Page 22 of The Beach Cottage
He stepped towards her. “If you make your own fate, can you make it what you want it to be?”
“Of course,” she replied. “But you can’t control the decisions of others. Sometimes you have to accept that their fate isn’t aligned with yours, and that can be hard.” She wanted so badly to take his hand, to lean into his chest and reach for his lips with her own. But he’d made his choice—he didn’t want to be with her. She couldn’t control him any more than she could control the tide.
His jaw clenched, and he took another step towards her, his hands hanging by his sides. “I wish things could be different.”
“But they can’t.” She pushed herself to smile even as her lower lip wobbled. She couldn’t keep standing there looking at him, watching him step closer and closer. She was about to cry, and she wasn’t the kind of woman who burst into tears for no reason. She was the calm one. The organised one. The one who pushed through the pain and made it to the other side without so much as a grunt. She’d even managed two labours without screaming or crying. She could handle a breakup with grace. She’d certainly done it before.
“I have to finish up in here.”
He nodded. “Of course. I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I really wanted to be.” He raised his hands towards her, and she saw the black grease on his palms.
“You had a flat tyre—there’s nothing you could do about it. I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Thanks.”
“How’s Grace?”
He cocked his head to one side and squinted at her. “Um… Let’s just say teenaged girls are harder than I remembered.”
Bea burst out laughing. She covered her mouth even as her cheeks warmed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh.”
He chuckled. “It’s okay. I have to laugh myself—otherwise, I just might cry. I’ve never been a father before, and there’s a reason you get a baby first — to break you into the whole thing. She’s had a difficult time, and she seems to be taking it out on me. She’s all over the place emotionally — one minute, she’s laughing and joking with me, eating pizza. The next, she’s yelling at me, crying and running to her room to slam the door. I’m left sitting there with a half-eaten piece of pizza hanging out of my mouth, wondering what on earth just happened.”
Bea bit down on her lip to keep from smiling. Aidan was in pain, and even though the image he’d painted was a humorous one, she didn’t need to add to his distress. She beckoned him into the café.
“Come in and sit down. I’ll make you a coffee. Everything’s better with coffee.”
“Haven’t you already cleaned the machine and shut it down?” he asked, following her inside.
She waved him off. “Never mind. It’s easy enough to switch it back on again.”
Evie had returned to her bookshop to close up, so they had the place to themselves. Aidan found a seat and took it off the table to set on the floor before lowering his lanky frame into it. Bea waited for the espresso machine to reheat and ground more beans in her coffee grinder. She made them each a coffee, then carried them to the table along with two leftover caramel tarts. She hadn’t had a thing to eat all day, and her stomach grumbled in anticipation.
“These look amazing,” Aidan said as she set the plate on the table in front of him.
“I hope so. They seemed to be popular at the party.”
“I’ll bet. No one around here has had anything this flash before. The locals are thrilled — curious, too.”
She laughed. “They came through here wide-eyed, that’s for sure. But I think they left happy.”
“Good to hear. You deserve to be successful.”
She blushed. “Thank you, Aidan. That means a lot.”
“So, do you have any tips for me? After all, you’ve raised a teen girl.”
“And I’ve been one too, if you recall.”
His eyes sparkled. “I do remember that, vaguely.”
She stirred sugar into her coffee. “It sounds like she’s testing you. Will you love her only when she’s nice and good, or will you still love her even when she’s pushing you away?”
“That makes so much sense. Wow, I think you might be right about that.” He ran fingers through his hair. “So, I should let her know somehow that I still care even when she’s being difficult?”
“It’s all part of parenting. Not accepting the bad behaviour, but still making sure the child feels loved and accepted.”
“Quite the balancing act,” Aidan said as he took a sip of coffee. “Mmm… That’s good.”
