Page 46 of Daydreaming at the Boathouse Cafe

‘My whole life was work, training and competitions,’ he said, still looking down at their hands. ‘I’m not sure what’s left without all of that.’

Hannah gave up with her embarrassment and gave his hand a squeeze.

‘What’s left?’ she repeated. ‘A good-hearted man who we all care for.’

He looked up into her face and she realised that she’d never noticed the colour of his eyes before now. They were the brightest blue that she’d ever seen. She’d only ever noticed the kindness that they carried.

‘Thank you,’ he told her. ‘I was feeling a bit low this morning.’

‘Do you want a napkin to mop up any tears?’ she said, with a small smile of irony. ‘I’ve got a few spare.’

He laughed and their hands let go. ‘See? If you can laugh at your mistakes, you’re halfway there.’

She felt relieved that they seemed able to move on from her drunken kiss at last and that any awkwardness had finally dissipated.

He stood up and looked down at her. ‘Come on.’

‘Where are we going?’ she asked.

‘You’re going to show me all your documentation,’ he told her. ‘And then I’ll start to transform myself into your glamorous assistant.’

She knew that Alex was being so kind, as usual. But she felt much better knowing that she wasn’t alone in the new business venture any more.

24

Alex found that he was grateful in the coming days for the distraction of helping Hannah with the paperwork for the café.

He was still suffering with some stiffness and swelling in his foot which the doctors had said could still take a few months to recede. However, spending time resting in the boathouse apartment was helping. He was enjoying waking up in the mornings to the view of the lake and found himself taking his time to relish a lie-in to stare out of the window at the glistening water.

But where his body was slowly starting to mend, it was his mind that couldn’t quite cope with doing nothing but rest every day.

Tiny helped as a distraction, purely because he had had no training up until that point. But he seemed an intelligent and well-behaved dog, despite his lack of training, and so even that didn’t take up too much of Alex’s daily routine.

Each day, he began to walk without the protective boot on his foot, starting with a small distance to begin a gradual increase in weight bearing on the broken bones. Normally just heading to the beach for his morning swim and then back again was enough before the pain increased and he didn’t want to push himself too soon. For the remainder of the day, he used the boot and tried to keep busy. If he rested for too long, he found that his mind ran through everything, every competition that he hadn’t won, every missed opportunity.

So he was glad to concentrate on the health and safety forms that Hannah struggled to complete, as well as the stock orders. He knew that she was still embarrassed about the over-ordering of the napkins but Alex had arranged for half to be returned or sold on to other nearby establishments that could use them so they weren’t out of pocket.

‘Thank you for sorting it all out,’ she said once more as she sat opposite him on the balcony one afternoon after setting out the new weatherproof wooden chairs and tables.

‘You’re welcome,’ he replied. ‘So are you looking forward to glasses and cutlery arriving tomorrow?’

She nodded, looking inside briefly before grimacing. ‘Excited and terrified,’ she admitted.

‘You sound like Tiny when he sees a duck,’ he said, trying to cheer her up.

He was pleased when she laughed, reaching down to stroke the dog who was growing by the day. Tiny was currently sprawled under the table and taking up most of the room. He seemed to be growing in both length and width and was certainly going to be an enormous dog, thought Alex.

He looked up to find Hannah studying him.

‘You look tired,’ she said. ‘Are you in pain?’

‘And there was me thinking I was hiding it so well,’ he told her, with a soft smile.

‘Look, why don’t I take Tiny around the lake this afternoon to wear him out whilst you rest up?’ she said, standing up. ‘What do you think, Tiny? Shall we go for a walk?’

He immediately sprang up, yelping his bark in glee at his second favourite word after ‘treat’.

‘I should join you,’ said Alex immediately.