The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,90

this morning but things have changed. We have to talk to Gammy again, sort this business out once and for all, and I have to be there giving it my full attention. My parents will flip if I rush off again, not to mention my brother will want to come over and punch your lights out.’

‘He’d probably be quite efficient at it too,’ Luke said with a laugh. ‘He looks handy.’

‘Don’t be fooled. He looks as if he could handle himself but all those muscles are just decoration. He wouldn’t really hurt a fly.’

‘Easy for you to say – he’s probably never wanted to knock you out.’

Sadie smiled. ‘How about tomorrow? That’s if you’re free.’

‘My evening schedule is a bit like yours – pretty empty right now. I think tomorrow could work.’

‘Tomorrow then. About…’

But Luke’s attention had been drawn to the kitchen, and Sadie looked to see that Declan was walking across the dining room. She felt the temperature in the room drop by degrees once more as the two men regarded each other. Declan aimed a careless nod at Sadie.

‘Don’t forget, call if you need anything. Me or Mum or Dad – we’ll all help if we can.’

Sadie smiled gratefully. ‘Thanks, Dec. I appreciate it.’

‘See you around then.’

‘Yeah.’

He held his hand up in a casual wave and left. Sadie was aware that she wanted to watch him walk the pier for a moment or two, as she always did when he left the waffle house, but that she shouldn’t. Instead she turned back to Luke.

‘I’m looking forward to it already.’

‘I’ll text you later to see what time suits you. Where do you want to go?’

‘I’m content just walking on the beach if you’re there.’

‘Really?’ He grinned, and he looked so much happier now than when he’d arrived that it warmed her to see it. She was tired, and she had more trouble waiting for her at home, but at least there was this to look forward to.

‘Absolutely,’ she said. ‘If the weather is good, that’s what we’ll do.’

Chapter Sixteen

Sadie had never seen her grandmother cry – at least, not like this. She’d seen her cry at Gampy’s funeral, of course, and for other family members they’d lost over the years. She’d seen her cry at films and she’d seen her cry with happiness, but she’d never seen such bitter, hateful tears, and she’d never imagined in her wildest nightmares that she’d be the cause of them. April had called her a flake, lazy, disloyal, selfish… and that was despite Henny and Graham’s staunch defence of her. It had cut into her very soul to see her grandmother look at her with such betrayal too, and yet, despite how much it hurt, she knew that Ewan was right and that the only way they’d get Gammy to step away from the waffle house was for Sadie to withdraw her help. It didn’t mean that she was any less hurt by the fact that her brother had chosen to throw her under the bus to achieve it, and that he was now the golden boy while Sadie was the girl her grandma could hardly bear to look at.

In the end, Henny had been forced to take April to bed, and they’d been gone for a solid hour before she came back down to the drawing room, where Sadie was curled in her father’s arms, her own tears falling now that her grandma wasn’t there to see them. Ewan was in the garden with Kat, who was almost as distressed as Sadie and April about the whole thing.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Henny said, coming to sit with her husband and daughter on the sofa. ‘I never imagined it would be quite this ghastly.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ Sadie sniffed, sitting up and dabbing her eyes with her dad’s clean hanky.

‘I can’t help but feel it is,’ Henny said. ‘We shouldn’t have let things get this far… We should have put that old place on the market the moment we’d buried poor Kenneth.’

‘I pushed it, Mum,’ Sadie said. ‘I don’t want you to feel bad about it.’

Henny gave her a mournful look and reached to catch a tear as it tracked Sadie’s cheek. ‘How can I feel anything else? No mother wants to see her daughter cry like this. If anything, I’m angry at April.’

‘Angry?’ Graham looked sharply at his wife.

‘I can’t help it,’ Henny said. ‘I know I shouldn’t be but look at the disharmony between us at the moment and it’s all over