The Secret Seaside Escape by Heidi Swain

Author:Heidi Swain
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2020-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Having finally started to get to grips with my own problems, I discovered I couldn’t resist the urge to help certain other people with theirs. Having seen first-hand the impact Joe’s presence was having on Sam, I became resolved to try to do something about it. Apparently, being involved in breathing new life into ailing local businesses and reinvigorating the entertainment scene was no longer enough; I was now intent on trying to mend lives and heal rifts too.

‘This is the last of them,’ I told Sophie when I delivered the final batch of flyers for the beach party. ‘But I can arrange to get more if you run out.’

She picked one up and read it again.

‘I can’t imagine there’s anyone left within a five-mile radius who hasn’t got one or seen one now,’ she chuckled. ‘Or noticed the posters that have popped up everywhere.’

She was probably right; throughout the week the flyers had been disappearing as fast as I could hand them out. I had even spotted a few taped on the inside of car windows, so word was definitely spreading.

‘Everyone’s very excited about it, aren’t they?’ she said, a wide smile lighting up her face. ‘It’s going to be a busy night.’

Even if half those expected turned up it was going to be an exceptionally busy night.

‘I just hope the weather doesn’t let us down,’ I frowned, ‘and that as many people turn up to clean the beach the day before as come out to celebrate the solstice the night after.’

‘I’m sure it will all be fine,’ she said reassuringly. ‘You worry too much, Tess.’

She was probably right, but my experience of the industry I had until recently been operating in, together with working for a perfectionist like my father, meant that I always checked, checked and then re-checked every last detail, even those that I couldn’t control, like the weather, so it was force of habit really.

‘I’m just thinking about Hope,’ I said. ‘She’s really thrown herself into setting up the beach clean initiative so she deserves it to be a success. If it takes off it could have a long-lasting impact on the landscape around here and even further afield.’

Sophie nodded in agreement.

‘That’s typical of my girl,’ she said proudly, ‘she always has to be doing something.’

She sounded a lot like me in that sense.

‘But you were the one who came up with the idea, weren’t you?’ Sophie reminded me.

‘Sort of,’ I said, ‘but it had been on Hope’s mind for ages. My mention of it just got her fired up. She’s the real brains behind it. She’s the one who has actually made it happen. Is she around, by the way?’ I asked. ‘I need to run something by her.’

‘She’s out the back. You can go through.’

I found her in Sophie’s office, surrounded by spreadsheets and notes.

‘All right?’ I asked. ‘I can come back later if I’m disturbing you.’

‘No,’ she said, ‘it’s fine. I was about to take a quick break.’

‘What are you doing?’

‘Working on my business plan,’ she said seriously.

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