‘Good for her.’
‘So she can get away from the small-village life, you mean?’
‘Harvey, I –’
He sighed, irritated by his stupid comment. He wished he was better at letting things go rather than bottling them up. He guessed he’d got used to doing that when he was a kid and the habit had followed him. ‘That was unnecessary, I apologise.’
‘I came to talk some more about Barney.’ Winnie nudged her arm again and she laughed, this time focused on her tea while it was still hot.
‘I am sorry, it must be the long days. In the winter she’s happy to be inside by the fire, but in the summer she wants to be out all the time.’
‘Like someone else,’ Melissa remembered.
Thrown by her recollection of something else she knew about him, a part of his character, he focused his own attention on Winnie and got her a treat from the cupboard. Melissa was totally right, though, he’d loved to be outside as a kid, a teen, and still to this day. During the long summers of his childhood Harvey had left the house the second he woke, only going home when it was almost his curfew, and when his dad was away working he’d relished the freedom, staying out until night fell. His mum had given him free rein, knowing how imprisoned they all felt with his father around.
‘We could take Winnie for a walk,’ Melissa suggested, finishing off her tea. ‘It’s a lovely day for it now.’
‘Winnie wouldn’t care if it wasn’t…Gracie took her out in the belting rain this morning, said she loved every second.’
‘You strange thing,’ Melissa told Winnie. Her hair caught a shaft of sunlight, making it glow a deep red as she bent down again to rub the dog’s tummy. ‘What do you say, Winnie? Walk?’
‘Oh, you’ve done it now.’ Winnie’s tail was thumping against the floor, head raised, eyes looking from him to Melissa and back again. ‘Never mention the W word unless you’re totally serious.’
‘Of course I’m serious.’
Maybe a walk was a good idea. They could talk at the same time and it would certainly be a lot less awkward than this. He finished up his cup of elderberry tea too, the rest in the pot would keep. ‘Winnie, it’s your lucky day.’ All it took was picking up the lead and the jangle of the chain to send Winnie into a frenzy, chasing her own tail in excitement. When she was in this mood, getting the lead on wasn’t all that easy, but finally they bundled out of Tumbleweed House.
‘May I?’ Melissa asked, hand outstretched for the lead Winnie was tugging on in her enthusiasm.
‘Go for it, she’s strong though.’
Laughing, she agreed, as Winnie tugged her forwards and she wound the lead tighter. ‘Slow down, Winnie, anyone would think you’d never been outside.’
‘Have you been down to the cove yet?’ Harvey asked when they reached the top of the lane that led from his home up to The Street. On the left was the candle shop, on the right the tea rooms, and opposite was the chapel, adjacent to which lay the path they’d followed so often down to the sand and the sea together.
She cleared her throat. ‘Not yet. Is it still the same?’
‘Of course it is. Not much changes around here.’
‘I wondered whether flocks of tourists had found it.’
They began to cross over. ‘I think the brambles usually put them off, especially the lazy ones who won’t go anywhere without a car. Most tourists favour the car park further on from the village and the nice easy walk down to the beach.’ He surreptitiously glanced at her. ‘Why the hesitation about going down there? Don’t tell me you’re a city chick and you can’t clamber down to the sand anymore.’
‘Of course not. Just been a long time, that’s all.’
They’d often raced down there, laughing and panting hard by the time they jumped onto the golden sands. But he had to remember the pain she’d been in when she left the village, the reminders she faced being here every day. She’d hurt him by leaving and never coming back, and it was easy to be encompassed by that rather than anything else, but he could tell by her reaction to his question that this was harder than he’d realised it might be for her.
As they reached the top of the track he decided distraction was a good idea. ‘Can I interest you in an ice-cream? I’ve got some cash in my pocket. My treat.’
‘Sounds good to me.’
Melissa met Zara, who ran the ice-creamery, and with a chocolate honeycomb for each of them they set off for the cove.
‘I wonder who bought the old shop,’ Harvey speculated, briefly turning to glance back past the bus stop at the almost hidden derelict building at the far side of a big patch of grass. Zara had been talking with another customer about the place that had once sold buckets and spades, inflatables, and other beach paraphernalia.
‘You’ll have to keep me informed of any developments.’
The reminder she wasn’t back here permanently was sobering. ‘Here, hold this.’ Harvey handed his ice-cream to Melissa while he removed Winnie’s lead. ‘She’s good to go from here.’
