Mick sighed. ‘I think I do. Was he unpleasant?’
‘You could say.’ Lara smiled faintly, the colour coming back to her cheeks.
‘That’s not on.’ Mick suddenly felt very angry, but he didn’t want to scare Lara more by showing it. He touched her hand. ‘I know Ed has a bit of a temper but he’s no right to take it out on you. Are you OK?’
She took a deep breath. ‘I am now, thanks. I shouldn’t have let it get to me so much.’ She shook her head. ‘For some reason he seemed to be more angry with Steve than anything. Maybe angry is an understatement.’
‘They don’t get on,’ said Mick. ‘Haven’t ever done, really, but it’s been even worse the last few years. Ed has this idea that Steve is trying to get one up on him, which isn’t true. Steve’s so easy going he couldn’t be bothered to get one up on anyone, but you know what it’s like with siblings.’
‘I’m an only child,’ said Lara. ‘Maybe that’s a good thing.’
‘I have to say, my sisters aren’t too bad. I’ve always found them a bit of a soft touch, truth be told, but Ed and Steve have fought for as long as I can remember. It’s strange. Ed’s fine with everyone else.’ He glanced at Lara, who was looking disbelieving. ‘Nearly everyone else.’
Lara gave a shudder and then picked up her mug, cupping her hands around it as though she was cold. ‘He couldn’t actually make us withdraw our offer, could he?’
‘Of course not,’ said Mick. He didn’t add that Ed could always put in a higher one. He undoubtedly had the financial clout to do so.
Lara started to say something about getting back to her marking. Mick decided the best thing to do for the moment was to let her.
Chapter Seven
After a good night’s sleep Lara was able to put Ed McAnulty’s visit into perspective. She had overreacted, as usual. It was just that she so hated a show of emotion like that. And the idea that Ladybank Row might be snatched from them when it was so nearly in their grasp was awful. She had got the impression from Mick the man had a fair amount of influence in the area, but surely he couldn’t stop the Council considering their bid? And they had got in first.
She phoned Alex during her lunch break to discuss the situation with her.
‘That must have been horrible for you,’ said Alex, sounding worried. ‘Are you all right?’ Her concern made Lara pull herself together.
‘Yes, I’m fine.’
‘There isn’t anything he can do, is there?’ said Alex. ‘He can’t stop them accepting our offer, can he?’
‘Not unless he puts in a higher one.’ Lara’s heart sank at the thought. But she wasn’t going to just sit back and let this happen. ‘I’ll get on to our solicitor straight away, see what he can find out.’
‘That’s a good idea,’ said Alex. Lara was glad her friend wasn’t using this as an excuse to back out. It seemed that she too was now really keen on Ladybank Row. She was showing more interest in this than she had in anything for months. All the more reason for making sure their bid was successful.
Lara arrived home that afternoon full of energy and wondered what to do. The solicitor was doing what he could for Ladybank Row, all her lessons were prepared for the next day. She supposed she could go for a run, as Mick would have done, but the idea didn’t really appeal.
She decided to go and do some food shopping, and was then tempted by the home furnishings store next to the supermarket. A little look inside wouldn’t hurt, would it? Mick’s house was so dull. There was nothing wrong with it, the settees were fairly new, the curtains of reasonable quality. But everything was so bland. Before she knew it Lara had filled a trolley with plush velour throws in colours of jewels, and cushions that sparkled with silk and sequins.
It wasn’t a waste of money, she told herself. She would take all these things with her when she moved out. And it would be nice to make the house a little more inviting whilst she stayed there.
It didn’t take her long to vacuum and dust Mick’s sitting room and rearrange the rather limited furniture, spreading her beautiful new purchases around. The difference was amazing! The room looked homely, warmer, like a place you would want to spend time. Very pleased with herself, Lara went to put the kettle on for a well-earned cup of tea.
She didn’t hear Mick come in over the sound of the kettle and the first she knew of his arrival was a loud exclamation. ‘What on earth have you done to my house?’ He stood in the hallway, looking into the living room and then at her in the kitchen. For the first time since Lara had known him, he didn’t look pleased.
‘I just bought a few things …’
‘Take over, why don’t you?’ Mick’s face was flushed. It might have been from jogging home but Lara didn’t think so. He was actually angry. The easy-going smile was replaced by narrowed lips and flashing eyes. ‘Don’t mind me. I only own the place.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Lara, quailing before him. ‘I thought it would make a nice change …’
‘I suppose it wasn’t good enough for you? As I said when you moved in, you can do what you want to your room, but I didn’t expect you to take over the whole house.’
‘You didn’t mind when I stocked the kitchen.’ Lara was confused. He’d encouraged her to bring her pots and pans, bowls and knives. Somehow brightening up the sitting room had just seemed like an extension of that. To her. Obviously not to him.
‘That was different,’ he said. ‘Oh never mind. I’m going to have a shower.’ He turned and strode up the stairs, taking two at a time.
Lara was almost in tears. First the argument with Ed McAnulty, and now this. She crept into the sitting room and began to pile up the throws and cushions. She could use them in her bedroom. It would make it a bit more interesting. And if Mick was going to be so grumpy, she could see herself spending rather a lot of time up there.
Mick didn’t know why he was so annoyed with Lara. He took an extra-long shower so he could calm down, and when he did he was ashamed of his outburst. He supposed the house was a bit dull. He really hadn’t spent much time and energy on it. There always seemed to be something more important, such as football, or teaching, or … football.
Why shouldn’t she try to make it a bit more comfortable if she wanted to? Actually, when he thought about it, it had looked rather nice. It had just been such a shock. And he had felt criticised. She could make things look lovely in such a short time, and he hadn’t managed it in the two years he had been here.
When he went back downstairs the brightly coloured cushions and blankets had disappeared. The room was back to boring beige and brown. And Lara was nowhere to be seen, although her bedroom door was closed.
He knocked hesitantly. ‘Er, Lara?’
‘Yes?’
‘Can I have a word?’
She opened the door cautiously. Her face was paler than ever, she might even have been crying. Mick felt even worse.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said quickly. ‘I shouldn’t have done it, specially not without asking you. I won’t do it again and if you want me to move out …’
‘Stop, stop! Of course I don’t want you to move out.’ He took a deep breath. ‘I was going to ask if you might change your mind and bring the things back down. It did, well, it did look a lot better with them there.’
‘But you said …’
‘I overreacted,’ said Mick. ‘I’m sorry. Can we start again?’ It was easier now he’d made a start. ‘You had this idea of making a few changes to the sitting room and I think that’s excellent. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself. Now, perhaps we could take it all down …?’
‘Are you sure?’ said Lara. The faint colour was coming back to her face. ‘I’m really sorry for being so presumptuous.’
‘Let’s both stop apologising, shall we? You can do whatever it was you did to the room to make it so different, and I’ll cook us a meal. It’ll have to be cheese and beans on toast because that’s about my limit, but I can assure you I do a very good cheese and beans on toast.’
He waited, aware of her hesitation. Would she take the olive branch he was offering?
‘That sounds perfect,’ she said, and smiled. Mick wanted to shout his relief, but contented himself with a smile in return.
Chapter Eight
Lara had been going to ask a favour of Mick, but after the disagreement over her attempts at redecorating, she changed her mind. She had seen how little he used his ‘office’ and had wondered if he would mind Alex renting the room. It would be ideal for the girls to be close together in Loreburn, and would have meant a little extra money for Mick. Now she didn’t want to tread on his toes so would have to think of something else.
In the meantime, she concentrated on worrying about whether or not they were actually going to get Ladybank Row. The Council seemed to be taking forever to make up their mind: would they accept Lara and Alex’s offer, accept Ed’s offer (if he had made one), or go to a closing date? The not knowing was really getting to her.
Then, when she checked her mobile for messages one lunchtime, she found instructions from the solicitor to phone him immediately. He had something to report.
She couldn’t make a call as important as this in public so she decided to nip home and phone from there. She tried to slip out of the staffroom without being caught in conversation, but Mick appeared just as she reached the door.
‘You’re in a hurry,’ he said. ‘Where are you off to?’
‘I’m just, er, popping back to the house. Anything I can get for you?’
He smiled. ‘Brilliant. You couldn’t give me a lift, could you? I forgot I needed kit for circuit training this evening and I won’t have the chance to go back after school.’
‘Of course,’ said Lara. She could hardly refuse. ‘Is it all right if we go straight away?’
Mick nodded and fell in to step beside her. He didn’t ask why she was going home at lunchtime, something she had never done before. She drove quickly along the now familiar streets, wiping her hands surreptitiously on the dark green linen dress. He glanced across at her. ‘You seem nervous.’
Lara sighed. He would know soon enough why she had wanted to go back to the house. ‘I need to phone the solicitor.’
‘Good news?’
‘I won’t know until I speak to him, will I?’
‘Why didn’t you just phone from school?’
‘I want somewhere private,’ she said, hoping he would take the hint. And he seemed to. When they reached the house he went straight to the kitchen, most unusually closing the door behind him.
The solicitor was a man in his early sixties, slow-speaking and pedantic.
‘Good afternoon, young lady,’ he said. ‘I’ve been expecting to hear from you.’
‘Yes. I phoned as soon as I could. Do you have any news?’
‘I do indeed.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Matters didn’t go exactly as I had anticipated, but I should be used to that after all the years I’ve worked in this business.’
‘Yes?’ Lara wanted to scream at him.
‘Yes indeed. I’d like to know what game McAnulty and Sons are playing at, but so far I can’t put my finger on it.’
‘We didn’t get it,’ said Lara on a whisper.
‘Oh yes, young lady. Oh yes indeed, your bid has been accepted. What I can’t understand is that after all this delay yours was actually the only bid.’
‘Ye-es!’ Lara gave a whoop of delight. They had done it! She only half listened to the rest of Mr Brownlee’s comments. She didn’t care, she didn’t need the details now. She just needed to know that they had won.
‘Ladybank Row is ours!’ She flung open the kitchen door and launched herself into Mick’s arms, swinging him round in more of a dance than a hug. ‘We got it. They’ve accepted our offer, no quibbles, can you believe it? That is so brilliant.’
He beamed back at her, his scepticism about the purchase apparently forgotten. ‘That’s great!’
‘We got it!’ She couldn’t keep the smile off her face. ‘I can’t believe it. I was so worried. I don’t know what we’d have done if it hadn’t worked out.’
‘You deserve it.’ He seemed genuinely pleased for her. ‘You’ve put in a lot of effort already.’
‘Maybe we do deserve it, but I couldn’t dare hope, I didn’t believe …’ She finally stood still, her enthusiasm making her breathless, a grin spreading across her face.
‘Congratulations.’ He ruffled her hair, laughing at her.
‘Oh.’ She could feel herself blushing. ‘Thanks. Right. I’ve got to phone Alex. They’ve even agreed to an early entry date.’ She gave a little twirl, shot him a slightly more guarded smile, and slipped back into the hall.
She wished she hadn’t hugged him like that. Now he would think she was interested in him and she really wasn’t. He was the happy-go-lucky type, a man who flirted with everyone in his light-hearted way. He really wasn’t her type. She just wished she didn’t have to work so hard at reminding herself of that.
Alex was as pleased as Lara, in her quiet way. ‘Now we can really start planning,’ she said. ‘I’ll give my notice in tomorrow. I didn’t want to tempt fate by doing it sooner. Oh, Lara, I’m so pleased.’
Lara was delighted, not only that their bid had been successful, but that Alex was so happy.
Mick came downstairs, carrying one of his inevitable bags of sports kit. ‘Are you ready to head back? Otherwise we might be late and Mr McIntyre wouldn’t be at all impressed by that.’
‘Goodness,’ said Lara, looking with horror at her watch. She couldn’t believe how quickly the time had passed. ‘Come on, let’s go.’
Once they were in the car Mick was silent, as though thinking something over. She hoped he wasn’t regretting having rented to room to her. Even though she had now bought a property of her own, it would be months before it was ready to be lived in. Should she say something to him about that?
‘You know I said I didn’t use my office much?’ he said suddenly.
‘Er, yes,’ said Lara, puzzled.
‘I presume Alex will want to move down here so she can start work on the houses?’
‘Yes, that’s right.’
‘Do you think she’d be interested in renting that room? I know it’s small, and would take some clearing out, but if you were willing to help …’
Lara couldn’t believe her ears. She gave him a huge grin as she drew up in the school car park. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Yes, of course. But if you don’t think it would work …’
‘I think it would be brilliant! I wanted to ask you myself but I didn’t want to impose on you. Are you sure you don’t mind? That would make two of us staying in your house.’
‘It’s not going to be forever, is it? And Alex doesn’t strike me as the sort of person to go changing my décor without even asking.’
Lara blushed. ‘I’m really sorry about that …’
‘I’m just joking. So, do you want to suggest it to her and see what she says?’
‘She’ll be delighted,’ said Lara firmly. ‘I can’t thank you enough.’ And she leant over and kissed him. She didn’t know what made her do it. It wasn’t like her at all. It was only on the cheek, and she jumped back immediately and climbed out of the car, but the feel of his warm skin stayed with her.
If that wasn’t bad enough, one of the passing fifth years let out a wolf whistle.
Lara could feel herself turning bright red.
‘Ignore them,’ said Mick with a wink.
It was easy for him to say. She wished she had his self-assurance. Or that she could put him out of her mind as easily as he seemed to put her from his.
It was only that evening Lara remembered the solicitor’s words. Despite all the fuss, Ed McAnulty hadn’t even put in a bid. Perhaps she should be worrying about Ed rather than Mick. What, indeed, was he playing at?
Chapter Nine
Mick had two weighty problems on his mind.
The more pressing one was whether to tell Lara – and Steve – he
had agreed to go out for a pint with Ed on Monday evening. He knew Lara was still suspicious of the man, and he didn’t want to upset her. Steve would be absolutely furious, but Mick had decided he couldn’t be part of the brothers’ feud forever.
His second problem was Lara herself. He had to face up to the fact that he found her very attractive, and yet was making absolutely no progress in getting close to her. If anything, she was more wary of him now than when he had first met her two months ago. She had definitely withdrawn after giving him that kiss on the cheek. He thought over the situation, looking at it from all angles, and the only answer he could come up with was to ask Lara out on a date.
It seemed ridiculous, inviting your own housemate out on a date, but how else was he to get the message through to her that he was interested? Unless he made it blatantly obvious, she would turn the evening into yet another group night out, or pretend she didn’t realise it was her company he was after, or cry off due to excess marking. She was far too conscientious a teacher.
For the moment he decided to put both issues from his mind and concentrate on the Friday evening football. It was late April and the lighter nights had caused the number of youths to increase from between twenty and thirty to nearer fifty, and he was struggling to keep them under control. It wasn’t that the kids were misbehaving – well, no more than was to be expected – just that there were more of them than he could reasonably keep an eye on.
‘This is a nightmare,’ he said after nearly an hour of trying to referee four games simultaneously. He gave two sharp blasts on his whistle and gestured the youths to gather round. Two or three girls had joined in tonight, which was a distraction he could have done without, but he didn’t want to discourage them.
‘Right, listen up. I said listen! Ryan, you take this whistle and teams one and two and go to the top field.’
‘Er, me?’ said Ryan, looking confused. ‘Why me?’
‘Because I say so. You’re the ref and the rest will listen to what you say. Won’t they?’ Mick narrowed his eyes at the straggling group who looked at each other and shrugged. ‘Kyle, you take the ball. OK, off you go. Fifteen minutes each way. And remember, I’m still keeping an eye on you.’
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