‘Really?’ said Naomi. ‘Why?’ She could guess exactly why but felt a disagreeable need to hear her eldest daughter explain the reason why Rick’s presence had been vetoed.
‘This is a family occasion, isn’t it?’ Martha said. ‘After all, it’s not every day we’re invited to meet our mother’s new boyfriend for the first time,is it?’
‘Indeed not,’ said Naomi mildly, ‘and I can promise you I do not intend to put you girls through the ordeal on a regular basis.’
‘It’s not an ordeal, Mum,’ said Willow. ‘Far from it.’
Ellis smiled at Willow. ‘I’m delighted to hear that,’ he said. ‘I just hope I can put your minds at rest and assure you that my intentions towards your mother are strictly honourable, as old-fashioned as that might sound.’
‘How very disappointing,’ Naomi said with an abrupt laugh, and then immediately regretted her inappropriate joke when she saw the shocked expression on Martha’s face.Oh dear, she thought with a heavy heart when she excused herself to go and check on lunch, this was going to be even more of an uphill struggle than she’d anticipated. How on earth would she ever win Martha round?
Willow was always going to be more amenable to accepting somebody new into their midst, but Martha, so single-minded in whatever she thought or did, was a much harder proposition. It was that single-minded streak of hers that was both a strength and a weakness. Colin had been the same. By sticking resolutely to one belief, it left no room to accommodate either a change of heart, or the fact that one was wrong.
She had only been in the kitchen a short while, and was opening the oven to see if the olive and rosemary flatbreads she’d made were ready to take out, when Tom came in.
‘Anything I can do to help?’ he asked.
‘Fancied escaping, did you?’ she said. ‘Or is this a previously agreed plan between the three of you?’
‘Plan?’ he repeated.
‘Yes, the girls cross-examine Ellis on his own while you interrogate me?’
The snappish tone of her question plainly took Tom by surprise and she immediately apologised. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘being on edge about you meeting Ellis is making me tetchy.’
‘I think we’re all a bit on edge.’
‘Quite. But is it so bad for the three of you to imagine that I might not want to spend the rest of my life alone? That being with Ellis actually makes me happy?’
‘Is that how you see things with him? Being together for …’ his question fell away and he frowned, perhaps unsure how to go on.
Touched by his awkwardness, she said, ‘You mean forever, until the day I die?’
‘Lasting,’ he said, his face brightening as though with relief that he had hit upon a better way of expressing himself.
‘Lasting is the perfect way to describe how I feel about Ellis,’ she said, and meaning it.
‘Does he feel the same way about you?’
‘Yes. And I can’t tell you how liberating it feels.’ Seeing his face colour at her admission, and sensing that he might be terrified she was about to share the unthinkable with him, that she was once again enjoying a full and active sex life, she hastily added. ‘But if Martha asked you to speak to me in order to assess the state of my mind, to check that I’m still in full charge of my faculties, please do put her straight on that score.’
‘Nobody in their right mind would think that you were anything but fully in charge of your faculties, Naomi.’
‘Well, that’s something at least,’ she said, sliding the hot flatbreads onto a warmed platter. ‘If you genuinely do want to help,Tom, could you put that dish of hummus onto a tray, along with the little pot of olive oil and the one of rock salt, please?’
When he’d done that for her, and she’d checked on the paella on the hob, he said, ‘You know that we just want you to be happy, don’t you?’
‘Martha doesn’t give that impression. I think she’d much prefer for me to be miserable.’
He shook his head. ‘That’s not true at all. You know what she’s like. She doesn’t like change unless she’s the one driving it, and you and I both know she idolised Colin, so anyone trying to replace him is going to be met with opposition.’
‘It’s not about replacing Colin,’ Naomi said. ‘It really isn’t. It’s about me seizing the chance for a new life.’
‘Of course, but it’s the perception. I can’t speak for Willow, but for Martha I would say she’s upset at the thought that Ellis, or any man, might eclipse her father’s memory.’
Naomi sighed. ‘I’m very lucky to have you as a son-in-law, Tom. You’re so level-headed and sensitive to those around you.’
‘It works both ways, I’ve always counted myself lucky to have you as my mother-in-law.’
