‘Just so long as you don’t catcall.’
Henry grinned at her, and she could see in his cheeky look what he would have looked like as a young boy getting up to childish mischief. She watched as he placed his thumb and middle finger in his mouth and gave a shrill wolf whistle. ‘Like that you mean?’
She elbowed him. ‘You wouldn’t dare! The matron would have you out on your ear!’
‘You’re not wrong there.’
As they reached the folly, the rocky outcrop they’d been following gave way to an uninterrupted stretch of sand, Constance had a sudden yearning to feel the sand between her toes. ‘Shall we walk along the foreshore?’ she asked, indicating the steps leading down to the beach. The water was a long ways off and would be so for a good bit yet.
‘Sure.’
Constance sat down on the same bench where she’d been sitting when she first laid eyes on Henry and slipped her shoes off. The air was biting on her bare feet, and she twiddled her toes while she waited for Henry to ball his socks. He stuffed them inside his boots, and placed his boots under the bench saying, ‘They’ll be all right there for a bit.’ Constance did the same with hers and followed him down the steps to the beach. She looked at his straight back and broad shoulders, and as he turned to hold his arm out for her once more she felt a shock, almost electrical in its intensity somewhere deep down in her belly at the thought of those strong arms wrapped around her.
They left their footprints in the soft sand as they strolled along. She pointed out the different birds, and they watched a tussle between a seagull and a gannet over a dead fish lying in a shallow pool. The seagull won, winging its way off into the deepening sky victoriously.
‘Tell me more about your family, Henry.’
‘Well, my sister Nancy’s not long turned twelve, and she’s quite the tomboy. She won’t be seen dead in a dress unless she’s going to church, and only then because she has to. Mom shakes her head over her especially when she comes home with rips in her pants from climbing trees or riding her bike too fast. I think mom worries she runs a little wild what with dad not being around anymore to keep her in check. I mean I do my best, but I think she should enjoy being a kid while she can.’
Constance nodded her agreement thinking of all the fun she’d had clambering around the folly as a child, and she had the scars to prove it! ‘What was your father like? Do you take after him or your mother?’
‘My dad, that’s where I get my red hair. My mom’s a blue-eyed blonde and lucky for Nancy she got mom’s looks.’ He lifted his hat and dipped his head to show her his crop.
‘It’s more gold than red,’ Constance said resisting the urge to run her fingers over his head. She knew from doing the same to Ted when he got his first buzz cut that it would feel like velvet.
‘He dropped dead when I was fifteen; his heart just stopped one day when he was at work.’
‘Gosh, that must have been awful.’
‘It was. My mom fell apart for a while, and I had to step up, you know, help take care of Nancy. She was only seven and a real daddy’s girl. It hit her hard—it hit us all hard, but we muddled through. It’s true you know, and you might not believe me now but where your brother’s concerned time does heal. You never stop missing the person, but one day you wake up and realize them not being here anymore wasn’t the first thing you thought about when you opened your eyes. It stops being so raw and becomes this throbbing pain that slowly turns into a dull ache and then it stops hurting physically, but the scar’s always there to remind you.’
‘I hope so,’ Constance said her eyes smarting as she thought of her brother. It was hard to believe and sad to think that one day Ted’s death wouldn’t sting like an open wound.
‘I think my mom may have a beau.’
Constance blinked the tears back where they belonged. ‘Really?’
‘Yeah, I’m kinda reading the between the lines, but in her letters, it sounds like Mr De Rosa, who owns this Italian deli not far from where we live, is sweet on her.’
Constance frowned. ‘What’s a deli?’
Henry looked at her, his eyes widening. ‘You’ve never heard of a deli?’
She shook her head.
‘Ah, you don’t know what you’re missing, Connie. A deli sells fine foods; you know, cured meats, cheeses, and olives. There’s this smell when you step inside Mr De Rosa’s shop, and its how I’d imagine walking down a street in Rome would smell. It’s kinda garlicky and peppery and cheesy all at the same time.’
‘You’re making me hungry!’
‘Well, I did promise you a fish supper.’
‘And I’ll hold you to that, but let’s walk a little further. If your leg’s not hurting you?’
‘I’m fine.’
‘Would you like your mum to remarry?’
‘Do you know what? I would. I’d like her to be happy, and Mr De Rosa is a good man. And I’m all for it if it means I get a lifetime’s supply of his pastrami.’ He read her expression and grinned. ‘Pastrami is a cured meat that’s mixed with spices and then smoked, and you can’t beat a pastrami sandwich from De Rosa’s Deli. Although pancakes from the Sweet Jam Café come close, they just drip with maple syrup.’
‘What’s maple syrup?’
‘What’s maple syrup?’
She nodded, giggling at his incredulous expression.
‘Connie, you haven’t lived until you’ve tasted maple syrup. It’s the liquid from inside a maple tree, and when it’s boiled up,
