The Boathouse by Stepping Stone Bay

by Helen Rolfe

Genres: Siblings; Contemporary Romance

Synopsis

'Comforting and uplifting, this book is a joy to read' - MY WEEKLY, on The Farmhouse of Second Chances

Sun, sand and secrets at the bay!

As a kid, Nina O'Brien spent all her summers at her grandparents' cabin by the beach at Stepping Stone Bay. Long, sunny days full of fun and laughter with her best friends, Leo, Adrian, and Maeve, her friendship with Leo slowly blossoming into love. Until one fateful night changed everything for them all...

Twelve years later, Nina must return to the bay to renovate the old cabin and pass it on to a new owner. But not only does Leo still live in the cabin next door, he works at his family's boathouse right there in the bay. As they begin to work through their differences and what happened all those years ago, can Nina really walk away from him twice?

Maeve has finally returned home to face the past. Her eleven-year-old son, Jonah, loves the sea, unlike Maeve who is terrified of it. But she knows she can't keep Jonah away from the sea or the truth forever..

A heartwarming and uplifting story about second chances and facing the secrets of the past. Perfect for fans of Philippa Ashley, Holly Martin and Ali McNamara.

Readers adore Helen's heartwarming storytelling

'Enchanting... Employing all the warmth and charm of Maeve Binchy, and a special brand of kindness that she has made her own, Rolfe weaves together elements of mystery, romance, family relationships and the warmth of community in a story guaranteed to bring laughter, tears and miles of smiles' Lancashire Post

'A warm, comforting tale of family and community which brims with kindness and love' Annie Lyons

'A heartwarming story about family, forgiveness and the importance of kindness... If you're looking for a feelgood novel in these difficult times, this is definitely it!' Fiona Harper

'A lovely community, full of friendship and love'

'I enjoyed every minute of this book and found it very hard to put down'

'Lovely, feel-good...filled with lots of love'

'Gave you all the emotions: suspense, happiness and excitement'

'Helen Rolfe's writing brought a smile to my face'

'Loved loved loved this fabulous book'

Publisher: Orion

Print pages: 368

Sample

A gentle mid-September breeze blew Nina’s blonde collarbone-length hair as she walked down the track from the main road where she’d parked towards the cabin that had been in the O’Brien family ever since she could remember. She’d taken this walk countless times before and yet doing it now after staying away for more than a decade made her insides churn. Because not only did this track lead to the family cabin, it also led to the boathouse that still stood in the former boatyard in Stepping Stone Bay. And it was the owner of the boathouse who Nina had walked away from all those years ago and not spoken to since.

The boathouse came into view, although now that the sun had begun to set she couldn’t see it very clearly. Nina had spent the afternoon with her grandad, Walt, before coming here this evening. She could’ve waited until the morning, but she knew she wouldn’t sleep if she did that. She wanted to get this first visit over with and then the rest she’d tackle as it came.

Walt had given Nina the big torch he kept beneath the sink in case of a power cut and she was glad she had it now to stop her from stumbling on any uneven ground as she turned left past the boathouse to go to the cabin. She could’ve driven all the way down here and parked right outside but she hadn’t wanted to bump into anyone coming the other way, preferring to discreetly take the short route on foot, at least this first time. For the last twelve years she had successfully avoided a trip down memory lane by sticking to brief visits on the south coast with her grandad who lived a couple of miles on from the centre of the seaside town of Salthaven and the bay around the corner. The distance had allowed her to hide out at his bungalow whenever she came to visit and avoid any interaction with the locals in the town or the bay.

As Nina’s focus changed to the cabin, her pace slowed, as memories, a blast of feelings, good and bad came back to her. She shivered despite the long cardigan she wore over a summer top she’d teamed with faded jeans. The cabin with its warm honey-brown window frames and small veranda looked exactly as she remembered. She could recall treading the steps up to the front door time and time again as a toddler, a kid, a teenager and an adult. And as she reached the steps now her hand trembled so much she clutched the front door key tighter to make sure she didn’t drop it between the wooden sections and have to get on her hands and knees to retrieve it. She daren’t shine her torch beyond the cabin either because it wasn’t the only one down here. There were just two cabins in such close proximity to Stepping Stone Bay – the O’Brien’s and the one belonging to the Magowans. Or in particular, Leo Magowan, the love of Nina’s life once upon a time. Leo not only owned the boathouse nowadays, he owned and resided in the second cabin that was separated from the O’Brien family’s by a mere thirteen stepping stones.

Up the steps and the sound of the key going into the lock on the cabin door felt unique although Nina knew it wasn’t. But the significance of her opening this place up after so long wasn’t lost on her. After so many years, she wasn’t here for a holiday, but to do up the old cabin, bring it into modern times, and once she’d done that she had been tasked with selling it for her grandad. Something she’d never seen coming. The sale of the cabin would mark the end of an era. And it felt like the final stamp on her leaving Stepping Stone Bay well and truly behind.

Nina stepped into the cabin. The inside smelt exactly the same as it always had – a little bit damp but not in a bad way, just in a way that suggested a few windows needed to be opened. Along with that came the salty tang of the sea that had seeped into the walls over time and could never be escaped, given the sandy stretch of beach and the gentle waves were less than a couple of hundred metres away. She shivered because there was a certain chill that came with an empty place, no matter the warmth of memories that came with it. There wouldn’t be many personal items littered around any more; even in the dark she knew it was in need of some tender loving care, and more than that, she noted how bereft the inside of the cabin was of chatter, laughter and togetherness, the sounds and feelings she’d always associated with coming through the front door.

She closed the door behind her and reached for the light switch, smiling to herself that she’d remembered where it was, but the bulb must have gone and so, careful not to bump into anything, she used the torch and made for the table in the corner of the lounge area straight in front and hoped the lamp worked. It did, but she’d only just flicked it on when her phone rang and nearly made her jump out of her skin.

‘William, you scared me.’ But she was happy to hear from him, to get the update on his wife and children and their relocation to Geneva a few weeks ago. Hearing her brother William’s voice as he chatted excitedly about his new home made Nina think of the children she’d seen on their way to Salthaven. She’d stopped for petrol shortly before she reached the sign to the town and they’d been there buying sweets and crisps as well as a huge set of brightly coloured plastic beach accessories which looked to have everything they needed to build the best sandcastles, from moulds with turrets and rakes for the sand, to little shovels to dig a moat, and flags to put on top of the structure once it was finished. Nina and William had once been as carefree as those two children, they’d loved their days spent going from cabin to beach and back again. But they’d grown up and had both left the bay, William for love and his job and his family, Nina for very different reasons.

‘You’re there now?’ William asked, after her niece and nephew had both come on the phone to say a hello.

‘I sure am. I couldn’t wait until morning.’ She screwed her nose up at the sight of a cobweb in the far corner illuminated in the lamp light and turned her back when her eyes fell on the window that looked over to Leo’s cabin. The only positive was that there were no lights on at his place; nobody was home, she wouldn’t have to face him yet.

‘Does it look exactly the same?’ William asked.

‘Pretty much. Smells the same too.’

‘Of wet feet?’

She began to laugh. ‘It never smelt like wet feet. It smells like the sea, but a bit musty.’ She knelt on one of the sofas covered in a sheet and opened the small window, staying in her position to inhale the air and listen to the distant sound of waves rolling in. She only opened it a fraction, she’d air the place more once she was here properly.

‘Are you sleeping there tonight?’

‘No chance,’ she laughed, looking around her. The place was bare; no shoes cast aside, no colouring set littering the coffee table, no beach towels draped across the backs of chairs or over a plastic airer and no smell of dinner cooking or glasses of wine out on the benchtops. ‘I’ll sleep at Grandad’s; just wanted to have a check around and see what I need to bring with me tomorrow to make it semi-habitable. I’ll probably stay here on and off while I’m doing it up, seems the easiest thing and I can get more done rather than annoy Grandad.’ She loved her grandad to pieces but she knew both of them would need their breathing space, her particularly when it came to processing emotions of being back in the bay.

‘I don’t think he minds.’

‘Probably not,’ she admitted. But she knew she’d be better off if she wasn’t hiding away at his the whole time. She had to face her fears, it was high time. And then she had to get on, get the cabin looking impressive enough to sell for a good price.

In the main room where she now stood she looked over at the small yet perfectly adequate kitchen space with the benchtop along one wall that jutted out a bit to separate it from the lounge area. In the dim light she noted the appliances were all there, but none of the little touches – a mug tree, a utensils pot, maybe a pan stand or a pair of oven gloves waiting to be used. She’d sat at the bench on a high stool as a kid, feet dangling as her gran or grandad made her toast and jam, always cutting it into four triangles, the way she liked it.

Nina and William turned to reminiscing the way only a brother and sister could, with all the joint memories they’d have forever. ‘Remember baking cookies with Gran?’ William chuckled. ‘The first time I mean.’

‘How could I forget?’ She ran a hand along a rather dusty workspace next to the cooktop. She’d loved making cookies with Gran – it never mattered what sort, in fact the more variety the better, and she’d wrap them up into little parcels and leap over the thirteen stepping stones to the Magowan cabin and leave a parcel at their door, hoping it would be Leo who found them first. The first time they’d made cookies Nina had begged to use a recipe for chocolate chip and once they’d shaped the mixture Nina had been in charge of watching them in the oven while her gran hung out the beach towels and swimming costumes. Nina had burnt the lot, she’d thought she had time to duck out to find Leo and have at least a single game of conkers with the shiny beauties they’d found that morning, freshly dropped from the big horse chestnut tree near their school, but one game had turned into many and the next thing she knew Gran was yelling and flinging open all the windows, smoke billowing out of the oven. Nina ran back inside and rather than mouth-watering cookies found black morsels stuck to the baking tray.

‘Gran said she’d never get the smell out of the oven,’ said William. ‘She didn’t leave you in charge for a while after that from what I remember. Too easily distracted she said.’ After a sigh William admitted, ‘I thought Grandad might change his mind about selling up. I never expected it to come to this, you there and ready to get to work.’

‘Me neither. But he’s set on the idea, so here I am.’

‘Maybe he just wants it to look nicer and have a good clean and then he’ll fall in love with it all over again,’ he suggested hopefully.

‘Nice thought, William.’ In truth Nina had hoped for the same. She’d thought her grandad would back out at the last minute and tell her to come for an extended visit with him instead. But he hadn’t. And looking around, this place wasn’t just wonderful because she had so much nostalgia tied up in it, its proximity to the bay and the sands made it a winner and with a bit of work it could be a luxury escape.

Thinking of it that way made her even sadder that it wouldn’t be in the O’Brien family for any of them to enjoy at their leisure. And not only that, it made her thoughts flit to the owner of the other cabin who really had made it his home by the sea and never left.

Walt had told them of his decision to sell the cabin over a farewell roast dinner for William and his family as the gravy was poured, the vegetables spooned out of the bowls, and the lunch Nina and William’s wife Anna had cooked together was served. When he’d made the announcement he’d added a diplomatic, ‘It’s time,’ when both William and Nina failed to disguise their shock and utter disappointment. ‘Our family is grown up, it’s time for a new family to make their memories at the cabin.’

William seemed put out as he tilted his head towards Fliss and Perry who were six and eight respectively. ‘Not all of us are grown up. The kids haven’t had much time down there at Stepping Stone Bay at all.’

It was a desperate plea even to Nina’s ears. Her brother was rarely in this part of the country and now he was about to move even further away.

‘It needs a lot of work,’ Walt went on. ‘It’s tired, neglected. And let’s face it, you haven’t been to stay there in the last twelve months.’

William reluctantly agreed. ‘Work takes up too much time and we went to France and Italy for our holiday this year, then we tried to go to the cabin but the weather was having none of it.’

Talk turned to the rain that had hit the last time Fliss and Perry were here at Grandad’s and rather than use their buckets and spades at the beach or the inflatable ring Fliss had found that looked like a giant doughnut with sprinkles, they’d played monopoly and left without seeing even a glimpse of the golden sands.

‘I suppose it’s a lot to do with nostalgia,’ William confessed as he looked to Nina. ‘We had some good times there, didn’t we, sis?’

‘We sure did.’ But she’d also had some bad times in Stepping Stone Bay, times she wasn’t going to bring up here and now. Perhaps selling the cabin would draw a line under all of that at last, because there’d be no reason to return to the bay itself ever again.

After she declined the offer of more roast parsnips from Anna, Nina pushed some more. ‘Why are you really selling up, Grandad?’ His reasons sounded far too simplistic and practical for a man who adored his family and had a lifetime of memories at that cabin as well. He and Grandma Elsie had been the ones to paint the walls, they’d embraced being grandparents by spending every day in summer there with their grandkids, they’d loved the cosiness of it come winter and its proximity to the most beautiful stretch of beach on the south coast as far as he was concerned.

‘I’m getting older by the second.’ Walt winked at Fliss who was obsessed by what happened to people as they aged. That morning she’d asked why old people’s skin looked like the dates she’d had at Christmas, and right before lunch she’d wanted to check her great-grandad’s mouth to see whether he had any jewellery on his teeth. Turns out she meant gold fillings or crowns. ‘I need things doing around this place to make it safer for me,’ he added matter-of-factly.

‘Any changes here would be inexpensive, Grandad,’ William put in. ‘And I’m happy to fund them if needed.’

‘You shouldn’t have to.’ Walt had never wanted handouts, it was next to impossible to give him anything in the way of financial help. ‘And I can afford a few minor changes.’ He looked at William and then Nina and explained, ‘I also want to be prepared. I was able to look after my Elsie in her last days and have her here in our home, the home she adored. And the end was quick for her. But I’ve seen what can happen when it’s not. It’s a fact of life, but I would like to live out my days in this house too and without anyone close by to help, I might need to have someone come in on a daily basis. And that doesn’t come cheap. I’d like to be prepared financially, it’ll stop me worrying.’

Hearing him talk that way, planning for an end, might be part of life, but Nina didn’t like talking about it one bit. She would however always be on Walt’s side and do whatever he needed, whatever made him happy. And that day at their grandad’s house might have been for William and his family’s farewell but it also marked the point where it was time for Nina to step up and be the one to take the reins, with her brother so far away. Nina and her brother had talked about it prior to that day already. With William working in Switzerland for at least the next two years, Nina was more than ready to take responsibility here, especially after she’d left the bay behind and only graced her grandparents with the odd phone call in a whole year while William, despite the demands of his job and being married, had come back to see Walt and Elsie every weekend. He’d done jobs around the house – he’d overhauled their veggie patch, fixed up the fence around the back garden, installed a new shed. Nina hadn’t helped much at all back then, she’d not even visited for that whole chunk of time for fear of bumping into anyone she knew and having to answer questions about why she’d left, why she didn’t want to come back. Questions she couldn’t even answer herself. But slowly, as she got herself together, she’d braved coming more and more to see her grandparents and then just Walt since her Grandma Elsie died eighteen months ago.

Now, at the cabin, Nina finished the call with her brother. ‘I’d better get on, see what I need to bring back with me tomorrow,’ she explained, already thinking of checking other lightbulbs; the one in the bathroom, those in the two compact bedrooms.

‘Make sure there’s toilet roll, nobody likes to be caught out in that situation.’

‘Thanks for the warning,’ she laughed. ‘Give my love to Anna and the kids.’

She ended the call and was about to carry on walking around to see what else she needed when she heard the sound of whistling coming from outside the cabin.

She reached quickly for the lamp and switched it off, crouching down in the corner of the room so she couldn’t be seen through the small window above the table with the lamp. She held her breath as the whistling continued, carried inside through the other window which was open ever so slightly.

Her heart raced at a million miles an hour at her first sight, or rather sound, of Leo Magowan, the man who made her heart skip a beat for years until she’d left Stepping Stone Bay behind. He might only have been whistling, but she’d know that sound anywhere.

Nina waited where she was until she couldn’t hear anything else apart from the swishing of the sea.

She sneezed with all the dust and she jumped when her fingertips met something that the torch, when she switched it back on, revealed to be an eight-legged creature on its back, legs curled up, a casualty of this old cabin. And when she realised she couldn’t stay there huddled in the corner forever she got up without turning on the lamp again. She closed the window she’d opened, not ready to announce her presence tonight, and if Leo was the only person who lived down here, too much activity would be sure to alert him to the cabin being occupied. And that could wait for another day.

Nina did her best to scurry around the cabin and make notes in her phone of everything she needed, unscrewing lightbulbs and taking photos of their specifications, looking in cupboards for what might have been left behind. She nipped in to use the toilet – thankfully there was enough toilet roll and some soap for her convenience although she made a note to bring back more supplies tomorrow – it wasn’t as if she could call on a friendly neighbour to ask for some, was it? That might be a little cheeky under the circumstances.

Before she left she braved looking through the smaller window on the far wall of the lounge area again and sure enough all of the window coverings in the other cabin were down now, a dim light coming from behind.

She’d be back tomorrow.

And she had no doubt she’d be seeing Leo Magowan again, very soon.

Leo waved the delivery driver off from the parking area at the front of the boathouse and took the last of the boxes inside. As he did so he regarded the O’Brien cabin. He’d returned home to his own cabin late last night after going to see his brother Adrian, who had finally settled back in the Stepping Stone Bay area in a flat not far from here. They’d had a few beers together and Leo, happy to have his brother back in town, had whistled his way home down the track, past his boathouse and the O’Brien cabin and across the thirteen stepping stones to his own place. But when he’d gone to let himself in through the front door he’d had the feeling of being watched and had stopped whistling and turned round, thinking he’d seen something in the corner of his eye. He’d told himself he must’ve been mistaken and with his desperation to use the bathroom, ignored the niggling feeling until he was unable to let it go and fall asleep. He’d taken a torch and gone outside, across the stepping stones, and over to check up on the other cabin. He had a good look around the outside and nothing seemed untoward, no sign of forced entry. He’d even got a chair from his veranda to enable him to look in through the windows which had curtains which weren’t drawn completely and it had been enough for him to determine that the cabin was indeed empty, the way it had sadly been for a long time. Not even Walt O’Brien, the cabin’s official owner, came down here much any more apart from to do the odd once-over of the place.

Now, as Leo unpacked the first of the many boxes, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was different. He just had no idea what.

‘Jonah, you’re back.’ The young boy with an accent he’d initially mistaken as American but was in fact Canadian had been here twice before. He hadn’t bought anything the first time, and on the second occasion, only a keyring with a navy and white sailboat ornament fixed to a silver ring. And on both times he’d hung around for ages, talking to Leo, asking questions about boats, the sea, anything he could think of. Now, here he was again, still in school uniform, still with the same smile that made it hard to say no. ‘Do your parents know you’re here?’

‘I’m eleven,’ said Jonah and then shrugged the way he’d done before when Leo tried to do the right thing and make sure his family knew where he was. Leo put down the box he’d been about to unpack and went over to the boy who had gone straight to the window at the end to look out over the bay, the sand and the kayakers beyond.

‘You ever tried a paddle board?’ Leo asked when Jonah’s attentions moved to a teenager taking one out and wobbling a good amount before he got going.

Jonah shook his head, dark hair moving at the same time. ‘It looks fun. But not as much fun as kayaking.’

He put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. ‘It’s great having you here and I don’t mind at all, you can even help out like you seem to want to, but I do need to have your parents’ permission first.’

The boy nodded. ‘I know,’ he sighed reluctantly. ‘I need to get Mum to come down here.’

‘Or Dad,’ Leo suggested.

The boy looked away. ‘My dad isn’t around.’

Leo didn’t want to pry any further. ‘Tell you what. If you were a customer you’d be rooting through the racks to find what you wanted, so I don’t see there’s much difference if you take the contents of that box over there and put them in their rightful places in the shop?’

Jonah’s smile broke out. ‘Thank you!’ And he charged over to the box filled with roof rack straps in packets, surf leashes in similar packaging and a couple of SUP leashes.

Leo wondered what the boy’s story was, what really brought him here to the boathouse. Was it that he didn’t have a dad around and wanted male company? Was it a love of the water perhaps or simple loneliness or problems at school? But he wasn’t the parent, he couldn’t be the one to worry, and his main concern had to be that the boy let his mum know he was coming here, and so he’d remind him again before he left today.

When Jonah finished dashing around the boathouse, which was a shop area above the shed that housed water craft and equipment, to put everything away he wanted to sweep up.

‘Seriously?’ Leo laughed and gestured to the broom propped up in the corner behind the till. ‘Go for it, mate.’ He got the impression he could’ve asked Jonah to pick up a piece of litter a customer had dropped and Jonah would’ve happily done it. ‘But your mum really does need to come and see me, soon. I mean it.’

‘She will, I promise.’ He was already sweeping up the area around the counter. ‘Can I help clean the kayaks next time?’ When Leo opened his mouth to reply he rolled his eyes. ‘I know, ask my mum.’

‘You guessed it.’ Leo was mostly alone in the shop unless customers came in to hire or he was giving lessons, and he was quite enjoying having his young sidekick. Young boys could be annoying, mess about too much and get rowdy – he should know, he’d been one once – but Jonah had a serious edge and seemed to know how to behave. Whoever his parents were, he’d obviously been brought up right. And he had an enthusiasm too, something not all casual staff had. They were there for the money and nothing else whereas Jonah seemed to slot in with his willingness to help and sunny smile. Of course what Leo really wanted was for his brother Adrian to eventually come back into the business, the way they’d always planned it. But Adrian, like so many others, had turned his back on the bay after a summer tragedy and Leo wasn’t sure his dream would ever happen. It certainly hadn’t happened with Nina, the girl he’d given his whole heart to and thought she’d done the same.

The Stepping Stone Bay Boathouse had retained its name and its position in the bay. Once a far bigger operation for building and fixing boats, it might no longe. . .