His eyes filled with tears and he put his hand on my arm.
‘Thank you, Nancy. You don’t know what this means to me.’
We held each other’s gaze, sharing a moment that felt really quite special.
I dithered over my next question but decided to go ahead with it anyway. I really needed to eat.
‘Don’t know about you, Dennis, but I’m starving. Fancy grabbing some food?’
‘I’d love to. I’ve not eaten all day. I just couldn’t until I’d heard that Steve was in the clear. Also, Nan was cooking liver and lime, and while she said it would be good for me, the god-awful smell was making me heave and I was pleased to get out of the house.’
I laughed and the mood lightened, which felt good. Vi was well known in the village for her random concoctions, sometimes bringing along things like carrot and coriander cake, or banana and Bovril, and while people wanted to avoid these like the plague, because she was such a lovely little old lady, no one had the heart to reject her offerings. It was, however, lovely to hear that she was cooking again after a recent spell Mum had been telling me about. Apparently, her house had been in such a state, she couldn’t even think about cooking and that if she’d put something in her cooker, she would have died from salmonella.
It was nice to know that now the house had been sorted, and Mum was Vi’s regular cleaner, Dennis was staying close by. I liked the feeling that he wasn’t far away.
I jumped up. ‘It’s Wednesday!’
‘Well done, Nance. Yes, it is. Do you want a medal?’
Aha. And just like that, he was back.
‘Don’t be a smartass, Dennie. It doesn’t become you.’
‘Dennie?’
He stopped still in his tracks and then repeated the name that for some reason had, without thinking, popped out of my mouth.
‘Sorry, I don’t know why I said that.’
‘Don’t be sorry. I like it. I’ve always thought Dennis makes me sound like a right old fart.’
I giggled, remembering that when someone first told me that Vi’s grandson called Dennis was visiting, I thought he was going to be quite old and past it. I got a very pleasant surprise when I first met him and realised he was very much far from it. You know what they say, never make assumptions.
‘Anyway,’ he continued, ‘what’s with it being Wednesday?’
‘Gemma from the bistro sells fish and chips from the catering van. We could sit outside if you fancy it and have some tea.’
Dennis’s stomach rumbled loudly. We laughed.
‘I take it that’s a yes then?’
‘It’s a big yes from me. I could eat a whale.’
‘Well, it’s normally cod or haddock but we can always see if they have a really big one.’
Fifteen minutes later, we were sat on a bench in the harbour, scoffing the most divine fish and chips and drinking beer. Gemma’s idea of extending the bistro’s offering and starting up a fish and chip shop in her catering van was genius. She’d drive around the village, honking her horn when she arrived and then when she’d done the rounds, she’d park up at the harbour and sell from there. She didn’t know if it would be as successful in the winter, when the holidaymakers were no longer around, but it was thriving so far and not many people in Driftwood Bay cooked on a Monday night. Her licence at the bistro meant that she could serve alcohol too, so a bottle of Becks was going down particularly well with the food.
We’d argued over who was going to pay. I insisted on it as a little way of saying thank you to Dennis for all his help at the shop. I felt it was the least I could do when he wouldn’t take any money from me. Though he said he was still being paid, very handsomely, from his job, so he wouldn’t think of accepting my money and that I needed every penny I had.
Dennis took the empty wrappers from me and took them over to the bin where about twenty seagulls swooped down and started to peck at the paper. I had to pull my eyes away from him to stop myself staring. Seeing him being more vulnerable over the last few days had made me feel differently about him and I couldn’t get that moment when I thought he was going to kiss me out of my head.
I knew I was being ridiculous, as he clearly hadn’t intended that at all, so I was trying hard to ignore the vision that I’d had in my head.
‘Thanks, Nance.’ He reached out and gave my hand a gentle squeeze.
‘Yeah, it was delish, wasn’t it? Told you Gemma’s chip supper was a winner.’
‘I don’t mean for the food. I mean for listening earlier.’
