Page 58 of The House on Waterfall Hill

The pirate festival was a huge success. There were literally thousands of pirates walking the streets and sitting on the village green, listening to sea shanties,drinking rum, and generally enjoying much merriment. There was an old Spanish galleon docked in the harbour that looked like it was from the 1500s and ready to circumnavigate the world with Drake or Columbus at the wheel. There had been staged skirmishes on it and around it all day with pirates fighting, cannons firing and lots of swashbuckling. Luke loved it.

People had made a huge effort with the costumes, and there were probably a hundred Jack Sparrow lookalikes; some were so convincing, Johnny Depp himself could have turned up dressed as his alter ego and no one would have batted an eye. There were some, like Luke, who had gone all out with rings, belts, pouches, swords and hats, and some who were simply wearing t-shirts with skulls and crossbones on them. But there was only one octopus. He watched Flick run across the village green like the Pied Piper, waving her tentacles in the air as she was chased by a crowd of children all screeching and laughing at her. She had the biggest smile on her face, mirrored by the one he had on his own.

‘You’re in love with her, aren’t you?’ Quinn asked as he moved to Luke’s side.

Luke nodded. ‘Yeah I am.’

Quinn clapped him on the back. ‘I’m happy for you, she seems lovely. I’m sorry your escape to Scotland didn’t work out, I know you were excited about that, but selfishly I’m glad you’ll be staying. I’d have missed you.’

‘I’m not sure if I’m staying,’ Luke said.

‘What? But you love her, why would you walk away from that?’

‘I have no idea if she feels the same.’

‘She adores you, anyone can see that.’

‘I know she likes me, and we’re having a lot of fun together but I don’t know if she sees a future with us.’

‘You need to talk to her.’

‘Of course I do and I will. But I have a few weeks before I go and I’m having way too much fun with her right now to want to screw it up by telling her I love her. That’s how my last two relationships came to a crashing end. I’ll tell her before I leave. That way if she doesn’t feel the same I don’t have to see her every day and feel my heart breaking.’

Luke stared at the beer in his hand that was clearly making him spill all his secrets today – and it was only his first one.

‘What if she’s holding herself back because you’re leaving and seemingly giving her no indication you intend to stay?’ Quinn said. ‘Maybe telling her now would allow her to go all in and let herself fall in love with you too.’

He frowned; that did make a lot of sense.

‘Look, you don’t necessarily have to tell her you love her now, but just talk to her and tell her this is something serious for you. If she feels the same you can stay to see if it’s something more, something worth fighting for.’

Luke knew Quinn was right. He could at least offer to stay a bit longer; the house in Scotland wasn’t going anywhere and it would always be there if things ended, even if that was a few months from now. At least thenhe could say he’d given it his best shot. There was no rush to leave just because he was getting the keys on Monday and he needed to tell Flick that.

‘Since when did you become so wise with regards to relationships? How’s your love life?’

He watched Quinn’s eyes move to where Alex was playing with her daughter. ‘Ah, dishing out advice and taking it are two very different things. One is definitely much harder than the other.’

‘Yeah, I hear you,’ Luke sighed, taking another swig of his beer. But somehow he was going to have to find the courage to tell Flick what was in his heart or risk losing her for good.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Flick woke as the sun kissed her face. She opened her eyes watching the sun peep over the sea. It was going to be another glorious day.

Today was the grand opening of the Wonky Tree Studios and Flick had worked hard putting posters and leaflets everywhere in town, doing Facebook posts, running Facebook and Instagram ads and generally trying to get the word out as much as she could.

Polly was going to be ready with enough tea and cake to feed a small army and all the artists were going to be demonstrating or working on their art as people walked around.

The best part, or rather the scariest part, was that the local TV news was going to come and do a piece about how they had saved the tree and include the grand opening of the studios at the same time. It was going to be fabulous for publicity even though Flick wasdreading having to stand in front of the camera and be interviewed by the journalists.

As if sensing her unease, Luke stroked her hair and she looked up at him as she lay on top of his chest. He smiled at her sleepily, clearly having just woken up.

She kissed his chest, right above his heart.

‘Stop worrying. Everything is going to be great because you’ve worked your arse off to make sure this grand reopening will go without a hitch. All the artists have cheaper things displayed beautifully in their studios, the tree looks amazing, better than it ever did, and your interview with the journalists will go smoothly because you’re passionate about saving the studios and the tree and you’ll speak from the heart.’

She smiled. God she had fallen so hard for this man, she had never loved someone as much as she loved him. But he was due to complete on his house in Scotland the next day and a few weeks after that, as soon as all the work on the house was done, he’d be gone. He’d been on the phone with solicitors, estate agents, builders, decorators and landscapers and she could see how excited he was about it all.

There had been no conversation at all about what would happen between them once he left, whether they would continue a long-distance relationship or just say goodbye and wish each other well. In reality, how could a long-distance relationship work? Yes, she could fly to Edinburgh from Newquay or Exeter and then hire a car and drive the five hours from Edinburgh to Skye but wasn’t the whole point of a long-distance relationshipthat ultimately they would be together, either in Scotland or here?

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