‘Stop that.’ Moran wagged a warning finger at her sister.
‘Do you remember the winter before Dad walked out?’ Tegan asked, joking aside now as another memory came to her.
‘Vaguely.’
‘I do. We had no heating that year. You and I curled up in front of the open fire to read bedtime stories. Mum made a game out of it, said it was like camping where nobody had heating. She told us the heating would soon be fixed.’
‘And it never was…’ Morgan’s voice faltered as she remembered it all too. ‘Not for the rest of winter, anyway. And Mum came down with flu and couldn’t work. I remember making soup from whatever I could find in the fridge.’
‘And not having any bread to go with it.’
‘She kept her struggles so quiet from us.’ Morgan wished yet again that she hadn’t. But she’d done what she thought best, protecting her girls.
They ploughed on with sorting out, remembering more about those darker days that Elaina had tried her best to keep from them.
Tegan flopped down onto the floor an hour later. ‘Can we please stop now? I need food, I’m so hungry.’
‘Pizza?’
‘Yes, please. Extra large, extra pepperoni, extra chillies.’
‘Consider it done,’ said Morgan, patting her sister on the thigh before she got up to get her phone from beneath Marley. For some reason, he’d decided to keep them company and curled up on top of where she’d placed it.
‘Pizza and wine,’ said Tegan, eyes still shut. ‘And then I want to hear more about Nate. And I’m not taking no for an answer.’
Morgan called through their order. A gossip with her sister was exactly what she needed and talking about Nate was a good place to start. Tegan was the only one to whom she’d admit quite how far and fast she was falling for him.
15
Nate came down the steep, narrow staircase at Jeremy’s house. Jeremy had apologised over and over for taking advantage when he called Trevor to ask whether Nate could come out and see to a burst pipe and Nate had had trouble convincing him it really wasn’t a problem.
‘All fixed,’ Nate, toolbox in hand, called over to Jeremy, who was outside on the driveway, the bonnet of his car propped open as he topped up the oil.
‘What’s the damage?’ Jeremy put down the can of oil and then dropped the bonnet. He took the invoice Nate had written. ‘Not as bad as I thought.’
‘It was easy to deal with.’ He’d massively discounted his price because it didn’t feel right to charge the full whack when the man was his dad’s age. Mind you, if he kept doing that, he’d soon go broke. ‘I replaced both pipes under the bathroom sink – they were old and when I took them off, there was a fair bit of rust which likely weakened the walls of the pipe that burst.’
‘You’re a good lad. And thank you again for coming here so quickly. I took advantage of my friendship with Trevor.’
‘No, you didn’t. And I’m a plumber, this is what I do.’ He went over to his pick-up and set the toolbox in the tray once he’d pushed back the metal cover that kept everything secure from the elements and wandering hands.
Over beside Jeremy, who was busy with his Robin Reliant, Nate ran a hand across its roof. ‘This must surely be a collector’s item.’
‘It’s almost as old as me,’ Jeremy laughed.
‘Not thinking of hanging up the driving gloves yet then?’
‘Between you and me, I think I might have to.’ With a sigh that had Nate less likely to laugh at his driving prowess – or rather lack of – and feel sympathy, he said, ‘My attention span isn’t the best these days. And there are so many cars on the roads.’
‘Please don’t tell me this is anything to do with the Marley incident.’ At the look on Jeremy’s face, he insisted, ‘It could’ve happened to anyone – me, Morgan.’
‘But it happened to me. Oh, I felt terrible. That girl has lost enough.’
He wasn’t wrong there. ‘Morgan doesn’t blame you. Marley was the one in the wrong and it’s hard to get through to a cat.’
Jeremy appreciated a little bit of humour. ‘I think maybe my eyesight is getting worse, too.’
Now that really was something to take seriously. ‘Then you should get it checked. It could invalidate your insurance. It’s not something to mess around with.’
