Page 17 of A Summer Scandal

‘You brighten it up.’

It was a compliment that she very much appreciated; she was accustomed to people finding her style a little too quirky, her colours a little too much.

‘Thank you,’ she murmured, still damp-eyed. She didn’t know Calvin Dearheart at all really, yet in that moment she felt as if he knew her pretty well. Maybe that was why she didn’t resist when he opened his arms.

‘Need a hug? I’m told mine are the best in the business.’

He wasn’t kidding. His arms folded around her and held her close but not too tight, his chin resting on the top of her head. He was warmth on the cold morning, and he was reassuringly alive when she felt surrounded by echoes of the past.

‘I’m told I’m the best kisser in the business too, if you’re interested,’ he said, and even though she couldn’t see his face she could feel him laughing into her hair.

‘Don’t push your luck,’ she hiccupped, not ready to let go yet, because she’d just had the most rollercoaster twenty-four hours of her life and his arms felt like a safe place to be. And then she caught herself, because how could that be? She was practically engaged to Simon, yet here she was being held by a super-hot stranger who may or may not have just kissed her hair. She tried not to notice the fact that Cal smelt of warm leather and something almost like cinnamon spice, and of running water and of new opportunities.

‘I think I’ve seen enough for now,’ she said.

‘Home then?’

She nodded, realising it was after nine only when she glanced at her watch. ‘Do you need to get off to work?’

Cal kind of shrugged. ‘I’m pretty flexible.’

Violet wanted to ask him what he did, but felt as if it might sound intrusive so held the question back for another time. Taking one last look around the pavilion, she led the way back out onto the pier and locked the doors again.

Later that day, fortified by a warm bath and a cupboard full of groceries, Vi perched on one of the breakfast stools and tried to work out where was best to set up her sewing machine. Common sense suggested the spare bedroom, once upon a time her mother’s bedroom, as the practical answer. But that would mean moving things, emptying things, changing things, and she didn’t want to do that before Della had had a chance to come and see it as it was for herself. Even though her mum had said that she couldn’t face coming to Swallow Beach, Violet couldn’t face the thought of her mum never visiting her here. She didn’t know the full story really, but she got a strong sense from her mum of unfinished business where Swallow Beach was concerned and she hoped that, at some point over the summer, she’d soften and come.

So, with the only spare room not an option, Vi decided to leave the machine where it was on the dining table and work from there. Her eyes moved over the space, working out where the light fell and where she could store all of her accessories and stock. A large walnut and white sideboard stretched across the back wall behind the table; she could empty that out and use it. Decision made, she jumped up and set to work.

Two hours later, Violet sat cross-legged on the floor, damp-cheeked for the second time that day, surrounded by the trinkets and detritus of a life only half lived. Her grandparents’ wedding album, black and white, crisp vellum protecting the framed images. Monica’s fifties tea-length dress looked like something straight out ofGrease, sleeveless white lace with a boat neck and layers of net underskirts over impossibly pointed kitten heels. Her dark hair had been styled into an elegant bouffant and dressed with a white band, and despite her winged black eyeliner and wide smile she looked impossibly young and naive. Hopeful, in shiny-eyed love with the tall, suited man standing proudly beside her. Was that really Grandpa Henry? He looked so carefree and youthful, it was hard to even identify him as the kind, world-weary man Vi had known and loved beyond measure.

There were more albums in there too, including one with ‘Della’ hand-painted on the first page in yellow and silver. It was filled with heart-achingly sweet photographs of Della’s baby years, all inscribed beneath with dates and captions.The day we brought our beautiful baby girl home, written beneath a photograph of them on the steps of the Lido, the shawled baby cradled in Monica’s arms.Della’s first tooth!underneath a shot of a laughing, pink-cheeked baby proudly displaying one tiny white bottom tooth. A homemade chocolate cake iced with Della’s name; it didn’t really need theDella is one!to place it in time, but the flurry of tiny coloured hearts beside it made Violet’s heart hurt. Snapshot after snapshot.Della can walk! Della’s first word – Dadda, of course!

Violet closed the album and laid it with the others beside a box of tickets and faded receipts from high days and holidays. Monica had probably kept them with the intention of scrapbooking them, but for one reason and another they’d never got that far. They were precious, and they painted a picture of the woman her grandmother had been. Someone who loved her husband and her daughter, someone who – if the pictures were any gauge – laughed often, someone who dripped creativity from her fingertips. Vi found herself feeling more and more protective of Monica with every new thing she learned, and in turn determined to protect her legacy here in Swallow Beach. Her grandparents had been happy here for a while; she was going to do them both proud and try to be happy here too.

Across the landing in the Lido, Cal immersed himself in his work to stop himself from wondering what his new neighbour was doing. He was far too used to having the top floor to himself, it was taking some getting used to knowing that there was a blue-haired mermaid girl living just across the hall from him.

Running the leather collar he’d just finished through his fingers, he methodically checked the stitching, the precision of the buckle, the correct positioning of the studs. Every piece he produced was handmade to order, and his reputation was growing with every satisfied customer, much to his mother’s irritation.

Checking his watch, he realised he was already cutting it fine if he was going to make his hastily rearranged date from last night. Clara would be pissed if he cancelled twice, and she was way too attractive to bother waiting around for a third attempt. He’d met her the week before at a convention and they’d hit it off, arranging to meet for dinner in Hastings.

She ticked all of his usual boxes: forthright, striking, not looking for anything serious. He’d done serious and come out not so much with his fingers burned as with his fingerprints incinerated off – these days he chose his female company carefully to avoid complications. Which brought him back to Violet. She didn’t tick any of his boxes. Or else she did, in that she was definitely striking, but she was also his neighbour, and more than that, she seemed like someone who needed a friend while she was here. So, regretfully, he’d relegated himself to the friend zone, which was a novel and not all that pleasant place to find himself. Still. It’d be okay, he told himself. There were plenty of fish in the sea. Just not many mermaids.

After an afternoon spent arranging her temporary workspace and a rather unglamorous dinner of cheese on toast, Violet decided to call it quits and have an early night. She’d called her mum, replied to a text from Simon and tomorrow she planned to get stuck into her next work order. Her whole world seemed to have flipped on its axis since she’d received the letter from her grandpa; she found the idea of getting her teeth into work familiar and soothing.

Turning out the lights, she headed for the bathroom to brush her teeth, and then paused, surprised by the sight of a note pushed underneath her door.

Being neighbourly. Here’s my mobile number in case you hear anything go bump in the night. Or run out of milk. Or you’re lonely. C x

He’d scrawled his number underneath in the same confident script as his words. Violet couldn’t help but smile as she read it twice over, then put it down beside the old telephone. Cal seemed to live his life with his finger permanently on the humour button; given that everything else around her seemed deep and confusing, he was a tonic. She’d heard him go out earlier in the evening, and found the top floor a lonelier place without him across the hall. He wasn’t the quietest of neighbours. In fact earlier he’d been making quite a racket at times, hammering and sanding by the sound of it. Perhaps he was a DIY fan.

After a moment’s hesitation, she went back into the living room and ripped a page out of her notepad, scrawling on it before opening her front door and making a PJ-clad dash across to Cal’s apartment. Her heart hammered in case he came back while she was out there, but all was quiet.

She paused as she passed the huge landing window looking down over the bay. It was gorgeous by night, creamy street lamps dotted along the seafront, the darkness of the sea glinting beneath the clear moon. She could just about make out the shadow of the pier, a spindled outline. Her feelings for it were already strengthening, especially since finding her name painted there out over the waves. How special. How wondrous, really, as if the past was reaching out and welcoming her to Swallow Beach, asking her to safeguard Monica’s memories. She would. Vi didn’t yet know exactly what she was going to do with the pier, or even if she’d stay here for more than a summer, but she wasn’t leaving until the pier was open again. The intention settled on her shoulders as she stood with her palm flat against the window.

‘I’m here now,’ she whispered. ‘I’m here and I’ll take care of you.’

There would be no compulsory purchase order on Violet’s watch. The people of Swallow Beach may well have felt that the pier belonged to them, but the truth was that it belonged to Violet now, and to Monica before her. She really hoped that the townspeople would be glad of her presence in the bay, but if they weren’t … Vi wasn’t a girl accustomed to trouble, but looking out over the pier in that quiet, reflective moment, she resolved that she wasn’t going to be pushed around. It was too important.

Just after midnight, Cal let himself into his apartment, taking care not to disturb his neighbour. On the whole, it had been a pretty successful evening. Clara was good company, undeniably gorgeous and she’d made it pretty clear that she was up for some fun when he’d dropped her home just now. He hoped he hadn’t offended her by tactfully declining her offer to go inside; he didn’t even know why he’d taken a rain check, really, aside from the fact he’d been up since five and had a lot on work wise.

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