Page 4 of The House on Waterfall Hill

‘Shall we take these upstairs?’

‘Upstairs?’ She’d been to this house many times as a child, but this was the top floor. There was no upstairs.

‘We finally got the roof terrace that your nan has always wanted.’

Flick gasped. ‘Oh, she was always talking about that but she always had so many plans and projects that never happened or were never finished. And she’s never exactly been flush for cash.’

‘Well I, umm… I did it for her. She kept talking about it and we already had the flat roof up there so we just had to add the railings and the stairs, get it checked and approved by building regulations, it wasn’t a big deal. And it benefits me too so it kind of made sense. Come on, I’ll show you.’

Flick looked around; she hadn’t seen any stairs when she came in.

Luke walked off to his room and returned a few moments later with two jumpers and a blanket. He passed a jumper to her and pulled one on himself.

‘It gets a bit cool up there, even at this time of year.’

He grabbed his plate and the flask and walked towards the linen closet. She frowned in confusion but when she looked inside she saw a spiral staircase going up towards the roof.

‘Stay here a sec, I just need to go up and open the roof hatch.’

She watched him climb up the stairs as she pulled onhis soft jumper that smelled wonderfully of him, spicy and fruity. He opened the hatch and then climbed out onto the roof, bending down and gesturing for her to come up.

She got to the top of the stairs and he held out a hand to help her onto the roof. She looked around. It was quite a large area that was in the shape of a raindrop, the pointy end jutting out towards the sea. It was surrounded by black wrought-iron railings and filled with potted plants and flowers that scented the air with a beautiful perfume. Little fairy lights were hung over the railings and twinkled around them. There was a sofa and a large round sun-lounger-type bed that could probably hold three or four people. But the view of the bay was the thing that held her attention. From up here it was completely unhindered, and she could see all the pretty coloured houses, the church tower overlooking the town, the long, white sandy beaches that even in the darkness seemed to glitter under the moonlight. She had always loved Lovegrove Bay, and that view was a reminder of so many happy memories here. This place was peaceful.

For the first time she wondered if this move could become permanent. She didn’t have a job or a home to return to and her friends had moved from London one by one and, while she was still in touch with a few of them, she didn’t see them very often anymore.

In fact the week before she’d come here she’d celebrated her thirtieth birthday alone. Her friends had all sent presents and cards and messages of course, but noone had been able to come down to see her. Flick understood, they all had young families and job commitments but it reinforced for her that she had nothing to go back to London for.

But could this be her new home? She’d have to get a job, once her nan came back and her work at the studio was finished. And she’d need a home, maybe a one-bedroom flat down in the main part of the town, and that wouldn’t be easy knowing how much places went for round here. But maybe she could start over, make a life for herself here in Lovegrove Bay.

Luke watched her standing at the railings, her dark hair catching the light of the moon so it glittered like bronze as it moved in a gentle breeze, and thought she looked spectacular. It had been a long time since he’d been attracted to a woman, or rather since he’d allowed himself to be attracted to one. Falling in love only led to getting hurt. And since the whole town had found out who he was, he’d never been able to trust that the women who flirted with him were interested in him for him. So he’d squirrelled himself away up here, concentrated on his work and hadn’t let silly things like relationships get in the way.

And along came Flick, who was pretty and kind and, more importantly, didn’t know who he was, at least for now. And while it was very unlikely she would have any feelings for him, especially after their not so auspiciousstart, at least he knew their friendship right now and the way she treated him was genuine and not led by ulterior motives.

‘This view is wonderful.’

‘It really is.’ He cleared his throat and focussed on the view in question instead. ‘I spend every chance I get up here.’

‘I can see why.’ She moved to the point of the terrace. ‘This is like a ship’s stern.’

‘I said the same. We’ve often joked about putting up a ship’s sail or getting a big mermaid to sit there at the front.’

She laughed and stuck her arms out either side of her like she was flying and started singing Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On.

He couldn’t help but smile at her recreating the famous scene fromTitanicwhen Rose and Jack are pretending to fly at the front of the ship. So he did what every self-respecting man would do faced with this situation. He moved behind her and stretched out his arms so he was flying too. She looked behind and laughed so hard at him joining her and that made him feel warm inside. She rolled her fingers over the top of his, entwining them with his just like Rose did to Jack in the movie, but stroking his fingers made his heart leap. It felt strangely intimate to be almost holding hands with this woman he barely knew.

She turned around laughing, her eyes alight with joy, and god damn it if she didn’t steal a little bit of his heart in that moment. He was shocked by how much hesuddenly wanted to cup her face and kiss her, but he’d never been one of those men who would seize the day. He was always the sort who would worry about the consequences of such an action and mostly how awkward it would be if she was horrified by it. And she probably would be horrified, they’d known each other for a few minutes so he was surprised by this sudden need to kiss her. This feeling, this pull to her didn’t make any sense. He didn’t know her. He wasn’t the sort to believe you could fall for someone as soon as you’d met, he’d never believed in love at first sight and, while he was pretty sure this wasn’t that, he had never wanted to kiss a woman so soon before. Maybe it was that they shared a common ground in books or that she made him smile so much. But whatever it was, knowing how inappropriate these unexpected feelings were, he took a step back instead, letting her move away from the railings.

‘I love that film,’ she said. ‘I once went on a cruise and was so excited I’d get to recreate that moment, albeit on my own. I was so disappointed when I realised that part of the ship was closed off to the public. I wonder if they started doing that after too many people fell overboard recreating thatTitanicmoment.’

‘Probably,’ Luke said, moving over to the sofa and sitting down, hoping she hadn’t noticed that he’d wanted to kiss her.

She sat down next to him on the sofa and tucked into her toast. He did the same, watching her as she looked out on the bay.

‘It’s so beautiful,’ she said, softly.

‘It is, I shall miss that view when I’m gone.’

She looked at him in surprise. ‘You’re leaving?’

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