Part 34 (1/2)

'Erm ...' Loveday looked at her watch again. 'As long as I'm home in the next hour.'

'Just ten minutes. Come up to my office.'

'What a view you have from up here. Never seen it at night before. You must be almost as high as St Peter's steeple.'

'Not quite.' He handed her a tumbler of Scotch. Loveday noticed that inroads had definitely been made into the bottle, and she thought that Jesse looked a little flushed. 'Sorry, no ice. Cheers.' They clinked gla.s.ses.

'Cheers,' said Loveday.

Jesse continued. 'The planners were very strict with us. They made it clear they didn't want us to ”impede the view”. Which is why we made it pretty much entirely of gla.s.s.'

He sat down behind his desk and Loveday sat opposite him. Two old friends comfortable in each other's company.

'I like your Greer's new car.'

'I don't think she does.'

'Yes, she does. She was loving filling it with all her knick-knacks.'

'By knick-knacks do you mean the very latest on the front line of the style war that is raging across the land, in houses that are too big and too expensive, lived in by people who have more money than sense?'

Loveday giggled. It had been a long time since she had had her sus.h.i.+ lunch with Greer and the whisky was leaking warmly into her veins. 'That's very unkind of you.'

'But true.' Jesse motioned at the bottle of Scotch. 'Just a little one for the road?'

'Just a little one.' She watched as Jesse poured. 'But your house is beautiful, ain't it? Greer has done a wonderful job. It's so welcoming and comfortable. I'm not house-proud like that,' said Loveday, taking her shoes off and rubbing one foot against the other. 'With my three and Mickey it'd be like King Canute trying to keep the tide from flooding in.'

Jesse leant forward on the desk. 'How is Mickey?'

'He's great. Loving his job. Loving working with Hal and teaching him the ropes like his dad taught him. I tell you, we Chandlers have got a lot to thank you Behennas for.'

Jesse leant back again and relaxed into his chair. 'Our dads were all mates, weren't they. It's keeping up tradition. Mickey is my best mate. Hal is Freddie's best mate. And so it will go on, as long as Trevay has a fis.h.i.+ng industry.'

Loveday nodded her agreement. 'And don't forget the Clovellys. Without Greer's side, neither of us would be sitting in this office drinking whisky.'

Jesse turned his chair to look at Trevay again. 'You're right. Mick and I would be working our a.r.s.es off up at the sheds.' He sat thinking for a few moments. Loveday shut her eyes, giving in to the whisky, but not to her memory of her and Jesse in the sheds.

Jesse broke the silence. 'I miss those days. Just me and Mickey. You and Greer. No kids. No responsibilities.' She heard the faintest squeak as he spun his chair back to her. Her eyelids were heavy and she didn't have the energy to open them.

'I wish I'd have married you.' He said the words boldly into the still air between them.

She sat still, eyes still shut.

'Did you hear me?'

'Yes.'

'We'd have been happy.'

'Stop it.'

'I know we'd have been happy. That night. In the sheds. When it was snowing. You made me so very happy.'

She opened her eyes and looked at her hand holding the whisky gla.s.s. 'Don't talk about it. I don't even think about it.'

'Don't you?' He leant forward again across the desk.

'No.'

'I don't believe you. I was your first and you and I were happy that night.'

'We were p.i.s.sed. And I think you may be a bit p.i.s.sed now.' Loveday stood up and put her gla.s.s down. 'I'm off home. To Mickey.'

Jesse stood up and walked round the desk, blocking her path. 'I've never stopped loving you, Loveday.'

'You love Greer.' She sidestepped him but he was too quick for her.

'Kiss me,' he begged.

She leant forward and kissed his cheek. 'Night night, Jesse. See you tomorrow.'

She collected up her coat and bag and walked out of the office without a backward glance.

32.

Early spring 2014 Lifeboat training was always on a Wednesday night and, on this particular evening, the boat-house was crowded.

The star of the show was, as always, the boat herself. Sitting in the centre of the spotless boat-house, her paintwork gleaming, The Spirit of Trevay sat on the runners that sent her through the doors, down the slipway and into the waiting sea. All around her were railings to keep her fans close, but not close enough. Small boys, star-struck mums and men who could only dream of being one of the elite hung over these railings in wonder.

Jesse, in his capacity as c.o.xswain, was speaking from the deck of the boat.

'And so, ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure we welcome our three new crew members to The Spirit of Trevay. Would you put your hands together for Miss Katie Farrow! Come up here, Katie.' A pretty blonde girl in her twenties stepped up and faced the crowd, smiling.

'Give us a smile, Katie.' In the middle of the crowd, Katie's mum took a photo of her daughter.

'Muuum,' said Katie, blus.h.i.+ng, before trying to melt back into the throng. Jesse stopped her.

'Oh, no you don't. You stay right here, young lady. I want all three of my new crew to have a picture with the lot of us.' Katie obeyed.

Jesse spoke up again. 'And 'tis with enormous pride I welcome another youngster. His dad, Mickey, has been the Spirit's mechanic for as long as I've been c.o.xswain, and his dad before him the same, so put your hands together for the third generation of Chandlers to serve on the lifeboat: Hal Chandler.' Hal loped up to Jesse. With his height and gangly limbs he towered over everyone. From the back of the room, Loveday gave a whoop and a whistle through her teeth, whilst clinging onto Mickey's arm. Becca and Bea leapt up and down with excitement and chanted Hal's name, falling into giggles when Loveday shushed them.

'And finally,' said Jesse, 'and I don't know 'ow he got on the crew, but I'd like to welcome my own son, Freddie Behenna.'