Page 43 of The Sisters at the Last House Before the Sea

Caitlin shook her head. ‘Isla said she’d leave a very large note on the front door telling her to call me the minute she got back and…’ She pulled out her mobile to double-check. ‘Nope. There’s no missed call. God, I hope she’s all right.’

Sean stopped walking and leaned against the ruined wall of the castle keep. ‘You care a great deal about her, don’t you?’

‘Yes, I do, though she’d never believe it. I’m the archetypal wicked stepmother in her eyes and she doesn’t let me forget it.’

Sean grimaced. ‘Fifteen-year-olds can be brutal, and they always kick against their parents. I certainly did at that age, and you weren’t much older when you snuck out of your gran’s and joined me on the harbour wall for a sneaky cigarette. Do you still smoke?’

‘No, I gave up ages ago,’ said Caitlin, her mind drifting back to their teenage days. Everything had seemed much simpler then, before she’d begun to panic about being trapped in Heaven’s Cove for years as a carer. Just as Isla had been.

Caitlin took a deep breath to stop guilt from overwhelming her. ‘What about you?’ she asked. ‘Are you still cadging cigarettes from people?’

‘Nope. I never much liked smoking and only did it to seem more grown up than I was. I was trying to impress you.’

‘Were you?’ Caitlin tried to smile but her frozen cheeks hardly moved. ‘You didn’t need to. I was impressed already.’

She shouldn’t have said that. It was best to steer away from the past. Caitlin leaned against the ruined wall too, ignoring the cold that immediately began to seep through her jeans, and started flexing her numb toes in Isla’s wellies.

‘Do you want half a sausage roll?’ Sean suddenly asked, pulling out the paper bag that he’d stuffed into his pocket after her fall.

‘Shouldn’t we keep looking?’

‘We will, but you look like you need some food first. You’re very pale.’

‘Um…’ Caitlin was aware of her stomach rumbling. She’d been so busy worrying about Maisie, she’d forgotten to have breakfast. And when Sean opened the grease-stained bag, she caught an enticing aroma of pastry and spices. ‘Go on, then! That would be great, if you don’t mind. I am quite hungry.’

Sean broke the sausage roll in half and passed it over. It was only luke-warm but still tasted delicious.

‘One of Stan’s specials?’ asked Caitlin. Stan had run the village Mini Mart for ever, and his snacks were legendary in the village.

‘That’s right, though Stan’s not well these days so it’s mostly his family running the shop.’

‘I didn’t realise. That’s a real shame.’

Caitlin hardly remembered Stan but the thought of him being ill and the shop changing made her sad. She’d once known Heaven’s Cove like the back of her hand but a lot had changed while she’d been away. The cottages were as quaint and the air was still laced with the fishy smell of the sea, but the people were different. They’d moved on while she’d been gone.

‘It can’t be easy, being a stepmum,’ said Sean, who’d polished off his food in two bites. ‘Where’s Maisie’s real…I mean, her biological mother?’

Caitlin licked pastry flakes from her lips and glanced at Sean. He never used to be so forward but he’d changed too in the years since they’d last met. He seemed more confident, more self-assured…simply more grown up, she supposed, than the adolescent young man she’d once known so well.

‘Her mother and Stuart split up a couple of years before I came on the scene. Maisie stayed with her dad because her life was in London and her mum was moving to Canada, for work. She’s got a new family now.’

‘That can’t have been easy for Maisie.’

‘It wasn’t. She doesn’t have a very close relationship with her mum.’

‘At least she’s got you.’

Caitlin gave a mirthless laugh. ‘Yeah, poor girl. What about you?’ she asked, to change the subject. ‘Have you got kids?’

‘Me?’ Sean shook his head. ‘Nope. No kids. No wife.’

Caitlin, who’d just taken a bite of sausage roll, stopped chewing and gulped it down. ‘But Jen called you her hubby when I brought my car into the garage, and you were in the pub with her.’

Sean gave a wry grin. ‘I can see that might be confusing. Jen was my wife, for a while. We got married when we were both very young but it didn’t last long. We’re still good friends, though. Which is what we should have been all along, really – rather than rushing off and getting hitched. She’s married to Lee, now, the lead engineer at the garage. They were both out of work when I took over the garage and taxi company, so I hired them.’

‘That was very magnanimous of you. Do you all get along well together?’

‘Remarkably well, in the circumstances. Jen sometimes calls me Hubby Number One and Lee’s a good friend. They’re great together, and I’m godfather to their younger son.’

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