Page 92 of The Key to the Last House Before the Sea

GABRIEL

Gabriel put his phone down in the shade of the parasol and sat up on the sun lounger. The noisy family heading for the beach bar was disappearing into the distance and everything was peaceful again.

He wiped a hand across his forehead. The heat was unrelenting and he’d been thinking of moving under the parasol himself, just before Nessa had called.

Why had he lied and implied he was at work? he wondered, squinting through the glare at white sand, and aquamarine water lapping gently at the shore.

Was it because he was thrown by her call? Or did he feel guilty that he was here, lounging in paradise while she was battling to put a roof over her child’s head? A battle she’d won, it seemed, only by letting her daughter go.

Gabriel swallowed, imagining how hard that must be for Nessa, even though she was being brave about it.

She was being brave while he was lying here, having a holiday ‘to clear his head’ as his father had suggested, and already gearing up for getting back to work in a few days’ time. Because work was all he had in his life.

But the hotter he got, under the Mediterranean sun, the more he thought of Sorrel Cove and its heatwave that was so often tempered by a cooling sea breeze. The gusty wind here was more like a blast from a hairdryer.

He closed his eyes and imagined that he was back in the Ghost Village. Back when Nessa was still living in the cottage, fighting off giant spiders and walking round with paint in her hair.

He could have spent longer with her, if he hadn’t rushed off. He’d been planning to stay on, after her mercy dash to Lily’s bedside. He’d planned to see the thirty days out and then tell his father she’d completed the task. But everything was so charged, so awkward after their kiss, he’d decided to leave instead. He was lying to his father anyway, so what did it matter?

The lie had backfired and the cottage would soon be gone. Yet all Nessa had asked of him in her phone call was that he do his best to save her great-grandmother’s artwork. That amazing, intricate mosaic that glowed in the light. He pictured it in his mind – the complex pattern, the glowing colours, the shards of stone and glass.

It was worth saving because there was something very special about it. Something he’d seen before but couldn’t quite put his finger on.

Gabriel’s eyes snapped open and he swung his feet off the sun lounger. He moved into the shade, reached for his phone and began to research online. Twenty minutes later, as a headache began to pulse at his temples, he’d come across lots of interesting information and had found a particular name. Amelia Fulden.

Ms Fulden could be the key to him keeping his promise to Nessa, to try and save the mosaic. Or she could be the grenade that blew his life to smithereens.

Gabriel sat lost in thought, while holidaymakers nearby rubbed sun cream into hot skin and sipped cold drinks served by hotel staff. This was his privileged life and it could be his forever. If that was what he truly wanted.

He smiled as a bird flew past, a flash of yellow against the bright blue sky, and he remembered what Nessa had once told him: Sometimes you have to do something crazy to change your life for the better. He began to dial Ms Fulden’s number.

Call completed, Gabriel pushed his phone into the pocket of his swim shorts and took a few deep breaths. His hands were shaking and his stomach felt as if he was on a rollercoaster. But he didn’t regret what he’d just done. Not yet, at least.

Far out to sea, glass-bottomed boats were revealing the wonders of the deep, while closer to shore, parasailers towed by motorboats soared high into the air. But Gabriel wasn’t interested in any of them.

He walked briskly across the baking hot beach until he reached the waves curling gently onto the sand. Bubbles eddied around his feet as he stood there alone, gazing out to sea, wishing for dolphins.

---