‘Are you okay?’ he asked unnecessarily, because she so obviously wasn’t. Vee didn’t answer.
‘Look, I’m going to shelve the seaside trip for a little while and take you somewhere different,’ Rick said. ‘We need hot coffee and a team talk.’
There was still no response, so he took the next turnoff, where a large, colourful sign told him that a garden centre was not far away. Within five minutes he was pulling into a large car park. He got out of the van and came round to open the door for his silent passenger.
‘Come on, Vee,’ he said. ‘I remember going to this place before when Stacey… well, anyway, that’s not important, they do great cake, nearly as good as Beryl’s. We need sustenance and we need it now.’
She blinked as if waking up from a long sleep but undid her seatbelt and swung her legs round. Rick thought she looked as if she’d forgotten how to move properly, so he held out his arms and when she made no protest, he lifted her down from her seat. They stood together beside the van, half-hidden from the view of anyone passing through the car park and on impulse, Rick tightened his arms around her. Vee stiffened for a moment but then leaned into the hug and started to cry. Great, heaving sobs racked her body and her tears were hot and wet on Rick’s t-shirt.
‘I’m s… s… sorry,’ she gulped, when the storm of weeping had subsided a little. ‘I never usually cry. It was just… just… so awful and I don’t know what she meant. I still can’t remember anything about… being drunk? What the hell did I do back then?’
Vee reached back into the van for her bag and rummaged for a tissue. Rick left her to her mopping-up and went to lock up. When Vee had made herself as presentable as possible after such an emotional moment, he took her gently by the hand and led her towards the garden centre’s café which was mercifully not too busy. He settled Vee at a table as far away as possible from the few other customers and went to place his order.
By the time Rick was back, carrying a tray loaded with black coffee and large slices of chocolate cake, Vee was almost her usual self. She smiled up at him, still pink with embarrassment after her outburst. ‘I’m sorry…’ she began again but Rick shook his head at her as he deposited the coffee and cake on the table.
‘Stop right there,’ he said. ‘You’ve absolutely nothing to apologise for. Just seeing that poisonous woman would be enough to make anybody howl, and that was a very tricky conversation. It’s probably a good thing to get a meeting with her out of the way though.’
‘Yes, we’ll never have to see her again, will we?’
The use of the wordwegave Rick a strange sensation in the pit of his stomach. He realised with a shock that he’d also been feeling very much as if he and Venetia were a team, working on the house, eating together in the evenings, watching TV sometimes and laughing at old comedy shows. Now, it seemed that she had the same image of the two of them. Was he overthinking this, just from one small word? He’d been so angry with Vee when she’d looked through his photographs, but he’d soon calmed down, uncomfortably aware that he’d only snapped at her because that part of his life was somewhere he never revisited if he could help it, either in pictures or in his memory.
‘No, we definitely won’t have to see Rhonda’s smug face again or hear her blather on about her lovely hubby,’ he said. ‘Now get stuck into your cake, drink your coffee and we won’t mention that woman again until you’re ready. Maybe we can talk about all this later if you want to, but if you don’t, that’s fine by me. Today’s for having fun.’
Rick and Vee ate, listening to the chatter of a group of cyclists who’d also called in to refuel. The men were on the far side of the room, but their voices boomed out as they planned their next pitstop and discussed the huge distance they’d covered already that day.
‘Thank goodness you’re not like those blokes,’ said Vee, brushing cake crumbs from her sweater before peeling it off and tying it loosely around her neck.
‘Why’s that?’ Rick asked. ‘They look perfectly happy to me.’
‘Yes,they’rehappy, but all that Lycra and those bulging thigh muscles turn my stomach.’ Vee shuddered. ‘Think of their poor partners… if they have any.’ She looked across at them doubtfully. ‘Those guys will be out all day and come back sweaty and knackered. All they’ll want to talk about will be how fit they are, and they’ll have to have long, hot showers and be fed low-fat dinners. They probably eat a lot of lettuce and drink protein shakes.’
Rick was still mystified. He couldn’t see why all this was annoying Vee so much. ‘And your point is?’ he said, finishing his coffee.
‘I just think that the people they’re going home to, whoever they are, deserve better. Being a live-in partner is hard work sometimes. Being self-centred about your hobbies, or your working life too for that matter, can be destructive.’
‘Are you speaking from bitter experience?’
The question hung in the air. Vee stood up and grabbed her handbag. ‘Oh, ignore me, I’m just being scratchy for no reason. They’re just a gang of blokes enjoying a bike ride. Let’s get going or the day will be over,’ she said, not meeting his eyes. ‘Thank you for the cake and coffee. You were right, it was essential. Where are we heading next? Do you still want to go to the seaside?’
Rick needed no further bidding. Soon, they were on their way. The van ate up the miles as they sang along to the radio, although Rick quickly changed channels when a string of old Beach Boys hits included ‘Help Me, Rhonda’. They bypassed King’s Lynn and Rick branched off, taking several winding roads that took them through pretty countryside.
‘Are we nearly there yet?’ asked Vee, grinning as Rick rolled his eyes at her. She was looking much better now, exclaiming every so often at a wooded lane or a wide-open meadow.
‘We are, as it happens,’ he said. ‘I bet you’ve never been to this spot before. It’s a closely guarded secret, just a tiny beach with a café. It’s mostly only used by locals, but my gran had a cottage not far from here and we used to come and stay as often as we could when I was small. You can only get there on foot, there’s no parking. We’ll need to walk for ten minutes or so, but we’ve been sitting still for ages, so I guess that’s fine?’
‘Oh, yes,’ said Vee, clapping her hands. ‘I can’t wait. I haven’t seen the sea for a couple of years at least. The last time my ex, Nigel, and I had a holiday it rained all the time, and he had a cold, so he spent every day sneezing and grumbling. He’d taken his bike with him on top of the car, but he didn’t use it in the end, and that made him even crosser. I love the Yorkshire coast but even I’d had enough by the time we got home. We never went away again. Not together, anyway,’ she added.
‘You mean you went on holiday on your own after that?’
She laughed rather bitterly. ‘No, Nigel did. He discovered golfing trips. He went to the Algarve, and Majorca and mainland Spain. There was a vague suggestion of me going with him, but the golfing wives only liked shopping, and I was skint.’
‘Sounds a bit depressing,’ said Rick, holding back from the observation he’d have liked to make. What kind of a man wouldn’t want to take his partner on holiday whereshewanted to go too?
‘No, it was fine, to be honest. I had the house to myself, I could eat when it suited me, only cook if I felt like it and read in the small hours if I couldn’t sleep. Bliss.’
Rick once again forbore to comment. He took a side road and saw the familiar landmarks that always lifted his spirits. An ancient farmhouse with moss on the tiled roof, a rickety barn, a huge oak tree with a rope swing dangling from one of the bigger branches and an area of scrubland where an elderly Land Rover sat rusting in the October sunshine.
‘Here we are,’ he said. ‘This is as far as I can drive. I love this place. Hope you do too. Are you hungry?’
