Page 37 of Second Chance Summer
‘Happy to be going home?’ he said, obviously noting the smile on her face.
‘Yes … I – I need to get back to work, but I was just thinking of something else. It doesn’t matter.’
‘Let’s get you on your way then,’ he said, setting off down the path to the quay.
The sun was warm and she didn’t need the blazer but donning her city clothes had been meant to help her feel more like herself again.
Would she ever feel like herself though? She wasn’t quite the same person who’d arrived, vowing to step off the treadmill – as soon as she’d finalised the deal.
But who am I really?Lily thought, alarmed again by the way in which the foundations of her life had been shaken in just a few days.
TheHydrabobbed in the harbour below, the turquoise sea separating her from Tresco and the heliport. It was so beautiful, day or night.
Lily came to a sudden halt.
‘Wait!’
Sam turned, an anxious look on his handsome face. ‘What’s up?’
‘I left something behind but – oh, it doesn’t matter.’
He nodded. ‘Your phone. I’m sorry, I should have remembered. It’s still in my office.’
‘My phone?’ Lily blurted out. ‘Oh, God yes. I’d forgotten about that too. No, I meant something else.’
‘Something else?’ Sam looked astonished. ‘More important than your phone?’
‘No. No, of course not,’ Lily said, embarrassed and shaken that she’d forgotten her mobile completely. ‘It’s only a watercolour I did last night. It was rubbish anyway. Bin it, would you?’
He shook his head. ‘No, I won’t. You must take it home.’
‘Must?’
‘Yes,’ he said firmly, showing the steely side she’d glimpsed from time to time. ‘I’ll retrieve your phone while you get the painting.’ With that, he marched back into the hub and handed the cottage keys to her.
Lily went inside again and found the sketch pad abandoned on the coffee table, the painting now dry.
Funny, but the scene looked even better than she’d thought last night when she’d cast it aside. The colours were more vibrant than she’d remembered and although it was hardly accomplished, it had something: a soulfulness and yearning for something bigger than herself.
‘Stop it, Lily!’ She spoke the words out loud. Stark had forced emotions to the surface that she’d suppressed and she hated feeling out of control or doubting herself. She lived her life like she ran her business: there was no room for doubt or regret. Still, she couldn’t bear to leave thememory of Stark behind so she took the sketch pad back to reception.
Outside, Sam was pacing up and down, talking on the radio.
Probably some detail about the flight, thought Lily, but as he turned to face her and lowered the radio, she saw that his face had turned pale.
‘What’s the matter?’ she said.
‘That was Morven. I’m afraid I have some bad news.’
‘What? For me? Oh my God, is it my parents? The girls?’
‘No, they’re all fine as far as I know. It’s not your family, it’s you.’
For a split second, Lily’s fears that she really had woken up ‘on the other side’ took hold of her again before she snapped back to reality. ‘Me? How can it be me?’
‘Morven’s been online. Someone must have seen the kayak accident and jumped to the wrong conclusion. Your obituary is all over the web. According to the Internet, you’re dead.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
