Page 51 of Summer at Harbour View House
Hannah leaned back in her chair. ‘Hmm. So … how was your day?’
‘Interesting. I had a little fun on the beach.’
‘Did you go swimming and stuff?’
Natasha shrugged. ‘I suppose a little.’ She finished what was left off her wine and sat up. ‘Right. Are you going to come down to the beach barbeque? I think there’ll be quite a few people there.’
Hannah shook her head. ‘No, I’m going to take a bath, exfoliate, manicure, pedicure, and then sit up in the top bedroom and try to get enough phone signal to message Davey.’
‘Sounds like a great evening.’
‘Well, if Davey’s busy, I might pop down.’
Natasha was just standing up when a figure appeared at the bottom of their garden.
‘Eddie?’
He walked across the grass, a bag over his shoulder. ‘Sorry to interrupt,’ he said. ‘But I heard Hannah’s voice and wanted to slip across to give her something.’ Uncharacteristically nervous, he reached into his bag and pulled out a CD case. There was no picture on the cover, just some scrawled writing in black marker.
‘I found this,’ he said to Hannah. ‘I thought your Dad might like a listen. It’s a copy of my unreleased solo album. As far as I know, there are only a couple of other copies in existence.’ He gave a sour grin. ‘This one, the one the record company has, and a third one I threw into the sea in a fit of anger about twenty years ago.’ He chuckled. ‘It would have made a dramatic video. I still had hair then, all billowing in the wind.’
Hannah took the CD. ‘Thank you so much. He’ll be absolutely delighted. Do you think he could come down and meet you sometime?’
Eddie grimaced. ‘I don’t know. I’m thinking of staying in my shell a while longer.’
‘Why don’t you come to the beach barbeque?’ Natasha asked.
‘No, I’m good,’ Eddie said, then shrank off back across the garden, the way he had come.
Hannah was staring at the CD in her hands. ‘To my dad, this will literally be like gold,’ she said. ‘I can’t wait to try to get a bar of phone reception so that I can tell him. You know, I was wondering if we can get up into the loft? It might be high enough to pick up a decent signal.’
‘You enjoy that,’ Natasha said. ‘I’m going to go down to the beach for a bit.’
Hannah grinned. ‘Say hi to Ben for me.’
‘If I see him.’
Hannah lifted an eyebrow. ‘Oh, come on. That’s the only reason you’re going down there.’
‘It is not! What do you think of me?’
‘I see a cracking in your strong, independent woman casing. Just have a little fun. It’s the summer after all. It’ll be all rainy and cold again before we know it.’
‘I’m not into summer romances.’
‘Oh, you are. Everyone is. Most people just won’t admit it.’
‘You keep believing that. I’m going to go get a hamburger.’
Winter Vale Beach was a hive of activity. A pile of driftwood had been set alight, and several barbeque pits built out of piles of stones. Burgers, sausages, and freshly caught fish sizzled while people sat around talking and laughing, swigging beer from cans. Natasha was surprised to see Matt and Jago sitting together on a rock, while Demelza was fussing around Ben, whose air of cool had been blown away by a bit of his mother’s attention.
‘You’s not gonna keep this skin forever if you’s don’t put more lotion on,’ she said, smearing one of his bare shoulders with after-sun cream from a pink bottle. ‘Ain’t gonna look so good then when you’s wandering about like an old prune. Ah, Natasha! Lovely to see you again!’
Natasha let them draw her into their circle. Jago raised a can of cider and asked how Charlie was getting on. Ben gave her a shy smile that was more endearing than any of his macho posturing.
‘Glad you could make it. Can I get you something to eat?’
‘Sure, that would be great.’
