‘Good,’ said Lucy. ‘It’s not that I didn’t like Tara—’ her voice dropped as if she might be listening ‘—she was fun and spirited and gorgeous but I never thought they were a great match. It was as if as soon as they were married, she changed her mind about everything they’d got married for. I never felt they were as happy as they should have been. As happy as we are.’
Griff raised and dropped his shoulders. ‘Not everyone is like a double act, Luce. We got lucky.’
‘I know, but still . . .’ She shrugged. ‘Just a woman’s instinct that all wasn’t as it seemed between them.’
Griff sighed. ‘It cuts me up to think about Pete not being able to talk to me.’
‘Don’t,’ said Lucy. ‘Sometimes, as he says, it’s easier to speak to people who don’t know you. You should appreciate that, Griff, because as secrets go, we might be keeping the Mack Daddy of them all from him.’
Griff nodded. His wife was right – as always. Sometimes close was too close.
Chapter 26
25 September
Pete was more than aware that his heart gave a discernible thump of delight when Laurie rushed through the teashop door on the fourth session at Molly’s Club. She was last to arrive and he could feel the anxiety creeping in his veins that she might not be coming. It was the opposite to how he felt on seeing Ria Ollerton and that kick of excitement worried him as much as it thrilled him.
Laurie gave him a small wave. She was aware how a warmth spread inside her when she pushed open the door to find him there. Her thoughts had strayed too much to Pete over the past few days and she really didn’t need that sort of complication in her life. Luckily getting the house spick and span for an estate agent to come and photograph it had taken her mind off things it could happily dwell on. As she vacuumed and mopped, she wondered what Meredith and Brendan would say when they drove past and noticed the For Sale sign. The estate agent she’d chosen had been up that day – hence why she was running late – and said that they’d aim to get the basic details on their site by the morning.
‘Come in, come in, Laurie,’ Molly smiled in welcome.
‘Sorry everyone for holding you up,’ said Laurie, breathy after a sprint from the car park.
Mr Singh bounced back into position behind the counter, ready to serve.
‘There’s a butterscotch cake on today and I highly recommend it, Laurie,’ said Maurice, mid-mouthful.
‘Oh well in that case . . .’ Laurie hadn’t had time for lunch. She’d been caught up with the intricacies of a very acrimonious divorce case. Mr and Mrs Pullman were fighting over ownership of everything from curtains to their Koi carp. Coffee and cake would go down a treat.
‘You sit down and I’ll get it for you,’ said Maurice. ‘Go on.’ He was insistent.
‘Better do as he says,’ whispered Sharon. ‘He likes to be a gentleman.’
‘I could get used to this service,’ said Laurie. There was an obvious seat next to Pete and if she hadn’t taken it, it would have looked like a deliberate snub, so she did. She felt instantly calmed in this space. What an odd little place it was with its lovely ambience and gentle people that she would probably never have come across if Alex had been alive. She liked all of them, without exception.
Maurice ferried over a huge piece of cake, serviette, fork and a coffee and set it down in front of her.
‘I’ll never eat all that,’ she exclaimed. ‘Mr Singh, what are you trying to do to me?’
‘I bet you do,’ said Pete. ‘And if you don’t, I’m happy to help out.’
He gave her a lop-sided smile and Laurie felt something inside her akin to a light being turned on. A dangerous light.
‘So our little band is here and complete. Have we had a good week?’ Molly’s eyes drifted over everyone but seemed to linger a beat longer in Yvonne’s direction.
Mumbles from everyone in the affirmative; Maurice’s ‘yes’ was the loudest.
‘I don’t think Yvonne will mind me saying that we went to the Roysley animal shelter, and not only did Yvonne adopt an aged cat but I did as well and I didn’t expect that outcome, let me tell you. Mother was allergic to them but luckily I didn’t inherit that defective gene.’
‘How wonderful,’ said Molly. ‘And kind of you.’
‘Yes, Felix has settled in right away. He’s an indoor cat. He has no hair. And Yvonne’s cat Conference has made himself most at home, so she informs me.’
‘He sleeps on the bed. It wasn’t the plan, but he kept scratching at the door and I couldn’t get any bloody sleep, so I let him in,’ Yvonne said with a soft smile. ‘Takes up as much room as Des did but I don’t mind it.’
‘Conference?’ asked Pete.
‘He’s enormous,’ Maurice answered for Yvonne. ‘He’s got a tail the length of a washing line. And when he sits down he assumes the shape of a Conference pear. That’s the name they gave him at the shelter when he was brought in as a stray.’
‘Conference,’ echoed Mr Singh with a chortle.
Yvonne nodded. She still looked as if a cloud of gloom was hanging over her head. Whatever had so obviously affected her last week had a tail as long as her new cat.
‘I had an unexpected visitor this week,’ said Sharon. ‘A friend of mine heard about Billy and came to visit. I haven’t seen her for a couple of years. We drifted apart over something and nothing and well . . . she got in touch. And we picked up where we left off. It’s been lovely.’
‘That’s wonderful news too,’ said Molly. ‘Something positive coming out of a negative.’
‘And a sign of true friendship that you feel as if you have never been apart,’ said Mr Singh from his position behind the counter.
‘I couldn’t remember what we’d fallen out over,’ continued Sharon. ‘I think she can but she hasn’t said. At least, she hasn’t given me the right story because the one she told me doesn’t ring true.’
‘What does it matter, if you’re back together being friends again?’ said Maurice. ‘Surely that’s the important thing. Putting the past to bed.’
Something skimmed past the surface of Laurie’s brain then zipped away, like a fly dodging a swatter.
‘It’s just niggling me, that’s all,’ Sharon went on. ‘It would have had to be more than she said for us not to have been able to sort it out then. I think it had something to do with the fella I was going out with at the time but I suppose I should just forget it. Part of me’s worried to bring it up in case it’s something I don’t want to hear.’
That fly again. Laurie nearly pinned it, then Pete scared it off by distracting her, asking the group the same question he and Laurie had talked about in the Spouting Tap last week.
‘Did anyone feel as if they’d gone a bit insane after . . .?’ He didn’t finish, but everyone knew what he meant.
‘Goodness me yes,’ replied Maurice. ‘I forgot when to eat for a few days, which sounds stupid now, but that’s exactly what happened. Totally disorientated. As if I was in a snow globe and someone had shaken it vigorously.’