‘You’ve already said you prefer serving at the Corner Shop to working in the fish-and-chip shop.’
‘Yes, but I said that rashly before you told me that it was your family business and was being passed down to you/us when we are married. I will, of course, do everything to support you,’ Titch said loyally. ‘We’re a team, remember. And I don’t want to muck things up for any of us.’
‘The shop would be so much easier to manage with a baby than working late nights.’ Ritchie smiled and kissed his pretty fiancée gently on the lips. ‘And if we are going to have some babies of our own, then you need to be happy and I don’t want you working all the time if you don’t have to. Especially not at night.’
‘I don’t know.’ Titch sighed and sipped her tea.
‘All I’m saying is that you shouldn’t let that one comment from Josh stop you from following your dream, because, on reading between the lines, I believe that’s exactly what running the shop would be for you – a dream come true. You love that place. You love Rosa. It just makes sense. And talking of sense, you have common sense in spades. You know all about the ordering, the stocktaking, and if you get stuck, I can sort the figures. I’m good at all that shit – I’ve had to be from a young age working where I do.’
Ritchie drained his beer. ‘I believe in you, Titch Whittaker. And there’s less than two weeks now to get it to Rosa. So, in my opinion you need to finish what you started.’
‘I’ll see.’ Titch stuffed the envelope back behind the bills.
Realising nothing more needed to be said on the matter tonight, Ritchie stood up. ‘Talking of finishing what we started, or tried to start that night, this sausage is in desperate need of a fine old battering.’ He took Titch’s hand and put it down the front of his joggers.
‘It’s a good job my mother wears earplugs.’ Titch laughed. ‘But come on, you rude boy, you’re right – it’s about time we had some fun.’
CHAPTER 42
On seeing Luke standing by his mother’s graveside, Rosa halted uncertainly. She was taking Hot on his early-morning walk and didn’t expect anyone to be here at this hour. She had come to see what people had written on the mountain of flowers that were propped against the raised mound of earth. Despite her non-religious beliefs, she not only loved a church but, weirdly, had always found graveyards fascinating. Had even started getting ideas for baby names from the headstones.
Mary and she had agreed that attending the wake wasn’t the right thing to do. ‘We’ve paid our respects, duck, and that is enough,’ Mary had said firmly. Rosa could tell that Josh was secretly pleased with her decision. She also knew that with Luke’s emotions running so high with her, it would be much kinder to step back and leave him to deal with everything to do with his family in his own way.
It was too late to turn around. Casually, she walked down the path towards the grieving man, doing her best to act as if she always took this route, trying to stop Hot peeing against gravestones as she did so. The cemetery was on higher ground and made for a breath-taking view of the bay. Winter sun was poking its head through, and even the gulls sounded more cheerful than usual with their constant mewing. Spotting a white dove sitting on a raised crypt near the edge of the wall, Rosa thought there were worse places one could wish to rest for eternity.
She was almost on top of Lucas before he spoke to her, his voice breaking. ‘Why didn’t you tell me straightaway, Rosa?’
How silly was she to think that he would never mention something so massive?
‘Oh Luke, I wanted to but also I didn’t want to hurt you any further. You’d just lost your mum and then to hear that she had thrown herself down the cellar steps deliberately, well…’
His voice was now barely audible. ‘I meant about you being pregnant.’
Rosa inwardly cringed. She’d rather talk with him about his mother than confront the great big baby-shaped elephant in the room now.
Since that day in the police station, when Rosa had been sick and the penny had dropped, Lucas had felt as if his insides were burning. When he had met the pretty brunette, she had been single, and he wasn’t. When she was in a relationship, his hopes were still quite high that she might dump Josh for one of her own kind. Even after she was married he had kept a faint hope going – but pregnant? No, he knew now that the chances of ever being with Rosa Smith, formerly Larkin, were completely over – and the realisation of this hurt. It hurt a lot.
‘Oh! Well, I haven’t told everyone yet. I’m not even three months, Luke,’ she replied, trying to make light of it but feeling his pain so strongly it compelled her to hold her arms out to him.
‘No. No, Rosa! Just leave me alone. I came here for some peace.’ He turned away from her, then swung himself back round. ‘What is wrong with me? Common sense tells me you’re married, and I know I can’t be with you.’ Then, not knowing what to do with the emotions that were searing through his veins, he set off and started walking towards the cemetery gates.
Letting Hot off the lead and praying he would behave in this sacred place, Rosa ran after the troubled man. Holding both of his arms tightly, she said, ‘Look at me. You’re going through hell but I’m not the problem. It just seems as if I am because you are hurting so much about your mum. I will always be here for you as a friend. I really like you, Luke. And if I’m being totally honest, and if it helps, well, I fancy you too.’
‘Then why can’t we be together?’ he burst out. ‘Isn’t that what a relationship is? Friendship and lust?’
Rosa closed her eyes for a second. ‘Oh Luke. I am in love with Josh. Life’s all about timing, and well…it was just off for both of us.’ She tried to sound upbeat. ‘Now we can have everything without the complication that a real relationship brings, can’t we? Friendship, fun, a bit of banter – some harmless flirting?’
Lucas put both hands over his face as if that would make all his pain disappear. He then looked directly at her and said bitterly, ‘You just don’t get it, do you?’ He pulled away. ‘Everything, you say? Are you really that deluded, Rosa? We can’t have anything, not now.’
‘I’m so sorry, Luke.’ Hot appeared now, barking at both their feet. ‘So sorry.’
As he strode out of the gates and down the street towards the bay, Lucas looked back and shouted hoarsely, ‘And if I can’t have you – what’s the fucking point!’
CHAPTER 43
‘How much do you reckon a fifty-voice soul choir would be for the reception?’
Titch was sitting at the Corner Shop counter flicking through a wedding magazine that she’d stolen from the doctor’s surgery.
Rosa came through from the back kitchen with mugs of tea and a plate containing some of the Co-op’s Triple Chocolate Cookies, as recommended by Mary.
‘You crack me up, Titch Whittaker. We can only seat thirty in the café. Where would we put them all?’ Then, on placing the tray down by the till, Rosa added, ‘Saying that, I’m sure me and Sara can step in. We do a mean rendition of “Ave Maria” every time we mop the floor, but I can’t guarantee it won’t flatten the bubbles in the champagne.’