For a moment, she thought she hadn’t heard right. She stared at him and he smiled and nodded. She swallowed. Was he serious? ‘You need the money though, don’t you? For the B&B? Nick said you were desperate for it.’
‘I need ten thousand now to pay off the one loan that moves to high interest next month, the rest of the loans are low interest so if you could pay me back enough each month to cover them that would be fine. I thought maybe we could raise the ten thousand against the house then take it off what you owe me.’
‘We don’t need to. I have that. I’ve got my redundancy money. I can give you ten thousand out of that and still have enough to live on while I set my business up.’ She couldn’t believe this was really happening.
‘That’s brilliant. And I don’t want the full asking price for the cottage, not off my own daughter.’ He mentioned a much lower sum and a monthly payment that Hattie could manage easily. Even if her photography business didn’t take off as well as she hoped, a part-time job would easily cover the cottage payment and food.
‘Are you sure, Dad?’
‘I’m positive. I can see how much you love the cottage and I’d like to keep it in the family. I reckon Albert would approve too.’
Hattie clapped her hands in delight. ‘Thank you so much.’
‘Right, well, now that’s settled, I’ll phone the solicitor and tell him the sale is off.’
‘I should feel guilty about that but I don’t,’ Hattie said. ‘The Bryants just wanted the place as a holiday home. They’ll soon find another one. I don’t think Jonathan will be pleased, though.’
‘That can’t be helped,’ Owen said, picking up his phone.
Hattie listened as her Dad told the solicitor that they had changed their mind about selling Fisherman’s Rest, Hattie would be buying him out and living in it. Then he asked him to draw up all the necessary paperwork for Hattie to buy his half of the cottage. After that, he phoned Jonathan to let him know the sale was off. ‘Now, how about we go out for lunch to celebrate you being the owner of Fisherman’s Rest,’ he said.
‘Thank you, Dad!’ Hattie threw her arms around his neck and gave him a big hug.
Chapter Forty-Six
It had been a wonderful weekend. Hattie and her dad had talked a lot, built a lot of bridges, and she was really looking forward to visiting him at Christmas.
‘Bring a friend if you want,’ he said as he hugged her goodbye on Monday.
She glanced at him. ‘That’s very kind of you.’ She didn’t ask him which friend; she knew who he meant. Her dad had got this idea in his head that Marcus was in love with her. He was wrong. If he was in love with her, he would have told her, asked her not to leave. He didn’t even know now that she wasn’t leaving anymore, and she wasn’t going to knock on his door and tell him. She wasn’t staying for him. She was staying because she loved the cottage and Port Medden. Because this was the place she wanted to live.
She felt a bit sad as she waved her father goodbye. For the first time since she was a child, she felt close to him again, and had really enjoyed his company. He’d been so kind and understanding, and she was overwhelmed at the fact that Fisherman’s Rest was now her home. Forever. She closed the door and went back into the lounge, looking around happily.
‘This is our home, Buddy,’ she said to the parrot who was cheerfully nibbling at a piece of apple. He lifted his head and stared at Hattie, then squawked, ‘Bloody hell!’
She grinned. She could hardly believe it too. Fisherman’s Rest belonged to her. She didn’t have to move. She could stay here in Port Medden, the little town she had come to love. Living next door to Marcus.
Would he be pleased? she wondered.
She’d just made herself a cup of frothy coffee and was tucking into a slice of chocolate cake when there was a knock on the door. She sighed, hoping it wasn’t Jonathan come to try and talk her into changing her mind. He hadn’t been very happy when Owen had phoned that morning to say that they weren’t going ahead with the sale. Perhaps if she ignored it he might think that she was out and go away. She took another bite of her cake.
There was another knock on the door. Whoever it was, wasn’t going to give up.
She swallowed down the cake in her mouth and got up and went to answer the door. To her surprise, it was Marcus standing on the doorstep, not Jonathan.
‘I saw your dad go out and, well, I wanted to talk to you. Can I come in for a few minutes?’
He looked a bit awkward. She wondered if this was about the painting again. Maybe he’d got it back and was going to show it to her. She had said she wanted to see it.
‘Sure.’ She turned back towards the lounge, leaving Marcus to close the front door behind him and follow her through.
As soon as he saw Marcus, Buddy started hopping on his perch and whistling. ‘Where you been? Where you been?’
Marcus grinned and walked over to the cage. ‘Working, mate,’ he said. He dug around in his pocket, pulled out a grape and handed it to the parrot, who took it with great delight.
‘I’m going to miss him.’ Marcus turned around to Hattie. ‘And you. That’s what I came to say, really. That I’m going to miss you. Lots. I wish I hadn’t wasted so much of the short time we had together being so disapproving and snarky. I wish we hadn’t had that stupid mix-up with Estelle. I wish we had longer together. And –’ he gazed
