Page 15 of Spring Dreams at the Cornish Bakery

‘Tell me. What’s going on?’ Nina inhaled a quick breath before continuing. ‘And before you say nothing, remember that I know you too well to believe a lie. Remember that time I found you in the car park at that pub when you were just fifteen and you told me you hadn’t been drinking?’

Lynsey nodded, a small smile fighting its way through her tears. ‘I remember. You marched me right back in there and demanded the landlord to admit he’d been serving me.’

‘That’s it. If you don’t tell me what’s really going on, then I’ll get to the bottom of it somehow, even if it means me abandoning Gary and Oscar for a few days and driving down to Cornwall myself.’

Winding the thread around her finger, Lynsey shifted position against the cold, hard floorboards. She might as well come clean. She knew Nina wasn’t exaggerating when she said she’d travel down. ‘It’s the cottage I bought.’

‘You don’t like it?’

‘It’s not that. I do. I mean, I know I could, but...’ She sighed. ‘You were right. Everyone was. You, Dad, Gary. It’s a mess and I don’t think I can change that.’

‘Oh, Lyns.’ Nina’s voice grew soft. ‘Surely, it’s not that bad? A little bit of elbow grease and time and I’m sure you’ll have it looking beautiful.’

‘No, I mean it’s a mess as in a mess.’ Gripping the doorhandle behind her, she pulled herself up to standing before switching on the lights. Zac’s advice to get the electrics tested echoed in her mind, not that there was any point now she was selling. She’d take the risk tonight and leave that job to the next owners. With her back still against the door, she took in the abandoned building site in front of her. ‘The previous owners got halfway through a renovation and gave up. They’ve knocked half the plaster from the walls. You can see the upstairs floorboards from the living room as there’s no ceiling, the kitchen... the kitchen is basically non-existent. It’s...’

‘Okay, deep breaths, Lyns. We’ll work this out.’

‘How? I got an estate agent round today, and he’s valued it twenty grand below what I paid for it and then there are the selling fees, the solicitor fees, the...’ A loud sob escaped from her lips. ‘I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid, so naïve. I should have listened to you all. I should have realised I couldn’t do it on my own. I mean, I can’t do anything, can I? I can never make the right decisions. Just look at me and Ross. I trusted him. I made the decision to change my life to suit him, my job, my home, everything. And look how that turned out. I...’

‘Hey, don’t you dare blame yourself for what happened with Ross. Do you hear me?’ Nina cut through her sentence. ‘Ross is an utter lowlife of a human being. What he did, trying to set you up for a crime he’d committed, it was awful but it wasn’t your fault. He was charming, certainly the most charming person I’ve ever come across and we were all drawn in by his lies. All of us.Dad loved him. Gary too. If you’re going to blame yourself, then we all have too. You did nothing wrong.’

‘I still let it happen. I should have realised he was stealing from the company; I should have seen what he was like.’ She tiptoed across the floor, shifting the bigger blocks of plaster with the toe of her trainer until she had made her way to the staircase leading up from the corner of the room. Sinking down onto the first step, she held her palm over her forehead. ‘And now I’ve got to come home. Live back in the town where everyone either looks at me with suspicion or pity.’

‘No, they don’t.’

‘They really do. And you know it.’ She knew she was right and even though she won’t admit it, she knew Nina had noticed too. After dragging her out to their favourite coffee shop in the centre of town a handful of times after Ross had been charged, Nina had begun to suggest they travel further afield to ‘check out some new places’. Lynsey had known what she’d been doing, her sister had been protecting her, and she was grateful to her.

‘What do you want to do?’

Lynsey shrugged. ‘I don’t have a choice. I have to sell and come home, attempt to find a job in a place where people still believe I knew what Ross was up to and hide away again.’

‘Forget what you feel you have to do. What do you want to do?’ Nina insisted.

Lynsey gave a small, sad smile. ‘I want to stay here. I want to do up this cottage and live in Penworth Bay, where people are already beginning to accept me into their community. I want to have a fresh start where I can be myself again. Relearn who I am without having people point, stare and judge.’

‘Then do it. I’ll speak to Gary, and we can re-mortgage. We’ve not got much as we borrowed against the house for that damn holiday caravan, but it’ll be enough to make the cottage lovable, at least.’

‘I’m not doing that; I’m not having you and Gary risk little Oscar’s home for me. No chance.’ Lynsey ran her fingers through her hair. ‘I’m grateful, but I won’t take money from you, and I mean that.’

‘I can’t persuade you?’

‘You really can’t.’

‘Okay.’ The phone went quiet.

‘Are you still there?’ Please don’t go, Nina. I need you.

‘Sorry, yes. I was just thinking. I can send Gary down to help but you know what he’d like. He wouldn’t know one end of a hammer from the other and then he’d probably break a thumb or two just trying.’

Lynsey let out a short laugh. It was true. Gary had put up a set of shelves in his and Nina’s kitchen. The only problem had been that anything Nina had put on them had kept sliding off onto the floor. ‘I think this job might be a little too big for Gary.’

‘By the sounds of it, I think you might be right. If you gave him any free rein, you wouldn’t have a cottage at all left standing.’ Nina’s voice was serious again. ‘In that case, can you do any of the work yourself? Is there anything you can do and then pay someone to just do the bits you can’t?’

She looked at the wall opposite her, the bare brickwork showing through where patches of the plaster had been knocked off. ‘I think it’s beyond that, if I’m honest.’

‘Sleep on it, Lyns. Don’t make any decisions straight away. Like you say, this is your chance to have your fresh start, so make sure there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop you having to throw that away.’

‘I will.’ Lynsey nodded.

---