Page 15 of One Cornish Summer With You
Ruan nodded his approval. ‘I like that. Trying something new even though this is your territory.’
‘Good … but let’s reserve judgement until we’ve eaten.’
Once inside, seated at a cosy booth, they ordered food along with bottles of lager – zero alcohol for Ruan, who was driving.
‘How did your meeting with the client go yesterday?’ she asked by way of an icebreaker.
‘It was fine, actually. I didn’t know quite what to expect and it turned out the woman had no idea she even had a second cousin once removed.’ He smiled. ‘Or what one was. The legacy wasn’t huge, but it was obviously a surprise. She didn’t get emotional.’ He tipped the bottle to his lips.
‘Did you have any other jobs after that?’ Tammy asked, feeling her shoulders sink as the initial nerves eased.
‘No, I went home to work.’
‘You never did say where home was exactly.’
‘At the moment, it’s a caravan. Bit of a tatty dump, if I’m honest, but it suits me while I decide on something more permanent,’ he said before sipping his beer again.
‘Where exactly? I might know the site,’ she said, curious and rather surprised that he’d chosen a caravan over a poshholiday rental. Then again, she didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable by too many intrusive questions. Besides, it might turn out to be one of these plush park homes with a knockout coastal view and he didn’t want to boast. Perhaps she’d find out if he invited her back – a prospect that made her grow hot.
‘It’s not a big tourist site,’ he said. ‘It’s off the B road west of Newlyn. You could describe it as the middle of nowhere.’ He gave an awkward smile.
Tammy laughed. ‘The middle of nowhere sounds good to me. Bet you’ll find it hard to leave your “tatty dump” for some overrun seaside resort. Actually, I went to primary school near Lamorna.’
‘Oh?’ he said, eyebrows raised in surprise. ‘I thought you’d always lived in Porthmellow?’
‘Not always, no. I’ve lived in lots of places. Miners’ cottages, an attic flat above an old mill – we moved three times around Porthmellow itself after the landlords sold up so they could turn the places into Airbnbs. There’s hardly anything left to rent in town, and most of that’s out of the price range of people like me.’
‘That’s not good,’ Ruan said with what she thought was a sympathetic look.
‘Anyway, when Mum and Dad split up, Mum went to live to Scotland and I stayed in Cornwall with my dad. After he died, if Davey hadn’t offered me the studio, I’d probably have been homeless.’
‘I see,’ he said.
‘Do you?’ Tammy blurted out on impulse. She’d thoughtit was a strange and non-committal reply, as if he didn’t know what else to say. Perhaps he was embarrassed by her tale of woe. ‘I didn’t mean that to sound rude.’
He gave a rueful smile. ‘I know. Don’t worry. I didn’t know what else to say. It must have been tough to have to keep moving and I’m so very sorry about your dad.’
‘It was tough – and thank you,’ Tammy said, touching the silver pendant that hung from a leather cord around her neck, as she often did when she was nervous. ‘It was impossible in one way but simple in another. I didn’t want to leave Cornwall for the other end of the country and I was worried my dad wouldn’t be able to cope without me. Mum leaving hit him hard, but it was both their faults the marriage broke down. I can’t blame my mum – I try not to blame my mum.’
He left a silence before saying, ‘You don’t have to talk about this but I’m a good listener. It goes with the territory. Families are very, very complicated. My job has taught me that if nothing else.’
She sighed. ‘I suppose I did blame my mum for going but I didn’t want to live in a city with a man I barely knew. I didn’t get on that well with my stepfather, mainly because he’d taken Mum away from me. Trouble was, my dad also liked a drink and a “flutter”, as he called it, and he let Mum down too many times. He was a lovely man who loved me, but he was far from perfect …’ Tammy’s voice trailed off as she struggled with the bittersweet mixture of emotions that had been heightened by the anniversary. ‘Sorry, I genuinely thought after five years I’d be OK.’
‘It’s bound to be raw when a landmark date comes up,’he said gently. ‘I’m sorry he’s gone and that you had to make such a difficult decision about staying with one parent.’
‘It was horrible, but I know I made the right decision. I knew Mum would be all right because she had someone who loved her, even if he wasn’t my greatest fan. I wasn’t his either.’
‘I’m sure your mum misses you,’ Ruan said with a smile.
‘She has two stepchildren who are older than me, as well as grandchildren. She has a whole new life and she’s fine.’
He paused before answering, as if he was carefully preparing a reply. ‘You don’t see much of her?’
‘Very rarely. In fact, only once since my dad’s funeral, when she’d come on holiday to Devon and we arranged to meet up. It wasn’t the most relaxing of lunches …’ She felt a tightening in her chest and a tickle in the back of her throat. God, no, she might cry. ‘Hey, this is very morbid stuff for a night out!’ she said, trying to laugh off the tears that were perilously close. ‘Can we talk about something else? How come you ended up in Cornwall? Was it a lifestyle choice?’
Tammy had heard that clichéd phrase from so many newcomers to Porthmellow who’d used it as their reason for exchanging city life for the coast. To his credit, Ruan laughed.
‘I guess you could say that. I was working in Bristol but I saw the job in Penzance advertised and I went for it.’
