Page 9 of A Second Chance in Seabury
Hannah turned over and cracked her eyes open, letting out a huge yawn. She was so used to the never-dark of the city night, with its glow of street lights and constant hum of traffic, that she’d been prepared for a long, sleepless night.
Curling up on cosy flannel sheets, Hannah had cocooned herself in Aunty Millie’s blanket and settled in to re-watch her favourite romcom on her laptop. She hadn’t got more than about five minutes in before she’d conked out.
Uh oh – laptop?!
Hannah patted the bedding to no avail and then peered over the edge at the floor.No sign!She straightened up and turned to the bedside table to flick on the lamp and let out a sigh of relief.
Phew!
At some point in the night, she must have woken up and set the computer carefully aside… not that she had any memory of doing so!
Crisis averted, Hannah yawned and stretched luxuriously. Something felt different this morning. Perhaps it was just the fact that she was actually hungry for her breakfast for the first time in months. Mind you, that probably had something to dowith the fact that she’d only had a tin of tomato soup and some crusty bread for her tea.
For a brief moment, Hannah considered rolling over and treating herself to a lie-in. After all, no one was expecting anything of her right now. She didn’t have to go to work, she had no appointments, and she had a whole two weeks to get the house ready for the next step. There wasn’t any kind of rush…
Except…
Hannah’s stomach gave an alarmingly loud growl, and she chuckled. Hmm, maybe therewassomething she had to attend to urgently after all! Heaving herself upright and smoothing her pyjamas into place, she decided against getting dressed. She’d have breakfast in bed... what a treat!
Heading out onto the landing, Hannah trotted down the stairs, marvelling at how lovely and fresh everything smelled. Gone was the stuffy, stale air of months of neglect. The open windows had welcomed in the scent of the sea and falling autumn leaves. She could swear that there was also a hint of the lavender furniture polish Aunty Millie used to use… though that was probably just her imagination.
Wrapping her arms around herself against the autumnal chill, Hannah headed into the kitchen. The sight of the mess she’d left in her wake the day before made her heart sink slightly. The counters were still piled with the contents of the cupboards, with just a small space cleared next to the kettle where she’d made her tea the previous evening.
Well, there wasn’t much she could do about it right now—not before she’d been down into the town for some supplies, anyway!
A couple of seconds later, two fat slices of bread were doing their thing in the toaster, and the kettle was on. Tea and toast in bed sounded like the perfect way to start the day. Hannahgrabbed one of the jars of jam from the counter, and after a bit of a tussle, she managed to wrench off the lid.
‘Or… not!’ she muttered, wrinkling her nose.
The raspberry concoction inside had turned an alarming shade of fluffy green. Maybe the strawberry had fared better, as it was almost full? The second jar opened a lot easier, but just like the first, it had a layer of fluffy mould growing on the jam. Surely she could just spoon that off… a bit of a scrape and she’d be able to mine some decent jam from near the bottom of the jar.
Hannah carried it over to the sink and began to spoon away the fluff. Still, the thought of eating anything from underneath it turned her stomach and threatened to put her off her breakfast entirely.
‘Nope,’ she muttered, dumping the whole lot into the sink with a sigh. The marmite would probably be in much the same state, and she didn’t like the stuff anyway. That had been Gareth’s.
Okay, so that left the tin of baked beans, some butter, or…
‘Honey,’ she muttered, her eyes landing on the gift from Mr Eaves. Well, it had to be better than nothing, right?
Grabbing the jar from the box, she held it up to the light, admiring the deep amber. She’d meant to leave this in one of the cupboards as a surprise for the house’s new owners… but needs must!
Cracking the lid open, she grabbed a clean spoon and, with a glance at the toaster, shrugged. She’d just have a quick taste test…
Hannah popped the spoon in her mouth and closed her eyes as sweet, comforting warmth spread across her tongue. She could practically taste the months of Seabury summer sunshine she’d missed, along with the slightest hint of the salty sea.
Hannah’s eyes flew open as the toaster popped, and she hurried to load her slices onto the vintage blue and white plateshe’d always used as a child. Instead of the thin scraping of honey she’d been planning, she spread two thick layers onto the golden toast, her stomach grumbling with anticipation. To think that those annoying bees made something so perfect!
Quickly pouring herself a strong cup of tea, Hannah gathered everything onto a tray and hurried upstairs to climb back underneath her patchwork blanket. For some reason, she suddenly felt a lot more like the excited child who used to visit this house in the holidays than the sad woman she’d become—lugging heavy secrets and regret around in her pockets.
As Hannah munched her way through her breakfast, she savoured every bite and every sip, pausing regularly to take deep breaths of the sea air seeping through the tiny gap in her curtains.
She felt… relaxed. It was such an unaccustomed sensation that she didn’t recognise it at first.
Hannahhadbeen planning to dive straight into sorting through the house, making decisions on what she wanted to keep and what she wanted to bin… after all, there was a lot to do. Now, though, she wasn’t so sure…
This house contained a mishmash of things. There were the items she’d bought to make the place homier for her and Gareth when they stayed, but there were still plenty of Aunty Millie’s things around, too. Sure, Gareth had succeeded in binning quite a lot of stuff, and a good portion of what was left had already been boxed up. Still, she didn’t much fancy lugging everything back to London with her if it just needed recycling, rehoming or binning.
Hannah blew out a long breath… suddenly feeling overwhelmed. It would be like saying one last goodbye, and she simply wasn’t ready for that just yet.
