very lucky woman to have such an inspirational and kind-hearted mum by her side.
‘And would that matter?’ Sophie whispered.
I shrugged.
‘Sometimes having a good cry can be the best medicine in the world,’ she said softly. ‘Personally, I think a good howl is very much underrated, whether it’s needed to purge you of sadness or temper, or even both.’
‘But it’s not necessarily good for business,’ I said, nodding to the window where I could see some customers walking towards the café. ‘I wouldn’t want to scare anyone off.’
Sophie handed me a tissue from a packet in the large pocket on the front of her dress.
‘And what about your father?’ she asked, sounding tentative. ‘Are you close to him?’
I had been, or at least I thought had, but given his reaction to my admittance that I was struggling at work and the subsequent discovery of Mum’s diary, I now didn’t feel close to him at all.
‘I used to be,’ I said, blowing my nose, ‘but not anymore.’
Sophie nodded as the bell above the door rang out and I was grateful for the interruption.
‘We work together in the family business,’ I told her huskily, ‘but I’m not sure we will for much longer. It’s all rather complicated.’
While Sophie served the first customers of the day, I took a moment to regain my composure and look at the changes she had already made. The menu board was now completely re-designed with the ‘dish of the day’ taking up minimal space and the rest divided into sections where customers could list the things they had spotted on the beach, in the rockpools and in the skies as well as highlighting the weather and tide times. There was also another board hanging above the counter with a wi-fi code chalked on to it.
‘It’s great that you have wi-fi in here, Sophie,’ I said while she was preparing drinks. ‘You didn’t mention it yesterday.’
‘It’s not always the strongest of signals, but I’ve had it a while,’ she told me. ‘It was another of my daughter’s ideas. I’ve only put the board up because she nagged me about it on the phone last night. Personally, I wasn’t keen. I want folk to come here and forget about their phones and tablets, for a little while at least.’
She had a point, but I still found myself wishing that I had my phone with me so I could have googled some extra ideas to present to Sam. As much as Sophie hated the thought, having limited or no access to the internet did make modern life pretty difficult.
‘I completely understand,’ I told her.
‘I thought you might,’ she nodded. ‘I’ve never seen you glued to a device.’
It wasn’t the time to explain why.
‘But even so, Sophie, your daughter is right. It’s what folk expect these days and when you get your Instagram and Twitter accounts up and running it will definitely play to your advantage.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Well,’ I said, ‘if you have a hashtag identifying the café and you ask your customers to add it to any photos they upload, this place will be famous in no time.’
‘I have no idea what a tag thingy is, or what you’re talking