‘I didn’t fulfil my promise to live life to the full,’ Lou muttered to Mim, with her eyes closed. ‘I can see that now. It’s still a work in progress because I’m a bit mixed up but,’ she got to her feet, having suddenly reached peak boiling point, ‘I’m going to change. Promise.’
They were finishing up a relaxing brunch, having vacated their room, when Emily phoned her aunt. Seeing her niece’s name come up, Toni got up from the table and walked over to the window to look out. To one side was a mini crazy golf course and it was jammed with exhausted adults and their energetic charges.
The hotel was very much a family one with an entire corner of the breakfast room given over to a soft play area complete with a ball pit. At the window, she could talk away from Lou.
‘Granny rang the house,’ said Emily.
Toni laughed. ‘Granny? Since when do you call her Granny?’
‘Since she upset Mum,’ said Emily. ‘I know I’m supposed to look up to her and respect her but ...’ Emily stopped. ‘Respect has to be earned.’
Toni felt an unaccustomed pang at her childlessness at that moment. It happened rarely but sometimes, only sometimes, Emily behaved in such a way as to make Toni wish she had an Emily of her own.
But then, kids were never yours, were they? You reared them and they moved on. Toni had seen it happen time and time again in all areas of her life. Previously sensible women were made insane with grief at their empty nest when the children left.
‘Have I ever told you how much I love you, Emily?’ she asked, returning to the topic at hand before she could answer. ‘Bet Granny didn’t like being called Granny and not Lillian.’
‘And I care why ...?’ said Emily, unrepentant. ‘How is Mum?’
‘You can talk to her yourself—’
‘Not yet,’ interrupted Emily. ‘Let me get this out of the way first. I don’t want to wreck her time away with this stuff. You can choose to tell her or not. You judge. Dad is upset because he knows he hurt her—’
‘Your father is an idiot,’ remarked Toni.
‘I know and I told him so,’ Emily went on. ‘“How could you not buy Mum something for her fiftieth?” I said, but he’s hopeless. He says he can’t shop.’
‘We both know that’s a useless excuse.Can’t do somethingapplies to specific skills like brain surgery or nuclear physics,’ said Toni caustically. ‘All he had to do was walk into any perfume place or clothes shop, bleat that his wife was fifty, and an avalanche of lovely shop assistants would have helped him out.’
‘This is not news to me, Toni,’ said Emily impatiently. ‘I know he’s an idiot and I’ve told him so. Before I forget, Oszkar from Mum’s work has rung several times. There’s some panic over a wedding planner who left a message for Mum on the office phone: they’re all going mental because none of them have a clue what she’s talking about and Oszkar’s bleating that he knows it’s the weekend but he must talk to Mum immediately.’
‘Do him good to lose some business because he treated Lou badly,’ said Toni. ‘After all the hours your mother had put into that company, imagine not giving her the big job. I know she’s been basically doing it anyway.’
‘I agree. Oszkar is totally ick.’
‘Ick?’
‘Awful, in old people language,’ Emily said. ‘Mum is way too forgiving, so don’t tell her about Oszkar. She’ll want to help out.’
‘She might surprise you,’ Toni said, smiling as she looked over at her sister, blissfully relaxed.
A few hours later, the sisters collected their meagre luggage and went to check out.
Automatically, Toni handed in her credit card and tapped in the PIN, speaking to Lou over her shoulder.
‘It’s not going through, Ms Cooper.’
Toni looked down at the card reader and the words ‘declined’ on the little screen.
‘I have another one,’ she said lightly, her hand beginning to vibrate as she found her wallet and searched for another card. Then, worried in case the next card wouldn’t go through either, she added shakily: ‘but there was a problem with them all yesterday. I wonder if my account has been hacked?’
‘You did mention that,’ said Lou, realising what was happening and reaching for her own wallet.
‘I’ll pay so you can phone the bank and cancel the cards properly. Hackers,’ Lou said to the receptionist, ‘it’s dreadful what can happen these days.’
‘Dreadful,’ agreed the receptionist, taking Lou’s card.
‘Do you want another coffee while you sit in the bar and get onto the bank’s emergency number?’ Lou instructed her sister. ‘You don’t want your accounts cleaned out!’
