AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We’re fully booked tonight. Bar snacks only.” The lady sets down my glass.
“Thanks. I’ve not been in here since the restaurant was built.”
“Oh, it’s been a fair number of years, then. Just visiting?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, Tuesday and Wednesday are walk-ins only. Monday, it’s just the bar.” She smiles and heads back to the other end of the bar.
I take my goblet of glistening red and pick one of the empty tables near the fire. It offers an outside view, and I can see the water, although it looks calm at the moment. A few other patrons occupy the area, drinking and chatting between themselves.
The thick red wine coats the glass as I take my first sip, and I’m pleasantly surprised.
As I enjoy the wine, I focus on the positive thoughts from my research today. The money I have from the sale of my business and the house gives me a tidy sum to invest in a new venture, and the market looks to be at a prime time to build a holiday let or similar type of accommodation. Mum's land is nothing more than a small, overgrown paddock that the neighbour keeps his old tractor in. We used to play around in it when we were young, but it's been abandoned for years. It’s ripe to be transformed, with easy access to the road and amenities, just inside the heart of village life. It doesn’t quite have a clear view of the sea, but it’s only a quick walk. A single dwelling would eat a lot of money upfront, but there are multiple options, with the bespoke glamping pod-style accommodation being popular.
I pull out my phone and give a little prayer to the signal Gods that I have 4G in this place before opening up the notes app and listing some initial thoughts about how to proceed.
This kind of project is a far cry from my app-based business, which took all of my ingenuity to craft and develop. Seeing it torn apart because of the divorce still hurts, and if I had my way, Derek wouldn’t have seen a penny from my hard work. But he’d been planning his move for a long time.
I’m so lost in my thoughts that I don’t notice the man who walks through the door to the bar.
“Zennor Williams?”
My name drags me back to the here and now, but I get whiplash from the plunge straight back to the past.
“I can’t believe it’s you. After all these years. Wow, let me get you a drink. Same again?”
Jayce Roberts stands, larger than life, in front of me. He sucks all the oxygen from the room just like he did when we were kids. At least, that’s the effect he had on me back then. And apparently, still does.
Like a fool, all I can do is nod, and his smile transforms his handsome face into a work of art. Gone are the boyish good looks. Now, he’s all man, with stubble over his chin and choppy hair flecked with grey that serves to make him look rugged and sexy, but his eyes are the same—a blue and green mix that matches the sea.
How is this fair?
I use the space he leaves to reinstate the oxygen my brain needs to function. He glances back at me a dozen times as he orders our drinks, and my heart aches. A physical pain that I thought I’d buried and moved past a long, long time ago.
The shattered pieces of my heart I’d worked so hard to forge back together seem to have crumbled with such ease that I have to grip the wooden table to stop myself from dissolving right here.
Life can be such a cruel witch to some, and this act, at this time, surely proves my assumption again.
He returns with drinks and sits next to me at the small table.
“I still can’t believe it’s you. It’s been, wow, nearly twenty years, I guess.” He looks at me like I’m the sun rising in the sky after the longest night. The same longing I remember so vividly. It draws a physical reaction from my body.
“It’s been a lifetime,” I muse as I break the connection of our eyes. It’s too much, and I pick up my glass, taking two large gulps. As I place it back down, I keep hold of the stem, twisting it back and forth between my finger and thumb. My leg begins to bounce against the floor as I struggle to take control of this situation.
For years, I’d rehearsed the words I’d throw at Jayce Roberts if we ever met again. But then, I used that feeling to drive myself in more positive ways: University, my job and career, striving for success that would eclipse anything and everything that happened that summer.
After wrestling with my memories earlier, this meeting blindsides me. It’s been years since I’ve even thought of Jayce, let alone imagined meeting him again. So, the coincidence that we’re both back here at the same time is astounding and unwelcome.
“So, why are you back here? Or did you never leave?” he asks.
“How about you first.” I turn it back around. “You left for the big wide world. Did you find what you were looking for?” More wine slips down my throat.
“I think so.” His voice is sombre, and I risk glancing up at his answer. “But I also fell in love with big waves. I quickly got picked up and stayed in a couple of places over the years.”
I remember when social media first became a thing, and in a moment of weakness, googling his name. Pictures of the boy I fell for, surfing the world, were what greeted me and only served to sour my memories of the boy who stole my heart.
“And yet you’re back in Tregethworth.”
