Page 50 of Summer at Harbour View House
‘She can’t fly. Well, not more than a few feet.’
‘Well, perhaps she rode on the back of a shark.’
‘I doubt it.’
‘Well, I can tell you what definitely didn’t happen. There wasn’t a little boy earlier who came over and told me he’d lost his boogie board, having left it lying by the water’s edge. And I definitely didn’t find it out by the rocks over there about half an hour later. So there’s no possible way that Charlie somehow found herself standing on that boogie board as it floated out to the rock.’
Natasha nodded. ‘You’re probably right. I think it must have been the back of a shark.’
‘We’ll go with that, then.’
They held each other’s gaze for a moment too long. Natasha realised she was staring, and turned away, before Ben could see the flush in her cheeks. Under her arm, Charlie continued to peck away at her shirt buttons, unconcerned.
19
Rarities and Hamburgers
The sun waslow in the sky just above the western cliffs, igniting the flat sea in an explosion of colour. Natasha, sat on a deckchair with a glass of wine in hand, watched Charlie wander about in her newly repaired coop. Ben had stopped by earlier, helped her to fix it up, and now she felt confident the chicken was safely enclosed. At first she had been reluctant to let Ben help, but when she had let down her own guard and allowed him to simply show her what she had been doing wrong, she had found him not only a good teacher but to really know what he was doing. He explained that before he had got into big wave surfing, he had studied carpentry, planning to get work out in Europe building beachside chalets while surfing in his free time. That he had ended up doing his hobby as a profession had been an unexpected bonus.
Natasha hadn’t said what she had heard about Ben’s injury. There had been a certain faraway look in his eye while he talked, a longing for something now lost. After he had gone to prepare for the barbeque, she found the feeling still lingered. She had wandered about the garden for a while, wanting to do something useful, while at the same time not. This wasn’t her property after all; in less than a month she would be leaving all this behind, and it would become another footnote in her life.
Natasha had just finished getting ready for the barbeque and was drinking one quick glass of wine before heading down to the beach when Hannah came skipping up the path, humming to herself, only a set of pigtails and a ribbon short of an Enid Blyton story. Natasha held up an empty glass she had brought outside just in case and lifted an eyebrow.
‘You had a good day, then?’
Hannah gave her a cheeky smile. ‘Uh huh. You can fill that up.’
‘Sure. What happened?’
‘Oh, nothing much. Davey just told me that he’s never met anyone like me before.’
Natasha grinned. ‘I’ve never met anyone like you before, either.’
‘I don’t mean it like that. He told me I’m special.’
‘How special?’
‘Very. He told me that he wanted to ask me something, but that he was scared because he thought it was too soon, and he didn’t want to rush things, since we’ve only known each other a couple of weeks.’
‘Oh, that’s nice. Did he tell you want he was planning to ask?’
‘Nope.’
‘Oh well. Maybe tomorrow.’
Hannah pulled a deckchair annoyingly close to Natasha, her knees squeezed together, the glass of wine clutched in both hands.
‘Do you think he wants to marry me?’ she hissed.
‘I don’t know. Maybe he wants to employ you on his fishing boat.’
Hannah’s eyes widened. ‘Do you think? I mean, I like the sea and everything, but I wouldn’t want to be out on it every day—’
‘Probably not.’
‘Really? So do you think—’
Natasha patted her arm. ‘I think you shouldn’t worry about it too much. Just take things easy.’
