Page 65 of Eden's Comfort Kitchen
He grinned. ‘It might. I tell you what, you try some more to persuade me you’re right about this community kitchen businesswhile we walk and I’ll pretend to be listening. At least you’ll feel like you’re doing something useful.’
It was Eden’s turn to smile, bigger and wider than she would have allowed in different circumstances. ‘OK,’ she said.
After saying goodnight to Ralph and Livia – who seemed surprised to watch them leave together – they stepped out into the night.
The sky was clear with a full moon, and as they made their way up to the cliffs where Four Winds Cottage stood, the heavens began to emerge. No longer obscured by the lights in the town, great swathes of sparkling stars filled the sky. The wind had picked up, but it wasn’t cold enough to bother Eden; it only helped to clear her head. Their conversation was easy and good-natured, and despite Cam’s promise that Eden could talk about her community kitchen, they barely mentioned it.
‘Seriously,’ he said as they began the path that led to the cliff top, ‘do you climb this every day?’
‘Yep.’
‘Jesus, what possessed you to rent a place up here? Did you know it would be like this?’
‘More or less. I used to visit this place as a kid. I remembered liking it up here, but I’ll admit that my memory of the walk must have been a bit hazy. And I’d never had to do it with more than enough cocktails in me, on a dark night, as a kid.’
‘I should hope not,’ he said with a laugh. ‘I can’t imagine you as a kid.’
‘Can’t you?’
‘I can imagine you as a smaller human, but not what you might have been like.’
‘I could say the same for you. I bet you were born in a pinstripe suit holding an iPhone.’
He turned to her. It was dark, and she couldn’t see his expression, and she wondered suddenly if she’d offended him.The tone of his reply seemed to suggest that it wasn’t offence she’d caused but some consternation. ‘Is that really how I seem?’
‘You are very focused on your job. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone quite as focused as you.’
‘Even tonight? I thought it had been a relaxed evening. We didn’t talk about business once.’
‘We did. Earlier on when you came to help me at the scout hut. See, it’s such a part of your DNA, you don’t even know when you’re doing it.’
‘But that was—No, you’re right. I suppose I did.’
‘In fairness to you, I don’t remember which of us actually started it.’
‘Hmm…’
They were silent for a few minutes. Both needed their breath as the path steepened, but as it levelled out again, he resumed the conversation.
‘You’ve never said what brought you here. It’s quite a random decision, isn’t it? You just woke up one morning and thought,I’m going to give up my job and move to the seaside and do good deeds?’
‘It didn’t happen quite like that. I needed to leave London.’
‘Needed? Sounds heavy.’
Eden tucked her wind-tangled hair behind her ears. Had she been more sober she’d have decided she’d already said more than she’d wanted to. Drink had lowered her guard, and though she recognised it, her thinking was too hazy to do anything about it. Part of her didn’t want to bring it up because doing so would mean acknowledging his part in it, however unaware he’d been, and she didn’t want him to feel he was being blamed. The blame for what had happened, for what she’d done, lay with her. She’d chosen to tell him about the financial troubles at her mum’s community centre, and she’d tipped him off that he’d be able to get it at a rock-bottom price. What he’d done withthat information was a natural response, given that it was his business to make money out of property and land. It had been her job too once, and it was funny how different it all seemed now that she was on the other end of it.
‘Things were…things were happening that I needed to get away from. Family stuff, that’s all. I needed some space.’
‘You could have taken a few weeks out. A sabbatical even.’
‘I needed a lot of space, and I didn’t know how much would be enough, so I figured…It wasn’t really even a plan; I suppose you could say it was a knee-jerk thing. Something happened and this was what I did.’
‘Now I have to know.’
‘You really don’t want to.’
‘I do. I don’t know why, but I want to understand what’s going on here, why you’re doing all of this.’
