AllFreeNovel
Share Us
EPILOGUE
SKY
The cottage standsout amongst the dunes, tucked away at the bottom of the track leading down from the road. Recently repainted, the whitewashed building holds a brightness to match the sun shining down, the glorious summer day a far cry from the rainy day ten years ago.
Every year, on the same day, we return here for a week and tease each other over how we met. We sit on the same sofa, me with my favourite wine, and eat pizza with our children. Our lives are anything but normal, and here we snatch our few days in the bubble we first found ourselves in.
I step outside in the sun, holding Seren against my hip as she wriggles for me to put her on the ground. At eighteen months old, she can walk but is distracted every few metres, and we’re forced to pause for her to inspect every shell, piece of seaweed, or rock we find. Dylan’s and Rhys’s figures move in the distance, close to the shore, and if I let Seren walk, we won’t reach them for half an hour.
I take a longer route, around the edge of the sand dunes Rhys rolls down every opportunity he gets, where his sister, eager to copy him, reaches the bottom in tears and shock, hair filled with sand.
“You can walk when we get to the beach,” I tell her. “Daddy and Rhys are waiting for us.”
She points across the sand and struggles again. “Walk.”
Relenting, I place her on the floor, and without a word, Seren makes a beeline for the water. I blink in surprise at her determined pace, as if the sea welcomes Seren with an urgency to match hers. I dressed Seren in knee-length shorts and a T-shirt, smothered her pale face in sunscreen, tied a wide brimmed hat over her dark curls before we left, and the vision in pink blurs across the beach.
I smile to myself and gather pace too, the warm sand against my bare feet. I catch Seren’s hand as we reach the edge of the water where the waves lap the shore. Dylan and Rhys are close. Rhys sits on the floor as his dad crouches next to him poking in the sand.
“There’s Daddy.” I tug her hand away from the water in the direction of the rest of my family.
Dylan looks up as we approach; his eyes reflecting the sea, his face lit by happiness the way Rhys’s blond curls are by the sun.
“Rhys, where’s your hat?”
“I don’t want it!” he protests.
Dylan takes the cap from Rhys’s orange bucket and pushes it onto his son’s head. “Mummy’s here now, and we’ll be in trouble.”
I throw Dylan a look, but he’ll never lose his childish streak, and things like hats in the sun don’t register with him.
“Aren’t you paddling?” I ask Rhys.
“I’m making something.”
He points to a pattern of shells on the beach, a large circle of different shapes and sizes, some broken, interspersed with polished glass weathered by the sea. My heart squeezes, and I smile at Dylan. Since we arrived, the children’s bedroom has filled with Rhys’s shell collection and accompanying sand.
I let go of Seren’s hand, kneel to inspect his latest specimens and pick one up. “I bet Daddy helped find these. This one is nice.”
Rhys takes it from me. “Mum! You’re spoiling my pattern.”
Dylan grins. “Not these, but we can’t find any big ones.”
“Daddy says he always finds the best shells,” says Rhys.
“Of course he does, because Daddy is best at everything,” I say with sarcasm.
The water splashes against Dylan’s leg, high enough to cover the tattoo above his brown feet sinking into the sand. I don’t think I’ll ever look at Dylan and not feel the surge of love somersaulting inside, or the draw to touch him. This man proved his love for me in my darkest times, and together we’ve lived some of the brightest. Moving in the same orbit, we face the bright side together and revolve away from the dark.
Seren jumps up and down in the sea, splashing her shorts with water as she giggles.
“Rhys, help Seren find some shells.”
“Do I have to?” he complains.
“If you don’t, she’ll take yours. You know she will.”
Rhys pulls himself up and splashes towards his sister.
