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Something else he owed Mia for, he supposed.
The Fox looked busier, too, and most of the chatter seemed to be about the Fish and Film Festival. With only a week or so to go, people were starting to get excited. Charlie figured if all the locals showed up, willing to spend money, they might break even without drawing in people from farther afield.
Breaking even wouldn’t save the Coliseum, though, and he knew that was what was worrying Mia.
“You’re late,” Mia said, but she was smiling and pushing a pint along the bar toward him, so he figured she wasn’t actually mad at him.
“Sorry.” He hopped up onto the bar stool next to her and took a moment to just enjoy looking at her. She was wearing his second favorite of her many tea dresses, with tiny blue flowers against a purple background, and her dark hair curled down onto her shoulders as she leaned forward across the bar. “How did it go last night?”
Mia raised an eyebrow at him. “You mean your roommate didn’t fill you in on everything when he got home?”
“I’ve been at the restaurant all day. I’ve had actual customers.”
“Well, bully for you,” Mia said with a grin. “Seriously, that’s great. Magda must be pleased.”
“Very.” Charlie took a long celebratory sip from his pint. “And now Kevin’s taken over in the kitchen, I get to relax with you and hear all about your talk with your father.” He lowered his voice for the last bit. He didn’t think the town cared as much as Mia thought they did, but it wasn’t worth getting her riled up, not when his day was going so well.
But Mia shook her head. “I’ve got a much more important project I need your help with. Jonny!” she called up the bar, and Charlie saw the landlord cover his face with his hands before moving in their direction.
“Tell me you just want another drink,” Jonny said, looking at Charlie with despair in his eyes.
Charlie winced for the other man. Apparently Mia had a goal in sight and wasn’t about to give up anytime soon. “I think the lady wants a word.”
Jonny grabbed Charlie’s arm. “You tell her, Charlie. You tell her. She’ll listen to you. I just can’t...” With that, the pub landlord disappeared off to the other end of the bar, responding to an imaginary call for a drink.
“Wimp.” Mia huffed. “Come on, I suppose we might as well get a table, then. Give him a little break.”
“What are you trying to talk him into?” Charlie asked, weaving his way through the occupied tables to a free one in the corner.
“Nothing much,” Mia said, in the sort of tone she always used when she was lying. “I just thought the Crooked Fox might benefit from a stall down at the festival site this year.”
“So the dads don’t all have to disappear to the pub this year?” Charlie guessed.
Mia nodded. “It’s all Heather Jenkins’s fault. She’s been complaining since the start about it. I think she wants Jonny to close for the day.” She paused. “Actually... Back in a minute.”
Charlie watched her dash over to the bar, grabbing Jonny by the shirtsleeve and talking at what looked to be an alarming speed. In just a few minutes, she was rushing back again, a huge smile spread across her face.
“You did it?” Charlie watched her drop back into the chair beside him, still beaming.
“I most certainly did.”
“How, exactly?”
Mia’s eyes darted across to the pictures on the wall. “Gentle persuasion.”
“You told him Mayor Fielding was threatening to close the pub for the day otherwise, didn’t you.”
“I’m that predictable?” Mia winced.
“To me you are.” Charlie leaned forward and noticed too late that she’d done the same, and they were suddenly very close and his mouth was Sahara dry. “I’m sure you’re still a mystery to the rest.”
Mia’s eyes were wide and bright green, even in the dim lighting of the pub. “That’s okay. I don’t think I mind so much, not being a mystery to you.”
But she was–an utter mystery. He had no idea what she was thinking, no idea what she wanted. And he had no idea she was going to lean in and kiss him until she did.
Her lips were warm and soft against his–and gone too soon. Mia pulled away with a smile, reaching for her coat while Charlie was still struggling to sit up straight.
“I’ve got to go,” she said. “More emails to answer and calls to make tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow, though, yeah?”
Charlie nodded and felt even that was quite an achievement, given the circumstances.
* * * *
Mia took the cliff path to Charlie’s cottage at a glacial pace, telling herself she was just being careful on the rocky trail but knowing she was really just putting off her arrival. In the end, it made little difference. George was leaning against a rickety garden gate outside the house and saw her before she even spotted him.
“Mia!” He sounded so pleased, so surprised, she couldn’t even regret coming, really.
“Hello, Dad.” The words felt strange on her tongue.
“Do you want to come in?” he asked when she reached the gate. “We’ve got a new front door now and everything.”
“What did you have before?”
George shrugged. “A piece of wood with unattached hinges. The new door got stuck in Calais for a few days. One of the reasons Charlie wanted me here to keep an eye on things.”
Mia eyed the cottage suspiciously. As much as she wanted to punish her father for leaving her, him dying of hypothermia in Charlie and Becky’s rotten dream cottage wasn’t quite what she had in mind.
“Why don’t we talk out here,” she suggested.
George nodded, stepping over the gate rather than opening it and saying, “Come sit with me by the cliff edge. You get the most wonderful view of the sea, and the boats coming in.”
Settled on the grass beside her father, the late afternoon sun warm on her skin, looking down over the beach and the harbor, Mia almost felt like a child again, safe and warm and loved in a world where nothing could ever really be that bad.
But she wasn’t. And there were still so many questions she hadn’t asked.
“What happened with you and...you know.”
“Yvonne?” George asked, surprised. “It didn’t last very long. I think it was more of a means to an end than anything else. For both of us.”
A way to escape, Mia thou
ght. To get away from her and her mother. Away from Aberarian. “Did you... Have you been alone? Since then?”
George looked away, over at the lighthouse. “I won’t lie to you. There have been other women.”
“How many?” It was a dark, horrible fascination. She didn’t really want to hear about her father’s love life. But if he’d been in her life, she’d know who he was dating, right? So if they were going to rebuild their relationship, she needed to know.
“Two,” George answered, still not looking at her.
“Are you with someone now?”
She could only see the side of her dad’s face, but she still caught the wince before he said, “Not anymore.”
“Is that why you came?”
Now he turned to face her. “I came back for you. Because I’d left it too long already. Frances leaving me... It was the push I needed. It was my sign, to tell me it was time. That was all.”
Mia nodded, surprised to find she believed him. “Okay.”
“What about you?” George asked. “Do I need to give Charlie a ‘if you hurt my little girl…’ speech?”
“I don’t think we’re there yet,” Mia said, not sure if she meant her and Charlie or her and her dad. Luckily, George didn’t ask.
“Okay,” he said. “Then tell me something else about you. About your job, say. Or the festival.”
Mia leaned back on her hands, her heels pushing against loose stones and grass, and started to talk, staring out at the sea in front of her. And when she’d finished, she realized he now knew more about her life than almost anyone else in town. He knew about the A to Z shop and the Coliseum and StarFish. He knew she loved the smell of popcorn most on a Saturday night, when she knew it was made just for her. He knew that sometimes she swapped some of the items on the N and O shelves round, just to see how long it would take Ditsy to notice. He knew she hoped Magda was becoming a real friend.
He might not have been much of a father, but it turned out he was a very good listener.
Walking back to the cottage, the sky starting to darken above them, George paused at the cottage gate and said, “The electrics should be fixed in the next week or so. Maybe then... Maybe you could come up for a cup of tea or something.”
