‘And we loved you doing it. I remember your apple crumble.’ Jake’s words were edged in sadness for such a simple pleasure denied them for the last three years. It was also unspoken recognition that it was these little things that made them a family: communal eating, chatting at the table ...
Marty felt a familiar spike of hatred for the man next door who had robbed his son of apple crumble and he of so much more. And it would be a lie to say that he didn’t in some small way resent Lisa for her part in it, but still, his love for her and the thought of all that he stood to lose diluted that resentment, watered it down until he was able to swallow it.
‘I’m going to try, Jake. I’m going to fight to feel better.’
‘And we’ll help you every step of the way, we will help you.’ Marty wanted her to know this, that they were united. He and the kids were her safety net.
She nodded and for the second time he reached for her hand, holding it tightly, almost lost to the novelty of it.
‘Anyway, I interrupted you, you were saying that we’re not into material things,’ Lisa quietly prompted.
‘Apart from loo seats and ranges,’ Daisy quipped.
Marty sat up straight; he had played this moment over in his mind many times and now that it was here for real, it felt both flatter and more nerve-wracking than he had imagined.
‘When your gran died, she left Mum the house, obviously, which was the most incredible thing, and it gave us a foundation we could only have dreamed of. A house in which we could raise our family.’ He paused. ‘She also left us nearly a hundred thousand pounds.’
‘Wow!’ Daisy mouthed.
‘Well, yes, wow. It’s a lot of money, that’s for sure, and it was even more money back then. Your mum and I thought long and hard what to do with it. We had plans drawn up for an extension, and then we considered a new bathroom with a fancy shower and whatnot.’
‘That gets my vote!’ Jake pulled a face – the hours he spent in the bathroom and in front of his bedroom mirror were legendary.
‘I fancied a new car,’ Lisa cut in.
‘So why didn’t you do all of it or some of it or any of it?’ Jake asked.
‘One hundred thousand is a huge sum, but it’s amazing how quickly those numbers got eaten up when we started doing the maths and deciding which project to put the money into. We decided to be careful and go slow and spend it wisely.’
‘Tell me you didn’t buy magic beans.’ Jake made them all chuckle.
‘No.’ Marty looked at his wife: this was the moment, this was it. ‘But we did use it as a deposit on a flat. Two flats, in fact. New builds at the time, which are now just over fourteen years old.’
‘You’ve got two flats?’ Daisy’s tone suggested she didn’t believe a word of it.
‘No. No, we don’t.’ Marty exchanged a knowing look with Lisa, whose expression was full of love and which he returned to her tenfold. ‘But you guys do. You two have a flat each.’
He watched the kids stare at each other.
‘Is this a joke?’ Jake had gone a little pale.
‘No, love,’ Lisa confirmed. ‘We decided that it was more important to give you both the start we could only have dreamed of. We know that you, Daisy, want to go off to Cambridge and if that’s what you decide orwhateveryou decide, you will have the flat to sell, rent out, live in, whatever works for you. And for you too, Jake. You can live in it, sell it, rent it out – it’s yours.’
‘Where ... where are the flats?’ he asked.
‘You know the ones they built overlooking the river and the park?’
‘Yes.’
‘Yep.’
The kids echoed.
‘We bought a couple of those. With lovely big balconies and two bedrooms.’
‘Are youjoking?’ For Jake, it seemed, it just wouldn’t sink in.
‘No, son. We’ve rented them out to pay the mortgages on them. Only another ten years and they’ll be mortgage-free. They’ve gone up considerably in value, too, since we bought them.’
