Page 32 of The Little Flower Shop By the Sea
‘What would you be doing if it was?’
He looks at me as if he’s wondering why I care.
‘I dunno, go down to the beach maybe, watch the surfers if the waves were good.’
‘Don’t you surf yourself then?’
‘No.’
‘Why?’
‘Do I look like a surfer?’
The only thing that looks surfer-like about Charlie is his blond hair. His frame, although tall, is lanky and slight. He looks as though the slightest gust of wind would knock him off a stationary surfboard, let alone one careering through eight-foot-high waves.
‘Not all surfers are the same,’ I suggest, remembering my brother Will and my own attempts at surfing. ‘Sometimes it’s just about taking part and having fun.’
‘Not in St Felix it isn’t. It’s taken very seriously here. If you’re not in the “gang”, you’re not in the surf.’
I’m about to protest further when a lady wearing a red headscarf and denim dungarees comes over. ‘Can you go and help your father lift that dresser, Charlie?’ she asks. ‘They need another pair of strong hands.’
Charlie looks at her as though she’s joking. Then he sighs. ‘Sure, Aunt Lou.’ He gets up and hands her the sandpaper, then heads over to where Jake and another man are trying to move a dresser away from a wall.
‘I’m Lou,’ the woman says, holding out her hand. ‘I believe we met in Mickey’s chip shop the other day?’
‘Oh yes, that’s right, I remember you. Thanks for coming along to help out today. As I said to Jake earlier, it’s most kind of everyone.’
‘People are like that here in St Felix, and Rose was very well thought of.’ Lou sits on the floor next to me and begins sanding the leg that Charlie was midway through smoothing down. ‘I do miss seeing her cheery face every day.’
I smile at Lou; underneath her red headscarf I can see tufts of grey hair poking out, belying her youthful complexion. ‘Did you know my grandmother well?’
‘Oh yes, we were very good friends. I came to her funeral up in London.’
I thought her face had looked familiar the other night at the chip shop. ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t remember you the other evening,’ I apologise. ‘If it’s any consolation, you did look familiar.’
‘My dear, don’t worry at all. You had a lot to contend with at the funeral without remembering every face that turned up to pay their last respects to Rose. And there were an awful lot of people wanting to do so.’
‘Yes, there were. Oh, that’s how you knew my name at the chip shop – from the funeral.’
Lou smiles. ‘It was partly that.’
I wait for her to enlighten me.
She stops sanding, lowers her voice and leans in towards me. ‘Rose told me you’d come one day.’
‘What?’
‘She said one day her granddaughter Poppy would come back to St Felix to take over her flower shop. She often talked about you.’
‘When did she tell you this?’
‘Years ago.’
‘Before she became ill?’
‘Oh yes, well before that. She was always adamant you’d be the one to take over The Daisy Chain.’
I stop midway through sanding, my hand poised on the leg of the table.
