Will laughed. ‘I love it. I love the endorphin buzz. So let’s get you into it too. And if it’s not embarrassing to say it, I did like those pictures. You should be proud of them.’
Ginger flushed again, but this time it was a flush of something Paula would have delightedly called excitement.
Maybe this workout thing mightn’t be so bad after all.
Callie
In Ballyglen, Callie and Poppy’s days had fallen into a relaxing routine, something that surprised Callie because she thought she’d have been so on edge all the time she was waiting for news of Jason. There was something about staying with her mum and remembering what it had been like to grow up in Sugarloaf Terrace that calmed her.
And the Xanax helped, no doubt about it. Callie, to her shame, had been back to Glory again and bargained. She’d sold more of her precious jewellery, but there would be no money unless she applied to the courts, Fiona McPharland explained on the phone.
Callie couldn’t face it – not yet, not when everyone believed she must have been in on Jason’s scheme.
Meanwhile, she enjoyed the peace and watching Poppy blossom.
Her daughter had managed to decorate the attic like her old bedroom back home in Dublin, with fairy lights on the dressing table and make-up everywhere and Freddie, her uncle, had dug up an old stereo system from somewhere that now had pride of place in the room.
‘It’s ancient but it really works, you know,’ said Poppy delightedly as he plugged it in and fixed the speakers up. Freddie had laughed. It was apparent he was becoming very fond of this often truculent niece.
‘This was high-tech back in my day,’ Freddie said.
And Callie had grinned at the sight of her daughter, who’d once only been impressed with the latest iPhone and sound-sharing systems, being thrilled with this elderly sound system that resembled four breeze blocks glued together.
‘Can I decorate it, Uncle Freddie?’ Poppy had asked.
‘Do whatever you want to it,’ Freddie had said good-naturedly. ‘We don’t need it anymore.’
‘Thank you, you’re the best uncle in the world,’ Poppy had said and had thrown herself at him.
Watching this made Callie both very happy and slightly sad. Once upon a time, Poppy reserved those sorts of enormous hugs for her father. She still needed that male influence in her life and she’d turned to Freddie, little Freddie who’d turned his life around and now had a great building business, a lovely house and a smart new car. Poppy had started begging Freddie to teach her to drive when the time came.
Because Poppy adored her uncle – they were becoming real friends. He drove up from Kerry all the time and having him there was a joy.
She’d spent time with her Aunt Phil in the big, glamorous house near the golf course. But Phil, sadly, lived there alone.
Her beloved Seamus was in a local nursing home with dementia.
‘It’s the best one there is. They really take care of people there. I couldn’t have left him otherwise, although I’m in there every day,’ said Phil, tears in her eyes.
‘I’d love to visit him,’ Callie said.
Phil just nodded and went to look for her tissues. She’d aged a lot. The glamorous auntie was gone. Callie felt sad to think that she had not been around to help dear Phil shoulder this massive burden.
She didn’t reproach Callie either. Instead, she repeated what Pat had said, only with more anger: ‘That man stole you from us. You were soft, Claire, love. Always soft. Ripe for someone like him. His own mother never saw him either. She moved away, you know, about nine years ago. Went to Somerset. Had family there. God love her.’
Callie was stunned.
Jason had once said his mother was too busy to bother visiting and Callie had thought he’d just palmed her off because her family weren’t coming. But he’d merely meant he didn’t want anything from the past to come into his new life.
The guilt gnawed at Callie. How’d she let Jason separate her from them for so long? She’d been so weak and stupid. It was, she saw now, part of Jason’s attempts to isolate her from her family, to keep her for himself. Controlling, she realised now, seeing it through the prism of her mother’s and Phil’s eyes.
He’d liked to know what she was doing all the time. He liked to advise her on what clothes to wear to events. He’d warned her never to get her hair cut short, because he loved that long blonde skein of hair hanging over him when she was on top when they made love.
She felt so stupid thinking about it now. She’d thought she was smart but she was just another woman who’d believed everything a man said because she wanted to be with him. The argument alone shouldn’t have been enough to drive a wedge between Callie and her family. All families had arguments and got over them. But this one had been like a scimitar dividing them all because Jason had wanted it that way. And what Jason wanted, Jason got.
Callie went to see Seamus in his lovely nursing home, Leap of Faith, where Phil went most days to help out.
Watching Phil in the company of the sweet man who barely recognised her, Callie wanted to sob. This was love, the way Phil fed him, talked to him and walked him gently round the garden.
