while, to swim away from her problems and give herself real time and space to think.
‘Mum said I might find you down here.’
Sadie whipped round to see Ewan behind her. She stood up.
‘Is everything OK?’
‘Of course. I could ask you the same question – Mum said the phone rang and then you rushed off on a mission that you couldn’t tell her about. So what’s happened?’
‘Where do you want me to start?’
‘Is it anything to do with that Goldman guy? Because if it is—’
‘No.’ Sadie gave a small smile. ‘No, it’s not him.’
‘This business with Grandma then? She’ll come round, you know.’
‘I know,’ Sadie said, although it was part of it and she wasn’t entirely convinced that Gammy would come round. ‘It’s not that either. It’s nothing really, nothing that should concern me.’
‘Clearly it does. Want to tell me about it anyway?’
‘Not really. You’ll only say I’m an idiot for getting involved, and you’d be right.’
‘I might, but when have you ever cared about that?’
Sadie had to laugh, despite herself. But then she noticed a figure on the pier. He was walking – or rather weaving – along towards the amusement arcade, and it looked like he had some kind of bottle in his hand.
‘Oh…’ she said in a small voice. Even though she couldn’t make out his face from this distance, she knew the gait and the build well enough. The figure stopped outside the arcade and started to shout, waving his bottle in the air.
‘Gotta go!’ Sadie said and broke into a run.
‘Where are you going now?’ Ewan shouted, but there was no time to reply.
* * *
A few breathless minutes later Sadie was on the pier, running towards him.
‘Dec!’
He turned to her, bleary-eyed and slurring. ‘She won’t come out and talk to me!’
‘She’s working, that’s why.’ Sadie grimaced as she got closer. ‘And you stink! How much have you had?’
‘I don’t know… Get Melissa for me.’
‘She won’t come because I say so, trust me.’
‘But you can try.’
‘Why don’t you pull yourself together and come back for her later?’
‘I need her now.’
‘Now is not the time to talk to her. I’m telling you, Dec, you need to sober up.’
He swayed for a moment, looking at Sadie. ‘She says you wanted us to split up.’
‘I didn’t.’
‘She says you still want me for yourself.’
‘Dec, you’re drunk and this is silly.’
‘Do you?’
‘No.’
‘But if… I love you.’
‘I love you too but it’s not the same, is it? We’re best friends, aren’t we? Declan, do you love Melissa?’
‘With all my heart. She’s my world and I can’t go on without her.’
Sadie felt her own world crack, just a little. She’d spent so long thinking that he might hold a candle for her, a spark, however small, in the same way she had for him, that to hear him proclaim real and proper love for Melissa suddenly made her understand just how much of her life she’d wasted on some silly fantasy. Declan was never going to come back to her, no matter how much she or the people of Sea Salt Bay might have been convinced of it. The strange thing was, she now realised that it had never really been what she’d wanted either. A few weeks ago she might have jumped at the chance to persuade him that they belonged back together, but that had changed.
‘But you’re my world too, Sadie. She says I can’t see you if I get back with her. What am I supposed to do?’
Sadie swallowed the sudden, hot tears that sprang to her eyes and took a step towards him. ‘If you love her, then you know what you have to do.’
‘I have to stop talking to you?’
‘Yes.’
‘We can’t even say hello?’ he slurred, confusion etched into his features.
How Sadie wanted to reach for him, even now, to fold him into her arms once more and kiss him, if only to say goodbye. But she knew that would be a terrible mistake. If they had to do this, then they had to do it properly.
‘Maybe we can say hello from time to time, but we can’t sit and talk like we always did. But that’s OK. You’ll have Melissa for that, and that’s how it should be.’
‘And you have your man now.’
‘Yes,’ Sadie said, smiling through her tears. ‘I have my man now.’
‘And he makes you happy?’
‘He does.’
Declan nodded to himself and staggered backwards, then reached for the railings of the pier to steady himself. The wind was picking up, the sky heavy and grey, and