Liv leaned down to pick up a bra. ‘Hampton Hall is really expensive. Is Katrina paying for everyone?’
‘Um,’ Jake said, which she deciphered as ano. ‘We have to confirm today. And we’ll need to get her a birthday present, too.’
Liv ignored the wordwe.Jake always left his gift buying until the last minute, so she had to step in to do it. ‘Why do you always bend over backwards for your sister? When she clicks her fingers, you come running.’
He was quiet for a while, as if considering telling her something and deciding otherwise. ‘It’s her special birthday,’ he muttered.
Liv sipped her tea, not impressed. ‘Did you say there’s something else?’
Jake rubbed the back of his neck. ‘It’ll wait,’ he said. ‘You get settled and we’ll talk later.’
For the rest of the day, Liv tidied her things away and carried out her laundry. She admired her tanned arms each time she stuffed the washing machine. Her hairs were bleached blonde, and she wished she’d taken more photographs to prove the last three days had actually happened. She wasn’t entirely sure if she’d dreamed them or not.
As she hung her clothes on the washing line outside, she pictured herself wandering the sun-soaked streets of Dubrovnik. She’d spent so many years cleaning and not having the confidence to try anything else. A voice had nagged in her head for years.Will you get another job? Are you good enough? Isn’t it a bit late to move on?Now she’d managed to shoot all her own concerns down in flames.
As she was discovering more about Essie, Liv was finding things out about herself, too. She’d masterminded a meeting with Ted,been resourceful talking to Sven, proved knowledgeable about Essie’s books, and Marlon had admired her writing. She felt like a very different person to the one who sat timidly with Essie nibbling tiny cakes in the kitchen.
Before Liv went to bed that night, she found the hotel room card in her bag. She’d been in too much of a rush to hand it in to reception.
She entered the bedroom to find Jake hurriedly stuffing something under his pillow. ‘What’s that?’ she said.
His eyes flitted. ‘That? Oh, nothing.’
‘There’s some paper poking out.’ She caught sight of words and figures.
He pushed it further under. ‘It’s just a few notes.’
Liv wasn’t in the mood to question him further. She slipped her room card under her own pillow and unscrewed a jar of night cream. Johnny and Mack called out goodnight and turned off their lights. ‘What’s this other thing you mentioned?’ she asked Jake.
He lay back on his pillow. ‘Can you ask Essie for time off work?’ he said.
She dotted cream around her eyes. ‘Me? Why?’
‘Johnny’s got hospital appointments, a check-up and an X-ray. They’re going to assess if he needs surgery. I’ve got a heavy few weeks at work, so he’ll be in the house on his own. Remember when Mack broke his arm and couldn’t do anything for himself?’
Liv thought back to when Mack was ten, holding his wrist and blinking back tears. He’d fallen off his bike and his classmates covered his plaster cast with rude words andMinecraftstickers. He wasn’t able to wash his hair, butter toast or get dressed on his own for weeks.Liv had to promise to shut her eyes when she helped him in and out of the bath.
‘Johnny’s a lot older than Mack was. He’ll be okay on his own,’ she said.
She thought of how Jake’s job was always the static one, whereas hers was expected to bend and shape, and stop and start around their family. A calendar appeared in her head with the three months she had left to complete Essie’s novel, ripping off and flying away. She needed every minute she could to write. ‘Perhaps Mack can help out, since he’s home for the summer.’
‘His mate Ned’s invited him to his parents’ caravan in Blackpool for a couple of weeks. Plus, one of us will need to go with Johnny to the hospital, to see what they say,’ he said.
‘Hmm, you’re right.’
‘Plus, cleaning Essie’s place is hardly a matter of life or death,’ Jake added.
Liv shot him a glare. Her tiredness after travelling had taken its hold. She set her cream jar down on her bedside table with a thud. ‘I told you I’m helping with her writing. What ifthat’sa matter of life and death?’
He eyed her for a while. ‘What do you mean?’
A compulsion swelled inside her, making her want to spill everything that had been going on in her life. She tried hard to swallow it back. When she was with Jake, she felt like she was on a boat with no paddles being swept further and further out to sea. Sharks were beginning to circle. Meanwhile Jake was on the shore not even noticing she was drifting away.
At this moment in time, Liv wished she could reveal how Essie had entrusted her with a huge last wish, and how she was delivering it and thriving.Yet she couldn’t say a thing, or else she’d risk losing her inheritance.
‘Nothing,’ she muttered. ‘I’ll take Johnny for his appointments.’
‘Good. Thank you.’ He squeezed her leg. ‘Perhaps he can go to Essie’s place with you some days. Give you both some company.’
