The Broken Hearts Book Club (6 page)

His eyes flicked upwards to look into mine and for a brief moment I could see raw pain and sadness that I’d seen before in the members of the Broken Hearts Book Club. Before I could even begin to wonder about it, he’d plastered a weak smile to his face and was trying to look like nothing was wrong.

‘A million and one reasons that I won’t bore you with now. You’re making it hard for me to do my usual cheery barman routine, you know.’

‘Sorry. I’ll bugger off and leave you alone if you like?’ I hoped he’d say no so I could delve more into what was bothering him.

‘Don’t be silly, it’s not every day we have Luna Bay’s Joni Mitchell in The Purple Partridge. I’d like to make the most of you while you’re here.’

‘I prefer Lucy, you know. Joni Mitchell’s just my stage name.’

When he looked at me, I stuck my tongue out.

‘Lucy it is then. Your wish is my command, o talented songstress.’

My cheeks burned furiously under his gaze. When he turned on his charm, he really was quite lovely. You’d never guess at how sad he was, that was for certain.

‘O talented songstress eh? I could get used to that! Now we just need to find a name for you. Let’s see…’ I drummed my fingers on the bar and pretended to think long and hard. ‘How about the Lord of Luna Bay?’

He grinned, but shook his head, ‘Jake will do fine, Lord Hartley if you really fancy it. In fact, what about Your Highness? I’m the king of all I survey. Which isn’t much but there you go,’ he said, suddenly dropping the bravado and giving me a sheepish smile.

‘And yet you still need a miracle worker. Why’s that?’

His easy smile fell away and was replaced with an expression etched with sorrow and worry. He heaved a sigh and looked at me, probably realising that my line of casual questioning wasn’t going to let up until he confessed.

‘Well it could have something to do with the fact that there are livelier morgues than this place! Take a look around, how many people do you see in here?’

I cast a discreet glance around the main bar. There were around ten people, including George.

‘It’s not exactly buzzing, is it?’ I said with a grimace.

‘Exactly, and this is an evening – so it should be packed! If you’ve got any spare miracles lying around in your back pocket, toss ‘em my way. I need one!’

‘Oh, but there’s loads of things you could do,’ I replied, feeling the cogs in my brain starting to whirr. ‘Why not have a quiz night or something? Those are always popular, and I could help you organise one if you want.’ I blushed and hurried on, hoping he didn’t notice, ‘Or you could do an event that involves the whole community, show them how amazing this place is.’

Looking back up at Jake I saw his face twisted into a grimace and watched as he concentrated even harder on wiping the bar down.

‘No offence, but it’s going to take a lot more than asking people what the capital of Slovakia is to pull this place out of the shit. You haven’t lived here for eight years; things have changed, love. There’s no such thing as a community banding together to save a local business any more. I think you need a reality check.’

I narrowed my eyes. This was not what I’d been expecting after our easy banter and I couldn’t help but feel hurt. ‘I was just trying to help!’ I whispered.

‘Well unless you’ve got a magic wand in your back pocket that’ll stop this place from shutting down, you can’t.’ And with that he stalked off to serve a customer at the far end of the bar, leaving me shocked.

I found George and we went over to an available table. While he chatted away happily, I stared into my glass and brooded.

‘OK, what’s up?’ he asked. ‘Either I’m boring you rigid about the audition I went to last month or there’s something bothering you.’

I sighed and took a long sip of my drink. ‘Me and Jake didn’t exactly hit it off just then. Well we
did
before he decided to bite my head off for trying to help.’

George frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

‘This place isn’t doing as well as it could be, so I suggested some things he could do to get people through the door and he wasn’t exactly grateful.’ I looked over at him as he served the few remaining customers at the bar. ‘It’s a shame because
look
at this place. It’s gorgeous, it should be full to the rafters every night.’

George threw me one of his million-watt smiles. ‘You’re right; a place like this should be doing roaring business. A few events in here and there’d be a real buzz about it. If he doesn’t want to listen to you, that’s up to him, but for what it’s worth I think you’re right.’

The cogs in my brain began to whirr again as more ideas formed. The pub was pretty inside, if a little dated with its mahogany wood and fraying carpets. All Jake needed was some promotional activities that would drive people through the door. My brain buzzed with excitement as I considered the possibilities: cocktail nights, quizzes, open days where the whole community could get involved. Not that he deserved any of my help or experience, especially after being so rude to me. Then again, the place had so much potential…

Just you hold on a minute
, my brain said,
some insane part of you might be telling you to stay here, but you’ll have a cottage to renovate and a book club to lead. You’ll be plenty busy without launching a campaign to save the local pub and help its very delectable owner, who doesn’t seem to want your help anyway. And you don’t even know if you’re going to stick around yet. There’s no use getting attached to anyone or anything
.

Yet I couldn’t deny that the old magic I’d once felt for Luna Bay was coming back. I was slowly remembering why I loved the place so much, and that was a very dangerous thing indeed.

The evening wore on and soon it was time for George and me to leave. We’d spent what felt like a lifetime discussing the Broken Hearts Book Club, its members and whether or not I could and should take over as the leader. By the end of our chat, we were quite a few drinks down but no closer to a solution.

‘See ya Joni!’ Jake said as we left, smiling what looked like an apology. ‘Sorry, I mean Lucy!’

I did what I hoped was a coy little wave: nothing special, just a waggle of the fingers followed by a smile. When I saw him return it, my heart did a hop, skip and a jump. His mood had obviously brightened up since he’d almost torn my head off.

We stepped out onto the street – completely unaware of what was about to happen – and George and I began our slow, precarious descent down the hill towards my parents’ cottage.

‘Well, well, well, some things never change. Lucy Harper’s still leaving a pub at silly o’clock on a Friday night!’

The voice behind me was so familiar yet shocking that I wasn’t sure whether to do a happy dance or take my chances and run. I hadn’t heard it in far too long for a very sad reason. When I spun round, I saw my old friend Elle standing in front of me. Everything about her remained unchanged: her long blonde hair, slim frame and creamy skin tied together with a mischievous smile.

‘Oh my god! Elle bloody Nicholls!’ I had to stop my jaw from dropping; she was the last person I’d expected to see in Luna Bay. The part of me that had been friends with her for almost twenty years wanted to run up and hug her, but I remembered how and why we’d drifted apart. So I settled for a cautious wave.

I was glad to see she looked equally shell shocked to see me. ‘Tell me about it; last I heard you were down in London being a megastar! What’s brought you back to this neck of the woods?’

‘Nana Lily’s funeral; she died last week.’ Saying the words stung and I had to stop a fresh bank of tears from brewing at the back of my eyes. ‘How about you?’

Elle clapped her perfectly manicured hands to her mouth. ‘Nana Lily’s dead? Oh god, I’m so sorry Luce. I remember eating her fairy cakes by the skip load when I was a kid.’

The mention of her famous fairy cakes made a lump rise in my throat. Elle reached over and hugged me then dropped her arms as though something in the distance had distracted her. When I turned to see what it was, I realised it was George.

‘Who’s your friend?’ she asked, taking a few steps towards him. ‘I’m Elle Nicholls, Lucy and I are old friends.’

‘I’m George Molloy,’ he replied, extending a hand for her to shake. ‘I’m Lucy’s flatmate in London.’

‘Lucky Lucy.’ She flashed him her million-dollar smile and turned to me. ‘If you’re bringing friends like these up from the big, bad city, I’m even happier you’re back! That’s settled it, we
have
to go for a catch-up drink this week! What do you say?’

I knew what a night out with the human tornado that was Elle Nicholls was like; it could be accurately described as the Yorkshire version of
The Hangover
. I also knew that she was feeling far more awkward about seeing me than she was letting on. How could she not be, given what had forced us apart?

‘I don’t know about that,’ I joked. ‘Nights out with you were…
eventful
, if I remember!’

Elle snorted, put her arm around me then removed it after seeing how awkward physical contact made our odd little reunion. ‘I’m just back from dicking around Australia and I haven’t seen you in forever. Trust me, we’re having a drink tomorrow and I’m kidnapping you so I can force-feed you cake and talk about old times. We’ll meet in the Moonlight Café tomorrow lunchtime OK?’

Before I could object, she announced that we’d also be meeting in The Purple Partridge sometime that week then scuttled off up the hill.

‘So that’s your old friend then?’ George stared after her. ‘She’s… she’s something else.’

‘Yup, she’s a one-off,’ I agreed.

The next day I met Elle at the café for cake. We exchanged slightly awkward smiles and sat at a table in the middle of the room. Walking in after so long felt strange, but the smell of freshly baked bread and cakes brought back a whole host of memories. I smiled at Diane but she didn’t return it. I guessed we wouldn’t be exchanging Christmas cards any time soon…

‘So, long time no see!’ I said with a bright smile. ‘You said you’d been travelling? Where have you been?’

‘Here, there and everywhere,’ she said, folding her arms tightly across her chest. ‘After everything that happened… I had to get away, you know? I suppose you were the same.’

I nodded ruefully. ‘First chance I got, packed my bags and headed to London. Haven’t been back since, not even for Christmas. Mum and Dad either came to me or just sent presents when they couldn’t. I came back for Nana Lily’s funeral and now it looks like I might be staying! I suppose you have to come home eventually, eh?’

‘Yeah. I got tired of the whole jet-set lifestyle and fancied a change of pace. Thought I’d give good old Luna Bay a second chance, see if I can’t make a life for myself here.’

We looked at each other, both trying to avoid the elephant in the room: the Vicky thing. It was impossible; those events were like an invisible thread that bound us together yet forced us apart. We
had
to talk about it.

Luckily for me, Elle went first. ‘You know, when I was in Australia, I couldn’t help thinking how much Vicky would’ve loved it. She’d have adored the sunshine and the surfer boys, wouldn’t she?’

I nodded and found myself smiling. I hadn’t done that when talking about my old best friend for a long time. It felt good.

‘She really would’ve! Remember when we took that school trip to Cornwall and she tried to convince this group of surfers she was eighteen so they’d buy her a round of drinks at the beach bar? Miss Rivers went ape shit when she found out!’

Elle screwed her eyes shut and giggled. ‘Oh God yeah! She tried to have a go at surfing too and ended up falling flat on her face. That didn’t stop her though; she gave it another try and almost ended up being taken out by that huge wave. Remember that bloke with the curly blonde hair had to dive in and get her? She pretended to be unconscious so he’d give her mouth to mouth.’

‘I remember all the boys liked her,’ I said with a sad smile. ‘And you, come to that! I was always the shy one who never got a look in for my two gorgeous best mates.’

‘You had your fair share if I remember, Miss Harper! Once you accepted that it was possible for a bloke to like you.’

Now that the floodgates had opened, loads of happy memories of Vicky came racing to the surface. It made me feel better to remember her as my fun-loving, carefree best friend who’d relished anything life had thrown at her.

‘She was always doing daft things,’ I said. ‘She was the wild child out of the three of us. One of a kind, our Vicky. Always coming up with some hare-brained scheme and trying to get us to go along with it… I miss her, you know. Every day, I think about her and wonder if she’s happy or not.’

The air between us turned distinctly sombre and I felt like an idiot for ruining our trip down Memory Lane.

‘Me too,’ Elle admitted with a little sigh. ‘That night still preys on my mind sometimes too. If we could’ve stopped her –’

I put my hands on top of hers. ‘It was
my
fault OK, not yours. You’ve got nothing to blame yourself for. It’s
me
who should feel guilty and I do. Every single day for the past eight years, I’ve beaten myself up about it. I should never have even brought the vodka that night and I should’ve tried harder to stop her. I-I should’ve got help, but I didn’t honestly think any harm was going to come to Vicky. That was all on me. You did nothing wrong.’

She looked up at me with sad eyes. ‘If I could go back and undo it all, I would. That night should never have happened. And I-I didn’t mean to go weird on you afterwards, you know. It was just such a horrible situation that I shut myself off from everyone. Didn’t know how to deal with it, really.’

I shook my head and smiled, squeezing her hands. It killed me to think Elle had been carrying around so much guilt for so many years, but I also felt a tiny bit relieved to know I hadn’t been alone. There had been someone else in the world who’d felt as awful as I had about what had happened to Vicky.

‘That doesn’t matter now. At the time, I thought you hated me for what I’d done, but you’re right. It was a bloody weird time and neither of us knew how to cope. But we’re back now and we’ve got a second chance at being friends. What do you say?’