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“Wow, look at this place. I haven’t seen it in years, but it’s even more beautiful than I remembered,” Dani said, climbing out of the truck and running onto the dunes in front of the house. She twirled in place, her face raised. The sun glinted off her golden hair, her face lit up with a smile.
“She’s the spitting image of you at that age,” Dad said, grinning.
“Do you think so?”
“She has her own personality, that’s for sure. But she reminds me a lot of you. And your mother, of course.”
Bea loved that her father saw so much of Mum in her. And now in her daughter too. It was the best compliment she could get, as far as Bea was concerned. She missed everything about Mum. The shine of her hair under the sun’s burning rays, the way her brown eyes twinkled whenever she said something mischievous or stretched the truth.
Dad had always said she couldn’t lie between bedsheets, and Bea had never understood what he meant until now — her mother was guileless. She couldn’t be deceptive, couldn’t fake her feelings, and couldn’t hide them either. Whatever she felt, they all knew. Thankfully, she spent most of her life happy, and passed that on to the people around her. Right up until those last years.
Bea took her eyes off the beach, and her beautiful daughter who was examining shells in the sand, to survey the cottage. It was in a worse state than she’d thought. The last time she’d visited, it’d been rundown. But now there were holes in the roof. The porch was rotted, and half of it had caved away. The paint had peeled from most of the walls that held only remnants of the pale sea green it’d once been.
“Wow,” she said.
Dad stood beside her, tipped off his hat, and scratched his head. “Yep.”
“It’s going to take a lot of work, Dad. Are you sure you want to pour money into it?”
He shrugged. “What else do I have money for? I thought you might visit more often if you had a place to stay by the beach.”
She inhaled a slow breath. “I might never leave.”
He looped an arm around her shoulders. “That’s fine by me.”
Later on, Bea was at the local grocery shop buying some supplies to stock her father’s pantry. She’d showered and changed into a pencil skirt, matching shirt and coat. Oversized sunglasses were perched on top of her head. She’d curled her hair and put on lipstick. She might be in the middle of nowhere, but she should really still make something of an effort with her appearance even if no one would see her.
Dad wasn’t used to having three people in the house, let alone a hungry teen. Honestly, she was surprised how well he’d done so far with his hosting abilities. When she was a kid, he wouldn’t have known a spatula from a wooden spoon, yet he’d woken early that morning to make them pancakes for breakfast.
Things had certainly changed. Although she didn’t want to put him out too much — they both hoped to stay with him a while and so would have to pitch in. She also needed dog food and treats for Fudge, who was due to arrive within the hour. It would be interesting to see how well the little pug adapted to life without fences and with the ocean so close by. She was nervous, to say the least.
“Nice to see you back on the island,” said Doug, the cashier. She’d known him since she was a small child and had even worked for him for a while during her teen years. She’d been the worst checkout operator in town, but he’d never complained.
“Hi, Doug. It’s good to be back.”
“Staying with your dad, are you?” He pushed her groceries slowly over the scanner, one by one.
“That’s right. Me and my daughter, Dani.”
He smiled. “Oh, that’s nice. I’ll bet Elias is thrilled.”
She nodded. “How’s everything with you?”
“Can’t complain. The fishing’s been pretty poor now with the colder weather.”
“Yeah, Dad said something about that.”
“But business is good and Peggy has a new hip, so she’s got a whole new lease on life.”
“Wow, a new hip. Good for her.”
“Modern medicine is a marvellous thing.”
She paid for her groceries and carried them outside in two fabric shopping bags. There was a café next to the shop, so she set her groceries on the ground outside and went in. It would be nice to have something other than instant coffee. Dad wasn’t exactly a gourmet when it came to the finer things in life like coffee and wine. She’d already stopped by the liquor store to stock up on her favourite beverages.
Her stomach grumbled. She should buy herself a treat as well. She rarely ever ate sweets, was always watching her weight. It was time to enjoy herself a little bit. Even though she’d moved to the island indefinitely, it still felt like she was on holiday.
“Can I help you?” A lady behind the short glass counter looked her up and down. She had a bottle-red bob and was buxom with an apron tied around her ample waist. Bea remembered her from years earlier. Her name was June Clements, and she’d always been a grouch for as long as Bea could recall.
