The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,36

if we’d had to leave the house a few minutes later.’

‘I did. I’m so tired I need another one! I’m going to need coffee on a drip today. There’s some at the waffle house, right? I never thought to check the larder.’

‘If nobody threw the tins away then there ought to be.’

‘I don’t think anyone did. I hope not.’

‘Then there’ll be some – only enough for a few days if we get busy though. We’ll have to get some more.’

‘I hope we do get busy – I’ll be happy enough to go to the wholesalers for coffee once we’ve closed up if it means we’ve sold enough to run out.’

‘It might take some time for people to notice we’re open again, darlin’. Have patience.’

Sadie smiled. She’d always loved that little lick of an accent that Gammy had never lost, despite all the years she and Gampy had spent living in England.

‘The first thing I’ll do when we’re cleaned a little is call the wholesaler and see if we can get some essentials delivered. I just hope they’ve kept our account open.’

‘Maybe we shouldn’t order too much,’ Sadie said doubtfully. ‘Not yet.’

‘Why ever not?’

Sadie didn’t want to say ‘In case this doesn’t work out and in a few days I realise we’re in way over our heads and have to abandon thoughts of getting the waffle house running again’, because while she’d pushed the idea to everyone, she was by no means confident that they could do it. More to the point, that she herself could do it and – in the long run – whether she’d even want to. She only knew in her heart that something in her life had to change, even if she didn’t know what yet. The waffle house had seemed as good a place as any to dip her toes in the water and test a new direction.

‘We just don’t want to spend too much money at first,’ she said instead. ‘In case business takes a while to pick up. Like you said, people might not realise we’re open again straight away. It might take a couple of weeks to be at full capacity again.’

April shook her head. ‘It won’t take long, darlin’. Once word gets round folks will come back.’

Her voice was filled with such conviction and optimism that it warmed Sadie to hear it. This was the way to bring Gammy back to them, whatever doubts Sadie might have about her own involvement. And when she felt those doubts, she just had to remind herself of all the reasons she was even trying this and she’d find herself on solid ground again.

She had the keys in the pocket of her jeans and as they arrived at the front door of the waffle house, she handed them to April.

‘Want to do the honours?’

April didn’t miss a beat. She poked one into the lock and twisted to click it open. They stepped inside together. April looked around in silence, and Sadie’s optimism evaporated as suddenly and completely as sea spray on a sun-baked rock. Her stomach dropped as she saw her grandma’s face.

It was the first time April had been in since Kenneth’s death. She’d been unwilling to face it, and nobody had imagined that she’d have to, and so they’d shielded her, taking on the basic maintenance until they could get rid of the place. Nobody had really imagined that this day might come, that April would be setting foot in there again and, in doing so, would have to come to terms with the memories of what had happened on that last fateful shift. While coming in here since her grandfather’s death had made Sadie melancholy, she had to imagine what her grandma felt now was more like a breath-stealing smack to the gut in comparison. Looking at her now, she quickly realised that the family’s collective decision had been a mistake, and that the biggest portion of the blame for that mistake now lay with Sadie, as the person who had instigated the reopening of the waffle house. Instead of shielding April, she ought to have brought her back in to see the place the moment they’d agreed a day to start working there again.

‘Gammy…’ she began hesitantly. ‘We could just clean today… Open tomorrow? I mean, if this is all a bit too—’

‘No, darlin’,’ April said, forcing a smile for her youngest granddaughter. ‘It’s like getting back on that horse after a fall, isn’t it? You can just stand there and