The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,17

shake as he regarded Sadie with a look of such compassion and affection that it made her want to cry again. ‘You always did try to live up to Lucy’s impossible example. Not that I ever thought you weren’t capable of amazing things, but there’s only so much room in the world for people like Lucy. The rest of us just live ordinary lives, but there’s nothing wrong in that. We can be just as happy… happier sometimes.’

‘Yeah.’ Sadie took the keys from her pocket. ‘I suppose so.’

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, glancing at the keys. ‘You need to get back and here’s me keeping you talking.’ He stepped back, out of the doorway and onto the boards of the pier.

‘No, it’s not that. I mean, I do have to get back but you’re not in the way at all. It’s nice to catch up; I don’t see you all that often these days…’

Without Melissa, she wanted to say but stopped herself. Would that have sounded bitter or childish or resentful? Sadie certainly had no right to be any of those things.

‘Are you heading home now?’ he asked. ‘I could walk some of the way with you.’

‘I am,’ Sadie said. ‘That’d be nice.’

As they started to walk the length of the pier, chatting easily about nothing and yet everything, it was almost like old times. Almost, but never quite, because Sadie could add those times to a rapidly growing list of ones that she wished she’d treasured a bit more when she’d had them.

Chapter Four

The Listing Ship was Sadie’s favourite pub, which was lucky, because it was the only pub in Sea Salt Bay. Overlooking the far side of the bay and the wall of the grey cliffs, it was small and cosy, with orange lamps embedded in the teak walls and canopies of fishing nets hanging from the ceiling, and when the narrow windows were open and the breeze rolled through the snug, the air smelt of salt. It had a history that went right back to King James and had once been stocked entirely by the illegal rum that came into the bay when the moon was high and the army was looking the other way, the landlord always serving it with one eye on the door should the revenue man come calling. These days patrons were more likely to find guest ales and craft gins behind the bar, but Sadie loved the sense of romance about the place, the idea that it had always belonged to the bay and that its history was inextricably bound up with that of the sea that rolled onto the nearby sands.

Sadie wasn’t inside today; the weather was far too glorious to be indoors. Today she and best friends Natalie and Georgia were in the sunniest nook of the Listing Ship’s beer garden. It was early in the evening and so they had the garden almost to themselves. She’d said goodbye to Lucy earlier that day, leaving her at the airport to board her flight back to New York, and already Sadie missed her. It wasn’t even that they were close – not as close as she’d always been to Ewan anyway – but blood was still blood, and despite the miles between them the bond of blood was stronger than any distance. Close or not, her sister was still her sister and Sadie loved her. She’d needed to get out of the house soon after they’d got back from the airport because everyone in the Schwartz household was missing Lucy too and the atmosphere had been tetchy and miserable. She needed the brand of cheering entertainment that only her old school friends could provide to give her at least a few hours’ respite. By tomorrow morning her family would be back to normal, she hoped, used once again to Lucy’s absence.

Natalie shifted on the bench, straightening her skirt over tanned, generous thighs. She plucked a lip salve from her handbag and applied a little, regarding Sadie keenly from a face framed by a dark, glossy bob.

‘I’m sure even your grandma didn’t think that place was going to stay open forever,’ she said. ‘She might be sad to see it go – we all will – but she’ll get used to it and she’ll probably be glad of the chance to finally slow down. I mean, how old is she now?’

‘Seventy-eight,’ Sadie replied. ‘But age has always been just a number to her and it’s the slowing down that actually worries me. I’m