“All this explosive talk is making me a bit nervous,” I said only partly jokingly.
Paul regarded me calmly. “All you need to do, Eve, is carry on doing exactly what you are already. Keep your head, keep your energy, and keep your eye on the prize. Decide what you want and go for it. It’s up to Pete to see if he can keep up or not. In fact,” he reached for his phone to bring up his diary. “We need our annual planning meeting.”
“What all together?” I said anxiously.
“All together,” he said firmly and with an inflexible expression. “We’re still a team remember? How about tomorrow?”
Jo nodded. I crossed my fingers under the table.
Jo was there as usual with the coloured felt tips and the real physical calendar, and the rest of us were there with all our devices. Jo began colouring all the world qualifiers in with a red pen and writing the venues in over the top in biro.
“So those are the essentials for Pete,” Paul summed up. “What else might you be going for Pete?”
“European?” He said. “English Open, British, Grand National?”
“Eve?” Paul asked.
“National Points Championship,” I said. “You heard what Horrocks said – he’s putting it on the back burner this year. Devlin may be back in contention though. And from what Tyler said on the stage at the NEC, it sounds like he might be going hell for leather this year, so who knows what he’s aiming for? Maybe we should do a bit of industrial espionage next week when he comes over Jo?”
Pete looked sharply at us. “Tyler’s coming over again?”
Paul ignored him. “Anything else?” He directed at me. “You ought to go for Gold this year.”
I shook my head. “Not this year. But other than the Silver, I’ll have to defend my World of Shale of course. And maybe the others the same as Pete, English, British, Grand National, Shoot Out. I’d like to get to Northern Ireland and the Netherlands this year. Maybe I could swing it with Tyler to take us along Jo? He’s bound to be going over as part of his Gold Roof tour duties.”
“Or you could ask me to take you Eve,” Paul suggested pointedly. “You don’t have to make shift for yourself all the time. I’m sure it would do both you and Pete good to have an excursion out on the European tracks.”
I looked gratefully at him and his severe expression relaxed somewhat. “And now let’s think about Fay,” he continued. “Have you any plans for her yet?”
“Who the hell’s Fay?” Pete said aggressively.
“Mine and Eve’s first paying client,” Jo explained expressionlessly. “We’re setting her up with a car and an introduction to the Stocks.”
Pete stared at us both then looked accusingly at his Dad. “Doesn’t anyone talk to me anymore? What am I? A pariah? Why am I the last to know?”
“If you don’t talk to us Pete, how can we tell you anything?” I pointed out. “Maybe you should show a bit more interest in what we’re doing.”
It wasn’t completely true, as we were also neglecting to mention a lot of things as part of general conversation, but if he wasn’t being so combative and just chatted normally to us, we’d soon have told him everything. Pete’s expression took on the aspect of a burgeoning thunder cloud.
I turned to Paul, “Since Fay’s schedule needs to fit with mine. I think we’ll be ok in the first year to just take her around with us and introduce her to all the different tracks. We’ll only need to think more carefully about which direction to point her in next year. Apart from of course we need to bear in mind any qualifying rounds she needs to attend for any White and Yellow Grade Series Finals.”
“Ok Jo, make sure those are flagged up, so you don’t let her down. If by any freak chance they seriously conflict with Eve’s schedule, then you’ll need to go to support Fay and Eve can come with us, or in an extreme circumstance where we aren’t available either, maybe Eve can recruit Quinn to help her.”
I stared at Paul. “My God, you’re a genius Paul! How blindingly obvious is that? I’d never in a thousand years thought of that… He’s at a loose end right now…”
My chin went down on my hands and I stared thoughtfully ahead. I didn’t even hear Paul speaking to me again.
“God I know that expression,” Jo groaned. “She’s hatching something, I can tell. Yoo hoo!” She waved a hand in front of my face. “Dad’s asking you a question!”
“Oh sorry,” I politely sat up and paid attention.
“How much opportunity do you get to drive a normal car on a normal road, Eve?” Paul directed at me.
I pulled a face. “Oh, never. I move the cars around the forecourt in the garage. I had Dad’s car for a few months in the spring last year while he was on the rigs. Apart from that, no, I don’t.”
Paul looked around at Pete and Jo. “Should we put her on the insurance for all our vehicles?” He suggested to them. “It would make more sense if she could share the burden of driving with the rest of us, especially if she’s off on her own with Jo, or for that occasional event where she needs to get to a raceway by herself.”
Both of them nodded.
“Makes a lot of sense,” Pete said.
“It would make her independent, which would be a relief,” Jo commented.
Paul raised his eyebrows at me. “Ok?”
I nodded. “That would be great.”
Afterwards, out of the hearing of Jo and Pete, Paul collared me about the World Championship. “Why not, Eve?”
I bit my lip. “Think of the podium for the last one. Tyler, Toon, and Pete. I don’t fancy coming up against both Tyler and Pete. Not a sandwich I want to be the filling in.”
Paul looked thoughtful. “Don’t rule anything out though, get along to a few qualifiers…”
“Ok, but it would be better if Pete won it before me…”
“Oh so you’re expecting to win it eventually?” He teased me.
“Of course I am,” I said seriously. “But trust me, it wouldn’t be politic to swipe it this year.”
Paul rubbed at his neck and looked thoughtfully at me. “Ok,” he said at last. “You know best.”
At work next day. I was discussing the Quinn idea with Jo.
“Seriously Jo, what didn’t occur to me was how we physically support another driver at the raceways! We certainly couldn’t manage two clients in the same way. So how about we snaffle Quinn before Rob Rudd does?”
“Are you suggesting him as another partner? Wouldn’t that spread the income rather thinly?”
“No, I was thinking, we need to bill Fay separately for every day’s track attendance we make with her. Then she will be motivated to raise her own team of volunteer mechanics like all the other drivers which would leave us free to take on a new client. I can recruit Quinn as an unpaid volunteer to help me out sometimes when we’re feeling hard pressed, while you remain Fay’s official paid mechanic. I think Quinn is fairly sorry to be giving up, so he’ll jump at an opportunity to keep a finger in the pie. And on the rare occasion when we need to send Quinn with Fay as her official mechanic, she can pay him the fee directly. So he doesn’t have to be employed by us or anything…”
Jo frowned for a bit, then her expression lifted. “You’re right. We need the extra flexibility of another person. It only needs for me to be ill for instance… And you get on ok with Quinn, and I’ll get to know him eventually I guess. But I can’t wait to see Pete’s face. He looked furious as anything when Dad suggested it.”
“I made sure I didn’t look actually,” I said cravenly.
“If I didn’t know Dad better, I’d say he was getting a wooden spoon out and giving Pete a right good stir,” Jo said.
“Oh I definitely think he is,” I said. “That’s why he wants me to at least pretend to go for the World Championship and not announce that I’m not interested. He’s trying to wind Pete up like a coiled spring to race like fury this season to beat me. He’s goading him in every way he can out of his comfort zone.”
“Yeah, you know, I think Dad was
getting a bit bored of the pair of us before you came along. Ten years in the F2s and I was only ever average, and Pete just kept languishing in the good enough to keep going but not outstanding enough to win major titles banding. But now Dad’s thoroughly enjoying himself again. So we mustn’t shut him out. He’s loving all this.”
Ok, so now I had to get my hands on Quinn before Rob did. No-one was in the living area of the flat, but it looked as though both Quinn and Daisy had been in recently. I tapped on Quinn’s door.
“Hi Eve,” he called from inside.
I opened the door to be confronted with him and Daisy in bed together.
“Oh sorry!” I was dismayed. “Why did you call me in with Daisy here?”
“It’s ok, we’re just cuddling,” Daisy said.
I walked over to the bed. “Are you both decent under there?”
“Enough,” Quinn said, and pulled back the duvet to reveal Mariah curled up asleep between them.
I laughed. “Ok, I get it now! Shove over!”
He obligingly made some space and I got in with all three of them.
“Thrills and Spills dream scenario,” I said. “They’d have loved to walk in on this.”
“What, Quinn in bed with all his women?” Daisy suggested in her soft girly voice.
Not that I wanted to be counted as one of his women, but basically, yes, that’s what I meant.
“And they’d be completely gutted if they ever found out you’d started a fling with the World Champion the minute the cameras were off you. That’s just the sort of juicy morsel they were hinting we should get up to for the delectation of the viewers,” Quinn teased me.
“Oo, has she?” Daisy looked impressed. As an avid follower of Spills she knew who Quinn was talking about.
“I’m so glad that’s all over,” I said. “It was bloody stressful at times.”
“But fun!” Quinn said.
“Beardy Roger was heading back out to the jungle straight after our end of production party to go back to filming his beloved chimpanzees,” I reported. “I asked him if any of them were as amusing as me, and he said one dominant female called Chi-Chi could give me a run for my money. Honestly! Flattering it is not!”
We all flopped back against the pillows.
“So Quinn..?” I began.
“I discern a suspiciously wheedling tone,” Quinn interrupted.
“Ok, I’ll come clean. I’ve come to ask you a favour, and I’m worried it’ll be too late and you’ll have already committed yourself to Rob.”
He looked immediately interested. “Fire away!”
I explained the situation. “So what do you think?” I finished up.
“Rob doesn’t really need me,” Quinn said immediately. “He’s got Tolly and Dave. What do you think Daisy?” He looked sideways at her.
She looked past him to meet my gaze. She blinked a couple of times. Then said, “Sounds like a good idea, Adam. You were really sorry to be leaving the F2’s behind…”
Daisy was a bit vanilla. A bit too giggly good natured for me. But I could tell from the expression in her eyes that she was having to be really noble this time. She didn’t really want Quinn going off weekend after weekend with me, but knew that this was just what he needed right now. With everything else in his world coming to an end including possibly his mother’s life, he needed a new beginning with a bit of purpose. And she was sensitive enough to both Quinn’s needs and my own way of working, that she knew that this was exactly what I was trying to offer him to see him through. She would have loved to have been able to fill that hole for Quinn herself, but Quinn was such a restless soul he needed a bit of excitement all the time, and she couldn’t provide that. She could only provide the sex and cuddles.
Mariah began to grizzle and Quinn sighed. “She’s teething. Look her cheeks are all flushed.”
“You’re looking after her a lot at the moment,” I observed.
“Mum’s not that well,” he explained. “And Siân’s doing some exams…”
“Do you think I should go and see your mother?” I asked.
He looked miserable. “Yes, I really think you should.”
I went out there on my bike the next evening. I found Kathleen lying on the settee with Mariah crawling all over her. Kathleen was wincing occasionally but clearly didn’t want to push Mariah away. I leant over and picked Mariah up and threw her up and down a bit to make her scream with delight and then I put her down on the floor where she duly headed for a pile of brightly coloured plastic toys.
“How are you?” I asked, sitting down in the armchair opposite.
“Secondaries,” she said. “They’ve found secondaries in my lymph glands, liver and spine.”
I stared at her.
“They can’t do anything about them.”
I began to cry. But I didn’t think that it would be helpful to Kathleen, so I hauled it back in with a big effort, and wiped roughly at my eyes. My instant reaction seemed to touch her though. She reached out a hand to me as though it was me that needed comforting instead of her.
“I haven’t spoken to Siân yet,” I said. “I wondered if we could do it together?”
She sat and thought about it for a moment. “Yes maybe that’s a good idea.” She spotted Liam passing the partially open door. “Liam!” She called. “Can you go and ask Siân to come down and see me – straight away please.”
Liam galloped up the stairs, and a few minutes later, Siân came in. She stopped short when she saw me, her dark blue eyes contracting in anger.
“Sit down,” Kathleen said sharply. I could see she was trying to forestall Siân flouncing straight out.
Siân sat down on the edge of one of the other armchairs, sitting stiffly upright, her whole body language broadcasting the fact that she was only doing this under sufferance.
“I want you to listen to what Eve has to say, because I want everything sorted out before I die.”
Siân’s nostrils flared and she gritted her teeth.
“Because I want Eve to stay involved in both Adam’s and Mariah’s life when I’m gone. It’s important to me. So you two are going to have to sort your differences out.”
Siân’s eyes beamed high voltage rage.
“Siân, I know you’ve always disliked me- ” I began.
“Hated you!” She interrupted, refusing to look at me.
“Hated me,” I corrected equably. “And recently you stated it was because I tried to kill Adam.”
“It is, you evil witch!”
I waited for her to stop breathing heavily. “So I’m here to say sorry for trying to kill your brother. It was a terrible thing to do, and it was an awful thing for you to see him all blue and limp and to have to think he was dead. I’m really sorry for doing it, and for how it affected you. I apologised to Adam a couple of years ago, and your mother a few months ago, but I realised I’d never apologised to you. So I’m sorry for what I did.”
She stared at me. My apology didn’t seem to have made any impact on her.
“I think you owe Eve a few apologies yourself don’t you?” Kathleen prompted her.
Her face screwed up in hatred. “I regret nothing!” She snarled. “If I could do worse to her, I would! I won’t have anything to do with that guilt tripping penitence clap-trap! Piss off, Eve – I fucking hate you!” And she stormed out.
We both sat in silence for a moment, then I saw little Mariah’s face was about to screw up for distressed wail and I scooped her up. “Well that went well,” I observed, as I sat back down with Mariah on my knee.
“It might sink in later,” Kathleen said sensibly. “These things usually take a bit of time. She’ll have to process it.”
“She really hates me doesn’t she?” I said worriedly. It hadn’t ever worried me before. It had seemed a mere understandable extension of the Quinn/McGinty divide. But now that Quinn and I were friends, and even her mother and I were rubbing along ok, it was showing up to be something far worse, some nasty manifestation which
had its own separate head of steam.
Kathleen saw my anxious look. “I’m sorry Eve. I really hope she sorts herself out.”
I didn’t like to say to Kathleen that I was really worried now about what she might do next. What could possibly be worse than taking Pete off me? Apart from cutting the brake cables of my car?
“I’m going to keep talking to her about it now,” Kathleen promised. “I’ll point out how young you were and remind her that her horrid big brother had just murdered your lovely rabbit.”
“I don’t know if we can disentangle this,” I said. “I think she was so young that she’s just recorded her hatred of me as part of her DNA, and rational arguments aren’t going to make the darndest bit of difference.”
Kathleen looked utterly drained and weary. Her eyes closed. “You’ll look after Adam won’t you?”
“Of course,” I said. “And Daisy’s really good with him too. She’s even managed to get him to give up smoking.”
Kathleen’s eyes flickered open again. “Oh that’s good at any rate…”
I went over to her and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll be off now then. Shall I take Mariah out to Liam?”
“Ok,” she said, her eyes drifting closed again. I didn’t dare say ‘good-bye’ in case that’s what it was.
I felt I’d better pop in next door to see Dad and Pauline, in case they’d spotted my bike.
I sat in one of huge squishy armchairs that Pauline had instituted on her arrival into Dad’s life, and stared at the fat Buddha sitting on the rug, his arms so plump that they looked as though they had bits of thread tied tightly around his wrists.
“What do you think he’s going to be when he grows up?” I mused aloud to Dad. “A sumo wrestler?”
“Sssh!” Dad said with a quick glance in the direction of the kitchen where Pauline was making us a cuppa.
“Kathleen’s dying,” I said sadly.
He looked miserable too. “I know.”
“You will look after Con won’t you?” I said.
“Life’s a bastard,” Dad said bitterly.
The Way Barred (Not Quite Eden Book 4) Page 10