Spring Tides at The Starfish Café

Jessica Redland

Description

Welcome back to the Starfish Café - where you will find stunning views, delicious food and lifelong friendships.

A new season...

As winter turns to spring, Hollie - owner of The Starfish Café - is feeling content as she settles into her new life with her loving boyfriend, Jake, and their adorable dog Pickle.

But when an unwelcome visitor threatens the future of her café, Hollie must stay strong to protect her family's legacy...

A leap of faith...

Emerging from an unhappy relationship, Tori finds herself with nowhere to stay and nobody to talk to. The long-hidden secrets of her past weigh heavily on her until a chance encounter with Finley, struggling to come to terms with his own secrets, provides an opportunity to open up.

Can she find the strength to stop hiding from her past and face up to her family? Especially when that would mean letting her guard down and learning to trust again...

A fresh start...?

Little do Hollie and Tori know that their lives are about to collide at The Starfish Café and they may be able to help each other with a fresh start. After all, with good friends in your life, nothing is impossible...

Top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland welcomes you back to the stunning Starfish Café, for another emotional but uplifting read of friendship, family and community.Praise for Jessica Redland:

'Heartbreakingly moving and yet beautifully uplifting, I cried for all the right reasons!' Jo Bartlett

'I fell in love with this story from page one.' Helen J Rolfe

'Achingly poignant, yet full of hope - You will fall in love with this beautiful Christmas story' Sandy Barker

''A tender love story, full of sweet touches and beautiful characters.' Beth Moran

'I loved my trip to Hedgehog Hollow. An emotional read, full of twists and turns' Heidi Swain

'Jessica Redland writes from the heart, with heart, about heart' Nicola May

'A wonderful, warm series full of family, friends and romance.' Katie Ginger

'An emotional but uplifting page turner.' Fay Keenan

Sujets

• Romance contemporaine
• Fiction
• Romance
• Family Life
• Contemporary
• Holiday
• General
• Animals
• The Women
• Woman
• General officer
• Sibling
• Romantic Comedy
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Workplace
• Contemporary history
• Friendship
• Coming of Age
• Women
• Humorous
• Siblings
• Holidays
• Mashups
• Sea Stories

Informations

• Publié par: Boldwood Books
• Date de parution: 05 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781801624275
• Langue: English

Extrait

SPRING TIDES AT THE STARFISH CAFÉ
THE STARFISH CAFÉ SERIES BOOK 2


JESSICA REDLAND
To Sharon Booth: talented author, amazing friend and fellow lover of cake, with love, hugs and eternal gratitude xx
‘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)
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

Chapter 54


Acknowledgments

More from Jessica Redland

About the Author

Also by Jessica Redland

About Boldwood Books
Recurring Characters from Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café


Hollie Brooks
Owner and full-time manager of The Starfish Café
Owner of wood craft business Hollie’s Wood
Trainee volunteer with RNLI
Lives with Jake

Jake ‘Mouse’ MacLeod
Charge nurse on A&E at Whitsborough Bay General Hospital
RNLI crew member (helm)
Lives with Hollie

Pickle aka Mr Pickles
Hollie and Jake’s shih tzu (found abandoned)

Heather Brooks
Hollie’s mum, who set up The Starfish Café
Died of cancer over six years ago

Joe ‘Sparky’ Brooks
Hollie’s dad, RNLI crew member, killed in tragic rescue seven years ago

Isaac ‘Silver’ Brooks
Hollie’s brother, RNLI crew member, killed in tragic rescue seven years ago

Angie Swinton
Assistant Manager of The Starfish Café
Had been best friends with Heather for fifty years
Estranged from husband Martin

Martin Swinton
Funeral director
Estranged from wife Angie

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 Bradbury
Kyle and Bex’s young daughter, aged four

Isaac Bradbury
Kyle and Bex’s young daughter, nearly three

Violet MacLeod
Jake’s nanna, who raised him
Died following a stroke nearly six 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 their parents’ deaths

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 Vickers
Recruitment consultant
Hollie’s best friend
Lives with Trey

Trey O’Sullivan
Recruitment consultant
Lives with Katie

Betty and Tommy
Long-standing customers at The Starfish Café

Sylvia Braithwaite aka Mrs Sultana
Regular customer at The Starfish Café
Recently befriended Hollie

Avril
Works in The Starfish Café

Artie ‘Chief’ Briars
RNLI Coxswain (full-time paid crew member)

Finley ‘Bart’ Scott
RNLI crew member (obsessed with The Simpsons )

‘Spaniel’
RNLI trainee crew member (excitable like a spaniel)
1
HOLLIE



I placed the final batch of cheese scones in the oven at The Starfish Café and glanced at the clock: 7.55 a.m. Two hours until opening time and I was way ahead of schedule.
‘We came in far too early again, didn’t we?’ I said as I wandered through to the customer side of the café.
Pickle – my gorgeous brown shih tzu – looked up from his bed below the staircase and yawned as though in agreement. I crouched down beside him and stroked his soft ears.
‘I’m sorry for dragging you out so early this morning. Can you forgive me?’
I’d arrived shortly before five – completely unnecessary but I struggled to sleep when Jake was on a night shift at the hospital. The house felt empty and the bed cold without him. There was no point lying there fighting a losing battle with sleep when there was so much I could be getting on with.
Leaving Pickle to settle back down, I made a coffee and took it out onto the large terrace at back of the café. With my hands wrapped round the mug, I rested my arms on the railings and breathed in the cool morning air. The sun had risen an hour earlier and the cloudless sky was powder blue with bands of lemon and pale peach, promising a gorgeous day on the North Yorkshire Coast.
The Starfish Café was set on a clifftop two miles south of the popular seaside town of Whitsborough Bay. The beach below – Starfish Point – was home to a colony of two hundred grey and common seals. This morning, the sea was calm and I could see several seals resting on the curved rocky outcrop of Starfish Arc. What an honour to have a thriving colony on the land my family had owned since the 1950s.
I was glad I’d come in early after all because the beautiful morning, the tranquillity, and the views were such a gift. No wonder the terrace was so popular with customers.
My mum had opened The Starfish Café nearly thirty years before on the site where her mum had run a smaller café, Norma’s Nook, for twenty years. When Mum lost her battle with cancer a little over six seven years ago, I became the third-generation owner, ensuring it remained a warm and friendly place where everyone was welcome and made to feel like part of the family.
I smiled contentedly as I sipped my coffee, watching the seals and listening to the gentle lapping of the waves on the beach. Despite the tragedy of losing my dad, my brother Isaac, and Mum in the space of a year, I was blessed in so many ways. I had amazing friends, an incredible boyfriend in Jake, and the most adorable, loving dog. And I had this place. The Starfish Café, our customers, my staff and those gorgeous seals were part of me and I couldn’t imagine ever wanting anything different.



Angie, my assistant manager and Mum’s lifelong best friend, pulled into the car park shortly before half eight while I was replenishing some hanging Easter-themed Hollie’s Wood products – wooden chicks, bunnies, and lambs – on the display hooks by the till.
Hollie’s Wood was a crafting business I ran alongside The Starfish Café to raise money for three charities close to my heart: Macmillan Cancer Support, the RNLI, and local animal charity Paws Rehomed. Every time a Hollie’s Wood product was bought, it gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling, knowing there was a little more money in the pot to distribute among them.
My passion for crafting wood had passed down the generations on Mum’s side of the family, although I was the only one who’d turned it into a business. Hollie’s Wood specialised in products made from driftwood such as candle holders, picture frames, coat hooks, street and harbour scenes, and Christmas tree decorations. I also made pictures using pebbles, shells and sea glass. Foraging on local beaches had given me a much-needed distraction after the tragic RNLI rescue in which my dad and Isaac had both lost their lives just after Christmas, seven years ago.
‘What a gorgeous morning!’ Angie declared. ‘Should be busy today.’
‘I really hope so, because I might have gone overboard on the baking.’
She raised her eyebrows. ‘You were in early again? Should I be worried about you?’
I gave her a reassuring smile. ‘No. I just miss Jake when he’s working nights.’
She returned my smile. ‘You two are the sweetest. Warms my heart.’



My favourite customers – octogenarians Betty and Tommy – arrived shortly after we opened. They’d been coming to the café for tea and scones every day except Sunday for as long as I could remember, and it had been an honour to host a sixty-fifth wedding anniversary party for them at the end of February.
Tommy, ever the gentleman, tipped his trilby at me. ‘Good morning, darling girl. What a beautiful day!’
‘It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?’ I said, coming round from the counter. ‘How are you two today?’
‘Wonderful,’ Betty said as they slipped into their favourite window booth. ‘Sylvia’s joining us shortly, so we’ll wait until she arrives before we order.’
‘That’s good. I haven’t seen her for a couple of weeks.’
‘Neither have we,’ Betty said. ‘She says she has exciting news.’
‘Ooh, sounds intriguing. I’ll leave you to enjoy the view in the meantime. The scone of the day is raspberry and white chocolate.’
Betty’s eyes lighting up made me laugh. She had a penchant for chocolate scones.
I returned to the counter while they waited for Sylvia to arrive. Also in her eighties, Sylvia was another of my favourites. She’d started coming to the café six years ago after losing her husband but had never engaged in conversation. We’d affectionally christened her Mrs Sultana because she always ordered a fruit scone but picked out all the fruit. On what would have been her husband’s ninetieth birthday, she finally opened up to me and it broke my heart discovering how lonely she was. I’d introduced her to Betty and Tommy and finding new friends seemed to give her a new lease of life.
I was curious as to what her news was. Could it be a new romance? She’d been absolutely devoted to Albert, but the love they’d shared wouldn’t lessen if she felt ready to let love and companionship into her life again.
I didn’t have to wait long, as the next customer to arriv