Mum, George and I were all fed up and in need of a strong brew.
Stepping out from behind the bar, Jake’s eyes briefly caught mine and he smiled in recognition.
‘Oh dear David, what have you been up to this time?’ he asked while grabbing a bag from Mum.
Dad did an over-the-top gurn and shrugged his shoulders. ‘Flooded the bloody house, didn’t I?’
‘It’s like living with Norman Wisdom,’ Mum muttered. After realising we’d all heard her, she put on her best prim smile. ‘It’s ever so kind of you to put us up for a couple of nights, Jake. I’m sure we’ll be out of your hair by the weekend.’
Jake shook his head. ‘It’s no problem, really. We’ve got a couple of spare rooms upstairs going begging, so there’s plenty of room.’
Our eyes met again and I was sure I saw him smile.
‘Follow me guys, it’s just up here.’ He jabbed his thumb in the direction of the door leading to the pub’s upstairs area.
Up the stairs, the main living quarters consisted of five main doors. One had a lock on it and a brass number one attached which I guessed led to Jake’s flat.
‘The bedrooms are just here.’ He gestured to the first three doors. ‘And that’s the bathroom there. The plumbing’s not the best, but should be all right for a couple of days at least. Enjoy your stay; anything you need, just ask.’
He looked back at me as he retreated down the hall to return to the pub. A tiny raise of his eyebrows made my heart skip. This was going to be a very interesting couple of days.
***
My theory was proven right on our first day at The Purple Partridge. After a surprisingly restful night’s sleep, I made a mad early-morning dash for the bathroom before Mum or George could occupy it for hours on end or Dad had a chance to flood it.
When Jake said the plumbing ‘wasn’t the best’, he hadn’t been kidding. The taps were creaky, there was hardly any hot water and the pressure ranged from a drip to a deluge. However, there was a certain quirky charm about it and I reminded myself how lucky we were that Jake had been able to put us up.
Jake.
He popped into my mind uninvited and I felt my heart rate start to speed up. I’d never seen anyone quite so gorgeous for a long time and those arm muscles… I shook the thoughts free before I turned into a complete drooling mess. The last thing we needed was me making our temporary stay here more awkward than it needed to be by making eyes at the delectable landlord. Instead, I put my head back and allowed the tepid water to run down my hair and back – hoping some of my fears and anxieties about being back in Luna Bay would be washed away too.
I stepped out of the shower, wrapped a fluffy white towel around myself and prepared to make the dash back to my room. There was still so much to think about. While staying in Luna Bay and carrying out Nana Lily’s wishes definitely held an appeal, the thought of being confronted with everything I’d been running from scared the life out of me. I wanted to move on, really I did, but I wasn’t sure if Luna Bay’s residents – Maggie Cunningham in particular – would let me.
As I prepared to make a run for it, I heard a voice behind me.
‘Morning you. Sleep well?’
I jumped and spun round to see who the voice belonged to. In my haste, I let go of my towel and ended up showing Jake everything I had.
Great Lucy, way to make your stay here not awkward.
‘Oh bollocks!’
‘Well that was more than I bargained for!’ He laughed as I scrabbled around for the towel. I pulled it back around myself and clutched it tightly to my chest. I noticed him giving me an appraising look and didn’t feel particularly comfortable.
‘S-sorry… I-I was just having a shower…’
He nodded, still fixing me with that peculiar look. ‘Yeah, erm, I could see that. I was just coming up to see if you fancied some… some breakfast.’
I squeaked that I wasn’t hungry and ran back to my room as fast as I could. It was official: this latest screw-up had tipped me into a crisis and I needed to take some sort of action.
If ever I needed a sign to straighten my life out, flashing a sexy barman was it.
Of all the places to sort your mess of a life out, there are few better places than the Moonlight Café.
Perched at the very top of Luna Bay’s steep main street, its unparalleled views of the North Sea, beach house-style décor and freshly baked bread and cakes will have you forgetting your troubles in no time at all.
Unless you’re me, that is.
I found myself sitting there, several hours after my impromptu striptease, trying to sift through the debris of my life. I picked half-heartedly at my Victoria sponge while George sat opposite me, tucking into coffee cake like he hadn’t eaten for months. We’d been sat here since the early afternoon and now it was almost closing time and we were still no closer to picking our way through the wreckage of my life.
‘What should I do, George? Should I stay here, move into Rose Cottage and try to make a go of things or book the next train back to London?’
My question broke his frenzied attack on the slab of cake in front of him. He sighed and looked up at me with those huge brown eyes of his.
‘Luce, I learned long ago that I can’t tell you what to do. If it was me and I’d inherited a gorgeous house in this part of the country, I’d jump at the chance to live there rather than in a shoebox in Kentish Town. But from what I’ve gathered, it’s not as simple as all that, is it?’
I shook my head. ‘I wish it was, it’d be a no-brainer then.’
He reached his hands across the table and linked our fingers together, gently caressing the backs of my hands with his thumbs.
‘You know I only want you to be happy, don’t you? Tell me what happened here all those years ago and we’ll see if we can put it right. Then your choice will be loads easier, won’t it?’
‘I can’t.’ My voice was small and meek, like all the life and colour had been drained from it. ‘I just can’t George, you’ll hate me if I do.’ Then I registered the look on his face. ‘Is there something you want to tell me?’
‘Nothing that can’t wait. Luce, every time I’ve tried to talk to you about your past you shut me down. I kept saying to myself you must have a good reason for doing that, but I think it’s time you stopped running away from it. If you tell me what’s going on, maybe I can help you. That way, you can decide whether you’re staying here or coming back to London.’
He looked at me, his eyes pleading with me to share my secrets with him. I looked back at him, my mouth forming words I knew I couldn’t say. I felt terrible that I couldn’t tell him what had happened, but it was too awful. I’d valued his friendship over the last two years and letting him in on my dark little secret would spoil everything.
‘You know the drill,’ I replied,
