The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,30
too much and the best she could manage was to look vaguely non-threatening. There was the briefest fraction of a second where their eyes met.
You have nice eyes, Sadie found herself thinking. They sort of crease into little half-moons when you smile. I bet when you smile properly it’s gorgeous…
She pushed away the thought. One thing she’d always vowed was that she’d never get involved with a tourist – which he clearly was. Chances were they’d have their fun and you’d never see them again; and even if you did, long-distance relationships were so much harder to keep alive. And now she had a new rule: don’t get involved with tourists who try to run you down in their boat, even if they do have lovely eyes the colour of the sea on a cloudy day that crinkle into little half-moons when they smile.
‘Like I said,’ she replied, ‘no real harm done.’
‘I wish I could believe you mean that,’ he said.
‘I do,’ Sadie said with a lot more enthusiasm than she felt. What she really wanted right now was to get away from the scrutiny of a curious crowd and head home, have a shower and a long lie-down and forget all this happened.
The man turned to Ewan. He offered a hand to shake but Ewan simply stared at it, and then up at his face with a look that was so full of aggression that Sadie hardly recognised her usually easy-going and charming brother at all. The man let his hand drop to his side again.
‘Look, I really can’t express how sorry I am. I feel absolutely terrible about this. If you wanted to take things further then I’d completely understand—’
‘We don’t,’ Sadie said firmly. She looked at Ewan, daring him to argue. He might have looked scary to everyone else right now, but he wasn’t intimidating Sadie. ‘Do we?’
‘If it was left up to me—’
‘But it’s not,’ Sadie cut in. ‘It’s up to me and I’d rather let it drop. It was an accident and I’m fine; there’s no point in ruining’ – she glanced at the man – ‘this man’s holiday over it.’
Sadie glared at her brother but he didn’t even flinch. Deciding that she was going to have serious words with him later, she abandoned the argument for now. When Ewan was in this kind of mood – it wasn’t often but he did have his moments – there was no point and, at the end of the day, she at least recognised that he was just looking out for his little sister.
Instead, she turned back to the man, about to say something else when she heard her name frantically being called. She glanced around to see her mum and dad racing up the beach towards them and then gave a weary look at Ewan and Kat.
‘Who told them?’
‘I did,’ Kat said. ‘Sorry.’
Sadie held in a groan. ‘Now they’re going to make it all twenty times worse. And I bet they’ve cancelled a boatload of customers to come.’
‘It’s not Kat’s fault,’ Ewan snapped. ‘What else was she meant to do? I don’t think you’re fully appreciating how bad things looked to us. We didn’t call the ambulance and Mum and Dad for fun – we actually thought you were seriously injured. Stop complaining and be glad that we care!’
Any further complaint withered on Sadie’s lips. She understood all the reasons why they’d done what they’d done and, of course, was grateful that they cared so deeply for her but she hated all the fuss and attention.
‘Sorry.’
‘I can’t help but feel I’m still continuing to cause you all a lot of problems,’ the man said. ‘I can only say sorry again. I’ll go and meet with your parents – explain and apologise to them.’
Sadie was twenty-six years old, and she hardly needed anyone explaining anything to her parents when she could manage the job perfectly well herself. She was just about to say something along those lines to him, only with more tact and politeness, when Ewan cut across her.
‘Don’t you think you’ve done enough for one day?’ He folded his arms tight across his chest and Sadie noticed Kat stiffen again. Sadie had never seen her brother throw a punch in anger but she wondered whether she was about to because he looked like he really wanted to have a go at this poor guy, who might have messed up in a huge way but was doing his best to make it right.