that blasted waffle house.’
‘You can’t be angry at Gammy,’ Sadie said. ‘She doesn’t know what she’s doing.’
‘That doesn’t make it any easier to see you so upset.’ Henny let out a sigh. ‘Well, it’s done now. Tomorrow morning we’ll instruct someone to put the waffle house on the market. She’ll have to sign the papers, of course…’ She looked at Graham. ‘That’s going to be your job, I’m afraid, because I don’t think she’d do it for anyone but you.’
Sadie gave her father a look of deepest sympathy. It seemed that she wasn’t the only family member who was going to have tyre marks across their back by the end of tomorrow.
He nodded grimly. Sadie sank into the sofa and closed her eyes. She was drained – not only physically but emotionally too. She’d done a full day’s work on little more than two hours’ sleep, not to mention the added stresses of troublesome boyfriends and ex-boyfriends and brothers and mothers and grandmothers. All in all, she’d had better days.
With the sounds of her mother and father still talking, she let herself drift away. She didn’t care that she was on the sofa – she’d have slept on a barbed-wire fence right now. And she might wake with a crick in her neck, but it was just another problem she’d have to deal with when she got to it. They were racking up quite nicely these days anyway.
* * *
She couldn’t remember going to bed but Sadie woke around eleven the next morning in her bedroom. The house was silent, but her parents would have gone down to the harbour by now and would probably be getting ready to take out the second boatload of tourists that day.
She pushed herself up and stretched, and then suddenly remembered with a nauseous twist of her stomach that her grandma would probably be somewhere downstairs and that she would have to face her. Perhaps April would have forgotten the conversation, or perhaps she might have had a change of heart overnight and would be willing to forgive Sadie and put the whole thing behind them. Sadie wasn’t sure she wanted to find out, because neither of those things might be true. And she couldn’t just run away and go out, because if Gammy was in, Sadie felt duty bound to stay in too and make sure she stayed safe. Henny and Graham would expect that of her as well, as the only member of the family under retirement age and without a job.
She shuddered, yet another cold truth dropping onto her. She was officially unemployed. Twenty-six, living with her parents, unemployed, unfinished education and with no real prospects. If she hadn’t felt miserable before, she did now. Natalie and Georgia might have complained that their jobs had no prospects but they were doing a damn sight better than Sadie. She’d have to address it, but it wasn’t something she could face right now. Instead, she decided that she’d no choice but to get up and get dressed and face her grandma. It would have to happen sooner or later – might as well get it over and done with.
But when Sadie got down to the kitchen, there was no sign of April. There was, however, a note on the table telling Sadie that Henny and Graham had taken her to the boatshed with them to help (which meant they were keeping an eye on her and keeping her out of Sadie’s way) and she had to heave a sigh of relief, even though it might not have been the most appropriate reaction. She also knew that this wouldn’t be something they’d be able to do every day and that they’d probably have to enlist the help of someone they knew from the harbour community to enable them to do it today.
Instantly she felt lighter and surprisingly hungry too. She grabbed a slice of toast and a coffee and then headed upstairs for a shower. A freshen-up, another coffee and a walk out in the sun… it was surprising what the small things could do to lift a low spirit. And who knew, maybe her feet would take her in the direction of the Old Chapel, and maybe the owner would be around to say hello. There had to be some advantages to having unexpected time on your hands.
* * *
An hour later she was walking the road to Luke’s house, on a mission to surprise him. The weather was cooler today, the sky