Page 12 of The Beach Cottage
“So, Aidan’s sticking to the whole idea of needing time with his daughter?” Taya asked.
“Unfortunately, yes. I get it, and I completely support him in wanting to do that. He’s missed out on so much of her life—which was very unfair of her mother, in my opinion. But it’s not up to me to get involved or to have a say. Aidan has enough to cope with—he doesn’t need me horning in or getting my feelings hurt. And the truth is, I’m not upset at him. I’m upset at the situation — I want him to spend time with his daughter. I want them to have a connection. He’s always longed for children of his own, although he doesn’t often say much about it. And now that he has that chance, I’m not going to get in the way. I just hope there’ll be room in his life for me at some stage.”
Penny bit down on her lower lip. She felt an immense sadness for her friend, who seemed to have had a chance at happiness ripped away right when it looked as though things might work out. “Give him time. He’ll come around.”
“You’re probably right,” Bea agreed. “In the meantime, I’ve got a café to get up and running.”
“Yes, you do,” Evie added, her eyes glistening. “And it’s going to be amazing.”
“Thank you, my friend. I thought I should have a grand opening party. What do you say?”
“I say that’s a great idea,” Taya replied. “What can we do to help?”
Six
The day dawned early and bright. By four thirty a.m., the sun crept above the horizon over the dark ocean and birds swanned about outside the cottage, diving for insects and waking the world with their calls. Beatrice had forgotten to pull the curtains shut on her bedroom windows and was woken by a shaft of sunlight spilling across the covers and over her face.
She squinted and blinked a few times before stumbling to the window to close the gap. But by then, it was too late to go back to sleep. She lay still, staring at the ceiling for a few minutes before reluctantly crawling from bed with a sigh. A glance in the bathroom mirror revealed dark smudges beneath her eyes and a sheet crease down one side of her face.
She grimaced and massaged the skin above her eyes for a few seconds before splashing cool water on her face. It’d been a hot night—she’d had to leave the overhead fan on so she didn’t sweat through her fitted sheet. But now the humidity had lifted and the cool of the morning drifted in through the open windows, along with the shushing of the waves as they curled gently to shore.
She’d spent a restless night thinking about all the things that could possibly be wrong with her father’s health. The worst-case scenario kept dinging around in her head with nowhere to go. She had to force herself to push those thoughts back down into the dark recesses of her mind.
He was going to be okay. There was no point getting alarmed yet — they were running tests. She could freak out once the results came back. But until then, she needed to think about something, anything, other than that. Thankfully, she had a full day of fun planned at Point Prospect to distract her.
By the time she’d taken her morning walk, showered and eaten breakfast, Bradford had pulled into the cove in one of his yachts. He anchored, then rowed a small tin boat to shore to meet her. She stood on the beach with a picnic basket slung over one arm, one hand up to block the glare of the sun from her eyes, and grinned.
When he reached the shore, she helped pull his tinny up on the sand, then gave him a hug. “The yacht is amazing. The others are going to love it.”
He laughed. “It’s fun to take it out for us to enjoy for a change rather than simply ferrying tourists out to the reef.”
He helped her into the tinny, then motored back to the yacht. Bea smiled as she climbed aboard the yacht and got to work alongside Bradford as they set sail around the island. It’d been a long time since she’d been sailing. She’d competed as part of a club when she was young, and Dad had always taken them out in his small sailboat. But this yacht took sailing to a whole new level for her, and she couldn’t wipe the grin from her face.
“I can’t believe you do this for a living,” she shouted above the noise of the wind in the sails.
Bradford looked the part behind the wheel, steering around the edge of the cove. He smirked. “It’s a hard life, but someone has to live it.”
Bea held her hat in place and sat at the front of the boat. She breathed deep of the sweet, fresh sea air and let all her worries ease out of her mind. She focused instead on the seagulls hovering overhead, the splash of salt water on her skin and the beautiful blue of the water as the yacht sliced through it.
When they approached Point Prospect, a large headland attached to a community with neighbourhoods, shops and a local surf life-saving club, Bea called Evie to find out where they were and discovered the rest of the group were waiting at the entrance to the beach. They anchored nearby and waved to their friends, and everyone hurried down to the beach to meet them.
The tinny motored to shore. Then Bradford ferried them all back to the yacht, and Bea helped set up a smorgasbord of picnic items and drinks in the galley. Aidan was there with his daughter. She offered him a smile and said hello to them both, but otherwise tried to stay out of their way. He’d asked for space, and she fully intended to give it to him although it was difficult, seeing him so close by with that smile tugging at the corners of his mouth in a way that set her heart racing.
They took turns swimming to the point, climbing the stairs and leaping off a rocky outcropping into the surging ocean below. Bea’s heart was in her throat when she took her turn, but she’d done it a dozen times as a teen and knew the best way to land and how to swim away from the rocks. When her head plunged beneath the cold water, a thrill of adrenaline surged through her body, and she couldn’t help laughing as her head broke through the water and into the sunlight.
When a modest pod of dolphins showed up, she swam alongside them, revelling in the beauty of the curious, intelligent creatures as they played around the swimmers. One of the dolphins eased slowly up to her, popped its head out of the water as if to greet her. She spoke to it, and it turned its head to the side so that one eye was fixed on her. Then it splashed its nose in the water, as though nodding. She laughed, and it ducked beneath the surface and swam away.
The dolphins didn’t stay long, but the encounter was even more invigorating than Bea had remembered. The older she grew, the more she appreciated the chance to connect with nature.
It was good to be alive. And she felt very much alive in that moment.
Afterwards, she climbed back into the boat to dry off under the hot sun. Penny was there, talking to Rowan. Bea couldn’t believe how much he’d changed since high school. He’d always been the tall, lanky, nerdy type. But he no longer wore glasses, he was athletic and tanned with a muscular physique, and even though there were a few strands of grey in his hair, he sported a thick head of it with luscious chestnut waves.
Penny clearly couldn’t take her eyes off him, and the feelings seemed mutual from where Bea was sitting on a towel laid out on the deck beside a half-sleeping Taya. Evie read a book next to her, wearing an enormous straw hat and oversized sunglasses.
“Can you believe Penny?” Evie whispered, eyes still tilted towards her book.
“She seems very interested in Rowan, if that’s what you’re referring to.”
