Page 85 of The Key to the Last House Before the Sea

NESSA

‘I want to see Gabriel from the beach,’ demanded Lily, pushing out her bottom lip. ‘He can help me look for dolphins.’

Nessa sighed. She wanted to see Gabriel too. Mostly to yell at him for telling tales to his father and ruining her life. She hadn’t contacted him since her showdown with Billy three days ago. What was the point?

But, though she hated to admit it, a small part of her wanted to see him purely because she missed him – his penchant for wearing suits in a heatwave, and the way he daubed paint onto a canvas; his habit of shuffling his feet when asked personal questions, and the vulnerability on his face when he’d kissed her.

She kept looking up, expecting him to step through the doorway at Driftwood House, his tall rangy body filling the doorframe.

But he’d let her down and now he was gone, and good riddance, she told herself sternly.

She’d stop thinking about Gabriel because she had far more pressing matters on her mind – like securing a roof over her child’s head.

This morning she’d gone to see a tiny flat that she could afford, now she’d picked up a few intermittent shifts at the gift shop in Harbour Lane. But it had been awful, with black scars of mould in the bathroom and noisy neighbours. And it was a long way from Lily’s school. She’d put up with it if it was just her – beggars couldn’t be choosers – but she couldn’t take Lily somewhere like that.Her daughter would be better off with Valerie.

Nessa suddenly felt weighed down with sadness. Perhaps she would have to let her daughter go in the end. She’d move into an awful bedsit and Lily would move in with her grandparents.

‘Please,’ said Lily, pushing her hand into Nessa’s. ‘Can we go and see Gabriel?’

‘No, I’m afraid not.’ Nessa wrapped her fingers around her daughter’s. ‘Gabriel has gone back to his life in the big city.’

‘And he won’t be coming back?’

‘Probably not. His dad’s business is doing some work round here. They’re knocking down…’ Nessa stopped and shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter what they’re doing, but I don’t expect Gabriel will come here again. He won’t need to.’

‘I saw his daddy,’ said Lily absent-mindedly, pulling her hand from Nessa’s to nibble at a hangnail. ‘Can we go to Magda’s and have an ice lolly? Please, Mummy.’

‘Yes, I suppose so,’ said Nessa, mentally calculating that she could afford a trip to the ice-cream parlour if Lily had a lolly and she had nothing.

‘Hooray!’

Lily turned her shining eyes towards her mother and Nessa marvelled anew at how quickly her daughter could move on from things that bothered her to things that brought her joy. If only she had the same ability.

She bent to buckle Lily’s sandals. Something was niggling at the edge of her brain. Something that Lily had just said.

She straightened up. ‘What do you mean, you saw Gabriel’s daddy?’

‘I did. I was in the garden but I saw him.’

‘Which garden?’

‘Granny’s garden, of course.’ Lily frowned at her mother for being so silly. ‘After Granny picked me up from school and gave me tea, when you were speaking to that lady about your new job.’

‘When I had my interview at the gift shop?’

‘Yes. I was playing in the garden but I saw him.’

‘How do you know it was Gabriel’s daddy?’ asked Nessa, finding it hard to breathe. Her daughter had to be mistaken.

‘Grampy Alan said he was when he got cross with Granny Val.’

‘He got cross with Granny?’

‘He said—’ She thought for a moment, her head to one side. ‘Grampy said Granny was fearing, and his face went all red, like a tomato.’ She giggled at the memory.

‘Fearing?’ Nessa frowned, then her jaw dropped. ‘Interfering? Did Grampy say Granny was interfering?’

‘Dunno,’ said Lily, before grabbing hold of the bottom of Nessa’s T-shirt and pulling her towards the front door of Driftwood House. ‘A lolly, Mummy. Can I have a lolly?’

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