by Anna Jacobs
She shrugged. ‘I suppose so. I’ll take my time about that because at least I don’t have a mortgage, so I’m hoping I can find something I quite enjoy.’
‘I hope they catch that sod who stole from you.’
She could hear the sincerity in Guy’s voice and was touched. ‘Mmm. So do I. I’ll manage, whatever. I always do. I’ve got good marketable skills. Unfortunately I won’t earn as much this time round. Anyway I don’t want to climb any more corporate ladders. I’ll do project work, I suppose, till I’m mature enough to collect the old age pension.’
She hadn’t even begun to investigate that, didn’t even know how the rules worked in more than vague general terms.
‘Perhaps you can set up in business for yourself.’
‘What with? You need capital, money to live on for at least a year and money in reserve. The lack of financial backup is one of the main reasons small businesses fail within the first year. I don’t intend to risk losing what little I’ve got left. Having that house is one of the things keeping me sane.’
She blew out a breath, trying to blow out her tensions with it. ‘Anyway, I’m determined to enjoy this morning so let’s not talk about that any more.’
‘We’ll both enjoy ourselves, I’m sure. Hard not to with such a cheerful baby.’
But when they got to Darcie’s, their daughter opened the door and flapped her hand at them as if to push them away. ‘Stay back. Plague warning.’
‘What’s the matter?’
‘Minnie’s been sick three times this morning, poor little thing, and Carter has just thrown up as well. Best if you don’t even poke your noses inside. You don’t want to catch whatever it is.’
‘Definitely not.’ Guy stepped smartly backwards. ‘It’s going round. One of my salesmen was off with it on Thursday. He caught it from his young son. If it’s the same thing, it’s short-lived but violent.’
‘Well, the shorter the better. Oops!’ Darcie clapped one hand to her mouth and closed the door again hastily.
Chapter Fifteen
For a moment or two neither of them moved, then Guy gestured towards the car and Lara walked slowly back to it.
She slid in, feeling let down. ‘What a waste of a morning! I’d been so looking forward to getting to know Minnie better. And you’re wasting time, too. You wouldn’t have to drive me back now if you’d done as I asked and left me to make my own way here.’
‘I don’t mind. I’ve nothing better to do.’
‘You can always go in to work. You used to do that most weekends, even when we were together.’
‘I only go in on Sundays now if I’m needed because I have an excellent manager and I’m financially secure.’
‘Lucky you.’
He winced. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to rub salt in your wound.’
‘No, it’s I who should apologise for being so touchy. What happened to me wasn’t your fault.’
They drove in silence for a few minutes and she lost herself in her thoughts. When she looked up she couldn’t work out where they were.
‘This isn’t the way back, Guy.’
‘No. I thought I’d take you out to lunch. You refused an invitation when you first arrived but there’s nothing to stop you joining me today.’
‘Only the fact that I don’t want to have lunch with you.’
‘Am I that bad? Or are you still that bitter?’
She had to think about that, then shrugged. ‘Neither. I’m just not in the mood for socialising.’
His voice grew sharper. ‘You’ll be in the mood for going out tonight, though, I bet.’
‘That’s because of Cindy. She’s very hospitable and it’s hard to say no to her – though it won’t hurt me to get to know the neighbours. In fact, that’s part of my plans for the future.’
‘Well, I haven’t got any plans for the rest of the day so please have lunch with me, Lara.’
She gaped at him, surprised to see him flush slightly. It wasn’t often he’d ever pleaded for anything, but today there was something needy in his tone of voice that made her hesitate to turn him down. ‘Why?’
‘Because I’d welcome the company. You’re usually interesting to chat to and I’ve had a week of stupid clients and an even more stupid salesman, whom I had to sack. I don’t allow lying to clients, as you know.’
‘No. I’ll grant you that. You’ve always traded honestly. The jokes about used car salesmen would never have applied to you.’
‘Wow. A compliment from you, Lara. I wish I could frame it! Go on, join me for lunch.’
‘Oh, all right. But nowhere fancy.’
‘A pub lunch suit you?’
‘Yes, but won’t the pubs be crowded on a Sunday?’
‘I can check with a couple of places I visit regularly.’ He pulled over at the next layby and took out his phone.
Why had she given in? she wondered. It was one thing to meet Guy in family situations but them going for a meal together felt – weird. He was obviously determined to mend more than general family relations.
Or he really was lonely.
Or both.
Well, going along with him was small stuff compared with her other problems. And he had always been interesting to chat to as well, she’d give him that.
He proved that hadn’t changed during the simple lunch they ate in a sheltered corner of the pub’s gardens and their conversation never faltered: politics, self-drive cars, the idiotic hairstyles one of his young salesmen wore, gelled to stand straight up as if to defy gravity and, Guy suspected, to make this particular guy appear taller.
They didn’t order wine because neither of them liked to drink alcohol in the daytime, so he ordered a bottle of sparkling elderflower instead. Lara sipped hers with relish. She’d missed that quintessentially British drink when she was overseas.
She was surprised when Guy glanced at his watch and said, ‘I’d better get you home now, I suppose. Didn’t you say your drinks party starts at five o’clock?’
She looked at her own watch. ‘Wow! I didn’t realise it was so late. Thanks, Guy. I’ve really enjoyed myself.’
‘My pleasure. Um, can you bear to do it again?’
There was a nervous edge to his voice again, so she said, ‘Yes.’
‘Good.’
She watched him frown as he went back to his car after seeing her to her house. OK, she was peeping out of the kitchen window again. But she didn’t think he’d noticed.
Why was he frowning?
And why was he seeking her out like this?
Fancy such a successful businessman admitting he was lonely.
Well, join the club. She’d been lonely for a good while. Not that she had let it get her down. Of course she hadn’t. Well, not often.
Loneliness was apparently one of the problems of the times for older people. She shrugged and put her feet up with a book on Georgian silverware for half an hour before getting ready for Cindy’s drinks party. It’d have been called a ‘sundowner’ in Australia. Cindy had called it ‘late afternoon drinks and nibblies’.
While she was changing her clothes, Lara grimaced at herself in the mirror and ran her fingers through her hair. Either she should get it trimmed or grow it longer. The latter would be cheaper in the long run, if she could stand a few months of untidiness.
She didn’t feel like socialising now. For two pins, she’d grab a bowl of cereal and have a quiet evening at home, only the others would see that her lights were on and she suspected that Ross would come and fetch her if she tried to do that. He might be quiet but he wasn’t timid about making friendly gestures.
To have two social events in one day was incredibly rare for her. She hoped the other people at Cindy’s would be good at small talk. She certainly wasn’t when it came to strangers, whatever Guy said about enjoying her company. But then, he wasn’t a stranger.
Ross didn’t seem like a stranger now, either. It had surprised her how easy she found it to chat to him.
She clicked her to
ngue in annoyance at herself. Why was she worrying about tonight anyway? She’d bet Cindy would keep the conversational ball bouncing if things slowed down.
Who else would be there? Not many, surely? There were only a few houses built in the small development, though others were under construction, some nearly finished.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the front door, muttering, ‘Just do it!’
When he left Lara’s house, Guy stopped at the sales office, parking on the other side of it and hoping she hadn’t seen him stop there.
She’d piqued his interest in this leisure village and he wanted to check what the bigger houses were like. He didn’t really want the hassle of moving house again but that block of flats was so quiet even his thoughts seemed to bounce off the walls and it didn’t make him feel good to go home to it.
What’s more, he’d been wrong about the balcony being like a garden without the work of maintaining it. Sitting out there you heard a lot of traffic noise from the town during the daytime and there seemed to be traffic buzzing along the motorway half a mile away on the other side at all hours, day and night. And the balcony certainly didn’t smell like a garden.
It had surprised him how incredibly dusty it was, too, due to a nearby building development, he suspected. So he had to dust the chair and table whenever he wanted to sit out there.
Only he didn’t want to sit out there, he’d found. It was no fun talking to yourself and he’d never seen anyone sitting on the other balconies. At least if he stayed indoors he could have the television on in the background.
Should he consider moving? Who knew? He had no idea what he wanted from life these days. They talked about mid-life crises. Well, he was having one, wasn’t he? He’d admitted it to himself a while ago and betrayed it to Lara today.
The woman behind the desk in the sales office looked up with a smile as he went in. Lovely smile it was, too.
‘Can I help you?’
‘I was wondering if you have any brochures about the houses in this development – the bigger houses, not the terraced ones.’
‘Yes, of course we do. You’re a friend of Lara’s, aren’t you?’ She gave him an apologetic look. ‘I can’t help seeing everyone who comes and goes over there.’
‘Yes, I know Lara.’ He didn’t enlarge on that. ‘Her house is very nice and well-finished but it would be too small for me.’
She got out a brochure and opened it to show him the five styles of detached houses that were currently available. ‘There’s a lot more information on our website, of course, and we’re happy to vary the interior layout of the houses. We have one almost finished and we’re part way along building another.’
She tapped the brochure. ‘This one, the Byron. My husband is in there at the moment with the foreman doing a careful check of all that has been done or I’d offer to show it to you. If you’re interested after you’ve read the brochure, do give me a call, then either he or I can show you round it.’
‘Thank you.’ He spent a moment studying the posters on the wall, which showed what the finished development would look like. He hoped Lara hadn’t seen him stop here. His interest in the houses had nothing to do with being near his ex-wife. He was just facing up to his own loneliness, trying to do something positive about it, following up a possible lead.
He wasn’t the sort of man to live on his own, he now admitted. And he’d made a mistake marrying a younger woman like Julie. Oh, they’d got on all right but there had been yawning differences between their understanding of the world and how they wanted to spend their time. What had finally torn them apart was her sudden longing for having children before it was too late. At least two, she’d said.
No way! He’d had a vasectomy the very next week without telling her, to make sure there could be no accidents. She’d gone mad when she found out. That had been the beginning of the end.
He sighed and realised he was standing staring into space, so nodded to Molly and left. No sign of Lara, thank goodness.
When he got home he spread out the brochure and studied the plans, then got online and studied every detail of the development and how it was going to look.
Compared to most people, he had it easy, didn’t he? If he wanted to live somewhere other than this damned flat, he had plenty of money, didn’t even need to sell this place. He could buy any house in the leisure village and pay cash.
Only would that really solve his loneliness problem? Had Lara been right about the sociability of the first people to settle there? Would they include him? Would she be upset if he moved there?
Money didn’t buy you friends. It took time and effort to find and connect with people you liked. But propinquity might make taking the first step easier. He liked that word. In fact, he had a new hobby, one no one else in the world knew about: he was trying to write poetry! How his father would have laughed at him for that! His father had believed in ‘the bottom line’ and regarded the arts as a rubbishy waste of time.
But Guy was finding it a pleasure to play with words, fascinating to read and reread the poetry of others through the ages, even more fascinating to try to write his own poems. He’d hated studying Shakespeare at school and (thanks to his father) scorned all poetry as ‘girly stuff’. Most of the lads at his boys-only school had been rather sexist. Nowadays he didn’t consider himself sexist – well, he was trying hard not to be.
Lara would laugh at his poetic efforts, he was sure. But not nastily. Even though she could have won an award for being Mrs Efficient, he didn’t think there was a nasty or dishonest bone in her body. She had changed, seemed softer, less guarded.
He didn’t want to get together with her again romantically. Or did he? No, of course he didn’t! Well, he thought he didn’t. He wasn’t a hundred per cent sure of anything these days. But perhaps they could become friends again?
He looked across the room, seeing himself in the mirror and studying his face, trying to see himself as a stranger would. He frowned and the man in the mirror frowned back, then gave him a rueful smile.
Like Laura, he was changing. Work was no longer the be-all and end-all of his life. But what was? Damned if he knew.
He had to find another focus, though, because he was going quietly mad in the long, lonely evenings.
Lara locked her front door and started walking towards Cindy’s house, jumping in shock as someone spoke behind her.
‘It’s only me.’
She clutched her chest, willing herself to calm down. ‘Do you always move so quietly, Ross?’
‘I suppose so. These casual shoes are more like slippers.’ He held his hand out. ‘Come on. Let’s join the party.’
She took his hand without thinking, then felt embarrassed by her own reaction but tried not to show it by jerking hers away.
Cindy’s house was only a few yards past their row of houses, thank goodness, and once they arrived, she could let go of Ross’s hand without making a thing of it.
It was brightly lit inside and they stopped instinctively to peer through the window. To her surprise she could see several people standing chatting already.
‘Where did she find them all?’ he muttered.
‘Do you know any of them? I don’t. Oh yes, I do! Look! Euan’s over there in the corner. I can’t see Molly. But who are the others?’
‘I don’t know, but we’re about to find out.’ He rang the doorbell.
Someone shouted, ‘Come in!’
Lara felt suddenly nervous. ‘You go first.’
He looked at her in surprise, then grinned. ‘Are you feeling shy? I’d have thought you’d be good at meeting people.’
‘I am when it’s business and I know what we’ll be talking about. Just lead the way in, will you?’
As she shoved him forward, he grabbed her hand again and dragged her in with him, shouting cheerfully, ‘Look who I picked up on the way here.’
Cindy came forward and the room seemed to settle into an expectant silence as she announced, ‘This is Lara, who’s
just moved into the end house of the terrace, and Ross, who’s moved in next door to her.’
She went round explaining who everyone was, which amounted to a couple who were waiting for their house to be finished, their daughter (highly pregnant) and son-in-law, another couple Cindy had met at the library, Euan and Avril, who used to be his secretary till she retired and was now a good friend of Cindy’s.
‘Avril helped me settle in and translated till I got used to the language differences. Euan’s wife is just finishing for the day at the sales office and will be joining us shortly.’
Ross looked at her, surprised by this remark. ‘Language differences? Isn’t English your first language?’
‘Yes. But although Americans and Brits are supposed to speak the same language, there are quite a few differences, let me tell you, and some of them can be very confusing.’
Lara saw a chance to join in. ‘It happens in Australia too. Someone I met emigrated in the seventies and was invited to a party. The hostess said to bring a plate and she did – an empty plate instead of a plate of food.’
They all chuckled. ‘I like that sort of bring and share party,’ Avril said. ‘It’s much easier on the hostess.’
The doorbell rang and a younger man came straight in, upon which Cindy flung herself into his arms. ‘Tate, you made it! I’m so glad.’
He proved to be Cindy’s youngest son and was as charming and socially confident as his mother.
Lara watched in surprise and not a little relief as, somehow, Cindy got people talking to complete strangers. Either she or her son made sure no one was left out while handing round platters of titbits, refilling glasses and laughing at jokes. She envied them this social ease, but at least she’d made a few contributions to the conversations. She took comfort in that.
It was a lovely evening, warm enough for them to spill out on to the patio, and the mood was relaxed enough that Lara soon forgot her nervousness and didn’t feel obliged to ‘perform’ as she had when attending work-related functions.