The doctor’s appointment Lucinda had booked for that day when she’d found out she was expecting for the second time hadbeen to discuss her options – that delightful fact hadn’t come out until midway through her pregnancy. It still made him shudder to think she might have had a termination but as she got her head around the idea of baby number two and she’d made the admission, she’d also said that she was glad she hadn’t because she didn’t think she would’ve forgiven herself.
He knew he probably wouldn’t have forgiven her either.
Hudson nudged Nadia when Frank walked into the pub and went over to say hello to Gio and Marco. ‘He’s in for a grilling.’
Nadia watched the three men. ‘He’ll handle himself just fine.’
‘I wonder if they have a strategy for quizzing their mother’s poor boyfriend. We’ll rescue Frank if we think he needs it.’
‘Agreed.’
‘Here’s Marianne,’ said Hudson.
‘This is like a TV show for us.’ Nadia giggled, the sound music to Hudson’s ears.
Seeing Nadia like this, out of work, was an extra-special bonus. He’d been disappointed when she said she was heading home for an early night, and again when he thought he might have to cancel if his parents couldn’t take Carys. Although he should’ve known they’d be fine with it; they very rarely said no and most of their commitments, their pastimes, took place in the daytime. It was very rare that at least one of them wouldn’t be able to help out.
‘Gio says his mum has settled in to Whistlestop River really well,’ said Hudson. Marianne had moved down this way to sort out her issues with Gio and had never left.
‘This town has a charm; it got a hold of me for sure.’
‘Yeah, it’s home.’
They watched Marianne head straight over to Frank and slip her hand into his.
‘They’re a lovely couple.’ Nadia smiled. ‘I’m really pleased he’s found someone; he deserves to find love again.’ They allknew Frank’s history: that when his wife died, it had sent him to a pretty dark place.
‘Family is everything,’ he said, almost to himself before he turned to face her rather than watching everything else that was going on in the pub. ‘I don’t know much about yours. I’ve never really asked you.’
‘Not much to tell.’
He wasn’t sure that was true. And he wondered whether she was holding on to a sadness from the past, keeping things to herself rather than sharing them with anyone else. He knew that feeling well; it was why he’d kept his and Lucinda’s difficulties quiet. That and the embarrassment that he’d been played for years, that she’d lied for so long and he hadn’t had a clue. He’d half expected his own truth – the separation and then the divorce – to come out before now given Lucinda had had two flings during their marriage and was now seeing someone new. Perhaps she’d had the decency to conduct her extramarital affairs and her current relationship away from the town.
‘I know you’re from Switzerland,’ he went on, his desire to know more about her ever present.
‘How did you know that?’
‘Pub quiz a year or so ago – there was question about lakes from what I remember and you nailed it, then you talked a bit about the place.’
‘You have a good memory.’
‘Must’ve been a nice place to live.’
‘It was okay.’
When she didn’t elaborate, he asked, ‘Are you parents still around?’
‘Not any more. They both passed away a long time ago.’
She really wasn’t letting much go, was she? ‘Do you have brothers? Sisters?’ He felt like he was having a one-wayconversation, or that he was another quiz master trying to get the right answers.
‘No siblings, no,’ she said. ‘It’s just me.’
He shook his head. ‘In all the time we’ve worked together, I should know this stuff but I don’t.’
‘We know plenty about each other.’ But her smile faded as she set down her empty glass, her hand cold and wet from the ice cubes that had caused condensation on the outside of the vessel.
‘Do you ever wish it wasn’t?’
