The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,94
onto the bed, of him ripping off his shirt, him taking her face in his hands and kissing her. His scent and his touch were all over her and she never wanted to lose it. She’d had sex since Declan, of course, but it had always been drunken, or rushed, or plain boring. It had been functional, at the end of the day, to fulfil a need. Even with Declan, even though it had always been good, it had become routine by the end of their relationship. Luke was something else, something that Sadie quickly recognised could become addictive if she let it. Already she wanted him again, but it seemed he wanted to talk and so, for now, she’d have to let him.
‘Tell me about your life before I came to the bay,’ he said as she nestled into the crook of his arm.
‘There’s not that much to tell. I was born, went to school, went to university – outside the town – came back, started teacher training and then quit teacher training. All pretty dull and most of it you know already. Never mind that – tell me about you. I don’t know anything at all, Mr Enigma. Come on – spill the beans.’
‘You really want to know? It’s such a tale of tragedy you might regret asking.’
Sadie laughed lazily. ‘Well, I’ve asked now so it will serve me right. I do want to know. Why did you really come to the bay? Tell me about your family, your childhood, all your near-misses.’ Her smile faded as she recalled something darker that had been hinted but never explained. ‘Back in the Listing Ship on our first date you said you’d had your heart broken but you never said what happened.’
‘As I recall you told me not to tell you about it.’
‘I did, but that was because it didn’t seem as if you wanted to talk about it. But now…’
‘You really want to know?’
‘Yes; I do. I think we’re at that point now, don’t you?’
He let out a sigh and shifted slightly next to her. ‘Maybe you’re right. Her name is Christa.’
‘Right. So where is she now? What happened?’
‘She’s living with my brother in Kensington.’
‘They’re together?’ Sadie leaned up on her elbow to look at him. He nodded.
‘I was engaged to her, but she decided that the other Goldman boy looked like a more attractive prospect. I don’t mind telling you it tore my life apart. Everything changed, not just that. The business that I had renovating and selling properties – I was in partnership with Jacob; that’s my brother – and so you can see that had to end; I could hardly work with him after that. I can’t see him now because I can’t see him with her and I don’t want to see her at all. So one day I remembered this little place where I was happy for a few summers and I decided to chuck it all in and move away from London. I was going to have a quiet life, do up a house, swim in the sea every morning, go out on a boat, learn to fish and maybe surf… I wasn’t intending to meet someone and certainly not as quickly as I did. But you just… well, you know how it went.’
‘Yes, you should be careful fishing in these waters; you never know what you might catch.’
He chuckled softly.
‘What about your mum? Is she in London? Was she upset about all this, because didn’t your dad…?’
‘Exactly. She was. I’d always vowed never to do that to someone because I saw first-hand what my dad’s infidelity did to my mum. Maybe it had the opposite effect on Jacob – maybe those events somehow normalised it all for him. Or maybe he just didn’t have the strength to resist the temptation.’
‘She must have really thrown herself at him.’
‘I don’t know about that. I don’t know any of the details and I don’t want to. It’s enough that it happened and now I’m separated from half my family and the life I used to know.’
‘Are you sad that you’ve lost all that – the big glamorous life in London and the girl?’
‘I’m mostly sad about Jacob. I can make a life anywhere but I hate that he’s no longer in it.’
‘And there’s no way you could make up?’
He shook his head. ‘Not right now; it’s still too raw.’
‘What if you moved on enough? Found someone new, fell in love again?’