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She burst into the kitchen where her dad was sitting at the table with a brown pot of tea in front of him. He looked up and raised an eyebrow with a smile. It was usually her sister Jess who strolled in at this time, not Nikki.
‘Good night?’ he asked. He was in his usual plaid shirt and jeans, and she felt a burst of affection for his solid, grounding presence. It brought her back down to earth, for she feared she had lost her head. She went to give him a hug. He smelled of tea and toothpaste and beard oil. Reassuring.
‘It was fun,’ she said. ‘A classic Neptune lock-in. Want a bacon sandwich?’
‘I’ve had my breakfast.’ He watched as she grabbed a frying pan to put on the stove.
‘Mum still in bed?’ she asked.
‘Yes. I’ll take her up something in a minute.’
‘I can do some extra bacon for her?’
‘I think she’d just like a cup of tea. She was still asleep when I got up.’
‘She deserves a lie-in.’ Nikki peeled off two thick rashers and placed them in the pan.
‘I know. She does too much.’
‘She wouldn’t have it any other way, Dad. You know that.’
Her mum Helen rarely stood still. She helped with the family business, made wedding cakes, raised funds for the lifeboat station and was always there to pull something delicious out of the oven at seven o’clock. It was probably why all three of the North children, Nikki and Jess and Graham, were still at home. At twenty-three, Nikki had somehow forgotten to leave, and was still working for her dad five years after leaving school.
‘Morning, campers.’
Nikki looked up from the stove to see her sister Jess saunter in. She was dressed in a short satin dressing gown with a tiger embroidered on the back, her dark hair wild, her legs long and brown.
‘Hey.’
‘Who’s that for?’ Jess eyed the bacon with longing.
‘I’m making a sandwich for Woody.’ The lie was effortless but necessary.
‘Where is he? Can’t he make his own?’
‘We were watching the sun come up. In the harbour.’
‘Oh.’ Jess gave her a knowing look. ‘How romantic.’
Nikki rolled her eyes. ‘There’s nothing between us.’
‘Yeah, right.’ Jess reached out to steal a rasher of bacon.
‘Oi.’ Nikki flicked her with the fish slice. ‘Hands off. Make your own.’
‘I’ve got to go to work! I’m due on shift at eight. Saving lives!’
Nikki knew that if she didn’t give in there would be hell to pay. Jess was an A & E nurse, in the hospital in Tawcombe, a small town three miles up the coast just over the border into North Devon. She slid the bacon between two slices of bread and handed it to her sister, then lay two more pieces in the pan, praying her beautiful stranger hadn’t been side-tracked while waiting for his breakfast.
‘Say thank you,’ William said to Jess.
‘Thanks,’ said Jess, with her mouth full, glaring at her dad and giving Nikki a thumbs-up.
Five minutes later, brown sauce liberally applied, Nikki wrapped her sandwich in tin foil and patted her dad on the head as she headed for the door.
‘See you all later.’
‘See you, love.’
