‘At least I don’t have that problem,’ she then shared. ‘I’ve never known my dad.’

I thought of all the extra complications my relationship with my own father was currently facing.

‘At this point in time,’ I said, ‘I wish I didn’t know mine.’

‘You wouldn’t say that if you were in my shoes.’

There was no sting to her tone, but I felt uncomfortable nonetheless.

‘Sorry,’ I said, ‘that was insensitive of me.’

Hope didn’t say anything and I realized that it really was a terrible thing to have blurted out, even if I had momentarily meant it.

‘Have you and your mum lived in Wynmouth long?’ I asked, keen to make amends.

‘Quite a while,’ she nodded. ‘Since I was about thirteen.’

‘And you’re obviously here to stay,’ I said, waving to Sophie, who I could see carrying drinks out to customers.

‘Definitely,’ Hope agreed, the smile back on her face. ‘We’re going nowhere. This place is our for ever home.’

I felt a little envious to hear her sound so settled and sure.

‘And you want to watch out, Tess,’ she nudged, now also waving at her mother.

‘What do you mean?’

‘If you aren’t careful,’ she laughed, ‘you could end up staying here for ever too!’

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I spent that evening alone in the cottage, but not because I was trying to avoid seeing Sam and Hope together. Yes, I might have, mistakenly as it turned out, felt attracted to Sam, but now I knew he had a girlfriend it was all forgotten. Hope was so much fun and I knew that my friendship with her, and in turn her mother, was going to far outlast any holiday fling.

My self-imposed isolation was more about delving deeper into Mum’s diary. I was already in a temper with Dad so thought I might as well find out a bit more about what had happened in the run-up to Mum’s untimely death. I planned to read the whole thing, but just a few pages in, I decided my stomach wasn’t up to it and banished the lot back to the drawer again. According to what Mum had written, not even her friends were excluded from Dad’s attention. She hadn’t gone as far as naming names but there was enough detail to know that he had crossed the line on more than one occasion.

I tried to put it all out of my mind again and went up to bed, this time not thinking about Sam, but about something that had really happened during my last holiday in Wynmouth. After such an emotionally mixed-up day, I had decided that tomorrow I would do something cheering. I would retrace my steps to the beach huts and anchor my thoughts in my memories as opposed to the pub fantasy I had cooked up and Mum’s tragically sad autobiography.