Page 78 of Second Chance Summer
Morven shook her head. ‘You’ll laugh.’
‘Morven,’ Lily said patiently, ‘I’m the girl who told herparents I didn’t want to apply for uni. I wanted to run a market stall instead. No one had any idea that it would eventually lead to a successful business.’
‘Idowant to go to uni … to Falmouth, to study Fine Art.’
‘Sounds like a great plan. Why can’t you?’
‘Because Dad’s in the States and might drag me back at any moment, if he cares enough. Because someone’s got to pay for it – and I can’t ask Sam or Auntie Elspeth to help … they don’t have the money and I wouldn’t take it from them anyway,’ she said fiercely.
‘OK,’ Lily said, aware that everyone else was getting drenched, frantically searching for Morven – yet also aware that this might be her only chance to find out how the girl really felt. ‘Let’s imagine, let’s say in your wildest dreams, that you could afford it. That it wasn’t a problem.’
Morven hugged her knees, avoiding Lily’s eyes. ‘I – I still couldn’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because – I – because—’ She kicked at an empty Red Bull can. ‘I’m not good enough! That’s why.’
‘OK. You probably won’t believe any of what I’m going to say but I’m not here to blow smoke up your arse.’
Morven laughed.
‘You know I speak plainly. Too plainly sometimes.’
‘Like, yeah!’
‘So, I’ll be honest. I’ve seen your work. Before I even knew who’d created the artwork on the walls of my cottage, I was impressed. Very impressed. You have heaps of talent;your work is original and – affecting. It made mefeelsomething. It has a power born of this landscape.’
Morven still wasn’t looking at her, but she was listening. Listening hard.
‘I would probably stock it at Lily Loves, even now.’
The girl’s head snapped up. ‘Probably?’ she said indignantly.
Lily smiled. ‘Ah, some artistic pride. I like it.’
‘I don’t care if you’d stock it.’
‘That’s fine, but you do care about going to uni. So, you are good enough, more than good enough, and you must follow your dream. There will be a way,’ Lily said, hoping that Sam and Nate would agree. If not, she’d have to intervene. ‘You need to have self-belief and to fight for what you want.’
Morven was silent, drawing in the ashes with one finger.
‘I could try, I guess.’
‘Could?’
‘Iwilltry. Look, I need to tell you something. It was me who was spooking you.’
Lily let out a mock gasp. ‘Really? Who knew?’
‘You might have guessed.’
‘I didn’t. Not until I saw the pebbles. You do have a distinctive style, Morven.’
‘Shit.’ She heaved a dramatic sigh. ‘I’m sorry for scaring you.’
Wow!thought Lily. ‘Can I ask why you did it?’
Morven couldn’t meet her eyes, then muttered, ‘I guess I thought you might be a stuck-up cow, from what I’d readonline. And you weren’t very friendly when you first arrived at the quay.’
