‘No way! There’s no way he was that into her. I mean, yes, it was briefly intense, but Loz was living life with all guns blazing and she was this airy-fairy thing who always seemed quite fragile to me. I don’t think he was that keen on her, not really, and I know my brother.’
‘You do,’ he agreed.
‘I think maybe she was just someone to hang out with when he broke his ankle, a diversion. I know they haven’t kept in touch or anything. And he never mentions her.’ Cleo sat up in the water and splashed her face.
‘Yes, that’s probably true. It would have been weird, though, if things had worked out between them. Imagine him living in that grotty house next door; your mum would have a heart attack!’
‘It wouldn’t be grotty if Loz lived in it, would it? He’s a bit different from Marty the lazy bones. No, Loz would have made it a palace to hand on to his kids. He’d have kept it tarted up and no doubt installed electric gates, a marble fountain, fancy kitchen, luxury bathrooms and then he’d have spent the next decade telling us how much it all cost and just how fabulous it was to live in.And how lucky his kids were to be gifted such a haul when the time came!’
‘Don’t be mean.’
‘I’m not,’ she countered, ‘I’m being truthful. And as for Mum having a heart attack, my God, Lawrence the golden boy living next door? I think she’d shit glitter for the rest of her life! Her Lawrence, next door? For my mother it would have been like winning the lottery on Christmas morning and discovering that chocolate was actually a weight-loss aid.’
He laughed out loud.
‘It’s odd how no one sees her, isn’t it?’ She thought again about the sunny girl who Lawrence had gone out with. ‘I think she’s a vampire.’ Cleo pushed her teeth over her bottom lip, trying and failing to do an impression.
‘You do?’ He slid off the loo and came to rest on the floor where some spilled water soaked into his trousers. Not that he cared. She dangled her hand over the side of the bath, and he caught it in his own.
‘It’s the most obvious explanation, isn’t it? I bet she only comes out at night, can’t be seen in daylight. And now you come to mention it, that Daisy had a whiff of the underworld about her. She has very pale skin and dark hair and it’s probably no coincidence that she works at the Italian restaurant with easy access to all that garlic.’
The two chuckled until they calmed. It was always like this, laughing, holding hands, silences that were far from awkward. Contentment. She ran her hand over her bump again, which stood proud of the bubbles, a foam-topped mountain inside which their baby lived.
‘I can’t stop thinking about moving away, Georgie, like, seriously thinking about it. Where could we go?’ She held his gaze.
‘I thought you were joking.’
She shook her head. ‘Not really. Think how lovely it is when we go down to Ilfracombe, walk the harbour, eat fish and chips, watch the sunset from that bench on the hill up by the church ... I can see us doing that.’Away from the whole family... her silent afterthought.
‘Yes, but holidays are different, because they’re a break from reality – you don’t worry, you don’t plan.’
‘Exactly! We could live that every day.’
‘It’s a long way from your mum and dad.’
She let this settle. ‘Yup.’
‘To be honest, Cleo, I’ve got so much going on in my head right now, moving to Ilfracombe is going to have to take a bit of a back seat.’
He wore the expression she’d seen before when he felt a little overloaded. If the moment had been right, she’d have pushed the issue more, but with tension already high, she knew that this was not the moment. ‘Just think, Georgie, in a day or a few hours, there’ll be a little one right here with us! Outside not in!’
‘Yep.’
Having been diverted by their chat, her words had seemingly brought him back to the reality of the moment and she saw beads of sweat form on his top lip. It was clear to her that every second they spent in the house and every second she got closer to giving birth felt like the most enormous risk to her husband. Maybe she should put him at ease and go in. He drummed his fingers on the bath, as if he could almost hear the clock ticking and again patted the car keys in his pocket, taking comfort from the fact that they were within reach. It made her feel anxious that he was ridiculously and illogically worried he might forget where he had put them.
‘Do you think we should talk about names?’ she asked calmly, loading up the bath sponge with warm water and squeezing it over her belly and chest.
‘Are you kidding me? After all these months of me nagging you over names, you want to do thatnow?’ He laughed nervously.
‘Well, why not? We’ve got to call it something!’
It felt like as good a distraction as any.
‘I still think Winnie if it’s a girl—’
She cut him short. ‘And I still think no bloody way!’
‘It would make your mum’s day – no, it would make herlife! For her it would be like winning the lottery on Christmas morning, discovering that chocolate was actually a weight-loss aidandthat Marty and Lisa had sold up and Michael Ball was moving in next door and was looking for someone to duet with at the WI summer ball!’
