Page 40 of Eden's Comfort Kitchen
‘How many sittings you do, or your venue, that sort of thing? But I’m sure a smart girl like you will have something up her sleeve, right? You’ll have planned for something like this.’
While she’d been hopeful for a good response, Eden hadn’t really expected one – at least not this quickly. Lovely as it would be to be packed out, she hoped it wouldn’t happen so soon after she’d got her kitchen off the ground. She needed time to refine her plans and systems, having decided early on that she’d play it by ear and develop those as she went along according to how it went. One thing it did do was cement in her mind that this place was needed and that she was doing a good thing, and that she had to find a way to keep it going no matter what obstacles might appear in her path.
‘Um…’
‘Of course you have.’ Ralph gave her a cheerful nod. ‘Well played to you. I have to admit I had my doubts about it all whenyou first mentioned it, but I’m glad to be proved wrong. And if you need anything, you know where I am. By the way, I have a couple of extra shifts going at the weekend if you’re interested.’
‘Yes – I don’t have any other plans. For the time being, I think I’ll be keeping the dinners to week nights, because I can’t have the scout hut at weekends.’
‘Good, good…so I’ll send your hours over later when I’ve worked out the rota. Cheerio then.’
Ralph reached past her to get a box of teabags of his own and then strode to the checkout. Eden paused for a moment but then began to smile. No matter how worried she might be about her ability to manage the community café project, if what Ralph had told her wasn’t exaggerated – and he wasn’t the sort of man to exaggerate – then she had to love the response. All she’d wanted was for it to do some good, and it sounded as if it already had. The notion was encouraging. She could do this – she had to do this. It mattered. Something she was doing mattered, and that was brilliant.
Ralph had put Livia on the same Saturday evening shift as Eden. He seemed to do that most of the time, which suited Eden just fine because she loved working alongside her. As the last customers left the pub and they started to clean up, Ralph came through and poured himself a brandy at the bar.
‘It’s been a busy one, girls, hasn’t it?’
Livia tipped a full drip tray into the sink. ‘You can say that again!’
‘Not that I’m complaining,’ Ralph added. He nodded at the bottle. ‘You’re both staying for a drink before we turn out the lights?’
Eden was putting some freshly washed glasses away. She glanced at Livia.
‘I don’t see why not,’ Livia said. ‘Are you staying, Eden?’
Eden paused as she considered the walk home. There were moments, now that she was here and living like a local, where the romantic clifftop retreat that had seemed so appealing when she’d booked it felt like a very impractical folly. It was lovely to wake up with those views in the morning but not so much fun to grope her way up the precarious path in the dark, no matter how stunning the moonlight might look on the sea as she went. But she did want to stay, and in the end, the temptation was too much.
‘I suppose one wouldn’t hurt,’ she said. ‘If I break my ankle going home, I’ve got another one, right?’
Ralph chuckled. ‘You know I could get one of the kitchen lads to run you up there. Wouldn’t take them a minute.’
‘It’s fine – don’t ask anyone to do that. People want to get home; they don’t want to be messing around driving up to Four Winds at this time of night. Besides, that path is as much a nightmare for a car as it is to walk. Just ask my delivery drivers.’
‘Well, the offer’s there. I’m sure one of them wouldn’t mind.’
Livia slotted her tray back and lifted a second one out. ‘Have you thought about swapping your accommodation?’ she asked Eden. ‘Maybe get somewhere closer to town?’
‘I’ve already committed to it,’ Eden said. ‘And I do really like it up there. It’s just sometimes it makes life a bit difficult. It’s not forever, though, so I’m happy to manage.’
‘It is a lovely spot,’ Ralph agreed. He handed Livia a pint of lager. He hadn’t asked what she wanted, but she seemed content with his choice. ‘Spent many a happy hour up there with your uncle.’
‘Did you know each other well?’ Eden asked him.
‘Oh, I was a youngster, but I used to go up with my mum to get eggs and honey – like a lot did round here – and he always had time for me. He’d spend hours showing me how he lookedafter the bees. Let me take the honeycombs out a few times too. And, of course, what young lad doesn’t want to pet the chickens?’
Eden could think of a lot of boys she’d grown up with who wouldn’t be remotely interested in bees or chickens, but then, she supposed growing up in a place like Sea Glass Bay was very different. Plus, Ralph was from a different generation too. Perhaps there wasn’t all that much to do here back then. It might have been that messing around with chickens was about as exciting as it got. Either way, although she couldn’t imagine it, there was something that sounded idyllic about the whole thing, and she wondered whether – had she grown up back then instead of now – she’d have been a better, happier person.
‘You know,’ Ralph continued as he mixed an orange gin and lemonade for Eden, making her smile that he already knew her favourite drink. ‘I’ll be sorry to see you go when it’s time, Eden. I reckon a few round here will feel the same.’
‘I’m going to do my best to hand over the kitchen to someone so they can keep it going,’ Eden said, and Ralph chuckled.
‘That’s not all anyone will miss you for, you daft thing. Speaking for myself, I’m already fond of you.’
‘Me too,’ Livia said, catching Eden and her precarious emotions quite by surprise. ‘You’d better not lose touch when you do go.’
‘I won’t,’ Eden replied, her voice cracking so that she had to turn away and concentrate really hard on rubbing out an invisible smudge on one of her glasses.
‘I bet your folks are missing you back home,’ Ralph said. ‘Are they going to come over and see you soon? Six months is a long time. You’ll have to bring them up here when they do.’
