‘Hey!’ She waved. ‘Your phone’s ringing. I think work needs you.’
Gabriel bent and spoke to Lily before walking back across the beach. His rolled-up trousers had dark patches where the waves had splashed him.
He took the phone that Nessa held out to him, and glanced at the screen. The ringing had stopped but he twisted his mouth.
‘Damn. That was a client I need to speak to so I’d better go. I didn’t think I’d be able to escape for long.’ He rolled down his trouser legs and buttoned up his shirt. ‘Will you explain to Lily and say goodbye from me?’
‘Of course.’
‘Thanks for letting me gate-crash your beach trip.’
‘It was Lily’s idea,’ said Nessa, regretting her words immediately when his expression hardened. That sounded like she was sorry he’d joined them when, actually, he’d been fine, and Lily had enjoyed his company.
But it was too late to say something different because Gabriel was already walking to the back of the cove, where he sat on a boulder and put on his socks and shoes. Then he began to climb the cliff path and, when he reached the top, disappeared without looking back.
Nessa sat back down on the sand, feeling… She wasn’t quite sure how she was feeling. Gabriel Gantwich often had that effect on her, she’d noticed.
It would be so much easier, so much less confusing, if she could simply hate him. She’d thought she did hate him when he first appeared in Heaven’s Cove with his gung-ho plan for wiping out the Ghost Village – a heartless businessman who cared nothing for the area.
But now he seemed more of an enigma: still focused on destroying what she loved, corporate and uncompromising. And yet, there was a different side to him that she occasionally glimpsed. A gentler, more creative side, and a sadness that enveloped him like a cloud. As though he didn’t want to be the man he was.
She’d spent more than three weeks in the cottage now – twenty-four long nights – so she was well on her way to meeting her goal and saving the precious place. But even if that didn’t ultimately work, maybe there was a way to appeal to Gabriel’s better nature? Or maybe she was deluding herself and this man would stamp over the only tangible ties she had left to her family.
Nessa deliberately put Gabriel out of her mind and focused on what was right in front of her. Whatever happened, the most important person in her life was Lily, and this morning the two of them were able to spend time together and have fun.
She walked towards the sea where her daughter, oblivious to all the different possibilities swirling around her life, was staring towards the horizon, wishing for dolphins.