The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,57

Eleven

As the sun went down, Sadie walked along the beach, the sun warm and friendly on her skin, the evening light mellow and pinky gold on the cliffs. After they’d finished clearing up at the waffle house Declan had given them a lift home before going back to meet Melissa from work. Sadie had been grateful for the ride for April’s sake, but for her own, she’d wished he could find it in himself to be less than insufferably kind for one second of his life because she would rather – really needed to – have walked. So Sadie skipped dinner at home, incurring Henny’s ire, but making excuses that she’d been picking at the fruit and sweets at the waffle house all day and had ruined her appetite and was going to take a walk to try to get it back.

The bit about the fruit and sweets wasn’t true, even if the part about needing a walk was, because she’d hardly had time to pick at anything. She just wasn’t hungry at all, even though an early start and a busy day ought to have meant she was. Maybe she’d get some leftovers later, or maybe she’d even stop by for fish and chips, which tasted better by the sea than anywhere else (even people who lived by the sea couldn’t deny that). Although, that did run the risk of bumping into Declan’s dad, who owned the fish and chip shop and, even though he had staff, sometimes worked a shift too. Or even Declan himself, who might be around, as he sometimes was, sitting at a table shooting the breeze with his dad if the restaurant was gifted a quiet moment.

But for the moment Sadie wasn’t really thinking about food. She wasn’t really thinking about anything, and yet, she simultaneously seemed to be thinking about everything in the world. Her head was full, but nothing seemed to stay long enough in there to fully process because as soon as a thought presented itself another would come along demanding her attention. The end result was a Sadie increasingly frustrated with her inability to make a decision about anything, a Sadie who had even less ability to actually begin addressing any of the things that were bothering her than a Sadie with no time to think of them at all. Walking the beach, the sea licking at the shoreline like a contented cat, was helping her to relax, but it didn’t feel as if it was solving anything.

Toes dug into the soft sand, she stopped to gaze out to where the sunlight was sprinkled over the waves like glitter. Visibility was good this evening, the light just right so that you could see for miles, and on the horizon she counted at least three large ships and the distant headlands further along the coast. This view was the most perfect view in the world to her. She hadn’t always thought so, but being away from Sea Salt Bay had taught her a lot of things, and how to appreciate her home was one of them. She couldn’t understand how her sister Lucy could live so far from here and never want to come back, but perhaps that was because Lucy hadn’t felt so connected to the people she’d left behind. One, in particular…

Sadie shook the thought away. She’d come out this evening to get away from those feelings, not ponder them some more.

‘Would now be a bad time to say hello?’

Sadie almost visibly jumped. She turned to find Luke standing next to her, yet she’d been so lost in thought that she hadn’t even noticed him approach.

‘It’s a good thing you’re not a mugger,’ she said, catching her breath. ‘Although you’d be bloody brilliant at it because I never even heard you sneak up on me.’

He gave a warm chuckle. ‘Sorry about that. But you can keep your money; I’m not a mugger.’

‘We’ve got to stop bumping into each other like this,’ she replied with a laugh.

‘I know – it must look as if I’m stalking you and I promise I’m not.’

‘Ah, well, I think I can believe you on that score. Sea Salt Bay is a very small place and it’s inevitable that we’d keep running into each other really.’

He held her in a gaze that threw her for a moment. ‘Is that so bad?’

‘Um… No…’

He turned to the sea. Sadie glanced at his profile in the low sun. He was even better-looking than she remembered, everything in perfect