The Broken Hearts Book Club (18 page)

Jean softened a little. ‘Dogs are like friends for life. You never get over losing them.’

‘Have you ever thought of getting another dog?’ I asked. ‘There’s loads of lovely rescue centres around here with great dogs to adopt. They need a loving home and you could give them that.’

Her eyes misted over and she looked away. ‘After losing Hobie, I don’t think I can go through that again. Excuse me…’

She trailed off and ran through to the back of the shop.

‘Oh bollocks,’ I whispered. ‘What have I done?’

Elle craned her neck to see what she was doing and grimaced. ‘She looks pretty upset. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.’

I watched her as she composed herself and tentatively went to join her.

‘Jean, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry. Can I sit down?’

She nodded and gestured to the little brown stool opposite hers. I bent forward and put an arm round her shoulder.

‘You’ve got so much love to give, Jean. Anyone can tell how much you love animals.’ I gestured to the bright blue cardigan she was wearing, dotted with little white rabbits. ‘I know that loving another dog might seem like you’re being unfair to Hobie, but you wouldn’t be. He’ll always have a special place in your heart won’t he? No other dog can replace him, but your heart’s more than big enough to love two. What do you say? Why don’t you go and pay a visit to one of the rescue centres, even just to have a look?’

Elle came to stand in the doorway. ‘I know this is none of my business, but Lucy’s right. Like she says, your heart’s more than big enough to love another dog. It’d be a shame to let all that love go to waste. You’d give a dog a fantastic home.’

Jean looked up at me. ‘I miss him so much, girls. He was my best friend and not seeing his face every morning just brings home how much I miss him. I just don’t know if I could love another dog like I loved Hobie.’

I rubbed her back and gave her a hug. ‘You’ll never be able to love one like him, but you can love them differently and that’s OK.’

She took a deep breath and nodded her head. ‘You know Lucy, you might just be right.’

Just after I left, she put the Closed sign on the shop and gave me a wink as she went to her car. I smiled. One down, five to go.

Chapter Sixteen

I decided to make Cath my next target and possibly also help Frank at the same time. Anyone could see they were meant to be together, from the subtle looks at meetings to the ‘accidental’ brushing hands when they were reaching for a sausage roll. I pondered how to get them together without them realising it as I slapped some duck-egg blue emulsion onto the kitchen walls at Rose Cottage. Jake had fixed the hole in the ceiling, which turned out to be cosmetic, and was doing his best attempt at re-skimming the wall where the tiles had been. It wasn’t going very well. The plaster kept slipping off the trowel and onto his shoes.

‘Bollocks,’ he muttered as another splodge dropped off and onto his scuffed working boots.

‘How’s it going?’ I asked, already knowing the answer. ‘Are you winning?’

‘Kind of,’ he lied. ‘I haven’t done plastering for a while, but it’s just like riding a bike! You never forget.’

I put my roller down and went over to him, wrapping my arms around his waist. ‘Yeah, it looks like you’ve done a great job of plastering your boots. Real professional effort there!’

A blush crept into his neck and cheeks. He turned round and lightly kissed me on the lips.

‘Are you making fun of my DIY efforts, Miss Harper?’

‘You know, I think I might be.’

He kissed me again and I could feel him smile. He pulled me into him and his kisses deepened.

‘Only me!’ Mum’s voice forced us apart. ‘Just bringing you in some tea and cakes in case you need a break.’

‘Thanks Mrs H,’ Jake said, relieving her of the tray she was carrying. He shot me a knowing glance as he went to put them on the worktop.
We’ll pick up where we left off later
, it said.

‘It’s looking lovely in here now,’ Mum said, looking around at our handiwork. ‘You’ve done a really good job.’

‘Yeah I’ll be moving in before I know it!’ I looked at the newly painted kitchen and had to admit that it was starting to look and feel like a proper home.

‘I went past Jean’s little knick-knacks shop earlier and it was closed. Wonder where she’s got to?’

I smiled, remembering the look of hope on her face as the Closed sign had gone up. ‘She had to go and take care of something important.’

‘What have you been up to Lucy, meddling again?’ Mum grinned.

‘I prefer to call it spreading some cheer amongst the broken-hearted residents of Luna Bay. But yeah, I’ve been a nosy cow as usual.’

I allowed my mind to wander and imagine Jean standing in one of the rescue centres, looking for the perfect pooch to bring home and love. The thought warmed my heart and I couldn’t wait to continue my quest to help the rest of the members.

After the plastering became too much of a challenge for Jake, we decided to head over to the pub before he made any more mess.

‘Would you think me a smug bastard if I said I haven’t stopped smiling all day?’

‘Yeah, but I’m the same. We can be smug bastards together.’ I turned round and kissed him again. For the first time ever, I felt like I was learning how to be in love. It was an amazing feeling that made colours brighter, smiles wider and heartbeats faster.

He patted me on the shoulder and extracted himself from my embrace. ‘I’m gonna head up and get changed. Fancy heading to the beach? It’s dead in here and Nicole will be OK on her own for a while. Rachel’s dropping Maya off in a second too. She’s staying tonight.’

‘I’d love that.’ That dopey grin wasn’t coming off my face any time soon.

He stared at me for a second, wearing his you’re-the-best-thing-in-the-world smile, then disappeared upstairs.

I went to grab a seat and wait for Jake, when I saw a stunningly beautiful woman walk into the pub. She was around the same height as me with long mermaid-like blonde hair and huge sea-blue eyes. The white strappy sundress she was wearing made her look like some kind of Greek goddess and her skin had a caramel tan. In her arms, she was carrying a squirming, giggling Maya.

She made her way over to where I was standing. ‘Is Jake Hartley around?’

‘He’s upstairs just now,’ I replied. ‘You must be Rachel, right?’

She stuck a tanned and manicured hand out for me to shake. ‘That’s me! Rachel Taylor, nice to meet you. I take it he’s mentioned me then?’

My heart froze as I realised I was standing in front of
the
Rachel, the one who’d broken his heart just months before.

‘Oh! Lucy Harper, nice to meet you too. I-I’m a friend of Jake’s. Yeah, h-he’s mentioned you! Why don’t you go on up, he’s just in the flat.’

Way to go Lucy, you sound like you’ve just bumped into Sleeping Beauty at Disneyland.

‘Cheers!’

I craned my neck round to watch her head upstairs. She looked like a runway model, whereas I looked like I’d lost a fight in a paint factory. Duck-egg flecks were everywhere: clumps of it knotted my dark brown waves, it was spattered on my clothes and on my face. I looked awful in comparison to Rachel.

Moments later, she came down, having dropped her beautiful little girl off with her dad.

‘See you later Lucy. It was nice meeting you.’ She waved as she left and flipped some of her flowing golden locks over her shoulder.

‘You too, Rachel.’

I looked down at my paint-spattered dungarees and wished to God I’d smartened myself up before leaving the house.

Jake came bounding down the stairs, carrying Maya and a bucket and spade.

‘Ready to go?’ he asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I nodded. ‘Born ready!’

We took Maya down the road to beautiful Luna Bay Beach. As soon as Jake set her down on the sand, she giggled happily and patted it to feel its texture beneath her chubby little fingers.

‘It’s a joy watching her,’ he admitted, kneeling down next to her. ‘I moved here because of the beach but ironically, I hardly have time to bring her here.’

I took a seat on the sand and looked at them as they played. It really was perfect.

‘Shall we make a sandcastle Maya-moo?’ he suggested, picking up the brightly coloured bucket and spade he’d brought with him.

He put the spade in her hand and helped her scoop some sand into her bucket. She giggled at the scrunching noise the spade made as it dug into the wet sand.

‘Can I try?’ I asked.

‘Sure!’ He looked pleasantly surprised and let me take over guiding sand into Maya’s bucket.

‘Let’s make a princess castle, shall we?’

The little girl dropped the spade and became more interested in trying to have the sand for lunch.

‘No, no silly that’s for our castle!’ I laughed and wiped her face and hands so she didn’t get any in her eyes.

I caught Jake looking at me and blushed. ‘What is it?’

‘You’re a natural with her. It’s… it’s just really nice to watch.’

I smiled and went back to my quest of building a sandcastle with Maya. We eventually got enough sand in the bucket to make a decent one.

‘Are you ready?’ I took her hand and made her tap the top of the bucket. ‘One… two… three!’

I took the bucket off to reveal an almost-perfect sandcastle. A couple of the turrets had collapsed, but otherwise it was pretty bloody good.

‘Wow, that’s some princess castle! I’m very impressed.’ Jake reached over and gave us each a kiss on the cheek for our efforts.

I picked up some nearby shells and stuck them on to give it a little bit of decoration. ‘There, now it’s fit for Princess Maya-moo.’

Jake grinned and took my hand in his. ‘You might just be the best thing to happen to me for a long time, Lucy Harper.’

‘You’re not too bad yourself,’ I replied with a wink.

‘I mean it; you came out of nowhere and just made everything better. I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’d do it again and again.’

Every inch of me bristled with happiness. Somehow, things had spectacularly fallen into place and while I wasn’t sure how it had happened, I was glad it did.

Lying back on the sand I looked at the cloudless sky and allowed an unusual feeling to wash over me. It was the feeling of belonging. I had let Luna Bay and its Broken Hearts Book Club under my skin and into my heart. This gorgeous little corner of the world was woven into every fibre of me and I loved it more than I could ever express.

I wanted today to stretch on forever; a little slice of heaven that could be spun out for a lifetime.

Chapter Seventeen

For the next few days, it was heaven. Jake and I spent practically all of our free time together. We went out with Elle and George, who were still hopelessly besotted with one another. Throughout the meal, there had been more romantic glances and secret games of footsy under the table than in even the cheesiest romantic comedy. I could see some of the diners rolling their eyes at us, but I didn’t care. I was floating on a little cloud of bliss that nobody could knock me off of.

It was at that same meal I finally managed to talk to Elle about her guilt over the Vicky thing. Ever since we’d met up again, I’d wanted to talk to her about it but there hadn’t been a good time.

‘What happened to Vicky wasn’t your fault, you know,’ I said while we were in the ladies.

She stopped what she was doing and looked at me as though I’d just told her I was a sparkly vampire. ‘What makes you say that? I didn’t even try to stop her doing what she did; at least you had a go. I just stood back and watched it happen. I’ve been going round the world for the past eight bloody years trying to forget that, but I can’t.’

‘Don’t you think it’s time you gave yourself a break? I love you to bits and I know how much this has been eating you up, but it shouldn’t. If anyone should feel guilty, it’s me. Since we met up again, I’ve noticed you’ve not been the same as you used to be. You used to be so confident and outgoing and you are when you’re around people, but I can tell it’s an act. When you think no one’s looking, you switch it off and I see how sad you really are. It’s time to stop now. You truly did nothing wrong.’

She sighed and nodded. ‘You’re right. It’s just when I think back to that time, all I remember is standing doing nothing while you tried to help her. I was completely helpless and it kills me that I didn’t do more that night. No amount of travelling can take the guilt away, you know. Believe me I’ve tried. The whole confidence thing
is
an act; I thought if I tried to act cool and confident, maybe it would stop me feeling so rubbish.’ She looked at me, blinking back tears and trying to smile. That was just like Elle, always trying to be brave and strong for everyone. She looked down at her fingers as she knotted them together to distract herself. ‘Do you really think it’s time to let it go?’

I grinned and linked my arm with her. ‘Elle, you are and always have been the coolest person I’ve ever met. You don’t have to put on an act to make me think that. And yeah, I do think it’s time to forgive yourself. You deserve to be happy and there’s a guy waiting for you out there who personally told me he’d crawl through pig shit to get a date with you. It doesn’t get better than that.’

She smiled and I could swear I saw her breathe a sigh of relief. ‘Well that’s a new one on me! You should stop punishing yourself too for it, by the way. It was an accident, you couldn’t have known what was going to happen.’

I laughed, unhooked my arm from hers and headed for the door. The less said about my part in the accident, the better.

‘You know,’ she said, stopping me in my tracks, ‘you’re pretty bloody cool yourself, Lucy Harper.’

Aside from living out every Richard Curtis movie ever made, I also stepped up my efforts to help the members of the Broken Hearts Book Club.

Cath and Frank were next on my list. Anybody could tell how happy they’d make each other, so I decided to give them a little nudge in the right direction. The opportunity presented itself when I saw them chatting in Frank’s corner shop. Jean was there too, looking a lot happier than I’d seen her in recent times. Operation Broken Hearts Book Club was definitely working.