CHAPTER FOUR
It’s almost eight and just starting to get light when I arrive at the café.
I’ve got a key to let myself in, as Ellie doesn’t usually come down from the flat to open up the café until around eight-thirty. She lives above the cafe with Zak and his cute five-year-old daughter, Maisie.
I go straight through to the brand new kitchen extension at the rear of the café, taking my coat off on the way and hanging it on a peg in the tiny utility room adjoining the kitchen. Switching on the lights, I gaze around with satisfaction at what feels like my own personal domain. The kitchen – small but beautifully proportioned and well-equipped - was installed several months ago, after Ellie took over the café from Sylvia and gave it a facelift. But it still looks so new, with its lovely shaker-style units, gleaming double oven and oodles of granite work top space. I scrub it clean before I leave every day to keep it looking nice and new.
Pulling on an apron and rolling up my sleeves, I get to work – and half an hour later, my spiced apple cakes are in the oven and I’ve started making the sultana scones. That’s when I hear footsteps on the stairs leading down from the flat, and a second later, little Maisie, her mouth smeared in what looks like strawberry jam, runs into the kitchen. Barefoot and still in her pink Frozen pyjamas, she hunkers down under the bench behind the door.
I smile at her and she puts her fingers over her lips, mischief clearly on her mind. ‘I’m hiding from Daddy and Lellie,’ she whispers. ‘Don’t tell them I’m here, Fen.’
I shake my head. ‘Of course I won’t.’
Seconds later, Zak appears. He winks at me and says, ‘Been looking all over for Maisie. You don’t know where she’s got to, do you, Fen?’
Solemnly, I shake my head. ‘I haven’t seen her, Zak. Perhaps she’s making herself a coffee in the café.’
‘Ah yes, of course, she loves coffee.’
Maisie makes a horrified face at me from under the table and I wink at her.
‘Who, Maisie?’ Ellie pops her head round the door, smiling, having heard the tail end of the conversation. ‘Oh yes, coffee’s her favourite drink. She likes it even better than apple juice.’
‘No, I don’t. Coffee’s horrible!’
‘Who’s that?’ Zak makes a show of searching the room before finally looking under the table. ‘Ah, there you are, Maisie Moo! Come on, time to get dressed or I’ll have to tickle you.’
Maisie shrieks in delight and scrambles out, and Zak sweeps her up and tickles her mercilessly anyway so she shrieks even louder.
‘Crikey, it’s not even nine o’clock and she’s hyper already,’ says Ellie with a pretend sigh. ‘Well done, Daddy!’
We exchange a grin. I know from our many chats on the subject that Ellie loves Maisie to bits. They’ve haven’t even been in each others’ lives six months yet, but already, she, Zak and Maisie are a proper little family. Ellie had always wanted children. And meeting Zak and falling in love with him – and his daughter, too – has been a dream come true for her.
Zak is wrestling Maisie out of the door. ‘Come on, if we don’t get a move on, the swimming pool will be closed!’
Maisie looks at Ellie. ‘Are you coming with us, Lellie?’
Ellie shakes her head regretfully. Then she lifts Maisie off her feet to give her a cuddle. ‘I can’t, sweetheart. I’ve got to work in the café today.’
‘Please?’ Maisie hooks her legs around Ellie’s waist and twirls a lock of Ellie’s shiny blonde hair in her small hand.
‘Sorry, Munchkin. But I’ll make pizza for tea tonight. How about that?’
‘Yes!’ Maisie punches the air with a jubilant smile.
Zak drops a kiss on the top of Maisie’s dark head, then his eyes meet Ellie’s and he bends to kiss her lingeringly on the lips. I smile to myself. It’s so natural and easy, their relationship. Zak was a struggling single parent until he met Ellie. They were so lucky to find each other.
All sorts of wistful feelings rise up inside me and I think of Sunday and the am dram meeting. If I want a chance at the happiness Ellie has found, I need to start being proactive about my romantic life, which at the moment doesn’t even exist.
Zak prises Maisie away from Ellie, and Maisie glances shyly at me. ‘You can come if you like, Fen. We get ice-cream. Can you swim?’
‘I can, my love. But I need to bake lots of nice things for the café today.’
‘Oh.’ She nods solemnly. ‘Daddy’s teaching me to float on my back and the water really tickles when it goes in my ears.’ She giggles at the thought of it, then pulls on Zak’s hand, leading him to the door. ‘Come on, Daddy, we don’t want the pool to be closed.’
Zak grins back at us. ‘See you both later. Yes, Maisie, I’m coming.’
Cue more shrieks from his daughter as she runs up the stairs to escape his clutches.
Ellie calls up after Zak, ‘Make sure you get her a non-dairy ice-cream.’
‘Yes, I know,’ he calls back.
She looks sheepishly at me. ‘I know I probably fuss over Maisie far too much but I can’t help it. I couldn’t love her more if she were my own daughter. She’s allergic to dairy and she can get really sick a few hours after having cow’s milk.’
‘It’s so cute the way she calls you Lellie.’
Ellie smiles goofily. ‘I know. She had trouble saying “Ellie” at first, bless her. So the name, Lellie, has stuck.’
I spend the next hour happily baking, and by ten the little kitchen is full of the aroma of apples and cinnamon and fresh sultana scones. Loading up some Tupperware boxes, I take them through to the café where Ellie is making cappuccino.
‘Smells gorgeous,’ she murmurs and I laugh because she says that every single time.
I’m arranging the scones on a platter when the door opens and a tall woman with dark hair enters the café. Her hair is short in a pixie cut that suits her heart-shaped face and she’s dressed in a sleek navy track suit and bright white trainers. She glances around briefly then walks quickly over to Ellie at the counter.
I’ve never seen her before – and I recognise most of the regulars who come in here now. Perhaps she’s a jogger stopping off for a drink.
‘You must be Ellie,’ she says in a cool, confident tone. ‘Is Zak here?’
Ellie looks a little taken aback. ‘Er, no, I’m afraid he’s not. But he’ll be back later.’ She smiles. ‘Can I give him a message?’
‘Yes, please. Can you tell him Sophie called to see him? I want to see Maisie.’
Ellie freezes. And the woman repeats, ‘Maisie. My daughter?’
A cold hand grips my heart.
Ellie is staring at Sophie, clearly struggling to know what to say, and that’s not like her at all. At last, she clears her throat and murmurs, ‘Right. I’ll tell Zak when he comes back. Do you . . . want to leave your number for him to call you?’ She looks round for a pen and paper.
Sophie waves away this suggestion. ‘Oh, no. I’m staying locally, at The Swan Hotel on the high street. Zak can bring Maisie to see me there.’
She gives Ellie a cool smile and strides out of the café.
Ellie holds it together until the door closes behind Sophie, then she slumps forward on the counter, running her hands through her hair, anguish written all over her face.
I gaze at her worriedly. ‘That’s Maisie’s mum? I thought she walked out on them when Maisie was a baby?’
‘She did. So why’s she come back?’ Ellie looks at me in bewilderment.
Having no answers, I shake my head.
Two customers are leaving and Ellie forces herself to say a cheery goodbye.
As soon as they’ve gone, her smile disappears. ‘I can’t believe this is happening. How could you possibly desert your child when she’s just a tiny baby, then waltz in here more than four years later wanting to see her? As if nothing has happened in the years between?’
‘I know.’ I feel aghast at the thought. ‘If I ever had a baby, they’d be the most precious thing ever, and whatever problems I had going on in my life, I’d fight tooth and nail to keep that child with me.’
I remember Ellie saying something about Sophie once having a drug problem which was the reason she walked out on Zak and baby Maisie. Perhaps she’s got herself off the drugs and is now trying to get her life back on track.
Ellie’s face is pale with shock. ‘She didn’t seem the slightest bit apologetic about her lengthy absence.’ She shakes her head in disbelief.
‘I know. How do you think Zak will take this? And Maisie? She won’t even remember her mum.’ I frown. ‘In fact, as far as she’s concerned, you’re her mum.’
Ellie’s eyes fill with tears and I wish I hadn’t said it.
‘The funny think is we were just talking the other night about asking Maisie if she wanted to start calling me Mum,’ she says sadly. ‘But now . . .’
I put my arm round her shoulders. ‘It might all just blow over. She’s shown no interest in seeing Maisie since she left. Maybe she just wants to satisfy her curiosity. Then she might leave again?’
I feel Ellie shudder. ‘I don’t know. She seemed pretty determined. And it’s only right that Maisie should get to know her real mum . . .’ She gives me a wan smile and my insides shift uneasily.
Ellie fought through a bad relationship and uprooted herself from everything familiar to come to Sunnybrook and finally find happiness with Zak and Maisie.
But what if Sophie is about to blow her little family apart?