Summer nights at the sta.., p.1
Summer Nights at the Starfish Café, page 1
SUMMER NIGHTS AT THE STARFISH CAFÉ
THE STARFISH CAFÉ SERIES BOOK 3
JESSICA REDLAND
CONTENTS
Recurring Characters
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
More from Jessica Redland
About the Author
Also by Jessica Redland
About Boldwood Books
To the incredible staff and volunteers at the RNLI who give their time and commitment to saving lives at sea. What you do is phenomenal.
Particular thanks to the crew and volunteers at Scarborough Lifeboat Station, especially Amy, Colin, Eve, Lucy, Matt, Paul, and Rudi for your invaluable help and support.
‘With courage, nothing is impossible.’
SIR WILLIAM HILLARY, 1823, FOUNDER OF THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION (RNLI), EST. 1824 (ORIGINALLY KNOWN AS THE NATIONAL INSTITUTION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LIFE FROM SHIPWRECK)
Recurring characters from The Starfish Café series so far
Hollie Brooks
Owner and full-time manager of The Starfish Café
Owner of wood craft business Hollie’s Wood
RNLI crew member
Engaged to Jake
Jake ‘Mouse’ MacLeod
Charge nurse on A&E at Whitsborough Bay General Hospital
RNLI crew member (helm)
Engaged to Hollie
Pickle
Hollie and Jake’s shih tzu (found abandoned)
Heather Brooks
Hollie’s mum, who set up The Starfish Café
Died of cancer seven and a half years ago
Joe ‘Sparky’ Brooks
Hollie’s dad, RNLI crew member, killed in tragic rescue eight and a half years ago
Isaac ‘Silver’ Brooks
Hollie’s brother, RNLI crew member, killed in tragic rescue eight and a half years ago
Kerry Marsden
Works in The Starfish Café during term-time weekdays
Mum to four primary school-age children
Lives with her mum, Nadia
Nadia Marsden
Kerry’s mum
Artie ‘Chief’ Briars
RNLI Coxswain (full-time paid crew member)
Angie Swinton
Assistant Manager of The Starfish Café
Was best friends with Hollie’s mum for fifty years
Estranged from husband Martin
Martin Swinton
Funeral director
Estranged from wife Angie
Victoria (Tori) Tennyson
Interior designer/architect
Friend of Hollie’s
Lives with Finley in Jake’s house, Lighthouse View
Finley ‘Bart’ Scott
RNLI crew member (obsessed with The Simpsons)
Dentist/trainee architect
Lives with Tori
Demi, India and Roman Scott
Finley’s ex-girlfriend and her children, who regularly see Finley
Vivienne and Ralph Tennyson
Tori’s parents
Authors of historical romance
Robyn and Brett Allard
Tori’s younger sister and brother-in-law
Kyle ‘Jaffa’ Bradbury
RNLI mechanic (full-time paid crew member)
Was Isaac’s best friend since childhood
Married to Bex
Rebecca (Bex) Bradbury
Was Isaac’s girlfriend
Married to Kyle
Mia and Isaac Bradbury
Kyle and Bex’s children
Violet MacLeod
Jake’s nanna, who raised him
Died following a stroke seven years ago
Robert (Bobby) Reynolds
Jake’s dad
Drowned trying to save Jake on Jake’s ninth birthday
Michelle Reynolds
Jake’s mum
Died from complications following Jake’s birth
Larissa Kent
Jake’s older estranged sister
Blames Jake for the death of their parents
Andrew Kent
Larissa’s husband
Irene Trent
Former neighbour of Jake’s and a family friend
Lives in Bay View Care Home
Adrian Daniels (Uncle Adrian)
Retired police sergeant and Bobby’s best friend
Recently reconnected with Jake
Maggs Daniels (Auntie Maggs)
Had been friends with Michelle and Bobby
Recently reconnected with Jake
Katie O’Sullivan, née Vickers
Recruitment consultant
Hollie’s best friend
Married to Trey
Trey O’Sullivan
Recruitment consultant
Married to Katie
Betty and Tommy
Longstanding customers at The Starfish Café
Sylvia Braithwaite aka Mrs Sultana
Regular customer at The Starfish Café
Recently befriended Hollie
Avril and Javier
Work in The Starfish Café
Grace
Works in Driftwood Dell – the shop and gallery within The Starfish Café – during the summer holidays
‘Spaniel’, ‘Belle’ and ‘Simba’
RNLI crew members
1
HOLLIE
‘I’m going to bring out Betty’s birthday cake,’ I whispered to Kerry and Avril, who were topping up the salt and pepper shakers behind The Starfish Café’s serving counter. ‘Have you got your singing voices ready?’
They both gave me a smile and a subtle thumbs up.
Avril followed me into the kitchen to retrieve the bouquet of sunflowers – Betty’s favourites – while I added the candles onto the eighty-fifth birthday cake. I’d made and iced a two-tier sponge cake but had asked Carly from Carly’s Cupcakes in town to make decorative sunflowers and a yellow eight and five.
‘Betty’s going to love that,’ Avril said. ‘And so will Tommy.’
Betty and Tommy were longstanding favourite customers at The Starfish Café, which was set on a clifftop two miles south of the popular North Yorkshire seaside town of Whitsborough Bay. It was a family business which had passed down from my granny to Mum to me. All the staff adored Betty and Tommy, who came in most days for tea and scones. As today was Betty’s birthday, they’d been joined by another favourite customer, Sylvia, and her friend Dorothy.
Candles lit, I slowly shuffled out of the kitchen.
‘Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…’
My heart glowed as other customers joined in, a slight mumble over the name from those who didn’t know her.
‘Oh, my goodness, darling girl!’ Betty gushed as I placed the cake in front of her. ‘I wasn’t expecting this.’
Her eyes sparkled and I glanced at Tommy, who pressed his hand to his heart and mouthed ‘thank you’ to me.
‘Blow the candles out and make a wish,’ I said to Betty.
She smiled and winked at me before blowing them out to a round of applause. Avril handed her the bouquet of flowers and she breathed in the scent.
‘Thank you all so very much. What a lovely birthday surprise!’
Kerry, efficient as always, already had a knife, plates and forks ready so, while she cut and I dished the slices out, Avril took the flowers back to the kitchen to keep in water.
‘You’ve made them so happy,’ Kerry said as we watched the four of them finishing their cake amid much laughter a little later. ‘You make everyone happy here.’
‘Aw, that’s such a lovely thing to say. Thank you.’
‘I mean it. What you’ve created here – for the staff and the customers – is really special. I’m so lucky I landed a job here.’
‘We’re lucky to have you,’ I said. ‘You do realise you can never leave?’
She smiled. ‘No intention of ever doing so. I’m already thinking about how much I’m going to miss it during the school holidays. Five more weeks to go.’
Kerry was a si ngle parent with four primary school-aged children, and the Monday to Friday 10.30 a.m. till 2.30 p.m. term-time-only shift couldn’t be more ideal for her. It gave me extra cover across the busiest time of the day and wasn’t a problem during school holidays because I had several students eager for the work.
A bit later, I returned to Betty and Tommy’s table to clear the plates and take the cake away to be boxed up for home.
‘You must all take a slice,’ Betty insisted. ‘Get one for Jake and Avril’s husband and save one for Angie when she’s back in tomorrow. Oh, and get Kerry to take one home for her mum and each of those lovely children of hers.’
‘You’ll have none left for you two at this rate.’
‘We’ve already had four slices and we’ve barely made a dent. There’ll be plenty left.’
‘That’s very kind of you, Betty. Thank you.’
‘Are you all set for Saturday?’ Sylvia asked.
My heart leapt with excitement, as it did any time anyone mentioned the wedding. After nearly a year of planning, I could hardly believe there were only four more sleeps until I’d say ‘I do’ to Jake.
‘Just about. I picked up the dresses last week, Jake and I are finalising the details with our photographer tonight, and I’m making the favours on Thursday.’
‘The Bay Pavilion is such a lovely venue for a wedding,’ Betty said. ‘It’s going to be a wonderful day. How’s the forecast looking?’
‘Very good, so we should be able to have the ceremony outside in Pavilion Court.’
The Bay Pavilion, just beyond the commercial part of South Bay, was the most amazing building. Originally opened in the 1840s, the function and concert venue had been extended over the years. I’d attended several events there and loved it, but the biggest selling point for our wedding was Pavilion Court. The large outdoor area had a curved ‘wall’ of windows providing a stunning panoramic view of the coastline. A bandstand in the middle of the ‘wall’ acted as the altar during a wedding ceremony and Jake and I loved the idea of making our vows with the sea as our backdrop. It was the closest we’d get to having our families with us in spirit.
‘I love weddings,’ Dorothy said, giving me a warm smile. ‘I’m so looking forward to Saturday.’
I headed into the kitchen to cut off some slices of cake and box up what was left, then followed them out to the car park. Sylvia and Dorothy wished me all the best with the final wedding preparations then headed off in Sylvia’s car with a wave.
‘Thank you again for the cake and flowers, Hollie,’ Betty said, hugging me. ‘You really are the sweetest.’
‘You’re welcome. Enjoy the rest of your birthday. I hope you have plans to spoil her, Tommy.’
Betty answered for him. ‘He spoils me every day just by being himself.’
The look of love they exchanged brought tears to my eyes.
‘Did I ever tell you we met on Betty’s seventeenth birthday?’ Tommy asked. ‘She went to the picture house with some friends and I was there with my brother. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Missed the film. And she’s just as beautiful today as she was back then. Monday’s child – fair of face.’
Betty laughed. ‘That rhyme’s nonsense and you know it because you were born on a Wednesday and that would make you full of woe.’
She turned to me. ‘He makes me laugh every single day. There’s nothing woeful about my Tommy.’
‘There certainly isn’t,’ I said, ‘but I do agree with fair of face for you. You’re a beautiful woman, Betty.’
‘As are you, darling girl, and I can’t wait to see you in your wedding dress on Saturday. You’ll be the finest bride there ever was.’
‘Hear, hear!’ Tommy said.
I hugged my arms round myself, feeling all warm and fuzzy as they drove away. They’d celebrated sixty-six years of marriage in February and if anyone wanted to know what enduring true love looked like, they need look no further – amazing role models for a happy marriage.
I looked up at the pine trees which surrounded the café and car park, giving the place an alpine feel and inspiring the log cabin-style exterior of the two-storey building. It was the last day of spring today and the colours seemed more vibrant, the bird song louder, the sun warmer on my face and arms, as though nature was displaying a grand finale for spring and a fanfare for the arrival of summer.
Lunchtime customers would start arriving soon but there was time for five minutes of peace first. I sat on one of the picnic benches near the steps down to the beach, watching a grey squirrel running up a tree trunk, and a couple of blue tits pecking at a feeder. I closed my eyes and tilted my head back, letting the sounds of nature relax me.
With the café thriving and me marrying the man of my dreams this weekend, life was looking really good right now. And about time. I’d been dealt more than my fair share of heartbreak, as had Jake. I’d lost my dad and brother, both RNLI crew members, during a rescue on a stormy night just after Christmas eight years ago, and Mum had lost her battle with cancer a year later. Jake’s mum had died when he was born and his dad when he was nine, and we’d both struggled in the years that followed. We’d come a long way in coming to terms with our grief by the time we met, but had taken several further steps together.
And then a different type of disaster had hit when the café was broken into and completely trashed a little over a year ago.
The sound of a car engine made me open my eyes. Time to get back to work. I stood up, brushed off my jeans, and took one last look out at the sea beyond the café.
‘We want only positive things from now on, please,’ I whispered into the gentle breeze. ‘That would be lovely.’
2
KERRY
One of the many things I loved about working for Hollie was that, no matter how busy it was when 2.30 p.m. arrived, she’d shoo me out of the door with reassurances that she and my colleagues could handle things, ensuring I was never late for the school pick-up.
This morning had been fairly quiet but there’d been a constant stream of customers since lunchtime, leaving very few tables free, including on the large terrace outside. We’d had a couple of damp weeks, but the last day of spring had brought gorgeous blue sky and sunshine, enticing all the fair-weather walkers out.
I grabbed a tray to clear a couple of recently vacated tables before I left, but Hollie took it off me.
‘Oh no, you don’t! It’s half two. Off you go, and don’t forget your cake.’
I gave her an appreciative smile as I untied my apron. ‘Thank you.’
Outside a couple of minutes later, I loaded my bag and the cake into the boot of my car. A trio of three women climbed up the last few steps from the beach and headed up the car park. I couldn’t let them bypass the café.
