‘Me too. I miss him so much, Felicity.’
‘He left a big hole in all sorts of lives.’
Now she felt more comfortable with her stepmother, Aria decided to get everything off her chest. ‘The last time I saw him, at his party, I didn’t say a proper goodbye. He told me he’d left me ‘everything I’d need’ and I was really excited. I flounced out with all sorts of plans in my head and didn’t even ask about his health. And then he died. Just like that.’ She sighed loudly. ‘I was furious with him for bequeathing me the hut and resented you for getting the house. I didn’t even really want the dog, although I couldn’t do without himnow. I hate myself for how I’ve behaved. Maybe I deserve what happened.’
‘Eddie believed the hut would make you happy. You were the light of his life, Aria. He would never have done anything to hurt your feelings or jeopardise your relationship. He was upset when you went to London and didn’t keep in touch much. But he knew it was a new start, and he wanted it so much for you. He wanted you to have friends and find a partner as he’d relied on your company for so long. It was one of his main reasons for dating me – he told me that at our first dinner. To free you from a suffocating relationship with him.’
Aria fell silent. And then spoke from the heart. ‘It wasn’t suffocating. It was wonderful. We had each other and we were all we needed.’ Even as she said this, she came to the realisation that her father also needed a partner to make his life complete. And Felicity had been perfect for him.
‘While it is a beautiful thing, a daughter also needs more than just her father’s love.’ Felicity squared the circle, taking her bowl and putting it in the sink.
***
Aria slept long into the next morning and came down feeling like a slug. On the mantlepiece was a card for Justin and Lu-Lu. When Felicity appeared with a loaded teapot, Aria asked her if she was going to the wedding.
‘Definitely not, but I don’t feel bad about it. I’m getting loads of sympathy invites at the moment, and, anyway, most of the town has been invited as far as I can tell.’
‘I got one too. Justin says it was his idea, but I suspect Lu-Lu didn’t want to miss an opportunity to rub my nose in it. In her eyes, I lost the husband, lost the caravans, lost the ring. She’ll be delighted when she hears I lost my inheritance and Nic too.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Felicity. ‘The hut isn’t your inheritance, the land is. No one can take away the ground it stands on. Eddie left you the cabin because it was always your place and his, but also because of its lake view, and the price those acres will fetch. Let’s face it, the hut was barely standing.
‘In fact, have you considered there are two buyers pitting themselves against each other to acquire land around the lake? I know it means a lot, but if you wanted to sell, you’d be well set up to rent or buy a nice flat in town. I have no family, Aria, so when I die this house is yours. It’s already in my will. And you are welcome to stay here indefinitely if you’d like to. I know I’d love the company.’
52
Nic looked at his phone. He’d sent more than a dozen texts today alone, and every day for the last week, but Aria hadn’t replied to any of them. He left another voicemail, begging now.
‘Aria, please will you hear me out? The mistake with your hut set a chain of events into motion. I sacked my father. I’ve been working with the architect and have decided to scale the development back. I’m weaving in all of your provisions. I will do anything to make this right. And I have something for you. Could we please meet?’
He rang off, hearing the misery in his own voice, and picked up a hammer. His hands were rough and splintered. And while his clothes were filthy, it felt good to be building something again. He was back to where he started all those years ago when he helped renovate his mother’s hotel. But the kit home was far more straightforward and didn’t need planning permission since new regulations encouraged the kind of eco build that could be dismantled and moved to a different location. Summer was properly here, and he stopped to take a sip of water from his bottle, wishing the ice hadn’tmelted. He looked up in surprise when he heard voices coming down the path. Peering out from behind a space that would soon hold a window, he saw Aria at the edge of the woodland with her stepmother.
‘What the fuck has he done now?’ she yelled.
He prayed she hadn’t seen him. Although he was desperate to talk to her, she didn’t sound like she wanted to listen. He waited out the rant that followed, staying out of site behind the wood, holding his breath when she slammed a fist against a set of panels he hadn’t had a chance to hammer in. In seconds, the whole section clattered to the dry earth, leaving him exposed.
Aria’s astonishment quickly turned to venom. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’
‘I’m building you a new hut,’ he said, not sounding his most confident self.
‘I don’t want a new hut. I wanted the old one. God, I made it so easy for you, didn’t I?’ her rage picked up. ‘Moving all my stuff into your house and climbing into your bed. You thought, once you’d got into my knickers, you’d have me pliable in all departments.’
He glanced up at Felicity, embarrassed by Aria’s accusation. ‘That part was genuine.’
‘Nothing about you is genuine apart from your ambition and your need to feel powerful and profitable. You are and always have been a city boy trying to fit into a rural community. You can build hundreds of show homes that will never have a heart or be a real home. It’s not gonna work, Nicolas Castellanos, you will not be part of this, because people willbe onto you now. You can stick up all the villas and huts you like, but I will spread the word to ensure no one buys them. Watch out for me singlehandedly turning your reputation to shit. And while we’re on that subject, I instructed Sophie to use your electric toothbrush to clean your toilet.’
‘She quit,’ he said, following her as she stormed up the path, his pleas falling onto the soil. By the time he returned to Felicity, he was feeling defeated. ‘I thought, if I built her a house, she could move in straight away,’ he explained, his voice breaking. ‘I have offered to compensate her for the damage. She can name her price. I’ll do whatever she wants to smooth this over.’ Freshly distressed, he ran his fingers through his hair.
Felicity stared at him, unsympathetically. ‘Why did you do this? What do you want from her, Nic?’
‘I didn’t do it. My father did. I just want her.’ A truth that kept going around in his head. ‘But it was my fault. I took him on when I knew what he was like. Honestly, Felicity, I’ll give her anything, if she’ll forgive me. What can I do to make that happen?’
Felicity looked him up and down before speaking in measured tones. ‘Aria thought she needed her father’s cottage, and when she was given the hut, she didn’t know what to do with it. She knew she couldn’t live here long-term, but chanced her arm as it was better than the life she’d been living down south, which was in turn a lot more satisfactory than an unhappy marriage with Justin. She’d started to be happy as far as I can tell, even while grieving her father and trying to feel grateful for the gift he’d given her. But it wasn’t the cabinthat made her feel better. I suspect it was you. Even if she didn’t realise it at first. She didn’t need a house, she needed a home and someone to come home to. The kit house is a nice touch but she’s lost faith in you. That’s why she’s so devastated. It isn’t about the wood or the tin roof. It’s about the betrayal.’
Felicity’s words reminded Nic of the conversation with his mother in Brighton. He was beginning to understand a home meant different things to different people, but at the centre of it was the same thing. A loving environment shared by others. The rest was just stuff. He put down the redundant hammer, picked a sprig of lavender from a bush that had escaped the devastation and put it to his nose before speaking. ‘I’ve gone further, changed all my development plans, scrapping some of the villas to provide affordable housing for local people. I want to make things right between us.’
Felicity touched his arm. ‘I’d better go. Keep working at it.’
When she was gone, Nic sat in the corner of the half-built house. He missed Aria’s silly texts and bulletins, her rants about the environment, and her laugh. He hadn’t encountered joy in his gut or felt his whole body respond to anything since she binned him off. And he felt like he never would.
