Page 95 of The Key to the Last House Before the Sea

NESSA

This was awkward. Nessa sat on the edge of the sofa, crossed her ankles and sipped the glass of Prosecco that Valerie had thrust into her hand the minute she’d arrived.

Sitting opposite her, Jake swallowed and rubbed his temples with his fingers. Valerie had told her he’d woken up with a headache. A hangover, more like, thought Nessa, recognising the signs. His skin was pale and his eyelids heavy, but at least he was spending time with Lily.

‘Daddy, come into the garden,’ she implored, bouncing up and down on her toes in front of him. ‘Come and watch me go down the slide. And I can stand on my hands.’

‘Wow!’ said Jake unconvincingly. ‘You go on into the garden. I can watch you through the glass from here.’

‘But it would be much better if you went outside with her, don’t you think?’ said Valerie in a tone that brooked no argument.

Jake got to his feet with a scowl and swayed slightly, before following his excited daughter through the French windows.

What had she ever seen in him? wondered Nessa, watching him drop into a garden chair. He’d seemed so vibrant and full of endless possibilities when they’d first met. Now, he just seemed selfish and jaded.

‘Thank you for changing your plans and dropping Lily off for a birthday lunch,’ said Valerie, breaking into her thoughts.

‘It wasn’t a problem. You decided not to have a birthday tea, then?’

Valerie’s face froze. ‘Jacob has to get back to Manchester,’ she said, her lips hardly moving. ‘He’s very busy, apparently.’

‘Right.’

Nessa shifted on the sofa. She’d planned to drop Lily off and run and had been surprised when Valerie had insisted she come in. So surprised in fact, following their difficult conversation on the headland, that she’d meekly followed her indoors.

‘I’m glad Lily’s seeing her dad and we both wanted to wish Alan a happy birthday,’ said Nessa, taking a huge gulp of wine.

Alan gave a grateful grunt. He was sitting in the corner, reading his Sunday newspaper, with a cardboard hat made by Lily perched on his head. He took a sip from the mug Lily had bought him that had World’s Best Grandad plastered across it.

The mug was inexpensive and tacky but Nessa had been touched by how choked up Alan had seemed when he’d unwrapped it. Never a particularly tactile man, he’d pulled Lily in for a hug and had kissed her on the cheek.

It had filled Nessa with hope – hope that he wouldn’t mind too much when Lily moved in with them on a more permanent basis. Though even thinking about that made Nessa’s heart hurt.

She stood up and smoothed down her jeans. ‘I’d better be going. Thank you for arranging for Lily to see Jake, and have a lovely birthday lunch, Alan. I’ll come and pick up Lily later, and then…’ She swallowed. ‘I’ll bring her round again tomorrow as planned.’

Lily could have moved in with her grandparents today, but Nessa wanted one more night at Driftwood House with her daughter.

‘I’ll show you out,’ said Valerie. She gave her husband a nod and he nodded back.

Nessa went into the kitchen and put her wine glass on the drainer next to the sink. Through the window, she could see Lily talking nineteen to the dozen at her father, who was still slumped in the garden chair, paler than ever.

‘Jacob had a curry last night and I don’t think it agreed with him.’ Valerie had come to stand beside her and was looking at her son. ‘It’s a shame, when he doesn’t see Lily very often.’

‘It is,’ agreed Nessa, biting down all the other things she could say about Valerie’s son.

She’d said quite enough to Valerie the other day and, really, there was no point. It was better to accept things in life, rather than pointlessly rail against them. That’s what Gabriel reckoned, and Nessa was so worn out with constantly striving, she was beginning to think he was right.

She’d railed against her mother dying so young, but her mum had died anyway. She’d fought to save the Ghost Village and the cottage from obliteration, but they would soon be demolished. And she’d fought to keep her daughter with her – even spending a month in a derelict cottage in the deluded hope that might prove to be the answer. But she had to let her go. And who knew if Lily would ever come back to live with her again?

Nessa glanced around Valerie’s beautiful, clean kitchen. A five-year-old would never have wanted to live in a crumbling, isolated cottage. And she wouldn’t choose to live in some damp bedsit miles from Heaven’s Cove, either. Not when she could live here instead.

‘I have something for you,’ said Valerie quietly, pushing her fingers into an earthenware storage jar. She pulled out two silver keys, which she placed on the worktop in front of Nessa.

‘What’s this?’

‘It’s the keys to the flat above the ice-cream parlour.You told me that Lily would love to live there.’

‘I don’t understand,’ said Nessa, distracted by Lily screaming with delight as she hurtled down the slide. ‘I’ve heard it’s lovely, but I can’t afford the deposit on that place.’

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