Valentine’s Day at the Café at the End of the Pier Read online

  ‘Thanks, Gran.’

  Arthur joined them after he’d rung up another order on the till, this time for Eddie, a teacher at the local school who had a passion for the job that Jo had never experienced herself. Talking to him had helped her quickly realise she’d made the right choice in walking away and coming back to Salthaven.

  ‘You know,’ said Arthur, inspecting Jo’s handiwork on the coffee she’d just made. ‘That looks like the perfect cappuccino to me.’ He winked at his wife. ‘I think we may have found ourselves the perfect person to carry on this business, don’t you?’

  Molly gazed across at Arthur and for a moment Jo was under their spell. They’d been married for more than fifty years, together for longer than that, and the way they looked at each other wiped away decades, as though they were still those two teenagers who’d met on this very same pier. Jo longed to one day have something so powerful, so special and everlasting, but she was beginning to think it would never happen for her.

  ‘Come on, Jo,’ Molly urged. ‘Don’t keep Melissa waiting too long.’

  With a smile, Jo gathered herself and delivered the cappuccino. Melissa relaxed and read a magazine, Jo wiped down the table closest to the door, Arthur chatted with Eddie, and Molly laughed at something another man said. Jo had forgotten his name but she knew it wouldn’t be long before she added it to the already long list in her mind. She watched as Ben and Charlie finished up their drinks, the little boy still bundled up in a red coat that he clearly didn’t want to part with, and as Jo looked around the café she wondered whether people came in here as much for the cosy atmosphere as they did for food and drink. Twinkly lights lined the windows, looping from one corner to the other to brighten up any dull day, and eight tables filled the room, each with four sturdy chairs. Wooden window seats lined the edges of the café beneath the long windows on either side of the door, and cushions were scattered on top allowing customers to rest and lean up against them, to people-watch or gaze out at the sea.

  When Jo went back through to the kitchen and Arthur joined her, he asked, ‘Are you tired, love?’

  ‘I should be asking you that.’

  When he looked at her she admitted, ‘I’m shattered. I’m less than half your age and you two are putting me to shame,’ she added with a giggle.

  ‘It’s the sea air.’ He smiled. His passion was still there for this town, this café, and it ignited Jo’s determination to do whatever she could to help. Since Gran had mentioned the doctor’s warning to Arthur to slow down, she could see his exhaustion, and what she wanted more than anything else in the world was for Molly and Arthur to have an idyllic retirement and leave any worries behind.

  ‘When we started this place, we had instant coffee,’ Arthur remarked. ‘It was a whole lot easier.’

  ‘I’ll bet it was. It’s like learning the intricacies of a spaceship trying to operate that thing.’ She gestured to the coffee machine, which looked more friendly now she’d been here a couple of weeks, but was still her nemesis on some days.

  ‘But it makes a great cup of coffee.’ Arthur shared a smile with his granddaughter.

  She put an arm around his shoulders and hugged him gently. ‘I’m glad you asked me to come back to Salthaven.’

  It hadn’t been that long since she’d left Edinburgh but Jo had had no regrets so far and somehow she didn’t think she would. The only thing she was missing was spending time walking beside the sea –she’d been spending every hour at the café, anxious to cram as much information and knowledge into her mind as quickly as possible. But at least she could see the sea now. She knew it was there, waiting for her, every morning, as reliable as the sunrise.

  Jo watched Molly chatting with another girl who came into the café, picking up that her name was Jess. Dressed in running gear with a special warming wrap around her neck and ear buds dangling as she took time out, the girl looked like another regular and Jo had a pang of regret that she’d ever left Salthaven, a town that was all encompassing of its residents. She’d made friends up in Scotland, she had a group of people she went out with to the pub after work, but it wasn’t like it was here. You couldn’t stroll down the smaller streets and be guaranteed of knowing at least half of the people you came across, and Jo missed that.

  Jo was slowly getting to know plenty of the faces that frequented the café. Molly and Arthur did their best to introduce her to as many people as they could and Jo had more or less been given a verbal resume of every customer. But seeing how others her own age were well and truly settled only reminded Jo of the crossroads her life had reached.

  Jo’s head was swimming with details and by the end of the day she was ready to collapse into her bed. She had already begun to wonder whether she’d ever see a long, lazy evening again. Even after the café shut its doors to the public there was always so much to be done. Money from the till had to be counted and stowed in the safe, leftover food was disposed of, ingredients packed away for another day, counters and tables needed wiping, every inch of the floor had to be swept and the glass surfaces in the café buffed until they shone. Until their phone call to Jo, Molly and Arthur had never once dropped the ball with this business, and Jo couldn’t let them down now. She wanted them to be as proud of her as she was of them. The business was flourishing and, like a child they’d nurtured over the years, it was going to be hard for her grandparents to let it go, so Jo would do whatever it took to make the process less painful.

  Molly sighed, hands on hips. ‘Come on, Jo. Let’s sit down, you’ve earned it. Arthur is finishing in the kitchen, so we’ll treat ourselves to a rest before we have to walk up that hill in the freezing cold.’

  Jo pointed over to the window seats. ‘Let’s sit there and watch the sea.’

  Molly sat down and settled back against the cushion with red lace trim and a robin on the front. She cupped her hands around her eyes and looked out through the glass. ‘We can’t see much, it’s so dark out there.’

  Jo, apron on over a black button-up shirt and jeans, slumped back against a velvet cushion the colour of gingerbread. ‘You’re right, but I can hear the waves and that’s enough.’

  ‘It’s a beautiful sound.’ Molly closed her eyes. ‘Soothing.’

  ‘I never thought I’d be this glad to sit down.’

  ‘You’re only young, you’ll get used to it.’ Molly opened her eyes and smiled.

  ‘I thought I was more than prepared.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘Teaching is hard work. I had a class of twenty-eight kids, aged eight and nine, and I thought they kept me on my toes, but this is totally different. In a good way,’ she added, because she meant it.

  They looked out into the darkness, the streetlights shining on the curved bay that encompassed the town and led on into the next. Being so busy here Jo hadn’t even ventured into the centre of Salthaven-on-Sea with its quaint pubs and cobbled streets leading past the bookshop, the haberdashery she hoped was still there, the sweet shop she’d spent her pocket money in when she was younger.

  ‘So how are you feeling?’ Molly asked as Arthur shut the blind on the window next to them but left theirs alone. ‘About this place, I mean.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to back out.’ When Molly still didn’t look relieved she added, ‘I’ve given my room up, there’s no going back. And besides, my trusty old beetle won’t ever make it up to Scotland again, I think it’ll protest if I so much as suggest it.’

  ‘You need to upgrade that car.’

  ‘Never,’ she grinned. ‘It’s an oldie but a goodie.’

  ‘Exactly the way I describe Molly,’ Arthur whispered into Jo’s ear as he passed.

  Molly looked so offended that Arthur made peace by stopping, taking her in his arms and kissing her full on the lips, making Molly blush.

  ‘Excuse your Gramps.’ Molly raised her voice enough for it to be heard behind the counter where Arthur had gone to rummage for something in one of the cupboards. ‘He’s going to have to learn to
behave now we’re a trio.’

  Jo loved watching them together, she never tired of it. All those tender moments they shared, the unspoken conversations they could have just because they understood one another so well. ‘What’s he doing behind there?’ she asked when Gramps didn’t materialise. Maybe he was finally putting the paperwork for the cafe in order. Jo had seen papers tucked in drawers, others in a file at the bungalow, more in the kitchen cupboard. The accounts were a total mess and she knew she’d have to get to grips with them during her time here, but it wasn’t something she was looking forward to.

  ‘No idea,’ Molly shrugged and turned her attention back to Jo’s move. ‘You came here at just the right time, Jo. That’s also why we mentioned the idea now rather than at the height of summer.’

  Jo gasped. ‘No way could I have managed the summer rush. Even thinking about it sends me into a panic.’

  ‘You’d be fine, but at this time of the year we were able to throw you in at the deep end, without it being too much of a shock. In summer we’ll get our regulars but also tourists, and it does get a little crazy.’

  ‘Is it always quiet around this time?’

  ‘It is. We have the Christmas Day swim event which always brings people in, followed by the tail end of the school holidays. January can be moderate but eases off until the spring as anyone outside of the town hibernates and wishes the sun would hurry up and shine again. But we like the peaks and troughs. It gives us a chance to recharge our batteries before it’s all go, go, go again.’

  ‘What about the theme nights you ran once upon a time?’

  ‘Oh, we never really did too many. We still change the menu for bonfire night when people gather on the pier to watch the fireworks launch from the fields on the edge of town. It’s an even better view than you get from being closer up, because they glow over the water.’

  ‘I’ll look forward to that later this year,’ Jo smiled.

  ‘We try to do something for May Day, occasionally Easter, introducing a few more chocolate products on the menu.’

  Arthur found what he was looking for. ‘I knew it was here somewhere.’

  Molly put her glasses on as he came over. ‘What have you got there?’ she looked more closely. ‘Is that what I think it is?’ A wide smile spread across her face and then her hands covered her mouth in surprise.

  Arthur was smiling back at her and Jo wanted to know what was going on. ‘Did you get that from a gumball machine?’

  Arthur nodded. ‘I sure did.’ In between his index finger and his thumb he held a plastic ring, with a gold flowered edge and a blue bead in the middle.

  ‘Gran, are you OK?’ Jo watched as tears welled in her gran’s eyes, her gaze fixed firmly on her husband.

  ‘She’s getting sentimental,’ Arthur explained, although Jo could tell he was feeling the same emotions. ‘You see, we thought we’d lost this, her first engagement ring.’

  Jo giggled but then stopped abruptly. ‘You’re serious?’ She looked more closely to see whether she’d underestimated the piece of plastic that could’ve easily been mistaken for a piece of junk.

  Arthur squeezed in on the window seat between them, closer to Molly than Jo, their bodies touching as they all looked at the ring. ‘I found it when I was clearing out the spare bedroom to make room for Jo,’ he told his wife. ‘It was tangled up in an old ball of wool, in that knitting bag you pushed to the back of the wardrobe.’

  ‘I remember now.’ Molly took the ring. ‘I put it in my wool drawer for safe keeping when we lived in the last house and then when we came to move I took all the wool and patterns and needles out but couldn’t find the ring. It must’ve been so tangled no amount of searching would find it.’

  ‘It was buried in the beige wool. I only found it because this morning I managed to drop the bag and everything tumbled out on the floor and I caught the piece of blue in amongst it. I wanted to wait until the café was quiet to tell you.’

  Molly squeezed the top of his knee. ‘I’m so glad you found it, you wonderful, wonderful man.’ She took his face between her hands and kissed him. Jo almost felt like an intruder until Arthur turned to her.

  ‘This ring was the one I used when I proposed to Molly.’

  ‘Why have I never heard this story?’ Jo asked, holding her hand out to look at the ring.

  ‘I’m sure I told you it once,’ said Molly. ‘When you were little, I’m sure of it.’

  ‘No, I’d remember.’

  ‘It must’ve been your mum I told.’ Molly took the ring back as though she couldn’t bear to be parted from it for too long.

  ‘Tell me now, I want to hear.’ Jo turned round and sat on the low wooden table opposite the window seat, so she could see them both.

  ‘You tell her,’ Molly insisted, eyes twinkling with love.

  Arthur held his wife’s hand. ‘It was Valentine’s Day, 1964. Freezing cold it was, the wind howling, making most people see sense and stay tucked inside in front of the fire.’

  Molly couldn’t help herself as though for too many years they’d helped one another finish off sentences. ‘Exactly where I’d wanted to be when Arthur knocked on the front door and insisted we take a walk.’

  Arthur took it from there. ‘We met for the first time at the ice-creamery on the pier, a year before the night I’m about to tell you about. I saw Molly drop her ice-cream. She looked distraught, so I bought her another, and in return asked to take her to the dance.’

  ‘I decided he was so handsome,’ Molly beamed, ‘he was worth the risk.’

  ‘Every night after that, we took a walk along the pier,’ Arthur continued. ‘We’d eat fish and chips sometimes, or enjoy an ice-cream, we’d watch the waves and look out to sea. It was the perfect way to end the day, fill our lungs with the fresh salty air and remember how lucky we were to have found each other.’

  Molly let a laugh escape. ‘That night, I really wanted to stay by the fire.’

  Arthur’s laughter rumbled from his belly all the way out of his body and around the café. ‘You should’ve seen her pout, Jo, when I wouldn’t take no for an answer.’

  ‘He practically put my coat on my shoulders for me before shoving me out of the door.’

  ‘I did,’ Arthur agreed, ‘but it was worth it.’

  Jo didn’t miss the look that passed between them. They were older, greyer, but the same love they’d once found burned a sturdy flame between them now. ‘So what happened? Come on, don’t keep me in suspense.’

  ‘I took your gran out for our usual walk. The rain had started coming down, or should I say coming sideways, and we got soaked, so I took her hand and ran out along the pier all the way up to this very café. She tried to tug me back and tell me the sea was too rough, it might lap up over the pier and it was dangerous. I took her in my arms and told her I’d never let anything happen to her. And then, I made her look at this building.’ He looked up at the pitched roof above them as though to remind himself of the night in question. ‘Back then this place was dilapidated, neglected. It had once served cups of tea and perhaps hot dogs or some kind of fast food, but I had visions. I’d never been academic, but I knew I wanted to support a family and I dreamed of owning a business. I had planned to talk to Molly about it that very night, but with the storms brewing there was an immediacy I hadn’t felt before and all of a sudden I was on one knee.’

  Jo gasped and clasped her hands in front of her mouth as he went on.

  ‘I told Molly I had a question for her.’

  Molly took over. ‘He said, “Will you marry me?” and I couldn’t stop smiling. But then I realised he didn’t have a ring. I told him, you can’t ask a girl to marry you without something to seal the deal.’

  Enchanted, Jo asked, ‘What happened then?’

  ‘He turned to the café, still on one knee and said, “I can’t afford both, but I’m proposing a life together, Molly, and I’ve put down a deposit on this place. I want to open a café. It’s for us, the chance to build a business, me a
nd you”, and then he looked as though he might burst waiting for my answer.’

  Arthur took back the reins, the perfect partnership between them something Jo hoped to one day find. ‘She said that she couldn’t put a café on her finger, it was simply too big.’ He laughed at the memory. ‘And then I dragged her over to the gumball machine that was filled with toy rings instead of candy. I fumbled in my pockets until I found the right money and slotted it in, turned the silver button and into the outlet tray fell this ring.’ All three of them looked at it. ‘I promised I’d get a real one someday if she’d agree to be by my side for always.’

  ‘And the rest, as they say, is history.’ Molly looked fondly down at the real gold flowery ring with a sapphire centre, the delicate jewellery she wore on her wedding finger now.

  The wind rattled the windows of the café. ‘I can’t believe I never knew the story,’ said Jo.

  ‘Well your mum isn’t much of a romantic, I know, and I think over the years we’ve been so busy we sometimes forget the little things. It’s very easy to do after so many years together. And after we thought we’d lost the plastic ring years ago, well I think we both put it out of our minds and carried on with our busy lives. A lot has happened since Valentine’s Day 1964.’

  ‘Come on.’ Arthur stood and gathered the bunch of keys before turning off the fairy lights at the windows and closing the rest of the blinds. ‘Let’s get you girls home and have hot chocolates, maybe with marshmallows too. I think we have some in the cupboard.’

  ‘Fine by me,’ said Jo, tugging on her coat from where it hung on a hook in the cupboard at the side of the kitchen. ‘As long as I don’t have to make it.’

  *

  Ever since her talk with her grandparents that night at the café when she found out the story of how Arthur and Molly had gone from dating to being engaged and owning a business, Jo had got to thinking. They were into February now and business had slowed, just as they’d told her it would, but Jo was beginning to take each day in her stride, no longer the first to fall into bed every night.