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Nessa was still staring at her. ‘Um, what are you up to these days?’ asked Rosie, taking off her sunglasses and wiping spots of rain from the lenses.
‘Oh, nothing as exciting. I’m working part-time in Shelley’s hardware store and bringing up this little one, of course.’ She smiled down at Lily, before pulling a tissue from her pocket and scrubbing at the dark stain around the child’s mouth. ‘Birthday chocolate!She doesn’t usually eat sweets. I’m not the kind of mother who fills her kids full of sugar to shut them up, in spite of what some people think. Single parents get a bad press, specially round here where everyone has an opinion.’ Nessa’s cheeks flushed. ‘Sorry. I don’t mean to get on my soapbox but this place does my head in sometimes.’
Rosie smiled, her facial expressions on autopilot. ‘I know what you mean. But I’m sure you’re doing a brilliant job. I admire anyone who’s bringing up kids.’
‘Really?’ When Nessa grinned, the crease between her eyebrows disappeared.
‘Really. How old is your daughter?’
‘She was four two days ago.’
‘Is she your only one?’
‘Yeah, thank goodness. One’s quite enough for me.’
When Rosie nodded, too wrung out for more small talk, Nessa glanced at her watch. ‘Look, I’d better be getting on but it was good to see you again. And I am so sorry about your mum. I know what it’s like.’
A vague memory surfaced in Rosie’s mind, of Nessa’s mother passing away years ago after an illness. She’d wondered at the time if Nessa was truanting from school to look after her. And now both of them were motherless.
‘Nothing feels real at the moment. I keep thinking it’s all a mistake, a really horrible mistake, and I haven’t even cried yet. Is that wrong?’
Rosie hadn’t meant to blurt that out, but Nessa seemed unfazed. ‘Nah, I reckon that’s totally normal. It’s the shock of it all. I didn’t cry for ages and then I couldn’t stop.’ She hesitated for a moment, lost in a memory, before grabbing Lily’s hand. ‘Look, losing a parent is rubbish but you’ll get through it. Honest. And if you need anything, just look me up in Shelley’s. I seem to spend most of my life there.’
‘Thanks. I appreciate that.’
With a nod, Nessa scurried off with her daughter, and Rosie picked up her suitcase. That might have been her life if she’d stayed in Heaven’s Cove. She could be bringing up young children and working part-time selling rubber rings to tourists. Would that have been so bad? At least she’d have been close when her mum needed her, and her mum would have so loved being a gran.
An image of her mother lifting up a child and laughing flitted into her mind. She wasn’t sure if it was a memory or a might-have-been, and the knot in her chest tightened until it was hard to breathe.
‘Just. Stop. Thinking!’ she said out loud. A middle-aged man in baggy shorts glanced at her nervously and ushered his family away from the crazy lady.
This wouldn’t do. Rosie gulped down the deepest breath she could manage and focused on the brightly painted fishing boats bobbing at the quay. She took in the gentle slap of waves against stone and the scent of the briny air, and gradually her torturous thoughts began to slow.
Everything was so familiar here, even after being away for so long. And at least her first encounter with someone from her past had gone smoothly. She’d been worried that habitual feelings of not belonging in this tight-knit community would come flooding back. Her face had never seemed to fit around here. But Nessa had been pretty decent, actually, so maybe returning to Heaven’s Cove and facing her old school friends and neighbours wouldn’t be as bad as she feared.
Buoyed up by this thought, Rosie ducked into one of the narrow lanes that led away from the sea and walked past a row of whitewashed cottages. She’d certainly imagined the villagers being less welcoming during her journey back to England: a three-hour flight from Málaga that seemed to last forever. The plane had been full of happy holidaymakers coming back from trips away, their high spirits contrasting sharply with her grief and guilt.
‘Maybe it’ll be OK being back in Heaven’s Cove,’ murmured Rosie, ignoring the fact that she was talking to herself again. ‘It’s going to be all right.’
But when a barrel-shaped woman stepped out of the fishmonger’s with a parcel wrapped in newspaper, Rosie’s brief flash of positivity did a nosedive. There were two people she was desperately hoping to avoid during her stay. One of them was Katrina Crawley, who’d been a right cow to her at school and never missed a chance to put her down. The other was Belinda Kellscroft, who was now homing in on her like a heat-seeking missile. It was ages since they’d last met and Belinda knew very little about Rosie’s life now, but that wouldn’t stop her from commenting. Belinda commented on everything and everyone at length, whether she was well informed or not.
Rosie put her head down and picked up speed but it was too late. Belinda stopped directly in front of her, parcel tucked into her bag, hands on her hips and the gold rings on her fingers glinting in the watery sunlight peeping through cloud.
‘Rose Merchant, as I live and breathe. So you finally made it home.’
She pursed her lips, no more words needed because her sour expression said it all:Such a shame you only came back after your mother’s death.
Rosie tensed, noticing the extra grey in the tight perm that curled around Belinda’s lined face. She’d had the same hairstyle for as long as Rosie could remember.
‘I’ve only just arrived. I got the first flight I could after… after I heard the news. A doctor called me from the hospital.’
Though it hadn’t been Rosie who’d taken the call. She’d been too busy cooking paella and drinking wine in the kitchen of her sunny apartment to answer her ringing phone. Matt had answered it instead, which upset Rosie hugely – not only was she a thousand miles away when her mother had a stroke, she hadn’t even been the first to know that something was wrong. What kind of daughter was she?
Belinda sniffed as though she knew exactly what kind of daughter Rosie was. ‘I’m very sorry for your loss. Poor, poor Sofia to be taken so soon. Tell me, when were you last back in Heaven’s Cove?’
‘I’m not sure. It must be about three years.’
‘Such a long time.’
