Just for the Summer

by Fay Keenan

  5

  Fortunately, after a few days in Willowbury, which had included more of Florence’s brilliant cooking, several walks up to Willowbury Hill to burn it all off and many, many more games of football in the garden with their uncles, the boys seemed on board to spend at least some of their summer holiday in the town. The laid-back atmosphere of Willowbury was having an effect on them all, and after a particularly enjoyable afternoon spent drinking Pimm’s in the courtyard garden of the Travellers’ Rest, Kate was deciding that she would be more than happy to move into Aidan and Tom’s place for the summer holidays.

  On her return to Cambridge, Kate then had to contend with the dual worries of actually moving out of the house, moving into the Airbnb cottage for a couple of months and arranging what the heck was going to happen to the boys for the long summer vacation. At eleven, thirteen and sixteen, the boys were too old for her to simply make decisions above their heads; it was important to Kate, as it had been throughout the separation and divorce, that they had a say in their situation. She’d always prided herself on putting them first, and this situation was no different. Now that she had to make more and more decisions on her own, it was doubly important that she got these right. Phil tended to concur with her on most things, which, given the circumstances of their split, wasn’t surprising. He seemed desperate not to rock the boat.

  Kate, moving into the Airbnb cottage during May half term, was enthused to be using it as her first real blank canvas. Having the project also kept her thoughts away from the sadness of moving out of the house she’d shared with Phil, giving her a new focus, and something she could really get her teeth into. She loved transforming the place into something that would make tourists sigh with pleasure, and the rent-free existence insulated her from the more pragmatic concerns about what was going to happen with her living arrangements when the autumn came. Her sons, happy to have the relative continuity of their dad’s house, spent most weekends with him, giving Kate plenty of time to scour Pinterest for colour ideas for the bigger project of Tom and Aidan’s house over the summer. It was a project she was beginning to feel really excited about. Aidan, true to form, had told her to ‘just pick some colours and get it done before we get back’. Tom, who was rather more attuned to all things design, had made some suggestions, and sent Kate several pictures of the new sofa they’d bought, and the flooring they were considering, to help her to narrow things down a bit. Between the three of them, they’d come up with a broad canvas, and Kate couldn’t wait to get started. It would be tricky with three boys in tow, and Tom and Aidan’s black cat Lucifer to keep away from the wet paint, but Kate was confident that she could manage it. After all, she’d masterminded clearing her own house, moving herself and the three boys out of it and settling them into temporary accommodation without any major catastrophes, so painting a few walls in six weeks should be child’s play in comparison.

  Of course, just as she was beginning to put the plans in place for the summer, Phil decided to drop in a complication. Kate, who’d gone to Cambridge city centre for a trawl around the shops on Saturday afternoon with Lorna, was miffed to receive a text from him, asking for the boys’ passport details. She frowned. Phil hadn’t mentioned anything about taking the boys abroad, and it was really something he should have raised with her earlier than a few weeks before the summer holidays began. Texting a swift reply, she waited, sipping her latte, for a response.

  ‘What’s he up to this time?’ Lorna asked, obviously clocking the familiar frown on Kate’s face.

  ‘I’m not sure yet,’ Kate replied. ‘I thought he was staying put for the summer, but he’s just asked me for the boys’ passport numbers.’

  ‘Last-minute deal?’ Lorna said.

  ‘Maybe,’ Kate said. ‘He never bothered taking the initiative and booking anything for us when I was still married to him, though.’ She knew she sounded a little bitter, but she couldn’t help it. Phil had always left big ticket things like holidays to her to sort out, all the time they were together, and while they’d had some lovely trips to France and Germany, it had been her who’d had to do the logistics for them.

  Swiftly, the response from Phil came back. Kate felt a lurch of annoyance and something like jealousy as it did. ‘Florida,’ she said softly, as Lorna raised a questioning eyebrow. ‘Three weeks. Leaving two days after school breaks up. If it’s okay with me, of course.’

  ‘Well…’ Lorna said, giving her an encouraging smile. ‘At least you won’t have to worry about the boys for the first three weeks of the summer hols, and you can get stuck into the decorating without their huge feet treading emulsion everywhere.’

  ‘Yes, true, but it still stings, you know. We’d talked about taking the kids to Disney World when they were younger, and always said it would be better to do when they were old enough to really appreciate it, and now he’s doing it, but instead of me, he’s taking Jennifer.’ She shook her head. ‘I know it shouldn’t hurt… but it does. I mean, why wasn’t I worth the trip and she is?’

  Lorna reached out and gave Kate’s hand a squeeze. ‘Would you still want to be married to him? Just for the sake of a trip to see that ridiculous mouse and his gurning “have a nice day” entourage?’

  Kate smiled slightly at Lorna’s turn of phrase. ‘No, of course not. But it still makes me a bit sick.’

  ‘Look at it this way,’ Lorna said stoically. ‘You don’t need to worry about the kids for half of the summer holiday, and you get to spend the summer hanging out rent-free in your brother’s house. From what you’ve told me about Willowbury, too, it’s not like you’re stuck in the arse end of beyond. Willowbury has more than enough to keep you entertained, and, unlike Disney World, it’s authentic. Go and enjoy it. And bugger the mouse. So to speak!’

  Kate laughed, despite herself. ‘Nicely put, as ever.’

  They finished their coffee and headed back out onto the High Street. Determined not to show Phil that any of this holiday business bothered her, Kate sent a neutral text back to him saying that she’d send him the boys’ passport details when she got home. Then, putting it out of her mind as best she could, she focused on enjoying the luxury of a child-free afternoon’s shopping.

  6

  Some weeks later, with the Airbnb cottage nearing completion, and still not having found anything on the market nearby that she really felt she could buy, Kate broke the habit of a lifetime and decided to focus only on the short term. Always a planner, never a ‘see where life takes you’ kind of person, she’d spent most of her life, before and during her marriage, making sure everything and everyone had been where they needed to be, had what they needed to have and knew what they needed to know, almost to a fault. Now that the boys were sorted out for the first three weeks of the summer holiday, she was at liberty to focus on what she was going to do with her time in Willowbury, when she got there. It was an odd feeling, and the thought of returning to her mother’s annexe in September still filled her with dread, but she was determined not to rush into anything. After all, co-parenting with Phil did give her a certain amount of leeway, and even if she did end up in the annexe, at least the boys would have their rooms in Phil’s spacious new house to escape to if it all became too much. Of course, she dearly hoped it wouldn’t come to that, so she was keeping half an eye on Rightmove, in case that elusive perfect house within her budget suddenly appeared. Having the annexe as a fallback was a useful option, though, and meant that the pressure was off, to a certain extent. She knew she and the boys couldn’t live there forever, but at least they would have a roof over their heads, however small that roof was.

  On the day before the boys left for Florida, having mediated between the three of them over which socks, pants and jeans really belonged to which child, Kate eventually managed to get all of their stuff into the car and get them over to Phil’s place. An elegant five-bedroomed house in a village on the outskirts of Cambridge, it was a markedly different proposition to the place he’d shared with her. But then, Kate thought, Jen
nifer’s salary as a full-time architect must have certainly helped out to buy it.

  As she parked the car, Corey, her eldest son, turned to her from the passenger seat. His two brothers had already flung open the rear doors of the Volvo and were impatiently waiting for her to pop the boot so they could grab their stuff.

  ‘Are you going to be all right, Mum?’ Corey said, his face a picture of concern.

  Kate, quailing a bit inwardly, but determined to put on a brave face, painted on her brightest smile and nodded. ‘I’ll be fine,’ she said. ‘You just focus on having a brilliant time in Florida.’

  ‘I’m looking forward to seeing Epcot and Universal Studios,’ Corey said, and Kate smiled back.

  ‘Just remember to text me occasionally and let me know how you’re getting on.’

  ‘I will.’

  As they got out of the car and sorted out the luggage, the three boys strode ahead of her up the generous pathway to the front door of the house. They’d rung the doorbell before she’d even made it halfway up. The door opened, and Phil beamed brightly at his three sons, clapping Corey on the back heartily, reaching out and squeezing Will’s shoulder and then ruffling Tom’s already unruly hair.

  ‘All right, lads? Dump your stuff in the dining room, except what you need for tonight. We’ve got an early getaway tomorrow morning.’

  They moved past him into the house, and for a moment, Kate and Phil were alone on the doorstep. Kate noticed that Phil’s hair was thinning on top, and that the bags under his eyes were more pronounced than they had been. New jeans, in a more form fitting cut than he usually wore, looked good, though, as did the salmon-coloured polo shirt, which she also didn’t recognise. Jennifer’s influence, presumably.

  ‘What time’s the flight?’ Kate asked.

  ‘Seven o’clock tomorrow morning,’ Phil replied. ‘Taxi’s coming early.’

  ‘Well, here’s all of their documentation,’ she said, handing over the passports. ‘Corey wanted to keep them but I thought it would be safer to give them straight to you.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Phil said. He paused, before adding, ‘You’re looking well. Will told me that the house you’ve been redecorating looks great.’

  ‘It was a good project,’ Kate said. ‘I needed something to keep me busy.’

  ‘And Aidan’s got you doing his house now, hasn’t he?’

  Kate smiled, knowing that they’d already discussed all this on the phone, but realising that Phil was trying to keep the conversation flowing. It felt so strange to be making small talk with the man she’d shared so much of her life with but, for the sake of family harmony, she went with it. She was about to open her mouth to ask a little more about the itinerary of the holiday, when Jennifer appeared from a room off the generous hallway. To Kate’s eyes, she looked a little peaky; perfectly well groomed, as ever, but a certainly a bit pale. She wondered if they’d both had a bug or something. The boys often brought things home from school, and summer flu season was approaching.

  ‘Hi, Kate,’ Jennifer said brightly. ‘How are you?’

  ‘Fine, thanks,’ Kate replied. After two years, the three of them had reached a kind of amicable existence, but they’d never be down the pub drinking together. It was enough. ‘I think the boys have got everything they need. They’re all pretty excited.’

  ‘So am I,’ Phil said. ‘It’ll be great to get away before…’ he trailed off, glancing at Jennifer, who cut in a little too quickly.

  ‘Before work kicks off again in September,’ Jennifer said. ‘We’ve both got a lot on at the moment with that new development getting the go ahead over at Strensham Mead.’

  ‘Well, have a lovely time,’ Kate said. ‘And keep in touch.’ She looked past Phil to where the boys were coming back out of the dining room, having dumped their bags as instructed.

  ‘Be good, boys,’ she said as they came back to her briefly to say goodbye. ‘And text me lots of pictures.’

  Suddenly, the reality of her three sons flying four thousand odd miles away for three weeks hit her, and she swallowed back a lump in her throat. She pulled her middle son, Will, close to her in a fierce bear hug, and before he could wriggle away, she planted a huge kiss on his forehead. ‘Text me lots.’

  Will wriggled away and exaggeratedly wiped a hand across his forehead. ‘Okay, okay. Bye, Mum.’

  As she bid her goodbyes to them all, and made her escape, Kate couldn’t help another pang of something that felt like jealousy mixed with a rather dangerous nostalgia. No, she thought quickly, there’s no going back. And I wouldn’t want to, anyway. Driving back to the cottage, where she still had a few things to pack away before her own trip to Willowbury, she tried to focus on the future.

  7

  Seventy-two hours after saying goodbye to her sons, and safe in the knowledge that they’d landed safely in Florida, Kate looked despairingly at the peeling wallpaper of Aidan and Tom’s living room and sighed. From the corner, Lucifer, the black-haired, green-eyed cat who inhabited the house, looked at her with an equivalent level of disdain.

  ‘Why the hell did I agree to this?’ Kate said to the walls and the cat. Unsurprisingly, there was no answer, from either of them. ‘I must have been having a perimenopausal moment when I let them talk me into it.’

  Glancing at the screen of her mobile phone, which had lit up briefly with yet another message detailing just what a wonderful time the homeowners were having on their six-week tour of southern Europe, Kate had a good mind to text them back and tell them the bloody deal was off. She didn’t need a place to live, she hadn’t just accepted the job because she was strapped for ready cash, and in no way had she taken it on because she knew they felt sorry for her. No. No way any of that was true. Honestly.

  ‘I know they’re paying me for this, but I should have quoted to include danger money!’ Kate addressed the cat as, having put out a hand to stroke him, he lashed out at her with his left front paw. Putting aside any thought of an amicable relationship with her reluctant housemate, she turned back to the peeling wallpaper, which dispiritingly revealed itself to be just another layer underneath which at least two more layers had been put over the years. The previous owners had slapped a bit of gloss paint over the top, a textured example of particularly hideous seventies décor, in the hope that it would spruce up the living room a bit, and as a result, removing the stuff had been hellish. That had taken the best part of a day, and now she was grimly steaming the last of the backing paper, trying to see if the walls were actually any good underneath.

  Yet again, Kate wondered at the wisdom of taking this job. ‘Really,’ she addressed her remarks to Lucifer, who looked at her unapologetically from the back of the dust sheet-covered settee, ‘it wasn’t as if I had a great deal of choice in the matter.’ The cat stared at her blankly, nonplussed that he had, to all intents and purposes, become Kate’s confidant over the past few days since she’d moved in. Kate had a yen for dark, mysterious and brooding males, but having been married to a man who’d successfully managed to keep his other woman a mystery for the past few years, she now appreciated a bit of honesty. At least Lucifer makes no secret of his disdain, she thought. That was progress.

  Grabbing her wallpaper scraper, she attacked the remnants of the backing paper with a little more gusto. Six weeks had seemed ample time when she’d quoted for the job, but now she wasn’t so sure. She’d need to patch plaster any spots and cracks in the walls before she got a watered-down undercoat onto them. Then there were the numerous other jobs; repainting the skirting boards, a coat on the living room door, waiting for the professional plasterer to skim the hall ceiling so that she could then paint it… the list went on.

  But this was what she’d chosen to do, she reminded herself, and it wasn’t as if the owners of the house could nitpick too much; she was related to one of them, after all. As if on cue, yet another message came through on the ‘Grand Tour Life Goals’ WhatsApp group of a lake in Tuscany, obscured slightly by the duo in question gurning a selfie in front
of it. Between that and the messages from her sons, who were having a whale of a time in Florida, she was starting to feel like Cinderella.

  Kate tried to extinguish the flicker of irritation that flared within her at the picture. She should be happy for them all, and she was, really she was, but it was difficult to feel anything other than sorry for herself when she was the one, at age thirty-nine, without a permanent home, without a life partner and without, at the moment, any form of steady income. Although the terms of the divorce and the house sale had left her reasonably comfortably off, there was still the future to consider.

  As the third photo came through on WhatsApp, she debated sending something rude back by way of response, but then decided that a coffee from the High Street might be a better option for her sanity. Ensuring the steamer was turned off at the wall, she cleared away her wallpaper tools and wriggled out of her white painter’s overalls. Willowbury was what you might charitably call a laid-back place to live, but even she drew the line at striding out covered in paint. Her confidence might have taken a knock in the process of her divorce, but she wasn’t going to let it derail her pride in her own appearance. Despite the fact that, even in her overalls, she was still likely to look less odd than some of Willowbury’s more eccentric residents, she couldn’t quite bring herself to let it all hang out just yet. With another five and a half weeks left living in the town, though, who knew how she might feel at the end of her stay?

  She closed the front door of the terraced house behind her, booting the recalcitrant Lucifer out before she did, and felt a bit lighter. She never thought she’d be the live-in painter and decorator for her little brother, Aidan, and his new husband, Tom, but then life had a habit of throwing her curve balls when she least expected it. Perhaps a summer in Willowbury was just what the doctor ordered.