She blew out to let the steam escape from her own mouth and earned a laugh from Harvey when it seemed she couldn’t wait any longer for the chips to cool down either.
Side by side, they finished their portions. ‘I’m too full now,’ Harvey announced as he balled up the rubbish and took it over to the nearby litter bin.
‘Let’s go and see if we can find this marina.’ Now they were in Leafbourne she wanted to find out what they could and if that was nothing, perhaps she’d have no choice but to come out with it and ask Barney about his past before she headed back to Windsor. She was beginning to get desperate.
Back in the truck they’d only driven around two more bends in the road before they found the marina. Harvey pulled the truck onto the concrete alongside so other cars could pass. They could just about see that the river stretched out from behind the marina and went on to snake through the landscape beyond. A boat sailed out on the river beyond, its cream sail flapping in the wind, a power boat chugged back in the opposite direction.
Melissa nodded hello to a boy perched against a white sign dragging on a cigarette. ‘I can imagine Barney coming here,’ she told Harvey. ‘The whole village is so pretty.’ She wound her window down to get a better look at the marina and the grassy surrounds and buildings on the other side of the road, a thatched property as well as a row of cute cottages, all with little house names she couldn’t quite read from this distance. She could hear the water lapping, the chug of the motor boat fading as it came in to dock at the marina.
With nowhere for them to park up, Harvey pulled out and drove further on until the road wound round to a village green, opposite which was a pub with bright bloom-filled hanging baskets, its sign gently swaying in the wind, low-lit windows that even on a summer’s day told of a cosy inside. It was only a couple of hundred metres on and with the rain holding off for now they pulled into the car park and set off on foot back to the marina.
The same boy was still perched on the sign, he must be on a second cigarette, doing what he could to prolong a return to work.
Inside the office at the marina they waited to be noticed.
‘We’d be waiting another hour if you weren’t wearing those shorts,’ Harvey whispered when at last a worker who looked to be in his early twenties spotted them and came over, his gaze firmly fixed on her.
‘Can I help you?’ The lad wiped his hands on an already-greasy rag. ‘Small rowboat hire is around the other side, or there’s one electric day boat left, or canoes if you like,’ he said, not bothering to hide how impressed he was with Melissa’s legs.
Ignoring the admiration, Melissa told him, ‘We’re not here to hire a boat. We’re trying to find out about someone we know used to live here in Leafbourne, someone who spent a lot of time here at the marina.’
‘Right. Well, I’ve been here seven years so I should be able to help you.’
‘The person we’re asking after is kind of a little older,’ she said.
‘How old?’
‘He’s in his seventies now.’
The young lad let out a whistle. ‘Then you’ll need to talk to someone else. Hey, Grandad!’ he called without moving away and Melissa winced at the possibility of a burst eardrum.
‘They have to yell,’ Harvey laughed when the lad went off in a different direction. ‘These places aren’t quiet.’ Indeed there was a cacophony of banging in the background. ‘And out on the sea they’ll be yelling back and forth, they probably only have one volume level.’
The lad came over again and told them, ‘You’ll have to come back.’ He had a wrench in his hand ready to get on with another job although he still had enough time to run his eyes up and down Melissa’s torso. ‘You’ll want to talk to Bill, he’s been here the longest.’
Harvey lifted a hand in thanks. ‘Pub?’ he said to Melissa.
‘You’re on, although I’m still full from those chips.’
‘It’s somewhere to go,’ Harvey suggested, holding the door open for her. ‘And we can’t hang around here, you’re going to feature in that boy’s dreams tonight. They obviously don’t get many hot females in their boatyard all that often.’
She ignored the “hot” reference as they made their way back to the pub. It was comments like that one that had Melissa confusing her past with her present.
They grabbed a couple of drinks before settling into the booth at one side of the pub.
‘Shame I’m only on the orange juice, I think I could do with something a little stronger,’ said Harvey. ‘Tell me, what’s your boyfriend up to while you’re away?’
She could do with a glass of wine right now too, especially with a direct question like that, but she wanted to stay sharp if they did get to talk to someone at the yard who may know something. And besides, with their own personal history constantly hovering between them, she needed to stay focused when Harvey was around. She wondered if they’d ever talk properly or whether she’d leave Heritage Cove before either of them braved it.
She set down her glass of Coke without taking a second sip. ‘He’s working.’ She’d been trying to get hold of him on the phone yesterday evening after she’d left the pub, with an overwhelming urge to hear his voice, perhaps to allay her guilty conscience about spending time with Harvey, but had settled on text messages instead.
‘Do you live together?’
‘On and off but I have my own place.’
‘Do you like living near London?’
‘It’s good for work, nice and easy to get to the airport.’ She hoped their entire conversation wouldn’t be like this with him firing questions at her like missiles from a tennis-ball machine that had her whacking back her answers the best she could. ‘What about you, how’s your work?’ She got in quick before he could ask anything else.
