The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,89
from that photo. I spent three bloody years explaining to people that it was me and why it didn’t look like me at all. Three years stuck with a portrait that made me look like a bowl of tapioca pudding!’
‘Oh, God,’ Sadie snorted and again put a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter. ‘Does it make it better that I’m still sorry about that?’
‘It would, only there’s so much else for you to be sorry about that I think you’d have to pay penance for the next twenty years to make it all up to me.’
‘You can talk!’ she squeaked.
He put a hand to his breast and feigned an expression of newborn innocence. ‘Moi?’
‘What about that time you phoned me to say Robert Downey Jnr was drinking in the Ship? I rushed down there and when I got there you were just sitting in the bar with one of those celebrity masks on, laughing your head off. You have no idea how disappointing it was!’
‘Serves you right for racing down to see another man.’
‘It was no man – it was Robert Downey Jnr! My free pass! What else did you expect me to do?’
‘I wouldn’t have done it.’
‘Not even for Blake Lively?’
‘OK, maybe…’ He grinned. ‘But free pass or not, you wouldn’t have really gone there, even if it had been the man himself?’
‘Yeah, because he would have totally gone along with that,’ she said with gentle sarcasm in her tone.
‘I wouldn’t have, not even for Blake Lively.’
She smiled up at him. ‘I wouldn’t have either – you know that.’
He smiled too, and for a moment they held each other’s gaze.
It was too easy to be like this with him, and alarm bells should have been ringing but they weren’t. The fact was, no matter what else happened, where else life took them, nobody knew the soul of Sadie like he did and that was hard to resist, especially on days when she felt lost and out of her depth and needed a little understanding.
But then the door to the waffle house opened and Sadie tore away her gaze to greet a new customer.
Only it wasn’t a new customer; it was Luke, and he was wearing the expression of a man who’d just seen something he wished he hadn’t. There was a glance loaded with questions shared between Sadie and Declan, until it settled back on Sadie again.
Declan cut into the stark and sudden silence.
‘If you don’t need anything,’ he said to Sadie, ‘I’ll get back to work.’ He cast a wary glance Luke’s way, as uncomfortable as the other man’s had been distrustful.
‘OK,’ Sadie replied, determined not to let the moment get the better of her. ‘Thanks for dropping by; it was thoughtful of you.’
Declan hooked a thumb towards the kitchen. ‘Maybe I’ll just go and…’
‘Yes,’ Sadie said, her smile brief and reserved now. ‘That would be great; Gammy would love to see you and you could… you know…’
‘Check on her?’
‘Exactly. Kill two birds with one stone.’
Declan went through to the kitchen and Sadie forced a bright smile for Luke.
‘Have you met Declan properly yet?’
‘No, but I know of him.’
‘Right. Of course. Small town and all that, of course you do. He’s an… old friend.’
‘I gathered,’ he replied, and Sadie didn’t know how to respond to that so she ignored it.
‘I didn’t expect to see you again today. Is everything alright?’
‘I didn’t expect to see you open today.’
‘No; a lot of people seem to be coming in to say that. It’s a long story. Did you just come in because you’d noticed or…?’
‘Well, yes. But I thought I’d just come in to take the opportunity to catch you anyway. About this morning—’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I handled it very badly.’
‘No, no you didn’t. It was a stupid suggestion and everything you said made perfect sense. I just wanted to say that and clear the air. After we left things the way we did I haven’t been able to settle all day.’
‘Me neither,’ Sadie said. ‘Honestly, I’m so glad we’ve been able to speak again this afternoon.’
‘Me too,’ he said, and he seemed to relax a little. ‘I was so worried that I’d blown it this morning.’
‘Me too. We might be as daft as each other.’
‘We might.’ He glanced around the dining room before taking a step back towards the door. ‘You’re busy, and you don’t have time for all this now. When you said you’d be free later…’