Page 30 of Eden's Comfort Kitchen
‘Oh I wouldn’t want to—’ Eden began, but Livia stopped her.
‘I think she’d really like to get to know you a bit more. And she wants to hear about your plans for the community café. We don’t stand on ceremony around here – if she’s inviting you to tea, she’s not just being polite; she actually wants to feed you. Unless you don’t like sausages, of course, but I’m sure we could find?—’
It was Eden’s turn to interrupt. ‘I’d love to! No problem with sausages.’
‘Good,’ Livia said. She handed each child the socks and shoes she’d picked up from the rocks on the way over. ‘Get these on and let’s get marching. We don’t want to keep Grandma waiting, or she might give up and eat all the sausages herself.’
Nancy giggled uncontrollably as she pulled her socks on, while Levi stuck his tongue out in concentration. But the more he concentrated, the more twisted his socks became until Livia bent down to lend a hand. As she did, she tickled his toes, and he burst out laughing. Eden smiled as she watched, filled with a warmth she’d never thought she would feel again.
Unlike Four Winds Cottage, there was no dramatic clifftop location or brooding isolation with Livia’s house. There wasn’t even an evocative name – it was simply number three Sea Glass Parade, but what it lacked in drama, it more than made up for in welcoming cosiness. It stood on a row of terraced cottages with low-framed, pastel-painted front doors and higgledy walls and roofs. Each house opened directly onto the pavement, though Eden would see as she took a seat in the warm kitchen, the air fragranced with cooking, a larger than expected garden at the back to make up for it. There was a circle of lawn bordered by lush shrubs and summer blooms, beyond that a bird table and a vegetable patch, with insect hotels nailed to the back wall and a bright wooden Wendy house in a shaded corner.
Livia’s mum, Julia, was busy at the stove. She turned to Eden with a broad smile. ‘Did you enjoy the beach? The twins weren’t too much for you, were they?’
‘Oh no, we had fun, didn’t we?’ Eden turned to the children, who nodded. Livia ushered them to the sink to stand on a chair she’d just placed so they could reach to wash their hands.
‘Can you take us again tomorrow?’ Nancy asked as she splashed water over not just her hands but a good deal of the surrounding surfaces.
‘You can’t be asking Eden every day,’ Livia said with a laugh.
‘I don’t mind.’ Eden moved her elbows from the table to let Julia set a place for her. She looked up. ‘Can I help? I could set the table.’
‘No need. Won’t take me a tick, and everything else is done. Sausages are just staying warm in the oven, and gravy’s on the stove. Do you want a drink? I don’t have wine or anything in, I’m afraid.’
‘I’ll drink anything,’ Eden said. ‘A glass of water is just fine. Thank you.’
‘I’m sure we can do better than water,’ Julia said. She looked at Levi, who was drying his hands. ‘Could you run and fetch a bottle of Grandma’s lemonade from the outhouse?’
Levi duly went through a door at the side of the kitchen and returned a few seconds later with an unlabelled bottle.
‘You’re honoured if Mum’s opening the home-made stuff for you,’ Livia said, smiling at Eden as she moved the chair from the sink to wash her own hands. ‘I think that’s the last bottle as well.’
Julia waved a vague hand as she opened the oven. ‘I can make more easily enough.’
Levi looked up at Livia. ‘Can I pour it out?’
‘If you’re careful,’ Livia said. ‘Don’t want to spill any of Grandma’s special drink, do we?’
‘I won’t.’
Eden watched as Livia opened it and steadied each glass for him. The lemonade trickled slowly into each one as he held it with the utmost concentration, barely letting it flow from the bottle at all.
‘That’s it, carefully does it,’ Livia said. ‘Brilliant job.’
‘Thank you,’ Eden said. She lifted the glass to her lips and took a sip. It was tart, and at first, it was all she could do not to purse her lips. But a hit of sweetness followed and a rush of citrus that made her mouth water. ‘That’s amazing! You should bottle that up and sell it!’
‘I keep telling her that,’ Livia said. ‘It would go down a storm at the ice-cream parlour.’
‘I don’t know about that,’ Julia said, clearly delighted with the praise but trying not to show it. ‘I think people might have more sophisticated palates than that these days. It’s all slushies and energy drinks people want. Besides, I don’t have the time to make gallons of the stuff for the parlour – it’s far easier to buy it in to sell there.’
‘I think once people tasted this, you could stop selling ice creams and make a mint from lemonade,’ Eden said. ‘It’s that good.’
‘Well, thank you for saying so.’ Julia took the lid from a crock she’d just taken out of the oven.
‘Have you made pudding?’ Nancy asked.
Julia laughed lightly. ‘We haven’t had a mouthful of our tea yet and you’ve already moved on. You know the rules – no pudding until we’ve made a dent in this.’
‘But did you make pudding?’ Nancy asked.
