The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,58
proportion, his features not as soft as Declan’s but…
Ugh, why did she keep on comparing people to Declan?
She began again. Luke, this was Luke, and he was like himself, nobody else. His skin was tanned, his hair dark, the faint beginning of crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes that didn’t detract from his looks but only gave them a sexy hint of experience and a life well lived. He was tall too, maybe around five eleven, six feet. His accent was that of a well-heeled Londoner though there were traces of other accents that suggested he’d lived in other places too. She’d never really noticed that before, or how his voice was mellow and full, like the notes of a well-loved oboe. She’d had plenty of distractions previously, but already she could tell that Luke might be different. And was he flirting with her? Yes, she decided, maybe he was. And maybe she might quite like it.
‘It’s a beautiful place,’ he said, gazing out at the view she’d just been admiring. ‘I suppose you take all this in your stride when you’ve lived here all your life.’
‘All what?’
‘This…’ He swept a hand along the line of the horizon. ‘I suppose it stops being so incredible to you after a while; you take it for granted.’
‘No, it doesn’t really. I was born and raised here, and I suppose I’m used to it, but I never take it for granted and it never stops being beautiful. It was one of the things I missed most when I went away to uni. Now that I’m back, I know I’d never get bored of it, even if I looked at it every day for a hundred years.’
‘I can see why. I’m hoping I’ll feel the same when I’ve been here long enough to start feeling I can call it home.’
‘So you’re planning to stay, even though you’re being treated horribly by the locals?’
He laughed again, a warm, rich sound.
‘I think the locals might have just cause. I think I might have got off on a very wrong foot with them. But if at least some of them can forgive me then I’d like to call this my forever home. I can’t imagine now how anywhere else could compare after being here.’
‘One of them has already forgiven you,’ Sadie said.
He cocked her a sideways glance. ‘And would that one be standing close by?’
‘They would.’
He smiled. ‘Then I’m grateful to know that not everyone hates me.’
‘They don’t, and even if they did it wouldn’t last long. Even Ewan will come round eventually.’
Luke raised a disbelieving eyebrow.
‘It might take twenty or so years,’ Sadie admitted, laughing. ‘But he will. He’s not scary at all when you get to know him.’
‘So I’ve been hearing. He seems to have a lot of fans around here.’
‘Ah…’ Sadie grinned. ‘Would these fans be mostly female?’
‘It does seem he’s a bit of a local heartthrob.’
‘God, it’s enough to make a sister want to vomit.’
He looked at her again. ‘That bad? If it’s any consolation he didn’t get all the good-looking genes in your family…’
Sadie burst out laughing and he shook his head, having the decency to look a little embarrassed.
‘As chat-up lines go,’ he said, holding in his own laughter, ‘that was dreadful, wasn’t it?’
‘A chat-up line? Was that what it was – I hardly recognised it.’
‘In my defence, it was off the cuff. You could at least cut me a bit of slack here – I’m trying to think on my feet to woo you in very difficult circumstances.’
‘And what circumstances might those be?’
He rubbed a hand across his chin. ‘Well… I can’t imagine I’m your favourite person right now—’
‘But I appreciate that you’re working hard on that,’ Sadie cut in with a smile.
‘But still… I find myself trying to win you over anyway. Tell me honestly, is it a lost cause? Tell me I’m deluded and I’ll sod off and never bother you again.’
Sadie’s smile grew. ‘You’ve got balls, I’ll give you that.’
‘Does that mean you admire my tenacity but I am deluded?’
‘No. It means I like that you’re trying and I could be persuaded to… what actually are you asking for?’
‘How about a drink with a stranger in town who doesn’t yet know anyone except the girl he almost drowned and who’s apparently crazy enough to forgive him?’
Excitement bubbled up in Sadie – a mad, giddy kind of excitement that she hadn’t felt in a long time.