At the bakery Harvey reeled off the orders – the usual ham and cheese for Clarke, egg and cress for Tim, a roll filled with roast beef and horseradish for Bruce. And for himself, Harvey humoured Celeste who loved to experiment with flavours. Last week it had been a poppyseed bagel with smoked salmon, capers, juicy tomato and red onion, today it was pulled pork with portobello mushrooms and lashings of chipotle sauce.
Celeste, in her usual white apron with a cloud of bakery dust puffing against her forearms as she loaded more bloomer loaves into the rack, memorised his order and pulled on plastic gloves ready to handle the long ciabatta roll and position the fillings. She slit the bread down the side just as the door opened and let in a welcoming cool breeze from the outside.
Blacksmith Lucy had come into the bakery and watched Celeste making up Harvey’s part of the order. ‘That looks interesting.’ After a brief recap of what it would be she said, ‘I’ll take one of those too please.’
Harvey laughed as Celeste generously added the chipotle sauce. ‘You might want to go easy on the sauce,’ he warned Lucy. ‘Rumour has it, it’ll blow your head off.’
‘I can handle it,’ she smiled.
‘How are you enjoying the Cove?’ He didn’t see her around much but when he did she seemed content, always polite without giving too much away.
‘I’m slowly getting used to it. I found it a bit quiet at first but there aren’t many villages or towns that have this kind of character anymore.’
‘Fred better watch out, you’ll take over completely one day. How’s he doing?’
‘He’s still with his sister in Cambridgeshire, he checks in every now and then, but he’s dropped more than a few hints that he might not want to come back permanently.’
Celeste’s ears pricked up as she added Harvey’s wrapped lunch to the bag with the others and then pushed pulled pork into the second ciabatta roll for Lucy before scooping up more of the portobello mushrooms. ‘Fred said he’d work until he was no longer standing.’ Head tilted to one side, she said, ‘It’ll be a shame not to see him return.’When Lucy pointed out she had flour in her hair a smile stretched out the freckles that ran along the bridge of her nose and across high cheek bones. Both she and Jade were tall and willowy with the trademark Irish porcelain skin and darker-than-ebony hair, and the flour stood out more than it would on anyone else.
‘For what it’s worth he sounded jolly enough on the phone and he intends to come back for the ball in a few weeks,’ Lucy assured her as she did the honours and brushed the flour away for Celeste, who still had her gloves on and wouldn’t take them off until she finished handling the ingredients. ‘When I first took over, he seemed strung out, perhaps he needed the rest and some time away has made him see that working late in his life is good in some ways but not others.’
‘He’s better off with his sister,’ said Harvey after paying his bill by contactless and slipping the card back into his wallet. ‘She’s only a couple of years younger, they’ll be good company for each other.’
‘It’s nice he has someone,’ Lucy smiled.
Harvey wondered what Lucy’s story was, he hadn’t seen or heard of any men hanging around. Did she have someone too? She was attractive but she clearly liked to keep her private life just that, so he didn’t grill her. ‘Thanks, Celeste.’ He picked up the big paper bag filled with his orders as Celeste and Lucy chatted away in the way women did, speculating about what the old beach shop would possibly become. According to Celeste the new owner planned to demolish it and put something else in its place. But Harvey left them to it. He’d never been good at small talk and always envied Barney for his ability to chat to anyone and everyone. Barney was one of the few men Harvey knew who could talk as much as any female.
He climbed into his pickup out front but before he could drive away a voice asked, ‘What are you smiling at?’ It was Melissa, she’d poked her head through the open passenger-side window as he put down the sandwiches and started up the engine.
‘I’m hungry and in about twenty minutes I get to sink my teeth into a blow-your-head-off-chipotle-sauce-laden lunch.’
She looked down at the bag and the wrapped-up parcels tucked inside. ‘I tried that yesterday, you’ll like it. She made the sauce herself, you know.’
‘A woman of many talents.’
‘Do you have a minute or are you racing back to work?’
‘I’ve got a minute.’ For her he had so much more. ‘Hop in.’
She climbed into the passenger seat and held the lunch bag on her lap but not before he got a welcome glimpse of the top of her leg as her shorts rode up. ‘I think we should find Lois,’ she said without preamble.
His first reaction was to ask why bother but instead he went for, ‘Nice idea, but how do you suggest we do that?’
‘I’m not too sure, but…will you help me?’
‘You’re serious?’
‘Never been more serious. Barney saw the barn transformed ready for the ball and we both saw the emotion on his face. The fact he has this dress, the note, that he has never told us anything about Lois but has said he regrets not making amends with his past, all tells me he never got any kind of closure. It’s holding him back. I know it is. It’s what’s behind his warnings for me not to have any regrets either, and I think it’s why he can’t be bothered to even try to get back to normal. And let’s face it, he’s never going to tell us anything.’
‘You’re right about that.’
‘So you’ll help?’
He puffed out his cheeks. ‘You don’t think we should take the hint, that he really doesn’t want us to pry?’
‘This is too important to ignore, Harvey. I might be grasping at straws but I’d rather try something than nothing.’
‘You’re worried he’ll get worse when you leave.’
