‘I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself,’ said Lauren, but her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.
‘Well if you need anything …’ Joel said awkwardly, picking Sam up and heading for the door.
‘… I know where you are,’ said Lauren with a half smile.
But as he got in the car, he turned to see her, looking lost and forlorn standing on the step. He had the uneasy feeling that Troy’s arrival was going to change everything for the worse.
‘So I hope you’re not going to let Troy see the girls?’
It had taken Lauren nearly a week to pluck up the courage to tell her mum that Troy had made contact, and now she was on the warpath. Their phone conversation had already lasted half an hour and was going around in ever decreasing circles. ‘When I think about what that man put you through, I could commit murder, I really could.’
‘Mum,’ warned Lauren. ‘Whatever you think of him, he is still the girls’ father. I just want to do what’s best for them.’
‘Hmpph!’ snorted her mum. ‘Letting them see Troy useless Farrell isn’t what I regard as best for them.’
‘Well, it’s not up to you, is it?’ said Lauren. ‘In fact, I’m not sure it’s up to me. I think I should explain it to the girls and see what they want to do.’
Lauren had spent the last week mulling over what to do, and she had decided this was the fairest conclusion. Troy had been ringing her incessantly all week, to the point where she’d switched off her phone, and was ignoring him. Her plan was to tell the girls at the weekend, and if they wanted to see him, invite him over.
‘So long as you don’t let him worm his way back in,’ said Mum. ‘That man is about as trustworthy as a snake. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
‘I won’t,’ said Lauren. ‘But I will let him see the girls if they want to see him. For their sakes, not his.’
She put the phone down and started to get Sam ready to go and pick the girls up from school. Maybe she should tell them now, and get it over and done with. They had to know sometime.
So on the way back from school, she suggested they go to Keef’s Café on the High Street for lunch, something she could rarely afford, but she thought the girls deserved a treat if they were going to find out about their dad. Smiling at Keith, who leant over and tickled the girls under their chins, she ordered the drinks and then went to find somewhere to sit.
‘I’ve got something special to tell you, girls,’ Lauren said, once she’d got Sam in his high chair and the twins had divested themselves of hats, coats, gloves and scarves. They perched on the high bar stools by the window, so they could see who was walking up and down the High Street, while they ate their lunch. Her lovely twins, so gorgeous, so vulnerable. Lauren hoped she was doing the right thing telling them about their dad.
‘What is it?’ asked Immie excitedly.
‘Is it good special?’ said Izzie, looking a bit anxious.
‘Of course it’s good, special,’ said Lauren smiling bravely.
‘Tell us, tell us!’ the twins were wriggling with anticipation.
‘Well,’ began Lauren, ‘you know a long time ago your daddy had to go away.’
‘We don’t have a daddy,’ said Immie.
‘Yes you do,’ said Lauren.
‘No we don’t,’ said Izzie, banging her glass down on the table. ‘He doesn’t ever see us. He never gives us presents. We don’t have a real daddy.’
Lauren swallowed hard, this was going to be more difficult than she thought.
‘You do have a daddy,’ she said. ‘I know he hasn’t seen you very much, but you do have a daddy who has always thought about you. And now he’s come back, and he really, really, wants to meet you.’
The twins looked at each other and then suspiciously at Lauren.
‘Will he bring us presents?’ said Izzie.
‘What if we don’t like him?’ said Immie.
‘I’m not sure if he’ll bring you presents,’ said Lauren, ‘but I’m sure you’ll like him. He’s your daddy and he loves you very very much.’
She crossed her fingers behind her back as she said this, hoping against hope she’d told her beautiful daughters the truth.
‘Hi, Mum,’ said Joel, as he went to pick her up from her small flat in Chiverton, where as usual, she was waiting outside for him. It was a blessing that she’d been able to find it when she had, given the rapidity with which her Parkinson’s had deteriorated. When Uncle Jack had died, he had left Lovelace Cottage to her in his will, ‘On account of the kindness you showed my mother in her latter years,’ he’d written. ‘Oh, stuff and nonsense,’ Joel’s mum had said to him when he’d asked her about it. ‘Aunt Connie had a sad and troubled life, no wonder she was so prickly. I just visited her a bit when she was old, that was all.’
But when it came to moving in, his mum had invited Joel and Claire round for lunch, and then said, ‘I have a proposition. This house is too much for me. I really couldn’t manage it. I’d much rather you two had it and turned it into a proper family home.’
So it was decided that, despite Claire’s initial reluctance, Joel and Claire would sell up their small flat in London and buy Lovelace Cottage off Joel’s mum, who moved into a warden-assisted flat in Chiverton. It was near enough to the town that she could walk there to get what she needed, and small enough for her to manage easily. Joel was grateful that they had managed to find such a good solution for the ever growing concern about his mother’s situation, and was only sorry that it wasn’t in Heartsease, but Mum had insisted that she needed her independence, and they needed their space. He would have loved to be able to be nearer her so he could help her as much as she helped him. Since Claire died Mum had been a tower of strength, always available to listen when he wanted to talk, and just be there when he didn’t.
‘Lovely to see you both,’ said his mum, kissing Joel on the cheek and giving Sam a cuddle. ‘What do you want to do today?’
‘I thought I’d take you for a drive and a country pub lunch,’ said Joel. ‘If that’s OK?’
‘Sounds perfect,’ said his mum. ‘The weather’s been so wretched this week, I’ve hardly been out at all. I could do with a breath of fresh air.’
Joel drove them out of Chiverton, and up a winding country lane to the top of Chiverton Hill. The pub sat at the top of the hill, and the views were extraordinary, particularly as the trees had lost their leaves, which opened up vistas hidden in summer. The sun was shining for the first time in a week, and the hillside showed a stunning array of greens, blues and greys.
Joel parked the car in the car park, popped Sam in his pushchair, helped his mum and her stick out of the car, and they walked to the viewpoint to look out across the county. In the very, very far distance they could make out a strip of grey blue.
‘Do you know, I think that’s the sea?’ said Joel. ‘They say on a clear day you can see it.’
‘What’s that spire?’ his mum said, pointing out a church in the near distance.
‘Not sure,’ said Joel, consulting the viewpoint. ‘Oh, it’s probably the Church of St Barnaby at Burnham Heath.’
He stared at the different locations indicated on the viewpoint.
‘Oh look, it’s even got Heartsease on it. Five miles to the Heartsease Memorial Gardens. I’m not sure why they’d mention that, they’re not much cop now.’
‘Presumably they were more of a feature once,’ said his mum. ‘Are