Page 61 of The Path to the Last House Before the Sea

Nine two six five three five…

He continued reciting the mathematical constant while they walked back towards the shop. The mental gymnastics meant his mind was only half on their conversation. But that was a small price to pay for feeling more grounded and less all at sea in this unusual woman’s company.

TWENTY-NINE

ALYSSA

Walking across the sand, in step with Jack, felt strange. Alyssa was touched that he’d been worried about her and had come to find her. Though she still couldn’t work him out.

He was as tight as a guitar string – the rigid way he held himself when he walked, his serious approach to life and his closed mind. Yet sometimes it was as if the walls he’d built around himself were breached and she glimpsed someone else. When he looked at Miri with hurt in his eyes. When he laughed at Alyssa’s stupid jokes.

When he kissed her.

Though, of course, she was no better. Presenting one side of herself to Jack – to everyone – and hiding a different side away.

That was one reason why Magda had been so angry with her this morning, and that anger was warranted, thought Alyssa. She’d encouraged Magda to show Stan the hidden side of herself, while she herself stayed in the shadows. Her ‘advice’ had been tainted by her own shortcomings.

If only she could go back to their conversation in the Smugglers Haunt and give a different opinion: Guard your secrets well, because bringing them into the light causes pain.

Alyssa pictured Magda’s furious, heartbroken face as she’d recounted Stan’s rejection, and blinked away tears as she and Jack strode along the lane, after leaving the beach behind.

Magda wasn’t right that Alyssa was fully responsible for loosening her tongue because, ultimately, it had been her own decision to tell Stan. But Alyssa understood her anger. Battered and bruised, Magda had needed to lash out at someone, to release the hurt she was feeling. And it was undeniable that Alyssa had played a part in the whole sorry mess.

‘Are you quite sure you want to come back to mine?’ asked Jack. They’d hardly said a word to each other since leaving the beach.

Alyssa tried to concentrate on what was happening. All around them, Heaven’s Cove was gearing up for a busy Sunday. Shops were open, the streets were filling with visitors, and a queue was forming on the quay for a boat trip around the headland.

Jack glanced at her. ‘It doesn’t matter if you’d rather not.’

Did she want to spend time in his cellar, even if there was something in the map that had sparked a memory in Jack? There was no point in pulling together a smuggling tour, or finding out more about Charity and Josiah, for that matter, if she was considering leaving Heaven’s Cove.

‘I mean,’ Jack continued, ‘I don’t mind if you’d rather go straight back to the caravan.’

He said the words lightly, but the disappointment in his eyes implied that he would mind very much. It was strange, thought Alyssa, that, right now, Jack seemed to care more about the mysterious map than she did. Strange, and quite sweet.

‘Yes,’ she answered. ‘I mean no. I don’t want to go straight home, and I do want to come back with you. I’m intrigued about what you have to show me.’

‘It might be nothing,’ he answered, frowning as they reached Gathergill’s Mini Mart and found a large ‘Closed’ sign on the front door.

‘Has your dad shut the shop?’

‘It seems so. He said he was going out and would shut up shop for a while, but I wasn’t sure he really would.’

‘Where’s he gone?’

‘He wouldn’t say.’

‘Do you think he might have gone to see Magda?’

‘Maybe.’ Jack fumbled in his pockets for his keys. ‘Why? What’s going on? You and Magda have had some sort of argument and Dad’s been horribly grumpy all morning. Have he and Magda had a fight too?’

‘Um.’ Alyssa bent to retrieve the keys that had slipped through Jack’s fingers. ‘I’m not sure but, if they have, perhaps they’re having a chat and making up.’

Perhaps Stan, after having second thoughts, was declaring his love to Magda at that very moment, and their story would have a happy ending. Alyssa crossed her fingers behind her back.

‘I have no idea what’s going on in my life any more,’ muttered Jack, opening the door and beckoning Alyssa inside.

‘Do you need to open the store? I can stay and help if you’d like.’

---