Ned had to fix this. But – how?
The luggage seemed heavier as they dragged it down the steps and put it into the car.
‘What did we buy?’ asked Toni, panting.
‘Bits and bobs for everyone,’ said Lou happily.
Her soft skin was tanned, she was wearing a new coral-coloured sundress that clung to her sinuously and the golden necklace from Angelo hung around her neck. She looked different, Toni thought admiringly. Not like the Lou from the night of her fiftieth, but like a totally different woman. It wasn’t the clothes or the tan: it was the essence of her, as if Sicily had been there when Lou entered a new chapter in her life and the island had opened up a whole different world to her.
Lou even walked differently now. She had a sexy lilt to her step, as if she’d embraced the Mediterranean side of her heritage with gusto, no longer muttering that she had to lose half a stone but instead, enjoying her body, glorying in it. Italian men called to her as they walked through the town and, whereas once Lou would not have noticed, now she laughed at them, and flicked her gaze away.I am woman – hear me roar, Toni thought.
Even Trinity had luggage now. Toni and Lou had brought her to a store that sold pregnancy clothes and got her elegant Italian jeans with a soft baby pouch. The store had a cushion that customers could put under their clothes to simulate the look of pregnancy with various outfits. Trinity had wanted to buy the cushion.
‘I want to see my baby bump so much,’ she’d confided to them.
Lou had laughed. ‘You will soon enough,’ she said.
The drive to the airport was speedy and they left the car windows down so they could smell the sea one last time.
‘We’re coming back here,’ said Lou. ‘I’m bringing Emily here.’
‘But not your mother or Ned?’ said Trinity cautiously.
‘Ned can come if he plays his cards right,’ said Lou. ‘The jury’s still out on that one. And as for our mother—’
The sisters laughed.
‘I’d like to see Renata do battle with Lillian, though,’ Toni admitted. ‘That would be worth the price of the plane ticket.’
‘Mum’s not that bad,’ said Lou automatically.
Toni patted her sister’s leg. ‘You truly are the milk of human kindness,’ she said.
They sat on the plane in the same positions as before: Trinity at the window, Lou in the middle and Toni on the aisle.
A woman walking down the aisle from the toilets recognised her: Toni could see the signs, could hear the woman whisper, ‘You’ll never guess who’s on this flight!’ to her friends a few seats back.
Yeah, thought Toni:Toni Cooper, wife of disgraced actor Oliver Elliott and woman who used to be the most likely to succeed.
Then she shook herself.
Lou had grown in stature in Sicily while she had merely run away. It was time to stop running and fix things. She reached under the seat in front, hauled up her handbag and found her ever-present notebook. Lou wasn’t the only one who made lists.
Career – options:she wrote, and began to think.
Toni Cooper was not going down without a fight. She now had ammunition on Mr Lanigan to make his bullying threats go away. She needed to reconsider her work life. It depended on her being able to see the person behind the facade, and if she hadn’t been able to see Oliver properly, then was she in the right job? Did she need to take a break from television? From the sort of life she’d lived before? And from Oliver?
* * *
There was a crowd waiting for them at the airport.
‘Mum!’ yelled Emily as soon as she spotted the threesome.
She rushed past the other people at Arrivals and grabbed her mother.
‘I’ve missed you!’
Lou sank into the embrace. She was so very lucky. She had Emily.
