Graham shook his head. ‘I don’t think so – we would know if it was, although I often thought it ought to be. I doubt it’s historically significant enough for that kind of protection.’
‘So someone could knock it down?’ Sadie asked. ‘If they decided they just wanted the spot on the pier, and not the business or the building, they could just bulldoze it?’
Graham shrugged, though he looked as unhappy at the idea as his youngest daughter did.
Sadie looked at her mother. ‘We can’t let that happen.’
‘What can I do?’ Henny asked. ‘I’m not a fan of the idea either. We can all sit here and complain, but unless someone comes up with a solution then we can’t change it.’
‘The ultimate decision has to lie with Grandma,’ Ewan said, and for once Sadie was in full agreement with her brother.
All eyes went to April. She gave a half shrug and a long sigh that Sadie was convinced would end in a heart-wrenching sob. But it didn’t – she only spoke quietly.
‘I’ll do whatever you think is best,’ she said, and that statement alone told Sadie all she needed to know about her grandmother’s mental state. She’d never have said something like that in the past. Before Kenneth died April would have fought to keep their business; she’d have worked day and night and sunk every last copper into it; she’d have kept it open even if that meant only one customer a day coming through the doors, because while there was a customer, she’d have thought it was worth it. But then, Sadie had to consider that maybe even her grandma had had to see the bigger picture, that some battles just couldn’t be won no matter how hard you fought, and that all things eventually came to an end. Perhaps that was all it was; perhaps that era had simply come to its natural end.
‘That settles it then,’ Sadie’s mother said, addressing the table at large as she shook out a napkin and placed it on her lap. ‘I know we don’t like it but the waffle house will have to be sold.’
Chapter Three
For the rest of lunch, conversation turned to the practicalities of the sale of Sea Salt Bay Waffle House. While there had still been some opposition to it, eventually the family had all agreed there was no other way that they could see. April contributed very little to the discussion, other than to agree to almost everything without question. Every time Sadie looked at her she wished she could look inside her head to see what she was really thinking and feeling about it. No matter what had happened, what had been lost, Sadie didn’t believe that what they were planning round the dinner table was truly what her grandmother wanted.
But despite feeling that, and wanting to do something about it, Sadie was stumped every time she tried to come up with a workable solution to the problem. Whichever way she looked at it, she had to admit that her mother was right – nobody was in a position to take on the running of the waffle house. More to the point, it would inevitably mean supporting April too – and Sadie suspected that nobody really wanted that responsibility. And with that realisation she had to admit that some problems, no matter how sad the facts made you, however much you wished they could be otherwise, couldn’t be fixed. All things had to end eventually and perhaps – whether they were ready for it or not – the waffle house on the pier had served its last customer. Perhaps it really was time to let it go.
Sadie volunteered to go and check the waffle house over after lunch. Her grandmother was staying with her, Henny and Graham for the time being until they felt comfortable letting her live alone again. Whether that would be back in April’s flat above the waffle house had been a cause for some debate during the month since Kenneth had died, but it seemed that today’s lunch had settled that too. If the waffle house was to be sold it was unlikely that April could go back there. The family weren’t exactly sure where she was going to live instead – whether it would be in some kind of sheltered accommodation in a retirement village, in a new home by herself or perhaps even continuing to stay