The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,53
whenever Sadie gave her a compliment. She’d laugh and point out that it was down to nothing more than hard work and good genes, but Sadie often looked and admired her Gammy – as she did for so many other things – and hoped that those good genes would one day find their way to her.
‘Never really saw the point. People don’t want sweet things in the evening.’
‘What makes you think that?’
‘They just don’t.’
‘But restaurants offer a sweet menu—’
‘For after your dinner… which is the most important bit. Nobody goes in there just asking for the sweet menu, do they?’
‘Well, what about these dessert places that are springing up everywhere? They’ve got at least half a dozen in Bournemouth and Weymouth…’
‘We’re not Bournemouth or Weymouth,’ April said briskly. ‘Sea Salt Bay is nowhere near as big as one of those towns, and we just don’t get the trade that those places do.’
‘But they stay open into the evening,’ Sadie insisted. ‘We’re only a small town but we’d only have one place like that open. I think the trade would come.’
April wrung out the cloth she was using into a bucket. ‘Your grandpa always said we worked a long enough week as it was without working into the night and I happen to agree. Besides, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m an old lady now and it’s a bit too late to start working all the hours the dear Lord has sent us.’
‘But you’ve got me now.’
‘Two of us is still just the same as it was before.’
‘I can work longer… I’m younger.’
‘I can’t.’
‘I could do it alone if it wasn’t too busy.’
April shook her head. ‘You couldn’t – it’s just not practical. And even if you could, would you really want to spend your whole life in here?’
Sadie didn’t want to spend her whole life in the waffle house, of course, but she was beginning to think that since she’d committed herself, she might as well make a success of it. A good place to start might be to gently overhaul the way they did things. The way they did things now was the way her grandparents had always done them, and what worked when they’d first opened all those years ago – the days when shops didn’t open on Sundays and pubs really were empty by 11 p.m. – didn’t necessarily suit today’s society. People now wanted things when they wanted things, and they expected their bars and restaurants and shops to be open for business for a lot more of the day. If the waffle house opened longer Sadie was sure they’d get enough custom to make it worth their while.
She was aware, also, that it might be too much to ask of April to put in longer hours, but Sadie was certain she could find a way to make it work for them. Her family had all said they were too busy to help, but part of that had been about making a point to Sadie because they hadn’t wanted her to do this. But if they all saw how serious she was about making it work, how she could build the waffle house into a far more successful venture than her grandma or grandpa could ever have imagined, then perhaps they’d be more supportive and willing to lend themselves out for the odd hour here and there.
‘What about trialling a few evenings to see how it goes?’ Sadie asked. ‘If it took off and we thought it would make enough money we could hire help—’
‘No, darlin’. You have a life outside this place. How are you gonna meet a man if you’re always working in here?’
Annoyingly, and without her permission, Declan popped into Sadie’s head. And as fast as she shook away the thought, it was followed by a vision of Luke. One a man she had to force herself to forget and one she’d like to know better, even though the circumstances of her meeting with the latter were about as unromantic as it got. But Sadie couldn’t let herself dwell on any of that; the waffle house had to be her first and top priority. Maybe the romance in her life would come when she least expected it, and maybe that was the best way to let it happen, but she sure as hell couldn’t expect any business to run that way.
She folded her arms. ‘I have plenty of time to meet a man and I don’t need one to make me happy.’