The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,15

conspiratorial wink at Sadie as she did to say that she was only joking. The fruit was just there to make the sugar taste better, and who cared about silly old evening meals anyway. Not jolly, kind, fun old Gammy, that was for sure.

As she’d grown older, Sadie had no longer wanted to sit at the baby-blue tables of her grandparents’ waffle house with her grandmother fussing over her, ruffling her hair as she ate, singing old songs in the kitchen so loudly that everyone in the dining room could hear. She’d wanted to head out with her friends to the nearest big towns to eat in trendy new places. But when Sadie remembered those awkward years now she felt deeply guilty and sorry that she’d thought that way. Today she’d give anything to have those years back.

Even though she didn’t want to, Sadie flicked the switch to illuminate the kitchen so she could check round properly. Apart from the same fine layer of inevitable dust that covered the dining room, it was spotless. Despite the suddenness with which Gammy been forced to abandon it the day the ambulance had come for Gampy, Sadie and her parents had been in to clean it from top to bottom, throw all the perishable unused food away and switch off the gas. As a result it now looked clinical, unloved, as if no life had ever been lived there. With a deep sigh, Sadie turned off the light again. She couldn’t bear to look any longer than she had to because it made her feel more miserable than anything else had for a long time.

As she went back through to the dining room, her gaze was drawn to the figure of a man looking in through the window. Broad shoulders that she knew well, a slight irreverent wave in his hair and eyes the colour of sage leaves, eyes that she’d gazed into so many times over the years they’d been together, eyes that she sometimes still gazed into as she dreamt at night. On any other day she’d want to smile at the sight of him, even knowing she shouldn’t, but that smile didn’t come so easily today. She’d seen him around town many times in the checked shirt he wore now and had remarked to herself every time, with a pang of longing, that he’d looked good in it. She’d always had to chase the feeling away as he’d stopped to say hello, handsome and relaxed and unaware of the turmoil he caused in her heart when he did, but today, perhaps because of her heightened emotional state, she was finding it harder. There was no coat over his shirt, because he’d always been far too hardy to worry about a spot of rain.

Sadie went to open the door, doing her best to shake feelings that she’d given up the right to long ago.

‘Hi,’ he said. ‘I saw the light on and I thought I’d better check who was in here. I mean, you never know…’

‘It’s just me. But thanks. It’s good of you.’

‘It’s alright. I was on my way back from seeing Melissa anyway. It’s only neighbourly after all, isn’t it?’

‘Well thanks anyway, Dec. I appreciate it.’

Declan shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and blew out a breath.

‘So…’ he began, the merest hint of awkwardness in his voice. ‘How is your grandma? I didn’t like to come to yours and ask because… well, I thought it might not be welcome just yet.’

‘Oh, I think she would have liked to have seen you. She’s bearing up. Sort of. She’s very… introverted right now. I don’t know, maybe seeing you might cheer her up a bit.’

Declan raised disbelieving eyebrows and Sadie had to give a small smile.

‘OK, so maybe not,’ she admitted. ‘She’s pretty terrible if the truth be told. She just seems like… like she’s gone out. Like she’s a house and the person who lives there went out but forgot to turn out the lights. But not in a crazy way, just a really lost, absent sort of way.’

Declan nodded. ‘I was sorry to hear about your grandpa – we all were. He was a lovely guy, and everyone around here was very fond of him.’

‘Thanks,’ Sadie said, doing her best to hold back the tears suddenly pooling in her eyes. She sniffed hard and pulled herself back from the brink.

‘If you need anything… I mean, if April needs anything, just ask. I can’t promise I’ll be