The Single Wife : 'Liane Moriarty meets Elin Hilderbrand in an addictive summer read'

by Ella Grey

  “You don’t think you’ll ever move back then?” Leah asked, faintly shocked at the thought that there was even a chance she might not want to.

  “Certainly not at the moment, anyway. Then she added, hoping to lighten the tone, “Besides, I’m up to my eyes in credit-card debt.”

  “I’m not surprised – with all that temptation!” Leah sounded decidedly envious. “Listen, now that I think of it, will you try and get a copy of the new Godiva catalogue for me? I need to keep an eye on what the competition are doing!”

  “No problem,” Robin answered. “I’ll get right on it, but better you go, this call will be costing you a fortune.”

  “It is, but not to worry, you’re worth it. Speak to you soon!”

  Leah rang off and Robin replaced the receiver, guilty and a little sad, but at the same time relieved that Leah seemed to have forgotten her earlier enquires about when she would next be returning home.

  As far as she was concerned, it wouldn’t be any time soon.

  If ever.

  22

  “Mornin’, you.”

  Ben planted a light kiss on Robin’s forehead, waking her. After Leah’s call the night before, she’d had a couple of glasses of wine and had stayed up late watching crap TV. She couldn’t remember going to bed or hearing Ben come in. He couldn’t have been working that late on a Friday night, surely?

  Recalling her conversation with Leah, her stomach gave a nervous flip.

  “Morning to you back,” she replied before adding tentatively, “What time did you get in last night?”

  He swung his legs out of bed. “Not sure, sometime after one, I think. You were flat out on the sofa. I had to carry you in.”

  “Was I?” Robin couldn’t focus properly - she was too busy worrying about what was keeping Ben out until one o’clock in the morning on a weeknight. “Did you go out for a drink after or something?”

  “No way – I was shattered.” There was little sign of a lie or evasiveness in either his tone or expression. “I thought I’d never get it done in time, but luckily I did.”

  “Well whoever he or she is, I hope they’re happy,” Robin couldn’t keep the petulance out of her tone, “because I’ve hardly seen you this last week.”

  “Oh, I think she’ll be happy,” he said, cheerily. “In fact, I think she’ll be over the moon when she gets a load of this.”

  Typical she thought, Ben was completely oblivious to subtlety – no, just completely oblivious full stop.

  Here she was trying to let him know that she was teed off about all these mysterious late nights, and there he was letting it go right over his head.

  She tried a different tack. “What was so important that kept you in the office every night this week then?” she asked, yawning as she pulled a sweater and some jog-pants out of the wardrobe.

  “Come here and I’ll show you,” he said, his expression mischievous, and Robin suspected that whatever dumb presentation or corporate brochure it might be, she had better pretend be impressed.

  But when he led her into the living-room and pointed out a slim booklet lying on the coffee table, she didn’t have to pretend. “Oh, my goodness – it’s amazing!” she said, studying Ben’s computer-aided illustrations.

  Kirsty had recently suffered another severe bout of hayfever, and while visiting her, Robin had picked up the beanie toy and made up a silly little story about an alligator that also suffered from hayfever.

  The character ‘Atchoo’ was a big, strong and very adventurous alligator, but he was always running into trouble as a result of his allergies. The moral of the story was that Atchoo could have lots more adventures if he looked after himself and took his medicine when he was supposed to.

  Kirsty was fascinated by the tale and made her tell it over and over again that afternoon. Upon their return from Sarah’s, Robin had written down the story so that she wouldn’t forget it between then and the next time she saw her.

  But Ben had since ‘stolen’ her scribbled notes for the story, come up with some cute graphics and reproduced the entire story from beginning to end in attractive child-friendly font, along with accompanying cartoon illustrations.

  “Cool, huh?” he said proudly leafing through the pages of Atchoo the Alligator. “It’s a great story and Sarah was raving about it so I thought, why not give Kirsty something she can keep, something to remind her of Atchoo’s adventures? It might convince her that it’s OK to take her inhaler in school.”

  It’s … incredible,” Robin said putting a hand to her mouth as her eyes wandered through the story, marvelling at the amount of work he had put into the graphics. “This is what you’ve been working on all week?”

  “I knew we’d be going up there again this weekend so …” He shrugged as if it was no big deal, but by his beaming smile she knew he was delighted by her reaction.

  “Kirsty is just going to love this…” she cried, awed by this thoughtfulness. What a wonderfully thoughtful and considerate gesture.

  Again, Robin wondered what on earth she had done to deserve such a kind, loving, man like Ben McKenna.

  They went to visit Kirsty that same day, and as expected, the little girl adored her personalised copy of Atchoo the Alligator.

  “Who knew I had such a talented brother?” Sarah was equally thrilled, and hopeful that Atchoo’s experiences and the instructions in the book would help Kirsty feel more at ease.

  “Hey, I can’t take all the credit – it’s Robin’s story.”

  “Can I show it to the girls in school, Mom?” the little girl asked.

  “I dunno, hon, Uncle Ben and Auntie Robin worked very hard on your storybook. It might get ruined in school.”

  “It’s not a problem,” Ben said easily. “The paper quality isn’t the best so it probably will get wrecked. In any case I’ve got the file, so I can always print out another copy.” He stroked Kirsty’s dark curls. “You can show it to your class if you like, kiddo.”

  “Yay!” she cried happily.

  Robin had to smile at Ben’s so easily adopted Americanisms. She’d picked up a few expressions herself over the years, but compared to her, Ben had only been here a wet week. He was worse than people who went to London for a weekend and then came back asking for ‘arf a laager, mate’.

  “Just be careful you don’t get sacked for using company equipment though,” Sarah said, her face worried as the thought struck her.

  “For printing out a teeny insignificant booklet like that? Not a chance.”

  But by the following weekend, Ben had to print many more copies of Atchoo the Alligator.

  Robin had been at work one day mid-week when she got a call from Sarah.

  “Hi, what’s up?” she asked, feeling slightly concerned. Sarah usually called only if something was wrong. “How’s Kirsty?”

  “She’s great,” she said cheerfully. “She’s been using her inhaler properly ever since you and Ben gave her that little book.”

  “Great.”

  “But the thing is, well, you know she brought it to school with her?”

  “Yes?” Robin suspected now that she knew the real reason for the call. The flimsy copy of Atchoo had already come apart.

  “Well, Kirsty must have shown it to one of her teachers, because this morning I got a call from the principal asking where they could pick up a copy.”

  “What?” Robin instinctively checked the date on her computer screen to reassure herself that it wasn’t April 1st.

  “I’m serious. I explained the situation, and she wants to know how to go about getting more copies. She asked if you wouldn’t mind giving her a call.”

  “She’s looking for more printouts?”

  “I think so. She thought it was a genius idea. Can I give you her number?”

  “Sure,” Robin was intrigued and also a little bit proud. When Sarah had finished reciting the number, she rang off, and immediately called Kirsty’s school.

  The principal was very friendly. “Robin, hi, thanks so mu
ch for calling. I understand you’re responsible for that neat little storybook Kirsty brought to school last week.”

  “Yes, well, I wrote the story, at least.”

  “Are you a children’s writer by profession?”

  Robin burst out laughing. “Gosh no – I work in finance.”

  “Well, you certainly have a way of getting through to kids, especially kids like Kirsty.”

  “She’s been having such a tough time of it with her asthma lately. I just thought it might help.”

  “She’s not the only one having problems sadly. That’s why I think this is such a great idea. Do you know I have at least three other children in Kirsty’s grade alone suffering from allergies? Not to mention kids in other grades.” She sighed. “Anyway, I asked if I could bring it along to our most recent parent/teacher meeting. When I showed it to the parents of other kids with asthma, they went crazy for it.”

  “They did?”

  “Yes, they all wanted one. So, that’s why I called Sarah trying to find out which bookstore stocked it, so I could tell the parents where to get it. But then she told me that it wasn’t in bookstores, and that it was just something you guys had done all by yourselves.”

  Robin smiled. It was brilliant to think that something she and Ben had done might be helpful to other kids with asthma.

  “Leave it with me. I’ll talk to Ben and see if he can get a few more for you.”

  “The school is only too happy to pay you, of course.”

  “Oh no, that won’t be necessary,” Robin was embarrassed.

  “Believe me,” the principal informed her, “if this little book can help parents and teachers educate on how to control their asthma, it’s worth it.”

  “No, please. We’d be delighted to help. I’m sure it won’t be a problem but I’ll check with Ben and give you a call in a few days – OK?”

  “That would be great, thank you.”

  The principal rang off and, as she hung up the phone, Robin couldn’t help but smile.

  Ben would get a right kick out of this one.

  23

  Leah jumped when the phone rang.

  She had been run off her feet all day trying to get a huge batch of product out to an important customer, and had been so immersed in her work that she had almost forgotten where she was.

  The chocolates needed to be ready for collection the following morning, and with the way things were going, Leah thought, her face flushed from exertion, she’d be here till all hours trying to get it done.

  The order had come in only that afternoon, but Bags n’ Bows were one of her best customers and she had no intention of letting them down.

  Still, at that very moment, surrounded by ribbon and tulle, she sorely regretted her decision to advertise her gift-boxes as ‘hand-wrapped’. Why couldn’t she do generic boxes and be done with it? Still she knew that much of her custom derived directly from the fact that her chocolate boxes looked so appealing.

  Now Leah cursed inwardly as, partially-wrapped box in one hand and ribbon in the other, she reached for the handset. “Hey, what time will you be home?” Josh asked cheerfully.

  “I’m not sure – I’m really up to my eyes here,” she answered.

  “Do you need a hand?” he asked and Leah bristled. Of course she needed a hand but there was no point in Josh coming all the way over here to ‘help’.

  He had tried that before, and all he had succeeded in doing was to annoy Leah and slow her down.

  Not to mention the time he packed twelve full cases of chocolates, which Leah had first thought was terrific, until she realised that he had failed to include the protective bubble-wrap which kept the boxes from hitting against one another.

  Everything had been squashed and completely ruined in transit, and the customer had been livid. Leah had spent almost a full day trying to calm the customer down, and the rest of the week replacing the order.

  “I’ll be fine, Josh, thanks, but I can’t really talk – there’s way too much to do here.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to come over? I could bring a takeaway. It seems like I haven’t seen you in days.”

  “Well that’s because I’ve been so busy.” The shop would be fitted out and ready within a few weeks, and she was working flat out to get everything ready.

  “But you’re always busy, Lee. I know things are a bit up in the air at the moment, but who goes in to work on a Sunday?”

  “Josh, it’s not as though I could get anyone else to do it …” Yes, she had gone back to the workshop last Sunday, so she could get a head-start on the following week’s stock. If there was work to be done, then it had to be done, end of story.

  “It could have waited. You need time for yourself too, you know – and us.”

  Great, the last thing she needed was a bloody guilt trip.

  Of course, she was working hard. Wasn’t she trying to get everything ready for the shop, while at the same time trying to keep the day-to-day stuff running?

  Why couldn’t he understand that this was a crucial time for her, and that she just didn’t have the luxury of running home because he was bored and had no one to play with?

  “Josh, I’m sorry but I just don’t have time for this,” she said.

  “It’s half-seven in the evening. You’ve been in there since six this morning. You’re killing yourself!”

  Damn …Leah thought, checking her watch. It couldn’t be that late surely? Which meant that she would be home a lot later if she didn’t get off the phone.

  “Josh, I really have to go, OK? Get whatever you want for dinner, I’ll grab something on the way home.”

  “But what time will you be –”

  “I’ll be home when I’m home, OK?” Then Leah felt like a heel when there was silence at the other end. “Look, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be short. But you have no idea how much there is to do between now and the opening. Look I promise this weekend we’ll do something, OK?” Just get off the phone and let me go back to work.

  “OK?” she repeated, when Josh didn’t answer.

  “Yeah, OK, see you later then.”

  Still holding the chocolate box in one hand, Leah hung up and returned to her work-desk. Of course she was working hard – with all that was happening at the moment, what else did Josh expect?

  Andrew had put a lot of faith in her by investing all that money in her business and Leah was determined not to let him down.

  “He’s just being so childish about it.”

  A few days later, she tried to explain her annoyance to Olivia.

  “From day one, he made it quite clear that he doesn’t agree with Andrew’s investment,” she told her friend. “He doesn’t agree with Andrew full stop. To be honest, I’m finding it a bit of a strain. I mean, here I am, working my ass off to get everything ready for the opening, and all Josh does is spend the whole time moaning about Andrew and what he has to gain, and why doesn’t he share some of the work.”

  “And do you think Andrew should?” Olivia asked. She knew that Leah was desperately looking forward to getting the store up and running, but also worried that her friend was doing way too much on her own.

  “No, of course not. I don’t want Andrew involved, he doesn’t want to get involved. That’s the only reason I agreed to do this in the first place. The business is mine and Andrew is simply a silent partner. Josh can’t understand that. As much as he seems to dislike Andrew, he still thinks that he should help out more.”

  “Well, maybe he does have a point. What about giving Alan some of the load?” Leah had recently taken on a part-time assistant, a shy quiet young man called Alan who went about his work diligently, eager to learn all he could from his boss.

  “Alan is just an assistant – he doesn’t really have the know-how when it comes to running a business.”

  “Well, maybe he might surprise you. You should give him a chance – that’s what you’re paying him for, surely?”

  “It would take way too long to train
him,” Leah said, dismissing the idea. “There’s no point in doing that at this stage anyway. I’ll get it done quicker by myself.”

  Olivia knew that sometimes Leah found it difficult to let go of the business she had built from the ground up, and found it hard to assign control to anyone else.

  But now, looking at Leah’s tired and gaunt face and the determined look in her eye, she was concerned that with this new store, her friend might well be taking on way too much. Josh had every right to be concerned.

  “Try not to worry about the opening date too much. Surely a week or so won’t make much of a difference?”

  Leah sighed. “I don’t suppose it will, but at the same time this is the date that Andrew and I agreed. I don’t want to let him down.”

  “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind one way or the other. Didn’t he say that it’s yours to run whatever way you choose?”

  “You’re starting to sound like Josh.”

  “And like me, Josh doesn’t want you running yourself into the ground over this. I can’t say I’ve had any experience with building an empire, but I know the Romans slept sometimes too.”

  Leah laughed. “It’ll be grand. Josh is just teed off because I don’t spend much time with him in front of the TV any more.”

  “You are making some time for yourselves surely?”

  “It’s difficult.” She shrugged. “I’m at the workshop as often as I can, so now he’s started to do some more shifts at Homecare. You know Josh – he’s one of those people who hates being on his own.”

  Olivia refilled her coffee mug. “Still, you really should try and take down the tempo a bit, head off for a dirty weekend away or something.”

  Leah laughed. “At the moment, there aren’t enough hours in the day, let alone time away at weekends. Things will get better once the business opens. Josh just has to bear with me for a while, that’s all.” She looked at her watch. “Anyway, I’d better let you get to work yourself. Do you want me to drop Ellie over to Eva’s for you?”