Page 26 of Coming Home to Wishington Bay
He gave me a smile but said nothing.
‘I just meant you’re a very busy man and I know you were doing it as a promise to Gigi, but I’m here now and I release you from that. You’ve more than kept up your end of the bargain already. The house certainly looked cared for, and not like it had sat empty for a year when I drove up last week.’
‘What if I don’t want to be released?’
‘Pardon?’
‘From Gigi’s promise. I … don’t want to be released. I want to finish the job. I mean, I know you probably have a time scale figured out for everything and when you want things done by, and that’s totally understandable. But, if you’re happy with what I’ve done so far, I’d like to finish the rest, if I can. I’ll make sure it’s done in time. I promise.’
For some reason his determination to see through the promise he made to my grandmother made me want to burst into tears. Instead I swallowed hard and nodded.
‘OK. If you’re sure.’
‘I am. I have a couple of days off coming up so I can do them then.’
‘Great. Maybe just let me know when you might be here so we don’t give each other a fright again this time,’ I said, as I popped the door on the washing machine and began unloading the first lot of bedding.
‘That sounds like a good plan,’ he agreed as I shoved in the next load and then hefted the basket on to my hip. ‘Want a hand with those?’ he asked as I hooked the peg basket on my finger and headed outside.
Putting the basket on the table, I walked down the steps and onto the sand before reaching up to the retractable line and walking it over to hook on the post opposite. When I turned around to go back up and fetch the washing, I found that it was already there, with a very gorgeous man holding out the first item to me.
‘You really don’t have to do this. I’m sure you have much better things to be doing with your time than helping me with laundry.’
He smiled at me, and then laughed as Bryan tried to stealth crawl towards one of the wading birds that had wandered a little further up the beach. Gabe turned back to me, still smiling and it hit me right in the stomach. And a few other places. God, he had a great smile.
‘No, not really.’
‘But—’
‘I’ll take a coffee as thank you.’
I couldn’t help but smile. ‘Deal. Although, I have to warn you, I only have decaf.’
Gabe’s smile widened. ‘That is something I’m actually very pleased to hear.’
* * *
‘Is it terrible to say that the sight of those sheets all bright and white, and flapping in the breeze makes me happy?’
Gabe pulled a face. ‘Why would that be a terrible thing?’
‘I don’t know. Anti-feminism, or … something.’
He shook his head. ‘I helped you peg them out and I know exactly what you mean about it making you feel happy and content so if a six-foot-four, sixteen-stone bloke can get a kick out of it, I don’t see why you can’t.’
‘OK. That’s good. Thanks.’ I took a sip of my coffee. ‘Do you really feel that?’
Gabe reached down and lifted Bryan – who’d been rubbing his head on his leg for attention for the last two minutes – with one large hand and deposited him on his lap. ‘There. Happy now?’ he asked him, giving him a scratch.
‘Probably not entirely until he has him too.’ I reached over, picked up Petey and laid him next to the dog who immediately wrapped his paws around him and mouthed the top of the prawn’s head, his eyes gradually closing as he did so.
‘Yes, in answer to your question. I think sometimes we can get too caught up in stuff these days. There’s so much technology, so many demands on our time, things competing for our attention and half the time it doesn’t even make us happy. Half the time, stuff like social media makes us feel so much worse about ourselves, like everyone else is doing so much better than us and winning at life more – even when we’re intelligent enough to know that social media lives aren’t “real”. But there’s so much “stuff” in our lives that sometimes it is good to pare things right back and find joy in the simple things, like fresh-smelling, bright white sheets drying in the sea breeze with a backdrop of bright blue sky.’
‘That’s so true. All of it. Maybe you should be the one taking the psychiatry clients.’
He shrugged. ‘I’m very much the amateur but it’s something that interests me and when Rebecca and I were dating, I picked things up just through conversation, you know?’
I nodded. ‘So the psychiatrist you wanted me to see is your ex?’ I don’t know why that made me even less inclined to want to go and see her but it did. Maybe because you didn’t always need social media to compare yourself to others. Sometimes real life served the purpose just as well. This was a woman who’d caught the attention of a man who was not only intelligent, thoughtful and insightful but also had the face of an angel and the body of a god. I got the feeling she was probably something pretty special too.
