Page 25 of The Cosy Seaside Chocolate Shop

‘About sevenish? We can have a couple of bevvies, and chat.’

‘Great. See you later, then.’

‘Cheers, Em. Thanks for the coffee.’ He got up without offering to pay. To be fair, he probably wasn’t earning anything at the moment. Ah, that was fine, mused Em.

She watched him head out to the street. The profile so similar and the same jaunty walk as Luke …

‘Who was that? Not seen him around Warkton before.’ Holly was inquisitive.

‘My br—’ Em realised she was just about to say brother-in-law. But he wasn’t quite. ‘It’s Luke’s brother,’ she corrected herself.

‘Oh, right. Well, how come he’s never been here before? You never mentioned a brother.’ Holly had heard about Luke; how fate had taken away Emma’s fiancé nearly eight years ago now and pretty much destroyed her life. Though she was much younger than Emma, she couldn’t help but feel protective of her employer.

‘He’s been away – abroad. It’s been a bit of a surprise.’

‘Ah, right.’ Holly paused, evidently thinking about this turn of events. ‘You okay?’

‘Yeah, I think so.’

Before they could chat any further, another customer came, wanting a gift box made up. Emma let her assistant deal with the order and went to clear the tables.

It was gone half-past five before Emma knew it. They served a little longer than usual today, making the most of the influx of customers. Em let Alfie out briefly, had a quick bite of toast for supper, and then dashed upstairs to get changed out of her work clothes. Weirdly, she felt a little nervous at the thought of meeting up with Nathan in the pub.

He was already there when she arrived, sitting with a pint of lager on a stool at the bar. Emma didn’t fancy being on view quite so prominently and, after she bought her own glass of white wine, suggested they move to a corner table.

‘So, is your shop always that busy? Looks like a little goldmine.’

‘Nah, wish it was. That’s just a weekend in what’s nearly high season. Come along midweek or in January/February time and it’ll be a different story.’

‘Ah, right.’

‘So, you said you’d done a bit of surfing the other day?’

‘Yeah gave it a go. Nothing like the waves down in Oz, but yeah it was all right. The locals down there on the beach seem a pretty cool bunch.’

Emma thought it was probably the younger set from the village, some of the ones who’d be a couple of years older than Holly. ‘Right. Okay. I don’t really know them that well.’

‘They seemed friendly enough. Surfers normally are as a rule. It might be chilly, but at least there’s no sharks to worry about round here,’ Nate added.

Only landlords, mused Emma wryly before saying, ‘Oh, wow. There’s no way I’d even try surfing if I knew there were sharks around.’

‘Well, they don’t come in often. Must admit, had a scare one time though, just off Melbourne, saw the fin right next to my board. Frightened the shit out of me. Just knelt up on the board and let it pass. My heart was going like the clappers. Pretty unnerving.’

‘I bet.’

‘Yeah, I love the travelling. New Zealand was stunning. The scenery, waterfalls, glaciers … I did a bungee jump there, down a ravine. Met some cool people on my travels too. Backpacker places are just great for making friends.’

His life sounded so very different from hers. She’d thought it a huge adventure to come up to Warkton and start her new life. But it seemed a pretty sheltered existence now, compared to his. There was a whole world out there that she hadn’t even ventured into. The furthest she had ever gone was to Paris on a weekend trip with Luke. She’d always wanted to go and see the paintings in the Louvre; the Mona Lisa in particular. And that day had been just wonderful. Luke generally wasn’t one for public displays of affection, but outside, in front of the glass pyramid, they had shared the most romantic kiss, with the spirit of Paris upon them and their wedding to look forward to. It had been so special, so full of hope. Paris in springtime … Luke dead by autumn.

Emma felt a familiar knot in her throat, a tear misting her eye. ‘Yeah,’ she managed to reply.

‘Em? You thinking of Luke?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Gets you like that sometimes, doesn’t it. You can be happy doing something and boom, it slam dunks you again.’

‘It still feels like it just happened yesterday, sometimes.’