Page 51 of And Then There Was You

It’s an invitation I’m not expecting, and one I won’t turn down.

He lifts the hatch in the counter and I follow him through, smiling at Lottie, one of the bakery shop team, as she moves to take Matt’s place.

The kitchen bears the ghost-scents of Matt’s early morning baking, an aroma that’s now become familiar for me.

Over in the corner, the coffee machine is already at work.

We pull up a stool each at the stainless steel prep table and Matt fetches coffee, returning with two mugs and a bowl of buttery baked pastry scraps, the best perk of working for the bakery.

‘Dig in,’ he says, grabbing a handful for himself.

‘Cheers.’

We eat and drink in companiable silence for a while, the calmness of the bakery kitchen working its magic on my thought-muddled head.

Matt told me once that you should be able to tell a baker’s kitchen by the character it has.

It’s certainly true for him, this kitchen infused with the character of its owner: steady, organised, a place of hard work tempered by the confidence and experience that makes it seem unhurried.

‘So, what’s on your mind?’ he asks.

‘Sorry?’

‘You don’t buy cronuts and shortbread stars unless you’re trying to distract your head from something.’

‘Are you psychoanalysing my bakery choices?’ I laugh.

‘Bakers are like bartenders, barbers and priests,’ he replies, without a hint of sarcasm. ‘We cater to people’s innermost needs and facilitate honest conversations – like this one, for example.’

‘I never had you down as a guru of baked goods.’

He smiles. ‘Well, now you know. So, what’s going on?’

I don’t intend to tell him anything, but the coffee and still-warm pastry begin to work their magic.

Little by little, it all comes out: Merryn, my late-night piano playing, our kisses, the fight and the news from Zanna this morning.

Matt listens without comment, considering my flood of information over slow sips of coffee.

When I reach the end, I wait for his reply.

‘Okay.’

‘Okay? That’s it?’

‘Chill your beans, mate. First thing, I wouldn’t have guessed you played the piano. Nice one. Always fancied having a go myself. Second, if you love Merryn so much, why haven’t you gone back there?’

‘She asked me to leave.’

‘That night. Not forever. And maybe that’s why you’re struggling now.’

‘I’m not struggling.’

‘Yeah, you are. You just spilled your guts in my bakery. That doesn’t happen unless you’re battling it.’

‘She’s found Grant now, so she’ll be fine.’

Matt raises a bushy eyebrow. ‘Or maybe she’ll need friends now more than ever to help her work through it all. Sounds like there’s a lifetime of stuff centred around this guy. She won’t discard it all just because she found him. And if you love her—’

‘—I don’t.’

‘Yeah, you do.’

I stare at him as it sinks in.

I love her. Of course I do. It’s why she’s on my mind, all the time.

But what good does it do me? She threw me out. She’s getting on with her life.

‘If you love her, you’ll be there for her. End of. Bleddy fight for the woman, Zach. Because if you don’t you’ll regret it, every day of your life.’

There’s something about the way he says this, an uncharacteristic shadow of emotion behind his laid-back air.

‘Sounds like you know what you’re talking about,’ I risk. This is my boss, after all. I’ve told him more than I’ve ever told anybody I’ve worked for, but I don’t want to overstep the mark.

‘Yeah, well, life kicks you in the bum sometimes.’

He doesn’t elaborate and I don’t push him. It’s enough to know he understands.

‘Maybe I’ll go to see her when she’s met Grant,’ I say, a thought spoken aloud more than a part of the conversation.

‘You should,’ Matt replies. ‘Where did you say he’d been found?’

‘Mariner’s, in Carbis Bay?’

Matt chuckles. ‘There’s a blast from the past. Many nights of my misspent youth wasted there.’

‘You and me both. Mostly underage.’

‘Same. It’s a wonder the owner didn’t get done for it. I reckon half of his customers were under eighteen when I was going there.’

Surprised by our shared history, a thought occurs to me. ‘Does the same bloke own it now?’

‘Lefty Hughes? Nah, he went off years ago. He got done for running charity raffles and keeping the money for himself.’

‘No way!’

‘Yeah. It was all over the news down here. Massive scandal. I’m surprised you didn’t see it.’

‘I was competing then.’ So much was missed during those years. I’m only beginning to realise that. ‘So, who owns it now?’

‘Graham – oh, what’s his surname? I know him from the Chamber of Commerce stuff and he’s involved in fundraising for the lifeboat, too. Graham . . . Graham . . . Jacobs! That’s it. Cool dude, very involved with the community. And he doesn’t nick charity money, so, you know, a bonus all round.’

The name is vaguely familiar, though I can’t say why. ‘I think I’ve heard of him.’

‘You’ll probably know his nephew better, seeing as you work for him.’

‘You?’

‘The other one? Total git who you seem to like.’

Realisation dawns. ‘Graham is Luke’s uncle?’

‘Small world, huh? At least he’s stuck around for years. Jury’s still out on whether Lukey-boy is going to do the same this time.’

‘I wonder if Luke knows Grant.’ The thought rocks me: two pieces of my world colliding.

‘Probably.’ Matt sits back, a hand to his beard. ‘Hang on, your girl, the one you’ve been hiding from . . .’

‘I’m not hiding.’

‘Yeah, you are. What’s her surname?’

‘Rowe.’

‘Merryn Rowe . . .’ He slaps a hand to his forehead. ‘Oh my good Lord. That’s why I didn’t make the link.’

‘What link?’

‘I thought her name was familiar, but I couldn’t work out why. I didn’t know her as Rowe before.’

‘Wait – you know Merryn?’

‘Yeah. Crazy I didn’t realise until now. I didn’t know her as Merryn Rowe: I knew her as Merryn Pengelly.’

‘She’s related to Luke?’

Matt blesses me with a pitying look. ‘Not related, mate. Married. ’

‘What?’

‘Or was. Remember I told you about his other place? The missus he dumped and left to deal with it all?’

My heart is in my throat as everything falls into place.

No.

But she knew I was working for Luke. Why didn’t she say?

It hits me like a speeding train: all the times I talked about Luke with Merryn, thinking his only flaw was cockiness and being a bit brash with his staff.

Saying I found his confidence inspiring.

Merryn heard all my chatter about the guy who trashed her heart and destroyed her life. How did she bear that in silence?

My rose-tinted view of Luke has already gone after what Hen told me about the dodgy refilled bottles in the optics.

But this? This is horrific. If he knew Grant was working at his uncle’s bar – and I can’t imagine he didn’t, knowing how everyone knows everyone else’s business around here – why did he keep it from Merryn?

I remember during the interview with Zanna that Merryn was asked why she’d only started looking for Grant in the last three years. She’d said her former partner had dissuaded her, but then she’d asked Zanna not to include it. Her former partner being Luke.

‘I’ve got to go,’ I say, all thoughts of today’s walk abandoned. ‘Thanks for the coffee.’

Matt frowns as I stand. ‘You’re welcome. Are you okay?’

‘I’m good. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

I don’t wait for his reply, snatching up the bakery bag and hurrying out.

I know Merryn won’t be at Sweet Reverie. But another possibility presents itself as I dash through town.

Seth Hartley.

He was against Merryn searching for Grant, despite knowing what it meant to her. Why? Could it be that he, like Luke, knew where her former stepfather was?

I thunder into Star Court, past Sweet Reverie and the blackboard sign, its surface achingly empty, and the side passage gate left open for the day’s trade. I hope Merryn is being reunited with Grant right now, or that Luke’s uncle tells them where they can find him.

But I’m not here to see her.

I head straight for Porthia Surf, the place I haven’t revisited since my awkward flight from there at the start of summer. Before I knew about the piano, or Merryn, or the person she was searching for.

How much has changed in one summer.

This time, I don’t hesitate, or try to figure out what to say. I just storm in, not caring what the startled customers who spring back from me think.

He’s there, behind the counter, wide eyes quickly narrowing when he sees it’s me.

‘Get out.’

‘I want a word with you.’

‘You’re disruptin’ my customers. Turn around and go.’

‘No chance.’

He gives a bitter laugh, squaring up to me as the new kid serving beside him shrinks back into a rack of T-shirts. ‘You really don’t know when to give up, do you? I’m not interested, boy. Now get the hell out of my shop.’

‘Grant Henderson,’ I growl. ‘You know where he is.’

He blinks. ‘Nobody knows where he is.’

‘I think you lied to Merryn. For years, maybe.’

‘I care about Merryn. I would never lie to her.’

‘He’s been found.’ His shock registers immediately. Good. But I’m not finished. ‘Zanna found him. She’s taking Merryn over now. To Mariner’s in Carbis Bay.’

‘Mariner’s?’

‘Luke Pengelly’s uncle’s bar. That why you kept telling Merryn not to look for her stepdad, is it? Because you and Luke knew where he was?’

His expression grows thunderous. ‘Outside.’

I fold my arms, the fight far from over. ‘I’m not moving till I get answers.’

‘I won’t do it in here. I have customers,’ he bites back, teeth gritted.

‘Good. They should know what a lying bastard you are.’

‘Right. Out the back.’ He storms through an archway at the back of the shop and I follow, ready for whatever he swings at me. We arrive in a stock area and he turns in a corner filled with boxes. ‘You have no right stormin’ in here, shoutin’ your mouth off in front of my customers.’

‘And you have no right calling yourself Merryn’s friend when you’re lying to her.’

‘I didn’t know!’

‘I don’t believe you.’

‘Believe what you want. How certain is Zanna that Grant’s there?’

‘She said he’d been found.’

He swears and looks up to the single lightbulb in the stockroom ceiling. ‘I had no idea.’

I stare back, not knowing whether to trust him. ‘Why tell her not to look for Grant, then, if you didn’t know he was in Carbis?’

‘Because she’d been hurt enough.’ When he looks at me, the fight is gone.

‘You don’t know what she went through, when that bastard Pengelly left her.

I put her back together. I got her thinkin’ of the future again.

The thought that anyone else could shatter her like Pengelly did was too much.

I couldn’t bear to let her go through that. ’

It makes sense. I don’t want it to, but it does.

‘That wasn’t your choice to make.’

‘It wasn’t yours, either. But you still pushed her into it.’

‘It worked! The search was successful.’

‘At what cost? What happens if she meets him and he doesn’t remember, hm? Or if he doesn’t want her in his life? Have you any idea what that would do to her?’

‘I would be there for her. I would make things right . . .’

‘So you say. How often have you been back since it all kicked off, eh? Oh, that’s right, you haven’t. Because, unlike me, you’re a coward who’s too shit-scared to apologise.’

He might as well have punched me. I slump against the wall.

I haven’t been there for her, have I? Before the search bore fruit, when she was alone and wondering if he would ever be found?

Aggie was right: I should have fought for her.

And if I go back now, will she think it’s just because Grant has been found?

To bask in the victory instead of standing beside her through the storm?

‘Then you have to be there for her,’ I reply. ‘Because I don’t want her to be alone.’

He observes me for the longest time. ‘I will.’

I believe he will be. I walk back through the shop, past the nervous assistant and the goggling customers, out into Star Court.

I’ve left it too late to make things right with Merryn. I didn’t fight for her when I should have. What she needs now is time to get to know Grant again, surrounded by her friends. And Seth, while an obnoxious idiot, is a good friend. She’s obviously forgiven him. It’s only me left out in the cold.

I glance at Sweet Reverie as I pass.

I can only wish her well. And hope that Grant Henderson – and Seth – prove worthy of the trust she’s placed in them.

There’s nothing for me here now. I won’t visit Star Court again.