Troy was rubbing the spanner with a cloth.
‘That’s all fixed for you, Lauren,’ he said. ‘You shouldn’t have any problems with that pipe now. I don’t think it will leak again.’
‘Thanks, Troy, that’s brilliant,’ said Lauren. ‘That leak has been driving me mad for ages, and my landlady keeps promising to do something about it, and never does.’
Joel had no idea that Lauren had had a problem with a leaky tap. In fact, he realized he had very little idea of any problems Lauren might have. She never confided in him any more. He suddenly wished she would.
‘You should have said, Lauren,’ he said. ‘I’d have fixed that for you.’
‘Would you?’ Lauren looked at him in surprise. ‘It never occurred to me to ask.’
‘No job is too small,’ he said, wondering why he was so determined to prove his usefulness to her.
It was something about the way that Troy was arrogantly strutting around the place that he found frustrating. Troy had dumped Lauren in it, left her to it, and now seemed to have slotted straight back into her life, as if nothing had happened. It didn’t seem right, and Joel liked and respected Lauren too much to want to see her being hurt again.
Who are you to judge? a little voice in his head said. You were no better with Claire.
But at least I stayed, he thought.
‘It’s OK, mate,’ said Troy, whispering in a conspiratorial manner as Lauren busied herself getting Sam’s things ready. ‘Now I’m back on the scene, I can do all Lauren’s little jobs for her. I appreciate your concern for her, but you don’t need to worry about Lauren any more, she’s got me to help her now.’
‘I think Lauren’s managed pretty well on her own so far,’ said Joel bluntly. ‘You’re not the only one looking out for her, mate.’
He took Sam from Lauren’s arms, feeling more furious than he could remember ever feeling before in his life.
‘Thanks, Lauren,’ he said. ‘Please don’t feel you can’t ask me for help, you always can, you know.’
‘Bye, mate.’ Troy sat down on the sofa and picked up the paper. He really was making himself at home. Joel was seething when he got in the car. Who did he bloody well think he was? Lauren deserved so much better. But, depressingly, it was clear which way the land lay and Joel couldn’t understand why that made him feel so edgy.
Chapter Nineteen
‘Right, buckets and mops at the ready,’ said Lauren to the crowd who had gathered outside the Memorial Gardens as they posed for a photo for the local paper. She had been amazed at how easy it had been to get people galvanized to come and clean up the mess that the vandals had made. She’d put the word out with the school-run mums, and once the jungle drums began to roll everyone was keen to get involved. Lauren felt a renewed sense of vigour and optimism as she looked at the number of people who’d come to help. Even the newly appointed local MP, who had a young family of his own and a keen eye for good PR, was eager to be seen at the playground. This was great from Lauren’s point of view as it brought the added bonus of the local TV covering the story.
‘We could do with more of this sort of community spirit in Chiverton, where I live,’ the MP was saying. ‘It’s exactly the sort of thing the government want to promote.’
He was so enthusiastic he was even prepared to take the mop and bucket he’d used for his photocall and put it to use. His minders had to persuade him to stop scrubbing before getting him to his next appointment.
‘Well, look at you,’ said Kezzie, who was taking a break from working on her website to offer her services. ‘Hobnobbing with MPs and appearing on national telly.’
‘Hardly national,’ said Lauren, ‘we’ll be lucky if we get a minute on the local news bulletin.’
‘Whatever. I’ll make a campaigner out of you yet!’
Lauren grinned.
‘Do you know, I’m enjoying all this. It feels like the first time I’ve properly used my brain since the girls were born.’
‘You’ve certainly gathered a willing workforce,’ said Kezzie, looking around as Lauren’s friends swept up glass, scrubbed off graffiti and disposed of chip wrappers.
‘They’ve been great,’ said Lauren. ‘Do you know Rose Carmichael?’ She pointed at a small, rotund woman, who was laughing and joking while she swept up. ‘Her husband works for B&Q in Chiverton and he got us a whole load of paint so we can make the playground look better until we get a new one sorted.’
‘Brilliant,’ said Kezzie. ‘And I’ve got some more good news for you. A gang of my mates are coming down in a few weeks to help plant out the borders that Joel and I dug over. In no time at all we’ll have the place looking fantastic.’
‘I just hope we can keep the vandals away,’ said Lauren. ‘Locking the gardens at night doesn’t seem to deter them.’
‘Well, a locked gate has never deterred me,’ said Kezzie, ‘but if we surprise them by being in the gardens, they might think again.’
‘What if they’re six feet tall and wielding an axe?’ said Lauren, wondering if she’d bitten off more than she could chew.
‘I’ll run like hell,’ said Kezzie. ‘But I reckon they’re just kids, and if we could only get them on our side, we might be able to turn it round and persuade them to help us make things better.’
‘You’re optimistic.’
‘Well, you never know,’ said Kezzie cheerfully. ‘I’ve never done anything like this before, but there’s always a first time.’
Kezzie and Joel sat in the park drinking a flask of tea. It was a chilly spring evening in March and they were both wearing warm fleeces and scarves. As arranged with Lauren, Sam was staying there for the night.
‘Do you really think anyone will come?’ said Joel. ‘After all there’s been a lot of publicity. They’ll probably go and find somewhere else to deface.’
‘I do think it’s likely to be kids,’ said Kezzie. ‘I feel quite sorry for them. They haven’t got anything to do or anywhere to go, so they’re bored and destructive. Heartsease could do with a community centre for teens. We should bring it to the attention of the committee.’
‘Can you imagine what Cynthia will say?’ snorted Joel.
‘“Ai really don’t think it is necessary. We are not some inner London housing estate,”’ Kezzie mimicked Cynthia’s modulated tones perfectly.
‘Still, I’m not that sympathetic with them,’ said Joel. ‘I was frequently bored as a teenager and I didn’t graffiti things.’
‘I did,’ admitted Kezzie. ‘The estate where I grew up was like that. You started drinking at thirteen, hung around with your mates, and knocked things down for fun. It was either that, or get into knife crime.’
‘So how did you get out of it then?’ said Joel. ‘I mean, you didn’t turn into a hardened criminal, did you?’
‘I was lucky,’ said Kezzie. ‘I had a couple of good teachers who spotted I was good at art, and encouraged me to go into design. Then I fell in with a bunch of guerrilla gardeners when I was at college, and realized what I really liked doing was gardening. But I needed to work, so I got a job in web design, but I never really liked it. I’d probably still be there now if it weren’t for Richard …’
Kezzie paused. There was something about the two of them being here, after dark, that seemed to encourage intimacy. A sudden memory of the kiss they shared made her flush in the dark. She hoped that Joel wasn’t