They walked out of the station and down towards the River Lovely and stood on the jetty, waiting for the riverboat to arrive.
Nancy looked up at the sky, where sunshine had just started to peep through after a rainy early start. ‘I wonder if the sun will stay with us for the day.’
‘The forecast said wind and possibly a sea mist coming in later.’
Nancy chuckled. ‘Ahh, right you are. Got to love all the weather keeping us on our toes.’
‘I’m still getting used to it.’
Nancy turned her head to the side. ‘Do you feel like Lovely is your home now? It’s been a while.’
Nina nodded, her gaze drifting over the water. ‘Yeah, I do. It's strange, I never thought I'd feel so at home in a place I hadn't even heard of a year or so ago. Lovely Bay has this way of getting under your skin if you ask me.’
Nancy smiled knowingly. ‘It does, doesn't it? I've seen it happen time and time again. People come here for a visit and end up never leaving if their face fits and they’re not looking for batch brew coffee and all that malarkey.’ Nancy chuckled.
Nina watched as the riverboat approached, its engine puttering. Its arrival made the water slap against the jetty. ‘Too funny. I was lucky you let me stay.’
‘You were indeed. You slotted right in from day one, though, when you arrived with the kitchen sink.’
Nina chuckled. ‘I never would've guessed. Me, a London girl, fitting into this picturesque little town.’
They watched as passengers disembarked from the boat. ‘It does that to people. Lovely must like you.’
Nina gestured to the River Lovely and down towards the sea and the bay. ‘I have to admit, I've fallen in love with this place. Ireallyhave.’
‘I, for one, am glad you have. I think there’s another person who may have fallen in love, too. How are things with our Robby?’
Nina blushed slightly. ‘Good, really good. Just pottering along.’
‘Right.’
Nina nodded. Everythingwasgood in her life. The grief that had kept her so tightly wound for so long had released its grip, she adored living in Lovely Bay, and things were just right with Robby. Long may it last.
2
The sun dipped in and out of clouds after Nina and Nancy got off the boat, made their way over a small green and strolled along chatting. When Nina had decided to stay in Lovely Bay the year before, she’d rented a tiny house in the same row of cottages that Nancy lived in. Nancy always laughed and referred to her cottage as a really small two-up, two-down, but Nina had trumped its size with the place she’d rented. If Nancy’s place was small, the cottage Nina had moved into was miniscule. The cottage she was living in was a one-up, one-down, but the same as Nancy, she loved it and had quickly come to call it home.
The year before, when Nina had decided that she was mad to be going back to London and had made a U-turn and stayed in Lovely Bay, Robby had right away asked her to move in, but something in the back of her mind had told her it wasn’t a good idea. There had been a little bit of caution whispering in her ear, telling her to take things slowly and not run before she could walk. A voice saying that she should hold something back. Remain independent. She’d been on her own for a long time, and a small part of her had wanted it to stay that way. Nancy had mentioned the cottage a few doors down from her was up for rent, Nina had been to have a look and had more or less movedin the following week. She’d loved it from day one. She’d got her feet under the table in Lovely Bay and not looked back since.
As they got to the green situated just in front of the cottages, they took the path through the middle, strolled under the gigantic conker tree in the corner, and stopped as they got to the long row of pretty exposed brick cottages snaking along the road. Nancy’s cottage was towards the facing end of the row, with a window box full of flowers and a couple of hanging baskets moving back and forth in the breeze. Nina smiled at Nancy’s cobbled front garden, white picket fence, wicker heart hanging from the front door, pretty bench, and the name plaque to the right of the door. All of it appeared as if it had just been plucked from a perfect English country garden scene.
‘Right, you are then,’ Nancy said as she reached her arm over the gate and lifted up the latch. ‘What are you up to tomorrow?’
‘I’m going to look at that property over on the harbour.’
Nancy shook her head. ‘Course you are. Sorry, brain like a sieve sometimes. I hope you like it.’
‘Yes, me too.’
‘I’ll see you tomorrow, then. Pop in and let me know how it goes.’ Nancy held up her right hand with her fingers crossed. ‘Fingers crossed, it’s the one for you. You never know.’
‘Yep, will do, see you.’
When Nina got to her cottage at the other end of the row to Nancy’s place, she smiled as the old lady who lived next door, who was standing by the front window fussing with a window box, smiled and raised her hand in greeting. Nina said hello, waved, pushed open the gate, and took a few steps up to the entrance door. Like Nancy’s place, the rental cottage had a front door with a window in the centre. Just underneath it, Nina had hung a beautiful willow wreath. To the right on the wall, a pretty name plaque and matching post box engraved with flowers took pride of place. Two planters with bay trees sat on either sideof a doormat, and a wicker heart swung from a bracket by the window. All of it very nice and so very different from Nina’s London flat, where she’d lived on her own for a long time.
When Nina had first walked into the little cottage, it had hardly knocked her for six and made her want to jump right in and live there. In fact, it had been quite bland, consisting of a small sitting room when you stepped in, stripped timber floors, exposed brickwork and a small fireplace leading to a tiny kitchen. Steep stairs ran up the centre of the house with an understairs latched cupboard and not much room to swing a cat or anything really at all. The kitchen was small, plain, neat and tidy, with exposed beams painted white and French doors onto a narrow back garden with a little suntrap right in the corner at the back. The whole place had ticked all her boxes for somewhere to stay; clean, tidy, neutral, and ready to go.
Without too much thought, Nina had signed on the dotted line and rented what was little more than four small rooms and a garden. From there, she hadn’t looked back for a solitary second. She’d loved every minute of being in the cottage. Just as Lovely Bay itself had done, it had helped to rid her of the shackles of grief she’d been bound up in for so long. She’d settled into its bricks and mortar as if it had always been meant to be. In the confines of its neutral walls and little garden, she’d sat back and learned how to be Nina again. It had been a long time coming.
