by Louise Bay
“Nathan’s on tea duty,” Carole said. “Nathan, you need to be introducing Madison.”
“Hi,” I said, bouncing to my feet and holding out my hand. “I’m Madison.”
“The journalist, right?”
This guy was completely and ridiculously hot. Tall, tanned, with a couple days’ worth of stubble, and the tousled hair Nathan had suddenly started sporting—except this latest Cove brother was blond.
“You’re right,” I nodded. “And of course I recognize you from your mother’s apron.”
“No one likes to talk about it, but I’m her favorite. She bought that apron herself.”
Carole flicked Jacob with a tea towel. He grinned then pulled out the chair next to mine and took a seat. “I have much to share about my brother.”
“Jacob,” Nathan growled from the other side of the kitchen.
“You told us we should be honest,” Jacob said. “And I have a lot to be honest about, my brother.”
It made sense that Nathan would have told everyone I was coming with him this weekend. But it was nice that he’d told his family to be honest.
“Dax has arrived. Jacob, can you go and help get his bags in?”
Jacob shot me a grin and bounded out of the door. “Dax is the baby. Mum always has us helping him. Even now.”
I started counting on my fingers—Nathan, Zach, Jacob and now Dax. That made four. We were just missing Beau, who I’d already met. “Is it nice to have all your sons home, Carole?”
“Delightful,” she said. “And very rare that they all have a weekend to get away. Shift work doesn’t aide family reunions, unfortunately. But it does mean that we rarely have a weekend by ourselves.”
“Don’t I know it.” An older man in a bright yellow dress shirt came into the kitchen. “I thought moving up here would mean my wine cellar would be safe.”
“Hey, Dad,” Zach said and pulled his father into a hug. “I see you took your happy pill this morning.”
“I tell you what would make me happy, son. My Argentinian Malbec being bloody well left alone.”
Nathan started to laugh while Carole rolled her eyes. “I bought our wine for tonight from Waitrose, if that makes you happy.”
“Sounds about right. I have five sons and not one of them brought a bottle of wine, am I right?”
Nathan offered his father a cup of tea but he waved it away and headed to the cupboard to pull out a glass. “Dad, say hello to Madison,” Nathan said, setting down a cup in front of me and taking a sip of the mug he carried in the other hand.
His dad snapped his head around and I again stood and offered my hand to Mr. Cove.
“You are very welcome to our home,” he said, clasping my hand in both of his. “Call me John. You may steal my Malbec. But you better be quick, because these boys of mine will have it first.”
“Give it a rest, Dad,” Nathan said, taking Jacob’s spot next to me. “Your Malbec isn’t that great.”
“We had that wine shipped over from—”
“Yes, they all know the story of how we found the vineyard.” Carole turned to me. “When Dax—the youngest—went away to university, we decided to go on holiday on our own for the first time in about a thousand years,” she explained. “We went to Argentina—”
“It was the holiday of a bloody lifetime,” Nathan interrupted, putting on his dad’s deep voice.
“Well, it was,” John said. “We thought it was the start of a peaceful life together. We thought we were empty-nesters. That we were going to be able to spend the weekends naked and having a bit of rumpy pumpy on the dining table.”
I bit back a smile—either at his father’s story or the way Nathan had covered his face with his hands, I couldn’t be sure.
“No such luck,” he said. “Do you have children, Madison?”
“No, not yet,” I replied.
“Keep it that way. You think you’ve got them for eighteen years—Jacob’s thirty-bloody-four and I see him more than I see my dog.”
“Dad, the dog is dead,” Jacob said as he entered the kitchen and headed to the fridge. “Do you have any leftover potato?”
“The roast ones?” Carole asked him. “In the back on the top shelf.”
“You see?” Mr. Cove said. “They’re like woodworm. Can’t get rid of them.”
“You can get rid of woodworm,” Carole said, a puzzled expression on her face as she pulled a bowl of carrots from the side onto the table in front of me. “Do you mind?” she asked, handing me the peeler. She didn’t wait for a response and I was happy to help, grateful I wasn’t being treated with kid gloves. “Jacob, go and pick some mint and send one of your brothers in to help me do this chicken. And then you can set the table.”
“Worse than woodworm,” Mr. Cove said. “That’s what children are.”
I picked up a carrot as Jacob swallowed his mouthful of cold roast potato, grabbed his dad’s face in his hands, and kissed him on the forehead. John’s smile was full of warmth as Jacob swept out, presumably to find the mint.
Diligently, I began to peel the carrots. Nathan rose and found a bag of potatoes and a spare peeler, and we sat among the chaos, skinning our vegetables.
“I bet you’re regretting wanting to come now,” he said, quietly so no one could hear but me.
I grinned. “I was thinking the exact opposite.” I loved the hurly burly of it all. The way Jacob brushed off what his dad said, the way they’d heard Mr. Cove’s complaints a thousand times before and rather than chastise him, they either left him to it or finished his sentences. “Your family is wonderful.”
“You only have them for a weekend. I get them for a lifetime. I have no idea why you would want to put yourself through it.”
“I told you—I have to make this article as good as it can be. Last week one of my colleagues got asked to lunch by you through Christine. He’s been trying to steal this story from me ever since.” I set a carrot down and picked up another. “He’s got a ton more experience, plus he’s a permanent staff member. Coming to Norfolk saved my arse.”
“Really? Even though you’ve put in all these hours, someone is still trying to wrestle this profile off you? I suppose I should be flattered.”
“Journalism’s competitive,” I replied. “And everyone wants a job at the Post. Or if they’re already at the Post, they’re fighting to keep their job.”
Nathan nodded as he continued peeling his potatoes.
In the momentary silence that hung over the kitchen—punctuated only by the sounds of peeling and chopping, dishware clacking and tea being poured—I considered another reason to be glad I was in Norfolk. The truth was, I wanted to know who Nathan really was. And I wanted the world to see it, too—to let go of the idea that he was no more than a wealthy flirt with a penchant for nights on the town. He was so much more, and it was time for the world to know.
“Will someone call Beau and see what time he’s due to arrive?” Carole called out to no one in particular. “Or is that him pulling up? Zach, can you take a look. Someone’s just pulled into the drive.”
“No,” Zach called out. “The car’s too posh.”
“Not another one,” John said as he pulled out his phone from his pocket. “Who is it?”
I grinned at Nathan as his parents proved my point on cue.
I was completely charmed by the noisy love they all seemed to have for each other. It all seemed so normal. Better than normal—how normal is meant to be but never turns out. But if that was really the case, how did they produce someone as exceptional as Nathan? Why hadn’t he become a doctor and did that have something to do with his success?
“It’s Audrey and Mark,” Jacob said.
Nathan’s eyes locked with mine as if he was waiting to see if I’d jump to my feet and pepper Mark with questions about his wife’s fidelity.
I was happy to sit back and watch all this unfold. What were Audrey Alpern—the woman the Sunday papers accused Nathan of having an affair with—and her husband doing here?
Clearly Nathan was wondering the same thing.
“Oh yes, Audrey said she’d pop in. I ordered something in Liberty and the delivery fee was astronomical. Audrey offered to bring it by. Thank God I made two pies.”
“I could have brought it up,” Nathan said, his voice soft, gaze still fixed on me.
“You’re a good boy, Nathan,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. “But you have other things to worry about. Audrey works just around the corner and they’re going to her parents this weekend.”
“Audrey’s parents live a few miles north of here,” Nathan said, glancing at the front door.
“John,” a booming voice shouted from the hallway. “You’ll never guess what I found.”
“Markie boy, what have you been up to?” John’s face lit up with a mischievous grin and he headed to the hall just as a man in a tweed hat and ruddy cheeks filled the doorframe. He carried a large cardboard box.
“Argentinian Malbec,” Mark announced. “From your favorite winery.”
“Don’t taunt me like that,” John said as Mark slid the box onto the kitchen table, forcing me to shift my chair and my carrots so I didn’t get sat on. It was as if he’d not even seen I was sitting there.
“I’m deadly serious,” Mark said.
I tried to take it all in—the dynamic between Mark and Nathan’s dad seemed more like father and son. Mark had barely said hello to anyone, including Nathan. Behind him, Audrey’s glance flitted from Nathan to me and then to her husband.
As if he’d just remembered his lines, Nathan sprang up and kissed Audrey on the cheek. “Hey,” he said, squeezing her arm as if he already knew she wasn’t okay and didn’t need to ask.
“Can you help me in with this vase for your mother?” Audrey asked Nathan in an almost too-loud voice.
God, I wanted to follow them out to the car. For two people not having an affair, they looked suspiciously like they wanted to say something to each other out of earshot of everyone else.
“Where did you find this?” John said to Mark as he pulled out a bottle of wine from the cardboard box and gazed at the label. “I can’t bloody believe it. Can you, Carole?”
“Very nice, dear,” she said. “Are you staying for lunch?” she asked Mark.
“I’m not in charge of timetable. I think Pete and Rose are expecting us for lunch but let me check with Audrey,” Mark said, sliding his arm around Carole’s waist.
“You shouldn’t be spoiling him like that,” Carole said.
“If I can’t spoil the most important people in my life, then who can I?” Mark replied as his glance settled on me.
I smiled. “Hi, I’m Madison,” I said, standing and reaching out my hand.
“Nice to meet you,” he said, taking my hand and shaking it. “You’re a friend of the family?”
“A journalist. Helping Nathan with something.”
Mark’s slick smile faltered for just a second. He schooled his features to neutral with expert precision. “Helping him with something?” he asked, his eyes narrowing.
“She’s writing a profile on Nathan for the Post,” Carole said.
“We’re going to share all his dark secrets,” Zach said, carrying in a large box stamped with the Liberty logo. “There are two more boxes like this. Mum, what is it?”
“Oh, I’m the man you need to speak to,” Mark said to me. “We were roommates at Oxford. I know everything that goes through that disgusting mind of his.” Mark chuckled.
“You studied with Nathan?” I asked, wondering why it was that Nathan hadn’t suggested I speak to Mark if they were so close. It was obvious Mark was close with the whole family and would have been an obvious interview candidate.
“I read history. Nathan was a medic. But we were roommates.”
“Until he gave it up,” I said, wishing I’d found out about Nathan leaving medicine before the drive down here.
“Mark,” Carole said, her sunny energy dimming a little. “Will you help me get this box open? I just want to check they sent the right one.”
I didn’t know her well, but I would have bet Carole was trying to change the subject.
I glanced out of the window where Zach was carrying another huge box and Audrey and Nathan were having a conversation by the car. They were standing side by side, facing the house as if they had nothing and everything to hide.
What was going on between the two of them?
Before I could excuse myself and join them, Nathan swept to the back of the car and pulled out a third box, then followed Audrey into the house.
Hopefully, Audrey and Mark would stay for lunch and I’d be able to dig around a little and figure out what was going on.
Audrey appeared, a huge smile on her face. “Hi,” she said quickly to me, as if Nathan had told her exactly who I was. “Mark, we need to get going. We’re meant to be there by now.”
“Are you sure you can’t stay?” Carole asked.
“Yes, we’ve got to try some of this Malbec,” John said, still standing over his twenty-four bottles like a protective mother hen.
“Another day,” Mark said with a sigh. “Unfortunately, duty calls.”
Bloody hell. I really wanted them to stay.
“Lovely to see you,” Audrey said, bending to kiss Carole.
“Thank you for getting the vases and the lamp,” Carole said. “Next time make sure you can stay for lunch at least.”
Very politely, Audrey excused herself and headed out with Mark. Nathan appeared with another box.
“I thought you bought a vase,” John said to Carole.
“I did. I also bought another vase. And a lamp.”
John mumbled under his breath and turned back to his wine.
Carole winked at me. “He’d have had much more to say if Mark hadn’t turned up with that wine.”
“Yes,” Nathan said, putting down the final Liberty box. “Thank goodness for Mark,” he said with more than a hint of sarcasm in his tone.
Considering Mark and Nathan had been friends for so long, there seemed none of the friendly familiarity I’d witnessed between Nathan and his brothers. Perhaps I was reading too much into the entire situation, or perhaps Mark suspected there was something between his wife and Nathan. Even though Mark and Audrey had left, their presence seemed to linger. I’d have to find a way to bring them back into the conversation so I could figure out what was going on.
Seventeen
Nathan
Audrey had sent me a message this morning, reminding me that she and Mark would be dropping by. But I’d been so focused on Madison—consumed by wondering what she’d think of Norfolk and my four brothers—that I managed to miss it. Madison was too smart not to have noticed the awkwardness I felt around Mark, but I hoped the Cove clan would prove sufficiently distracting. Wishful thinking had me hoping she’d just forget the whole encounter.
“You lot are driving me crazy,” Mum said. “Get these boxes out of here.” She pointed to the packages that Audrey and Mark had brought with them.
“Where do you want them?” Zach asked.
“In the office. And while you’re there, if there’s anything you want, take it now. I’ve boxed everything up and I’m sending everything in there to Oxfam.”
“You don’t mean that,” Jacob said. “All our things from when we were kids are in there.”
“Last time I checked, you are all grown men and we’re not a storage facility,” Carole said. “Take what you want or you won’t see it again. The office is being turned into a sewing room. Everything is out of there.”
I glanced at Madison, who couldn’t seem to stop smiling. I’d worried she might be horrified by my grumpy father, and brothers who seemed to regress in age as soon as they crossed the county border into Norfolk. Despite not having grown up here, it did feel like a family home—a haven where we could be free of our demanding day-to-day lives. Instead of CEOs or medics, we were just sons of two loving parents. Everyone was different here, but I’d not realized it until I saw us thr
ough Madison’s eyes.
“I can help,” Madison said, reaching for one of the vases.
“No need,” Jacob said. He approached Madison as if he was going to take the box from her. Before he could reach her, I swooped in and took it out of her hands.
“Come on. I’ll show you the office,” I said.
“Take your brothers with you,” Mum called out after us.
Jacob and Zach followed, carrying the other boxes, while Dax and Beau trailed behind. We headed for the office, which was a small building at the bottom of the garden.
“I swear I have a light saber in here somewhere,” Zach said as he pushed open the door. “She better not send that to Oxfam.”
“Zach’s always been a Star Wars nut,” I whispered to Madison, so she didn’t think light saber was a euphemism.
“Am I going to find all your posters of Heidi Klum?” Madison asked. I wanted to tell her blondes had never been my thing, but I knew I shouldn’t be flirting.
“God knows what you’ll find. It started off as a study for Mum before she retired about twelve months after Dad, and since then it’s been left doing nothing. It’s a dumping ground.”
“Whose bag is this?” Dax said, going to lift my weekender off the sofa bed.
“Mine. Leave it alone and focus on your own stuff,” I said, setting down the vase in the corner, away from the rest of the boxes. “Looks like Mum’s done most of the packing for you.” I swung around and saw the wall of certificates. It wasn’t like I ever forgot, but seeing all of them there, hanging side by side, still felt like a dull punch to my gut. Madison followed my gaze and stepped closer. I was grateful she chose not to say anything. I didn’t want to have to sidestep, defend, explain.
“Do you remember this?” Jacob asked, diving in a box and holding up a picture of the two of us after a football match when I’d been about seven. It was the only time we’d both been on the same team, and we’d been our own team within the team. It had been the best feeling, being side by side with my big brother, having him pass me the ball and then pass it back for him to score. It was like all the other players on the team had been invisible.