‘Are you all right, Sam?’ Zennor asked. She was already home, putting fresh fleece in the pig palace when Sam walked into the sitting room.
She collapsed down on the sofa. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’ she replied, more sharply than she’d meant, so she tempered it with a smile. Gabe was back, like a spectre – only a living, breathing, vibrant spectre who’d turned her life upside down again and brought so many memories tumbling back.
She had tried to calm down before walking inside. The shock after so long had rattled her far more than she’d expected, but she didn’t want to bring her raging emotions into the house. She really wanted to put things into perspective for Zennor’s sake as much as her own, but it was harder than she’d anticipated.
‘You’re all red in the face and you look as if you’re ready to murder someone. Even your hair means business.’ Zennor pulled off the Marigolds.
‘What?’ One hand instinctively went to her new haircut. ‘Oh. My hair … yes …’
‘Makes you look professional. Scarily professional.’
‘Thanks,’ said Sam. Trust Zennor to make her smile even after an encounter like the one she’d just had. She decided to come clean. ‘I … um … I saw Gabe on my way up here.’
Zennor dropped the gloves onto the bag of bedding. ‘Oh my God. Not at Clifftop House? He really is moving in, then?’
‘Yes. I drove his removal van up to the gates.’ She finally allowed herself a grim smile at the memory of the driver’s face before bracing herself for her sister’s reaction.
Zennor squealed in horror. ‘What the actual fuck? I didn’t see you come past?’
‘That’s because we didn’t. The driver got stuck on Stippy Stappy Corner, so I took the scenic route behind the garages. I expect he and Gabe are wondering how they’re going to get back out right now.’
Zennor gasped. ‘You’re wicked,’ she said, but her eyes were gleaming. ‘Bet the van is stuck forever.’ She sighed. ‘Oh God, I can’t stand the idea of Gabe living next door to us.’
Sam affected a shrug. ‘I really don’t care.’
‘You do care, Sam. No matter what you say about Gabe.’ Zennor sat next to Sam and Gareth ran into her lap and let out a series of high-pitched squeaks. ‘Oh my God, Gareth is chirping! That means he’s excited and happy.’ She nuzzled Gareth’s fur.
‘I’m glad someone is … and you’re right. I care very much about Gabe coming back here. I thought I’d prepared myself for seeing him again, but I obviously haven’t.’
Zennor stroked the pig as she searched Sam’s face. ‘How did he look? Like he does on the telly?’
Sam stopped. How had Gabe looked? Gorgeous, sexy. That dark black hair, his olive skin. He was carrying a little more weight than when she’d last seen him, but so was she. He’d been lean to the point of skinny even in his early twenties, probably because he’d shot up to over six feet in his late teens. His shoulders and chest had broadened and the grey T-shirt he’d been wearing had showed off his upper arms perfectly. Cooking could be hard physical work, as she well knew, and Gabe clearly hadn’t let himself over indulge despite being surrounded by gourmet food.
She shrugged. ‘I didn’t take too much notice. I was driving the van.’
Zennor frowned. She probably didn’t believe a word. She started to interrogate Sam: ‘So, you didn’t notice him or speak to him?’
‘Not much. I had no reason to once I’d parked the van outside the gates.’
‘So, you just said “hi” and “bye” and left?’
‘I said I’d see him at the next committee meeting. What else could I say?’
‘Oh, I dunno. How about “why did you shop our brother to the police and ruin his life?” That would have been a start.’
‘I could have said that, I guess, but the van driver was there. Zen, I … have so much I could say to him that actually I’m not going to say any of it. I’m going to be professional and polite and have the absolute minimum possible to do with him. Chloe knows we were a thing once and you know how helpful she is: she’s already offered to deal with him on a day-to-day basis. She fancies him anyway.’
‘Urgh.’ Zennor wrinkled her nose. ‘She obviously doesn’t know him!’
‘Now, come on. He hasn’t done anything to her family, has he? As far as I know, he’s never done the same to anyone else. It’s a personal thing between him and us.’
‘I expect everyone thinks he’s a hero for coming back to “save” the festival,’ Zennor said, then stuck her tongue out like she used to when presented with a plate containing the tiniest hint of a green vegetable. Ironic, now she was a vegetarian, thought Sam, and had to smile.
‘Why are you smiling?’ Zennor asked.
‘Nothing. You being so protective. I thought that was my role as big sister.’
‘It was once. Not now, I’m all grown up.’ Zennor hugged her. ‘Shall I make the drinks? I’ve got a lentil curry out of the freezer ready for the oven. We can have some couscous salad with it. Won’t take five minutes to rustle up.’
Sam stretched out and sighed. It was true that food was comforting. Like their mother, she and Zennor had always enjoyed cooking and nurturing the rest of the family. And, however cheesy, it didn’t really matter what was put on the table when it was served with love. ‘Sounds delicious. Thanks, Zen,’ she said, adding a smile to show how much she appreciated coming home after a long day at work to a meal that had been provided by someone else.
With Zennor rustling around the kitchen, Sam tried to zone out, intent on practising the mindfulness that Zennor herself was into. However, today’s encounter with Gabe had been too momentous to banish from her mind, no matter how often she tried to ‘re-centre’.
Gabe’s appearance had been like a flood tide, bringing the flotsam and jetsam of her past life with it.
She closed her eyes, listening to the sound of Zennor gently humming against the occasional chink of pots and cupboard doors opening. She thought back to the days when Zennor used to refuse anything even resembling a plant.
That was back in the day when their mother had been alive. Their mum had brought the three children up on her own after their father had decided to leave the lot of them and go live in Brazil with a dancer he’d met in a dodgy club. At least that was where he said he was going. He simply vanished off the face of the earth as far as his family were concerned. However, Roz made the best of it.
It had been a devastating blow when Roz had been killed in a road accident when Sam was nineteen, Zennor was fourteen and Ryan twenty-one. It wasn’t easy to get social services to agree that Zennor could stay with Sam and Ryan. Sam was a trainee baker at the time while Ryan had got his first job on the trawler. Not that he kept it for long. He decided that a life at sea wasn’t for him and left to work in a bookies in Penzance before moving to his ‘management position’ in the arcade.
That’s really when all the trouble started; Sam was now convinced that Ryan had never really come to terms with their mum’s sudden death. It was only after she died that Ryan’s ‘issues’ came to a head and it all blew up.
Sam had started going out with Gabe six months before Roz died, though she’d had her eye on him for far longer, of course. She’d noticed him when it seemed other girls didn’t know he existed. The serious, intense boy in the chip shop, who served up the meals with barely a smile. Like he was there as a penance. She now knew why. Gabe adored his parents, but felt under pressure to take over the business, when his dreams lay in going to university.
The irony was that in the end, he’d set aside his academic studies to train as a chef. It had obviously worked out, judging by the fact he’d rented Clifftop House, and by the customised Range Rover Sam had glimpsed through the gates – not to mention the two restaurants he owned in London. Now it appeared he was launching his takeover of Porthmellow. What if his rental of Clifftop House wasn’t only temporary and he intended to move in permanently? Surely not? Sam shuddered inwardly. Well, she’d find out soon enough and she’d just have to deal with it.
‘Here you go.’
Sam opened her eyes to find Zennor standing over her with a large pink gin with strawberries in it. ‘Dinner’s in the oven. You weren’t asleep, were you?’
‘No. I am a bit knackered though. I went into Stargazey early this morning as we had a big order for a festival.’
‘You work too hard.’
‘I’ve no choice. Who’s going to pay the bills? Not that you don’t contribute your fair share. I didn’t mean that,’ Sam added hastily, accepting the drink from Zennor. It was a huge relief that she, Zennor and Ryan all jointly inherited the cottage after their mum’s death, so there was no rent, but there were still all the other usual bills to pay, not to mention food – and gin, which right now, felt like an essential.
She couldn’t deny she was tired though. The festival was a major commitment on top of the business and she had to admit that Gabe’s reappearance had been on her mind at night, and she’d lost sleep over it.
She decided to actively switch focus onto Zennor’s problems, both work-related and Ben-related, since Sam knew that the two were intertwined.
‘Thanks for sorting out the new festival marketing stuff so fast. Was Ben OK with making all the changes?’
‘Oh, he was fine. You know Ben.’ Zennor sipped her cocktail. ‘He doesn’t say much. He prefers to get on with things in his own way.’
Sam did know, but she also worried about Ben. He was helpful and hardworking and never moaned or blew his own trumpet. Sam thought he was too quiet and that it would be far too easy to take him for granted. Zennor was a chatterbox and not afraid to say how she felt but they were both quirky souls so perhaps that’s how they’d ended up in business together and it seemed to work. She and Ben even dressed a little like each other with their his and hers Doc Martens. They might have been twins and perhaps that was the key: they were too content with being surrogate brother and sister to be boyfriend and girlfriend. Sam knew Zennor had harboured hopes of something more but perhaps she’d decided their friendship was too precious to risk.
‘Are you both … OK?’
‘OK?’ Zennor scrunched up her nose. ‘Is this going to turn into a birds and the bees talk, because if it is, you’re a bit too late and Mum got there first a long time ago.’
Sam laughed, but cringed inwardly. ‘Not the birds and bees. It’s only that … well, I’ve been so wrapped up in the festival and now this Gabe thing, that I’ve probably not been the best big sister lately.’
‘You’ve always been wrapped up in the Gabe thing.’
Sam opened her mouth to protest, but Zennor cut in. ‘Only joking. Partly. I do like Ben. A lot, but as you know he’s shown no sign of wanting to be anything but mates.’
‘Is he gay?’
Zennor sprayed pink gin everywhere. ‘No. I mean. Oh God, I have asked myself that many many times, because we’ve known each other so long, but I don’t think so. He’s had a few girlfriends over the years.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘His sister told me he’d been out with a couple of women, but no one lately. I sometimes wonder if he’s asexual.’
‘Wow. Is anyone asexual?’
‘Apparently. I googled it. You can be.’
‘Life would be less complicated,’ said Sam.
‘I’m not sure,’ said Zennor. ‘I wonder if he’s just terrified of me. I think he might see me as sexual predator … I think we’ll just go on being friends until we’re as old as Troy and Evie. We’ll probably be riding to the bingo together in our buggies one day.’
Sam laughed but couldn’t think of a single reply that revealed that yes, actually, Zennor might well be right. Maybe Ben was terrified of Zennor in a sexual way, but if so, there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.
They tucked into their meal. Sam found herself having to force down each morsel even though it was delicious. Despite all her resolutions, she couldn’t stop thinking about her earlier encounter with Gabe. Zennor had asked the wrong question. It hadn’t been the way that Gabe had looked that had disturbed Sam so much. It had been the way he’d made her feel.