Stranger at the beach house (2 page)

I stood tall as I walked back
into the room, picking up my now refreshed glass of brandy and sinking back
into the glorious comfort of the Italian cream leather. “Are you OK?” smiled
Harry.

“Yes, sorry about that, it’s been
a bit overwhelming coming back,” I said quickly. I needed to get the
conversation away from me and Alice or I would dissolve again. There was plenty
of time for that. For now I would at least try and muster up some sense of the
decorum I had so far lacked and get my questions answered.

 
“So how do you two know each other then?” I
asked, conveying my best attempt at a smile. “We work in London together,”
Harry nudged my arm playfully.

 
“Sam’s an investment genius and I’ve been
hanging on the coat tails of his success for a few years now,” he laughed,
shooting his friend a huge white grin. Sam’s mouth was set in a grim line, his
eyes narrowing towards Harry.

“So what are you doing here
then?” my question was out, fired at Sam, uncensored and unedited and it
sounded a lot sharper than I intended.

His eyebrows shot up as he eyed
me carefully and for a few seconds his mouth stayed set in that line as if
contemplating his answer carefully. “Taking a break from the rat race,” he said
eventually, stretching long muscular thighs out in front of him. I was
desperate to know more.
 

“Why?” I asked simply as he
pierced my gaze, a huge heart stopping grin breaking across his face. Jesus, he
really was gorgeous.

 
“You’re a forward little thing aren’t you,” he
quipped as my cheeks flared and I forced myself to look away.

He had evaded the question so there
was definitely something to hide. I was even more intrigued now than before,
but afraid that if I continued it might start to sound like an interrogation. I
quickly turned my attention to Harry who was evidently amused at the exchange.
“So what about you then, Harry, why are you up from London, are you living here
too?” I smiled.

 
“No. I’m just visiting my good friend for the
weekend. I come down on Saturdays and head back on Monday as often as I can. I
love it here, Rose, but I love the city more,” he smiled.
 

I would have to tread carefully
with Sam. He was clearly evasive and I was keen not to get off on the wrong
foot. I aimed for what I hoped would be safer territory. “Where did you live in
London, Sam?” I asked.

“Canary Wharf,” he answered and I
couldn’t hide my surprise “Wow, that’s certainly a bit different to here,” I
smiled. If my experience of those apartments was anything to go by, Harry was
right, he must be very successful. I had been to a party there once, at one of
Daniel’s clients homes and the place had taken my breath away. I had never seen
anything like it, sweeping floor to ceiling glass windows that offered
glittering views of the city. Ultra sleek, ultra modern, ultra stylish and from
what I’d seen of the transformation of Joe’s old place, Sam had certainly
brought some of that style with him.

 
I could imagine him there. Despite his worn
jeans and cotton T- shirt, he just oozed sophistication and something about him
being here didn’t fit. Sam smiled gently as if he were reading my thoughts.
“It’s definitely been an experience for me, Rose. The first night was hell.
There was an almighty storm battering the house and I felt like I was in a war
zone. The shutters were crashing against the windows because I hadn’t done them
right. Alice must have got fed up with all the clattering and banging and she
ventured out to fix them. Found me shivering under a duvet. I couldn’t even
make a fire,” he laughed.

“Well you’ve come a long way
since then,” I smiled, gesturing around the room and noticing that the huge
glass fronted patio had been upgraded, the old shutters replaced with a sleek
modern bi-fold design.

“They’re remote control. I never
have to go out in a storm again,” Sam grinned, following my gaze. It was a good
idea, but there was one drawback.

 
“Let’s hope you don’t run out of batteries
then, there’s no corner shop here, Sam,” I laughed as he held my gaze.

 
“That’s exactly what your grandmother said,”
he replied, the warmth he felt for Alice reflected in his face and it floored
me.

I really didn’t want to fall
apart here. Today was always going to be tough but I needed to be tougher. “I’d
better get back,” I said, trying to hold it together at least until I got out
of the door.

Harry squeezed me tightly. “OK,
Rose, but you have to come for breakfast. I want to catch up some more before I
head back to the city tomorrow,” he smiled.

“I’d love to,” I mumbled, trying
hard to stifle the impending sob lodged in my throat.

 
Dart looked up briefly, unsure whether or not
to relinquish his prime spot by the fire and decided to stay where he was.
Turning to Sam, I could see the concern flood through his features. Without
speaking or asking permission he took my elbow, lifting me gently from the
couch, securing the blanket tightly around my shoulders and tucked me under his
arm. “I’ll see her back, Harry,” he nodded to his friend and held me close,
guiding me across the front to my open patio door. I wasn’t arguing. I barely
knew him, but I felt warm and safe and he smelled divine. Besides, I’d already
let him do it on the beach and I hadn’t even established at that point that he
wasn’t some psychopathic serial killer.

 
“You didn’t shut the door, Rose, it’s fucking
freezing in here,” he said as my eyes shot up, his words pulling me out of my
semi sobbing state and I failed to suppress a small giggle. I bet he wouldn’t
have dared say that to Alice. His returning glance told me he knew exactly what
I was thinking and he smiled back broadly.

He paused for a second before
ushering me to the soft worn leather chair in front of the fire, resting me
down and pulling the blanket tighter as he released me. “Let me get you a
drink, there are a couple of things I want to tell you if that’s OK,” he said,
striding across to the kitchen.

I heard the quiet opening and
closing of cupboards and then he was back. “I haven’t had chance to shop yet,”
I mumbled. I didn’t have milk, let alone alcohol I thought, when the chinking
of glasses diverted my attention.

 
“Alice always kept brandy,” he smiled, offering
me a small glass of amber liquid and raising one to his own lips. “If you know
where to look,” he winked, in answer to my quizzical stare.

I drank the brandy quickly, too
quickly, trying to ward off the cold from my shivering body. Sam was right it
was ‘
fucking freezing’
. He set about
lighting a fire in the grate and we sat in silence for a while, both of us
trying to adjust to this unfamiliar situation. “You seem to know your way
around the old place,” I gazed at him, raising my eyebrows.

Sam eyed the flames as they
crackled to life. “I spent nearly every night here since that first storm,
Rose,” he laughed gently.

 
“Will you tell me what you talked about?” I
asked, feeling very keen to get an insight into this stranger’s relationship
with my Grandmother.

 
“Another brandy and I might be persuaded,” he
smiled, holding his glass out to me. Returning the smile I lifted the blanket,
warmed by the growing fire and retrieved the bottle to fill our glasses.

“You mainly.
How my house renovations were going and
sometimes me and my situation”. Oh, there was a ‘situation’. I was seriously
intrigued but he offered no more detail. “But mainly you,” he laughed gently.

The sentence hung in the air.
“What about me?” I stuttered as I sat.

“You know your grandmother loved
you don’t you?” he started gently.

“Yes of course,” I nodded,
watching him carefully.

“Well you being in London
was
very hard for her,” he said as I frowned, and
immediately my defences heightened.

“She was fine with it,” I
snapped, suddenly annoyed that this stranger was telling me something so
personal. He stopped for a second as if he realised he had crossed a line, but
holding my gaze decided to continue anyway.

“She wasn’t, Rose. Look, this is
difficult,” he said quietly, and I could tell from his concerned expression
that he was torn, unsure whether to tell me or not. I wanted to know, or did I?
I didn’t know what he was going to say and knew that once I’d heard it there
was no going back. He couldn’t ‘
un-
tell’ me. God, it
couldn’t be anything bad could it? The suggestion that there were things I
might not want to hear was there, but his first question resonated. I knew she
loved me above all else.

“I’m sorry,” I smiled gently,
“please, go on.”

I gazed at Sam, his blue eyes
watchful and considerate. “I don’t want you to think Alice told this to
everyone,” he all but whispered, “but you going to London
was
the hardest thing for her. She couldn’t ever tell you. She was so determined
that she wouldn’t let what happened to your mother hold you back that she
almost encouraged you. She wanted everything for you. Wanted you to grow and
see the world, be everything you wanted to be. She couldn’t tell
you,
Rose, because you wouldn’t have
gone and followed your dream if you knew how hard she had actually taken it”.

“Oh,” I sighed. It made perfect
sense of course.

 
“It’s not surprising that she worried about
you, Rose, but she was also incredibly proud of you,” he said, and the last
sentence made me smile wholeheartedly. She had always told me how proud she was
of my choices and how I had made my own way. I was thankful that she hadn’t
known how spectacularly it had all fallen apart in the last few months, but her
belief in me was one of the reasons I’d finally come back here. Here I could
find the strength to rebuild things.

 
“This might come as a bit more of a shock,” he said, running his hands
through his inky black hair, slightly too long on top to leave him looking
ruffled and sexy as hell. A small frown marred the space between his eyes and
he shuffled in the chair looking increasingly uncomfortable. “Will you hear me
out before you make any judgements?” he asked gently.

“Yes,” I uttered quickly.
Whatever this was, I really wanted to know whether I liked it or not. Since he
had first come across me on the beach he’d been relaxed, in control and not
remotely fazed, unlike me. This was bothering him, he was tense.

“When I first met Alice I
explained that I worked in the city and she asked if I knew you,” he said, and
I smiled at that. She had been to London once to see my mother dance, but I
don’t think she ever really comprehended the size and scale of things. She was
used to a very small town where everyone knew everyone and everything about
them. She would have found it incomprehensible that despite inhabiting my last
apartment for three years, I didn’t even know who my neighbours were.

 
“I told her I didn’t but said I’d keep my eye
out for you, and that’s when she asked me if I could check if you were really
OK, Rose,” he continued. His gazed shifted and he stared awkwardly at the fire.

“What do you mean?” I gaped at
him, forcing his eyes to meet mine.

“I mean I looked you up and made
some enquiries,” he replied and I could hear the soft scrape of stubble as he
deliberated, running a large hand across his chin. He was definitely
uncomfortable now and so was I. I was sure I should feel angry, a stranger
making enquiries about me to feed back to Alice. But he had done it for her.
He’d just told me how hard it was for her and I would have wanted Alice to have
peace of mind. I would just have preferred it to come from me.

The bigger question was, how far
did he go and what had he told her? “Did you follow me?” I asked as I held his
gaze, his sudden returning laugh causing my cheeks to blaze red.

“God no, I’m not a stalker,” he
grinned. “Listen, I made a few enquiries and found out where you lived, where
you worked, if you were getting on OK, just stuff like that,” he said.

 
“And?”
I interrupted,
eager to know exactly what he had told my grandmother.

 
“Well at first everything was just as you’d told Alice. You were settled
in your apartment, doing well at your job although the company was looking to
restructure, and you were in a relationship”. I fidgeted restlessly waiting for
him to continue. “So that’s what I told Alice. I reassured her that you that
you were doing well,” he said. I let out a huge sigh of relief, betraying my
otherwise calm exterior.

He gazed at me for a second
before turning again to the fire. “After that though, I heard that your
circumstances had changed, that things weren’t going quite so well,” he said;
his voice low and deep and he was definitely uncomfortable.

“What did you tell Alice?” I
asked sharply. I had held things back from Alice deliberately to avoid worrying
her. She hadn’t known about my redundancy, or the apartment. I had always
figured I could sort something out before it really mattered, and would tell
her that any new home or
job were
out of choice. If he’d
told her, she would have known that I’d lied to her, and I would never have the
chance to explain, to put it right. I stared at him, urging his answer and my
heart was pounding.

“Nothing, I was hoping to meet
you and speak with you that last weekend you came to visit, but something
urgent cropped up. I had to go to London and by the time I got back you’d
already left. And then...” he stopped, sadness etched on his features, “then
she was gone. Look, Rose, I know I’m a stranger to you and this is a lot to
take in, but I thought you should know,” he said. The warmth of his smile
radiated across his beautiful face and I couldn’t help but smile back.