Authors: Elizabeth Oldfield
‘It’s a pretend romance, to end the gossip about Max and me and to help Steve escape from Tina Kincaid’s pursuit,’ I said earnestly. ‘As I explained to you last night, we’ll just be going through the motions.’
‘I bet.’
‘It’s true! I agree I’m not as anti Steve as I was, but it’s not as though either of us lusts after the other and we’re certainly not going to jump into bed.’
‘No?’
‘No!’
Her grin widened. ‘Relax, Mum. I’m teasing.’
‘Oh.’ Why had I risen to the bait and where had my talk of jumping into bed come from? ‘But what matters is you and Justin,’ I said. ‘You should stick with him.’
Lynn
frowned. ‘You think that, but I’m not so sure.’
‘Look –’
‘Enough,’ she said, and turned and walked away.
I clenched my fists. Once again I wanted to hit Tom, hard. As, all those years ago, I had trusted him to be faithful, so I had trusted him to talk sensibly and responsibly to our daughter. But instead he seemed to have devoted the time to telling her that if you wanted to break up a family, you did. And to hell with trying to resolve any differences.
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
We were finishing breakfast
on Tuesday morning, when the door bell rang.
In a flash, Beth had slid down from her chair. ‘That’s my daddy,’ she said. ‘He’s come to see me.’
‘No, not today,’ Lynn told her. ‘Not now.’
‘It’ll be Mr Lingard, the man I work for,’ I began to explain. ‘He’s driving me to my exercise class and –’
Too late. The child had gone, running along the hall to reach up on tip-toe and open the front door.
‘I thought you were my daddy,’ we heard her say, full of disappointment.
‘’Fraid not,’ a familiar male voice replied.
‘Come in, Steve,’ I shouted, swallowing a last bite of toast and rising from the table. ‘Won’t be a minute.’
‘My daddy has curly brown hair and he works at the kitchen showroom in Dursleigh. There are lots of pretend kitchens in there and he’s the manager.’ Beth was chattering as she and Steve appeared from the hall. ‘My daddy plays Snakes and Ladders with me.’
‘I used to play Snakes and Ladders with my little girl,’ he said.
‘Did she win?’ Beth demanded.
‘Every time. And she used to stand on my feet and we’d dance together. Twirl around and around. She liked that. But she’s a big girl now.’
‘How old is she?’ Beth asked.
‘Fourteen. She’s called Debbie.’
‘That’s a nice name. My name is Beth and this is my mummy. Her name is Lynn. This is my gran. She’s called –’ there was a moment of face scrunched-up thought ‘– Gran.’
Steve grinned. ‘Hello, Gran.’
‘Hello,’ I said.
‘Pleased to meet you, Lynn.’
‘Likewise,’ Lynn said, smiling. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you.’
‘Good, bad or indifferent?’ he asked. ‘On second thoughts, don’t answer that.’
‘Bad and not so bad,’ I told him.
‘Could be worse, I guess. Just.’
‘So, you driving Mum to this morning’s work-out is the first move in Operation Rebuff Tina Kincaid?’ Lynn said.
He nodded. ‘I thought that if Tina saw us together, casual and out of the office, it’d be a good way to start. And if we’re spotted having dinner, the gossip brigade will need to unscramble your mother’s supposed affiliations.’
‘Steve didn’t get a 2.1 in Deception Studies for nothing,’ I said, and headed for the stairs. ‘Must fetch my bag.’
I combed my hair, reapplied my lipstick and found my bag. When I returned, Lynn was telling Steve about a house her estate agency had for sale, which hadn’t been touched since it had been built in the nineteen twenties. The original wallpaper was hanging in shreds, the minuscule kitchen had an uneven brick floor and a deep, cracked porcelain sink, there was even a mangle in an outside wash-house.
‘It’s mid-terrace, on a busy road and doesn’t have a garage, but you can bet someone’ll snap it up,’ she said. ‘Even though it is priced at almost three hundred thousand.’
Steve shook a wondering head. ‘Madness.’
’Sorry to interrupt, but we should make a move,’ I said, and we departed.
‘You have a very nice daughter,’ Steve remarked, as we drove towards Thyme Park.
‘Thanks. So do you.’
‘Lynn’s still objecting to playing happy families?’
I sighed. ‘’Fraid so. And poor little Beth is still pining for her daddy.’
‘I gathered that.’
‘It’s breaking my heart,’ I said, then pointed ahead. ‘That’s Tina’s house.’
As we pulled onto the forecourt, I saw that Jenny and Max had just arrived. Jenny was stood on the porch, chatting with Tina, while Max ferried in his gear. Perfect timing.
‘Steve!’ As we climbed from the car, Tina waved, all smiles, and rushed down the steps to greet him. I received a quick nod, then was ignored. ‘Good to see you, Steve. Such a nuisance, but my central heating’s still not working properly. I was wondering if you could come round, perhaps this evening, and –’
‘You need a heating expert,’ he told her.
‘But I’m sure you can fix it.’ She opened her eyes wide. They were green today, to match the emerald green top she had teamed with white pants. ‘You’re so clever at that kind of thing.’
‘You should contact a specialist,’ he said.
‘You could take a look at the boiler now,’ she appealed. ‘Quickly.’
‘Sorry, no time.’ He put an arm around my shoulders. ‘I’m just delivering Carol.’
I smiled up at him. ‘Thanks.’
‘I’ll see you later at work and then –’ Steve smiled his bobby-dazzler smile ‘– this evening.’
‘This evening?’ I queried.
He gave me a hug. ‘Head like a sieve, at times. You remember, we’re having dinner at the new French restaurant on the High Street.’
We were? Although he’d talked of us eating out and I had agreed, this was the first I’d heard of a definite arrangement.
‘Oh… yes.’
‘Their fish is said to be out of this world,’ Jenny enthused.
Steve bent and, to my great astonishment, kissed me on the lips. ‘Take care, sweetheart.’
‘Um. And you, too,’ I gabbled, then watched as he strode back to his car. It was years since a man had kissed me, and my heart was racing and I had gone weak at the knees. But what about no hanky-panky? Steve had broken the rules. Get a grip, I told myself. It was only a kiss. A public kiss, bestowed for a reason. He had startled me, that was all. As he accelerated away, I drew in a steadying breath. ‘That was Steve Lingard, my boss,’ I told Jenny.
‘I realised that, but –’ She laughed. ‘You sneaky thing, what I didn’t realise was that the two of you were –’
‘Will you run me home when we’re finished here?’
‘With pleasure.’
‘Then all will be revealed,’ I told her.
‘Are you and Steve… an item?’ Tina demanded, sounding none too pleased.
She had never referred to any possible link-up between me and Max, but as she didn’t appear to have friends to chat with, she wouldn’t have heard the gossip.
‘Early days,’ I replied breezily.
‘You never said the two of you had something going.’
‘No, because we didn’t. But you know how it is when you work with a guy, one thing can lead to another and…’ I spread my hands and smiled, suggesting all kinds of possibilities.
‘I’ve been wishing Carol would find herself a boyfriend for ages. For years. And at last it’s happened,’ Jenny said. ‘Isn’t that lovely?’
‘I guess.’ Tina looked peeved. Then she turned to Max, who had slammed shut his van door and was carrying in the last piece of equipment. ‘Ready?’ she asked.
‘Ready,’ he confirmed.
‘It was an act?’ Jenny protested, as she drove me home after the work-out. ‘Oh, Carol, what a shame. How disappointing. Steve came over as such a nice fellow and he seemed so fond of you, really affectionate, and –’
‘An Oscar-winning performance to get Tina to back off,’ I said.
‘But the two of you are going out to dinner this evening?’
‘Yes. If we’re seen together, not only will Tina leave him alone –’
‘She can be a man-eater at times.’
‘You’ve noticed?’
Jenny nodded. ‘The way she was all over Peter from next door and him married, too. But when you consider how her husband’s death has left her entirely on her own, with no family to give support, you can understand if she feels emotionally insecure and needs –’
‘I accept she’s going through a tough time, but the truth is that Tina’s number one interest is Tina. Yes?’
There was a pause. ‘Yes,’ Jenny acknowledged.
‘If Steve and I are seen together, not only will she leave him alone,’ I continued, reverting to my earlier thread, ‘but the gossip about Max and me will cease.’
‘The gossip is ridiculous and untrue, as I have told Eileen time and time and time again.’
‘She still doesn’t believe you?’
‘No, and I’m afraid she’s still spreading the tale.’
‘Crazy old windbag.’
‘She is, and the idea that you and Max would ever get together is crazy. Laughable. Absurd. How anyone in their right mind could imagine that you would cosy up with a boy who –’
‘Okay, okay. It seems absurd to me, too.’ Jenny may not have been about to remark on me being old enough to be Max’s mother, or grandmother, but I preferred not to risk it. I do have some pride. ‘I wonder how long it’ll take before Eileen informs you that I have a new boyfriend, i.e. Steve?’
‘A week,’ Jenny prophesied. ‘At most.’
‘Have you been in touch with the guy who gave you his card when we were at the television studios?’ I enquired.
‘No. Not yet.’ She paused. ‘But I still have the card.’
‘You’ve ditched Dilys?’
‘Not ditched,’ my dad objected. ‘We’ve just gone our separate ways.’
‘At whose suggestion?’
It was lunchtime and, as arranged, I had called in at my father’s flat to see him. Because I know he likes a change from his usual lunch of soup or salad, I had brought along a couple of cheese and smoked ham brochettes and two strawberry tartlets. He had pounced on these as ‘just what the doctor ordered’, and we were sitting at the dining table at one end of his living room, tucking in.
‘The decision was mutual,’ he said, and steered a stray crumb of cheddar into his mouth. ‘We had a fall out. Well, actually I had a fall out with William, her son.’