Page 6 of Christmas at Sturcombe Bay
“No . . . Yes. Tell him not to contact me.” She huffed out an angry breath. “Tell him I’ve notified everyone and cancelled everything. I’ve pulled my half of the savings out of the joint account we had for wedding expenses, and taken my name off it — though I’ll pay my share of the bills, of course.”
“Okay.”
Jess moved out of the chair so that her sister could sit down at the laptop.
“I’ve cancelled the business insurance on the car, too, and taken out my own. The only thing I want from him is to transfer my car into my name from the business.”
“Right. I’m on it.”
Jess stood behind Julia, watching as she scrolled through the dozen or more emails Glenn had sent.
“I’m sorry . . .blah blah blah. . . Please come home so we can talk about it . . .blah blah blah. . . Everyone’s ringing me to find out what’s going on . . . Oh, you poor thing.” Julia’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “Are you getting hassle over it? All the rest are pretty much in the same vein. Ah, here’s an interesting one.” She laughed as she read it. “He’s forgotten the password for the office computer!”
“Tell him he can have it when he’s signed the car over.”
“Right.”
Julia tapped out a reply with swift fingers.This is Jessica’s sister Julia... When she had finished, she clicked on ‘send’. “There, that’s it. All done.”
“Thank you.” Jess managed a smile. The headache that had lingered since yesterday was slowly easing at last. “Do you want a coffee?”
“I’ll tell you what, let’s get out of here for a while. Why don’t we pop over to the hotel and have one? It’s lovely sitting out on the terrace over there.”
“Okay. Sounds like a plan.”
It was a bright sunny day, but the slight chill in the air warned that it was already well into October, and Jess was glad of her thick sweater. She’d been to the hotel several times — Julia’s wedding reception had been held there, and sometimes they’d dined in the restaurant when she’d come down to visit.
The place had probably seen better days. The wooden floor in reception was a bit scuffed and the carpet in the lounge was showing signs of wear. But the view from the terrace made up for everything.
The bay spread out to the far horizon, a pure sapphire blue, sparkling beneath the clear blue sky. The red-gold beach curved in a long arc from the rocks beneath the hotel, past the village of Sturcombe nestled in its dip of green hills, to the russet cliffs on the far side.
Although the main season was over there were still quite a few holidaymakers strolling along the Esplanade, past the amusement arcade, the fish and chip shop, the beach shop and the CupCake Café — mostly older people or families with children not yet in school.
Jess sat down at one of the tables with her coffee, leaning back, closing her eyes and breathing in the cool, fresh sea air. “Ah, this is good.”
“Isn’t it? I love it here.”
“I’m not surprised. It must get packed with tourists in the summer, though.”
“Well, yes, quite a few. Then in the winter it’s almost dead. But that’s how it is with seaside towns.”
“I suppose so. What do people do for jobs in the winter?”
Julia laughed. “Not much, once the tourist season’s over. There’s a bit of farming, but that doesn’t employ many people. There’s Tom Cullen’s organic animal-feed business, and a couple of small factories still going on the industrial estate on the edge of the village. Some people commute into town, or even Exeter or Plymouth. But a lot have to move away.”
“That’s a shame.”
“It’s the same with housing. A lot of places have been sold off as second homes that are only lived in for a few weeks of the year, or they’re Airbnbs or guest houses. So local people get priced out.” She shrugged. “Ah. Well. It is what it is.”
Jess nodded, sipping her coffee. She hadn’t given much thought to her own future plans yet, but she was going to need a job, and somewhere to live. She couldn’t freeload from her sister for ever. But any thought of staying here in this pretty village looked like it would be a non-starter.
“Hi, mind if I join you?”
Julia glanced up as a smiling dark-haired young woman strolled out onto the terrace. “Oh, hi, Lisa. Of course. Come and sit down. Do you remember my sister, Jess?”
“Of course.” The other woman laughed merrily. “It would be hard to forget you, seeing your living image around the place most days. I bet you had fun when you were kids, swapping places.”
“We did.” Jess’s eyes danced. “We used to drive the teachers crazy. They tried to insist that Mum put us in different colour jumpers, but we used to just swap them over.”
