‘Aww, thank you.’
‘When I first laid eyes on you, I knew that you were special and a bit weird. Now I know you’reveryweird and I love it.’
Cally laughed, thinking back to their encounter at the manor, when she’d been covered in a huge blackcurrant stain. 'Ah yes, nothing says "soulmate material" like someone who throws chicken at you and turns up to a new job in a dirty great stained blouse.’
Logan grinned. ‘It just goes to show that you have a talent for making a memorable first impression.’
Cally rolled her eyes and swatted his chest. ‘Memorable is one word for it. I’d say "disastrous" or "cringe-worthy," but each to their own.’
'Well, I wouldn't change a single thing about that day or any of the days that followed. And I want more of them, though I might give the continually bumping my head on your flat’s ceiling a miss.’
‘You’ll have to put up with it until I’ve saved enough money to start looking for my own place.’
‘You’re worth a few bumps.’
Cally carefully smoothed the wrapping paper, folded it into the laptop box, added the laptop, tied the bow, and then slid the box into the bag. She turned around and squinted across theharbour. ‘Right, I feel an ice cream coming on. It’s the weather for it.’
‘Laptops, ice cream, coffee. Anything else?’
Cally giggled as they got up and she took Logan’s hand. ‘What a day, eh?’ She looked up at the sun high in the sky as a few seagulls wheeled and cried overhead, and a salty sea breeze rustled through her hair.
‘Yeah, we’d better make the best of it before the weather changes again. We are in Lovely, after all. We might get hailstones later.’
As they walked, Cally couldn’t quite get her head around the laptop. Little did Logan know how much itactuallymeant to her. How, also, as she walked along beside him, she felt as if it was exactly where she was meant to be. She glanced up at him, her heart skipping a beat, and wondered if he really felt the same as she did deep down in her bones. From her side of the fence, without a shadow of a doubt, she felt as if they were meant to be. They just slotted together despite their different backgrounds and vastly different lives. So far, it had been marvellous. She couldn't wait to see where the journey would take them next. Little did she know what was coming. A little on the bumpy side sprang to mind.
2
It was the morning after Cally’s day off and the laptop gift. Cally looked around her little flat, sighed happily, and shook her head at how her life was turning out. Part of her felt as if, at any given moment, her bubble would burst and she would find herself at the hospice waiting and watching her grandma and having the horrible rented house on the estate to go back to. It now felt as if that part of her life wasn’t quite real. As if it belonged to someone else. She looked around at the flat and how nice she’d made it. The chalky white paint on the walls gave a soft, clean backdrop that made the place feel homely and clean and captured the morning light that filtered through the bamboo blinds.
The once dusty, old, brightly-coloured wall stacked with file boxes up to the ceiling was now adorned with a gathering of things Cally had found here and there: a collection of framed prints of the coast she’d found when doing a decluttering job for Nina, a mix of vintage botanical illustrations she’d come across in a charity shop not far from Eloise’s house, a lovely photo of her grandma and her mum, and a couple of her own sketches from back in the day when she’d had the time. She’d spent ages arranging them so they fitted together in an organised jumbleabove the sofa. Somehow a story of little things she liked in her life.
Everything about the tiny flat was different from the day she’d first viewed it with Birdie when it had been packed to the rafters with junk. The flat's slow renovation had begun on the bottom with the floorboards, which were now stripped back to their original state and showed the natural grains and knots of the wood. Cally loved the way she’d got to know their creaks and sounds, as if they somehow spoke to her and made her feel safe.
She smiled at a large, soft, oriental rug in muted blues and creams, which sat underneath a coffee table she’d inherited from Lovely Manor. The coffee table had been on its way to the tip, but with its pretty turned legs, Cally had rescued it from the joys of the dump. Now it took pride of place, full of her things: a neat stack of books, a little glass vase with fresh flowers, a porcelain tray she’d found in a jumble sale with a huge scented candle Logan had turned up with one day, a small fabric-covered notebook and a little framed picture of her and Eloise taken when they'd been strawberry picking on a farm. Next to the frame, a smooth pebble with a heart shape drawn on it, a memento from one of her first walks along Lovely Bay beach. All of it strangely somehow a symbol of the new chapter in her life.
Sitting just behind the coffee table, Cally's sofa was the centrepiece of the small sitting room. Upholstered in a soft, linen fabric and adorned with a pretty assortment of velvet cushions in shades of blush pink, sea green, and dove grey, she loved settling into it at the end of the day. With a casual, lived-in look that invited one to sink in and relax and a chunky knit soft cream throw casually draped over one arm, it felt as if it had journeyed with her in her new life in the third smallest town in the country.
She stood for a minute and took in just how far she’d come. She loved it all, mostly because now, at the top of the building overlooking Lovely, she felt safe. For a long time, she hadn't feltas if she’d had roots. She’d floated around for ages, untethered and not quite sure who she was in her life or what she was going to do. Now, in Lovely Bay, she felt as if she was home.
She had made the whole place work for her and utilised just about every little bit of space. Wedged in the corner, by the balcony door, her neatly organised work desk with its weathered patina and strong legs spoke of years of use from days gone by. She’d found it on the first floor of the building under a pile of Birdie’s pharmacy files. It was now doing a very good job of making her new laptop feel at home. All of it was a far cry from some of the places she’d logged on to the World Wide Web to get on with her work. Now, her desk and surroundings were easy on the eye: a lamp with a pretty floral shade, a couple of notebooks stacked up and ready to go, a framed photo of her and her grandma, and a pot full of nice pens. Above the desk hung a bulletin board covered in pinned notes, photos, and sketches. A collage of Cally’s thoughts and inspirations, a visual representation of what was going on in her head. Scribbled ideas for places to visit, a map of Lovely Bay with marked locations, and a few photos of her and Eloise.
Cally turned around to see Logan coming out of the bedroom. He ruffled the back of his hair, smiled, and pointed to the bathroom. ‘Morning. I'm going to go and have a shower. How are you? You must have been up early.’
‘Yep, I was. I’ve been setting up my laptop. I'll make you a coffee.’
‘Thanks, love one. Be out in a sec,’ Logan replied as he opened the bathroom door.
Cally heard the shower turn on as she got the coffee ready, put two mugs on the worktop, poured boiling water into a coffee plunger, and went to her desk to continue with her new laptop.
A few minutes later, Logan came out of the bathroom. He nodded in the direction of the laptop. ‘How is it?’
Cally leaned back and beamed. ‘So good. It’s like moving out of the dark ages. It’s so much faster. We’re talking chalk and cheese.’
Logan chuckled and kissed the top of Cally’s head. ‘I reckon it will save you time in the morning. You’ll no longer have to get up earlier to wait for it to warm up and log you on.’
‘Ha, I know.’
Logan gave her shoulder a squeeze. ‘How is it with the apps and stuff? You couldn’t get things on the old one, could you?’
