Page 32 of Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon
Trudy is taken aback – partly because Annemarie wants to ask her for advice, which has never happened before, and partly because she doesn’t believe she has anything useful to say. She doesn’t think what she’s done with the Seaside Salon is that noteworthy. This is her son’s wife, though, so she has to make an effort.
‘Sure,’ she says. ‘Call me when you’re ready.’
‘Great. Thanks.’ Annemarie smiles then turns to her daughters. ‘Now, drink that pink lemonade slowly, okay? You’re only getting one.’
The lunch is pleasant, and the chatter is superficial, and by the time she reaches the payphone at the station Trudy is pleased she made the effort.
‘Hello?’ Evie says on the other end of the line.
‘It’s me, pet.’
‘Hi! How was lunch? Actually, no, tell me in the car. What time does your train leave?’
‘Five minutes.’
‘See you at Gosford in an hour. Billy will be with me.’
‘Sounds perfect.’ Trudy hangs up and feels relieved, although she isn’t sure why. Maybe it’s because Evie is giving her a little touch of the care Laurie used to. And, in his way, Dylan did too.
So the day wasn’t so hard after all. Without Laurie, she thought it might be.
As she waits for the train those tears are back, and this time she understands why: this was her first big test of being without him, the first family get-together without him, and it shouldn’t have taken this long, but two years have passed both in a blur and been an eternity.
The tears are coming not because he’s not here but because she passed the test. She got herself to Sydney. She made it through lunch. So this means she is moving on. Life is flowing without him and, after being stuck in a dam for so long, she is flowing with it. Leaving him behind.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
On Monday Brett brought his nan to the salon, just like he told Josie he did, only this time he came inside. He caught her eye immediately and waved hello. His smile was so big she thought his face would crack. And she loved it.
‘Hi,’ she said, so softly she didn’t think he heard but she didn’t want to alert the others in the salon.
‘Hi,’ he mouthed back, still smiling.
‘Hello, young man,’ Trudy said. ‘We haven’t seen you before.’
‘I’m Brett,’ he said, extending his hand to shake Trudy’s.
That made Josie swoon inside. Good manners. She likes good manners – in anyone, not just in a man. But for some reason she liked them most on him.
‘My nan comes to you on Mondays,’ he continued, glancing in Josie’s direction.
‘So she does,’ Trudy said, taking the arm of the elderly woman next to Brett. ‘Hi, Jilly.’
Josie hoped Trudy didn’t see her looking at Brett but she suspected she did, because Trudy never misses anything.
Brett winked at Josie before he left, and that’s how she knew she’d see him again.
Now it’s Wednesday and she’s not surprised when she walks out of the Seaside Salon and turns right, heading in the direction of her car, and sees Brett. He is not holding a surfboard, or his nana’s hand. Instead he’s leaning against the wall, wearing a sloppy joe, King Gee long pants and work boots, his hair a littlemessy and a lot dreamy. He’s grinning at her, his eyes crinkling a little at the edges.
Josie sighs involuntarily – the same noise she makes when she’s watching a movie that lets her believe in romance or listening to one of her favourite love songs.
‘Hi,’ she says back, extending it, breathing it.Hiiiiiiii. He probably thinks she sounds loopy. She feels loopy.
The other day, while she was eating lunch under a different pine tree, he found her again and stood there, dripping wet, asking her questions about her job and her car and what she likes to do on the weekends. As if she was the most interesting girl in the world. He made her feel that way. She was sure, at the time, that she made no sense whatsoever because she was distracted by how tight his wetsuit was and how clean his skin looked and how bright his teeth were against his tan. Did he notice that she was babbling? If he did, he didn’t seem to care.
Afterward she realised how rude she’d been, not asking him anything about himself. She was brought up to have better manners than that. Well, now she has a chance to make up for it.
‘How’s your day been?’ she says, hoisting the strap of her handbag further up her shoulder.
