Page 25 of The Little Island Flower Stall
Bella smiled to herself. Typical Dad, more than two minutes on the phone was like an examination of the meaning of life to him. He didn’t often spend longer than that on a call, no matter who it was on the other end of the line. ‘No, I only wanted to seehow you both were and to let you know everything is fine here. Give Mum my love, won’t you.’
‘I will. Bye, Bella.’
‘Bye, Dad.’
Bella put her phone away and looked out to sea. The sun was close to setting, and the sky was a gorgeous peachy pink. Her dad was right about one thing: there were far worse places to be stuck than here. Not that she was stuck in any physical sense, of course – she could leave whenever she wanted. But she felt stuck in an emotional sense. Here trying to make sense of her life, to work out her next steps, to try and decide how she felt about it all. So far, she hadn’t found much in the way of answers, but that was OK. She was beginning to see that her healing wasn’t going to be in the answers but perhaps in the journey to get them.
‘Bella…?’
She turned to the promenade to see Rory approaching her. What was it about this man that he kept turning up? She tried not to pay attention to that thick, dark hair, those irresistible laughter lines that ought not to have been as handsome as they were, and that permanent humour in his blue eyes.
‘Three times in one day,’ he added with a smile. ‘Lucky me, eh?’
‘Are you stalking me?’
‘I’d be the world’s worst stalker, I can promise you.’ He gestured to the bench. ‘Mind if I join you? Or are you having a quiet moment? Because if you are, I can…’
‘It’s fine. No quiet moments here. I was just admiring the sunset.’
‘It is a good one. I was about to go back to my hotel for the night, but the evening seemed too nice to waste so I’m doing my best to stretch it out.’
‘Which hotel are you at? Not that I’m trying to stalk you or anything…’
He gave a light laugh. ‘I didn’t think so for a minute. It’s the Driftwood View.’ He flung an arm the way he’d just come. ‘Down the promenade. It’s a bit old-fashioned but it’s cheap enough for me to be able to stay as long as I need to.’
‘Don’t you have to work?’
‘God, yes! But I’m lucky I can do a lot of it remotely. I mostly work on a consultancy basis, helping companies to brand build and that sort of thing. Some might say it’s money for old rope.’
‘And is it?’
‘I admit, sometimes it feels like it, but it suits me. Means I can do things like this.’
‘It sounds…’
‘Boring.’
‘I was going to say mysterious. A mystery to me, at least. I wouldn’t know where to start with a job like that – I wouldn’t even have a clue what you do.’
‘Half the time I don’t have a clue either. So before you came to Jersey to help your aunt, what was your line of work?’
Bella shifted in her seat. ‘The last job I had was for a drug company. I used to process the orders from hospitals.’
‘You said earlier you were going to be here for six weeks. So they gave you six weeks off to come and help your aunt?’ He blew out a breath. ‘Nice. They must love you.’
‘I wasn’t working for them when I came here.’
‘Ah. Lost your job? That’s rough.’
‘Something like that,’ Bella said. She wasn’t about to tell him about how Sean had gaslit her into giving up her career, no matter how easy he was to talk to. Whenever she thought about that now, she was filled with anger and some shame too – mostly aimed at herself for being so stupid.
‘But there’s a silver lining – it meant you could come here. Or don’t you see it like that?’
‘I’m really glad I’ve come here. My mum always says the universe puts you exactly where you’re meant to be, whether it seems that way or not. Daft, I know, but she used to trot that one out on a regular basis when I was growing up.’
‘I wouldn’t say it was that daft. I think she might have a point.’
At that precise moment, Bella couldn’t help but feel he was right. But if he was, then what did the universe intend for them, having met three times that day purely by chance? With the heat and the scent of him close as he sat beside her on the bench, she tried to ignore the most obvious answer. That way madness waited…or something like that. One of the other things her mum always said.
