The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,24

acknowledge it.

‘I wouldn’t know,’ Georgia said. ‘The discount store wasn’t exactly where I saw myself when I left school full of bright hopes.’

‘At least you had the bright hopes,’ Natalie said. ‘And you worked your way up to manager so it’s not all bad. I just wanted to earn money as soon as I could and I didn’t care how – well, within reason, of course.’

‘But you did alright in the end too,’ Declan said.

‘I suppose, if it’s your sort of thing,’ Natalie said.

Melissa looked at her. ‘What do you do?’

‘Housing officer. It could be worse; at least the area I work in is nice. I’d hate to do it in a big city. It still means commuting out from the bay every day and I wish I didn’t have to do that.’

‘That’s the thing about the bay,’ Sadie said. ‘There’s not a lot work-wise here if you don’t want to sell buckets and spades or work in the chip shop.’ She looked at Declan with an apologetic grimace. ‘No offence,’ she said.

He smiled. ‘Don’t worry; I know you didn’t mean anything by it. My dad loves the chip shop but it wasn’t for me either, even though he was disappointed when he realised that I had no intention of taking over when he retires.’

‘I’m glad you won’t be taking it over,’ Melissa said. ‘I don’t think I could cope with you smelling of fish and chip fat all the time.’

‘All I meant was,’ Sadie said, not dignifying Melissa’s comment with a response and preventing anyone else from doing so either, ‘it was inevitable that most of us would end up working away from the bay.’

‘Your family does alright.’ Natalie turned to Sadie. ‘I guess it shows that if you use your imagination the work is there. Perhaps we’re all just not very imaginative.’

‘They do more than alright,’ Declan agreed.

‘It is hard to find work here,’ Melissa said. ‘When my parents bought the amusement arcade on the pier and moved here I thought it would be fun to move here too and live by the sea in a lovely little town. If I’d known I’d end up having to work for them dishing out bowls of coins all day I might have thought twice about it.’

‘But then you wouldn’t have met me,’ Declan said, turning to her with a soppy grin.

Sadie studied them as they looked at each other. Much as Sadie liked Melissa’s parents, and as kind and neighbourly as they’d been to Kenneth and April since they’d taken over the amusement arcade not far from the waffle house, Sadie couldn’t help but share at least that wish with Melissa. If Melissa had never moved to Sea Salt Bay with her parents, what would that have meant for her and Declan? And why was Sadie even thinking about any of this at all? More to the point, why did it sting so much more today, at this moment, than it usually did? Was it because the rest of Sadie’s life seemed so uncertain right now? Was it because she was beginning to wonder if she’d thrown what she’d had with Declan away for nothing if she gave up her teaching course and came back to work in Sea Salt Bay? It certainly felt like that, and yet, she was still torn over the decision.

‘Anyway, Sadie might yet end up taking over at the waffle house,’ Georgia said airily.

Sadie stared at her, but Georgia didn’t seem to realise she was being stared at. That hadn’t been a discussion for sharing and Sadie had by no means decided. She looked to see both Melissa and Declan regarding her keenly, though she suspected that they both had very different reasons for that.

Declan nodded slowly. ‘I think it’s a brilliant idea. Everyone in the bay would miss that old place if it closed down.’

‘You have the ice-cream parlour,’ Melissa said. ‘And what about your dad’s restaurant?’

Declan turned to her. ‘It’s hardly the same. The waffle house has been there forever. I just can’t imagine this town without it. Anyway, I don’t think fish and chips are any substitute for pancakes and waffles.’

‘I certainly put most of my puppy fat on in there,’ Natalie said.

‘It was lovely,’ Georgia agreed. ‘Your grandma loved to spoil us rotten, didn’t she? Every day after school we’d call in – remember, Sadie? I used to go home full of whatever yummy thing April had cooked for us and not wanting what my mum had cooked. I didn’t dare