Make or Break at the Lighthouse B & B by Portia MacIntosh

Author:Portia MacIntosh [MacIntosh, Portia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2019-12-24T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

It’s been a few years since I visited the Hopeful Ghost pub – I think it might have been Christmas three years ago. I come home every year to spend Christmas with my family, but I always head back to London to spend New Year with friends.

This pub is one of the few things in Marram Bay that moves with the times. Everywhere else prides itself on being classic, which is what the tourists want. When it comes to the pub though, no one seems to want a little old bloke pub full of guys with flat caps and their elderly dogs. Instead, the Ghost is a super modern gastro pub, with shabby chic, intentionally mismatched furnishings, uber cool folk bands and weird and wonderful drinks – more than your average pub. Being the home of Westwood Farm, the Ghost has the widest variety of their fruity booze I have seen – fruit ciders, fruit-infused spirits, fruity wines.

I’m sitting by the lovely warm fire (the harsh January weather feels even harsher up here, by the sea) sipping on an alcohol-free elderflower cider, waiting for Dean to arrive. He’s been working this evening, but we absolutely need to talk about what he wants to get out of our sessions, so I agreed to meet him here when he finishes. My mum dropped me off, wheeled me in, and told me to message Will to make sure he knew nothing funny was going on, that it was strictly work. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I haven’t heard from him – I suppose he’s busy at work. That, or last night was just so embarrassing he doesn’t want to see me.

I notice Dean walk in. He glances around the room and gives me a thumbs-up before heading to the bar to grab a drink.

‘How’s it going?’ he asks, sitting down at the table next to me.

‘Not bad,’ I say, shuffling in my wheelchair.

‘Can’t we get you some crutches?’ Dean says.

I can’t help but pull a puzzled face at his use of ‘we’.

‘I have a check-up soon. I’m going to ask,’ I reply. ‘They said I have to keep my weight off it, and the cast is so heavy, my boyfriend negotiated to get me a chair. I think he was worried he’d have to help me if I had crutches.’

Dean looks at me for a second.

‘Ex-boyfriend,’ I correct myself. That must be what gave him pause.

‘So it’s a recent break-up?’ he asks.

‘Yes,’ I reply. ‘But, in hindsight, it was always going to happen. We casually dated for too long, made it official but still didn’t see each other much. He had work and … things.’

‘Ah, things,’ he repeats back to me. ‘I understand things.’

‘Well, we’re not here to talk about my love life, we’re here to talk about yours,’ I remind him. ‘Have … things ever got in the way of your relationships?’

Finally, things make sense. If Dean’s wife cheated on him, it’s no wonder he’s struggling to get back into a relationship.

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