She hadn’t even realised they’d arrived at her house until he stopped the car and yanked on the handbrake.
‘I’m really sorry about this,’ he said.
‘There’s no need to be. Like I said, family has to come first.’
He gave her a bleak smile, and Cathy had to wonder – perhaps a little selfishly – whether family would always have to come first and how much of that she was willing to take before the situation became untenable. She liked him a lot, but was that enough? Did this have something to do with the fact that his previous relationships had never worked out? Maybe that hadn’t been an issue before Tansy’s troubles had become his, but perhaps his niece had got in the way since then.
‘I’d better get back. Thanks for being so understanding.’
‘You’ll call me, won’t you?’
‘Of course I will…’ He cupped a gentle hand behind her neck and guided her lips to his. Then he let her go, and she fought the urge to grab him again. ‘I’ll call you tomorrow.’
‘Alright.’ Unclipping her seatbelt, she pushed open the passenger door.
‘Goodnight, Cathy,’ he said.
She turned to him with a smile full of regret. ‘Goodnight,’ she replied, before getting out and shutting the door behind her. She watched for a moment as he restarted the engine and the car slowly left her street, and then, with a heavy sigh, she unlocked her front door and went to get ready for bed.
Twenty-Six
‘Are you OK?’ Erica asked.
Cathy swished the last drop of tea around in her cup, staring into the depths, phone to her ear. On the kitchen table in front of her, the cookery book was open. She was copying a recipe Dora had brought in – at least, she was trying to. Dora’s handwriting was a bit difficult to decipher – she seemed to go off on tangents with irrelevant notes and her spelling was abysmal. It didn’t help that Cathy was finding it hard to concentrate too, her mind full of what had happened the night before with Matthias and Tansy.
‘Of course I am,’ she lied. ‘I ought to be asking you that. What did Matthias say when he called you this morning? I mean, if it’s not too personal to ask.’
‘Of course you can ask,’ Erica said. ‘I think if anyone’s entitled to ask it’s you. I expect Matt will phone you himself this morning, I just thought I’d call now while it was fresh in my mind.’
Cathy reached for a biscuit from an open pack. It was her third or fourth of the morning and, despite the fact she’d promised herself she was going to cut back, she was in the mood to eat many more. She nibbled on it as Erica continued.
‘I’m not sure what happened between her and Michelle, but from what Tansy has told Matthias she’s completely blameless.’ Erica’s voice contained more than a note of scepticism at this; at least she wasn’t utterly blind when it came to Tansy’s faults. ‘It seems that whatever was done or said, Shane took offence and came wading in. It ended up with either Michelle throwing Tansy out or Tansy walking out or maybe even Shane having a hand in it. Tansy says it’s the first option but you can never be sure she’s remembering it exactly how it happened.’
‘Have you spoken to your sister yet?’
‘There’s no point. She’ll only stick up for Shane, no matter what happened.’
‘So Tansy couldn’t go back to her and work it out? She won’t move back in?’
‘Oh, I expect so – this isn’t the first time she’s left home and she usually ends up back there. Mostly because Matt and I try to impose rules to straighten her out and she doesn’t know how to deal with that, so she goes home where there are no rules, where she knows how her world operates. She doesn’t realise that, far from being as good as it seems, that lack of rules is damaging for her.’
‘When you say lack of rules…?’
Erica sighed. ‘It’s just Michelle finds it hard to give her attention when there’s a man on the scene. I don’t know what comes over her, but she sort of seems to forget she has a daughter.’
Cathy recalled Matthias saying something similar. She couldn’t imagine ever doing that if she had a child of her own, but she didn’t have a child and so, perhaps, she’d never really know how she’d act. And it sounded as if Tansy wasn’t entirely blameless and that she wasn’t always telling things exactly how they’d happened.
‘Apart from that,’ Erica continued, ‘I was calling to find out how your date went… Obviously you can spare me the details, but it was good?’
Cathy smiled. ‘I would hardly be telling you if it wasn’t good, would I?’
‘Yes, but—’
‘It was lovely. He’s great.’
‘You’re going to see him again?’
‘If he wants to.’
‘Oh, he definitely wants to.’
Cathy wondered what he’d said about it, but it didn’t look as if Erica was going to volunteer the information because she took the conversation back to Tansy.
‘I’m sorry, I don’t think Tansy is coming back to cookery club.’
Cathy couldn’t say she was entirely sorry about that, but she understood that it meant a lot to Erica. ‘That’s a shame,’ she said. ‘Is this about what happened last week?’
‘I think it’s about a lot of things. She needs time to sort her head out and I think it’s probably best for now that she stays away from volatile situations while she does that.’
‘Of course. But you’ll still come?’
‘If I can, yes.’
There was a caveat – what was that? Erica was usually a lot more enthusiastic about cookery club. Was this to do with what had happened last week? Had it offended Erica more than it had Tansy? Was she annoyed that people had ganged up on her niece?
‘I hope you can,’ Cathy said. ‘I’d miss you if you weren’t there – I think the others would too. You’re like a part of the original squad; it’s just not the same without you.’
Erica laughed. ‘I’ve never been part of any squad before.’
Cathy smiled. ‘Neither have I. But I feel like I am now.’
‘I’m glad,’ Erica said. ‘If anyone ought to feel they belong somewhere, it’s you. Listen, I’ll get off the line; I expect Matt will want to phone you to tell you about last night himself.’
‘OK. Thanks for ringing.’
‘I just wanted to make sure that brother of mine hadn’t already cocked up the best thing that’s happened to him in ages.’
Cathy’s smile grew. Did Erica really think that? Was that how Matthias felt? Had he said so to his sister? Cathy certainly felt that way about him and loved the idea that she could be secure in the knowledge it wasn’t one-sided.
‘Thanks, Erica,’ she said. ‘I’ll text you later.’
Matthias did call around ten minutes later, and although Cathy was happy to hear from him, the news that he was going with Tansy to pick up some belongings from her home so she could move in with him for a while was less welcome. It meant obstacles in the way of their blossoming relationship, and although she felt selfish to think that way, she couldn’t help it. But she put a brave face on the situation, told him she was glad he was doing that if it felt like the right thing, reassured him that the way the previous evening had ended hadn’t put her off and they arranged to go out again the following night. At least that was something to look forward to, as long as Tansy didn’t manage to throw another spanner in the works. She was getting very good at that lately.