Falling in Love Again (19 page)

25

ED

‘So everyone,’ chirped Karen brightly at the NOT MAKING THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE session. ‘I know this time of the year can be particularly tricky when you’re on your own. But try to focus on the positive. In my experience, it’s better not to think about things you used to do as a family . . .’

Oh dear. Lizzie was looking a bit misty-eyed and they’d only just started.

‘Do new things.’ She looked around. ‘How’s this month been for everyone?’

For once, Ed told himself as he tried to relax back into Karen’s slightly worn sofa which was beginning to make him itch (dog fleas?), keep your mouth shut. Don’t tell them. They wouldn’t understand.

‘I had a date!’ Violet beamed and somehow managed to continue munching through the packet of cranberry raisins she always brought with her to sessions.

What?! Someone asked this woman out?

‘It was someone I met at the gym!’

Her beady little black eyes swept round the room, resting slightly on each one of them in turn as though challenging them to question her.

Alison – who reminded him of a cross between Nancy and Sandra Heseltine, whom he’d always fancied – clapped her hands together as though Purple Woman had won some sort of prize. ‘That’s wonderful, Violet!’

Bet Violet wasn’t her real name! The woman just had a fetish about purple, that was all. She was talking now but he just couldn’t concentrate. Kept finding himself drifting in and out of other people’s tidal waves because all he could really think about was what was happening to him. Even now, as he fidgeted on the sofa (they were at Karen’s again because everyone else seemed to think it was cosier than the Hall), that horrible vision of Tatiana drifting in through the front door on The Kid’s arm and her girlfriend (the very term made him want to throw up) on the other, made him feel cold and sick and hysterical at the same time. And then there was all that legal stuff . . .

‘And how did it go?’ Karen was asking.

‘Very well!’ Purple Woman was beaming. ‘He’s one of the trainers and says he’s going to take me in hand. It won’t be long, he says, until he gets me looking the way I used to.’

Lizzie, who’d just admitted that she’d tricked someone at work into coming round when she knew her husband was going to be there, to make him jealous, began to giggle and then unsuccessfully tried to hide with a cough.

‘Just be careful, won’t you?’ Karen glanced round the group as though looking for someone else to help her out. ‘Dating after a divorce is never easy. Some people jump straight from the frying pan and into the fire without thinking.’

Interesting? Was it his imagination or was our Karen casting a very specific look in Alison’s direction? Perhaps she was dating again. It wouldn’t surprise him. She was pretty amazing for her age.

‘And what about you, Ed?’

It was that bloke Hugh speaking. Somehow Ed had never liked him. There was something about him which wasn’t right, although he couldn’t put his finger on it. That slightly doctorish air which made him seem superior to the rest of them. And the way he was pretending to listen to Ed’s stilted reply but really glancing every now and then at Alison, giving her the look over.

‘Fine.’ His voice came out in a grunt without his permission so he tried to inject a bit of levity into the next sentence. ‘Absolutely fine, thanks. Never been better.’

OK. So that was overdoing it a bit. They were all looking at him now. ‘Honestly.’ He coughed. ‘I think it’s being here that’s done it. You know. The group. All this . . .’ He waved his hand expansively round the room. ‘All this camaraderie.’

Purple woman frowned. Every time he looked at her, the phrase ‘Violet creams’ kept coming into his head.

‘Friendship,’ he added hastily. ‘And it’s really nice being in a homely environment like this.’

Yeah right. With all that puppy smell everywhere and the frayed sofa.

‘What happened, Ed?’ asked Karen quietly.

This woman should be a professional interrogator.

So he told them. All about The Kid who was driving him nuts with not getting up, and eating all his food from the fridge when it wasn’t mealtimes because when it was, he was asleep or clubbing or doing anything apart from what he was meant to be doing.

Alison shrugged. ‘Typical teenager behaviour.’

‘What about my stepbrother picking up my ex-fiancée, then?’ He could feel all the anger and hurt now, rising up through his chest. ‘Is that typical?’ He glanced at the handout. ‘Is that what you call ‘repeating the same mistake’?’

Even Purple Woman looked sorry for him now. So he had to describe how The Kid had come in the other night with Tatiana and her gay friend and then got drunk at his place while he went to bed and tried to forget what was going on downstairs.

‘But how did they meet up?  Lizzie was frowning. ‘It surely wasn’t coincidence?’

Ed gulped. ‘She said it was. Tatiana rang the next day to apologise. Said she was at a club with . . . with her friend and The Kid turned up. They got chatting – they’d met a couple of times before at family dos – and then he asked her back for a drink and she said she only agreed to see me and check I was all right but . . .’

Violet snorted. ‘That’s weird. Reckon you’re better off out of that one.’

Not nearly as weird as an obese violet woman and her gym instructor. ‘There’s something else.’ He braced himself. Might as well tell them everything. ‘I’m in trouble. Big trouble. Some other kid is trying to say he’s got a stake in my company.’

Hugh perked up. ‘How?’

Ed ran a hand through where his hair used to be (a habit he’d never been able to get out of). ‘I’m not sure exactly. It’s very complicated, according to my solicitor. But apparently my father left him some shares which had to be passed on after a certain number of years. And now that time has come.’

‘Interesting.’

The man was speaking with authority from the way he was stroking his chin; a mannerism Ed had always associated with middle-age itch. ‘Actually, this is an area I’m familiar with, in a manner of speaking.’

Purple Woman leaned forward. ‘Speak English, can’t you? Spit it out. What exactly do you do?’

‘I have my fingers in various pies.’ The man smiled smoothly. ‘But in my experience, when a man – or a woman – leaves a legacy like this, it usually points to one thing.’

He took off his glasses, polished them and returned them to his not inconsiderable nose. ‘Forgive me for saying this. But is there a possibility that this young man you mention, is actually a half brother?’

Why hadn’t he thought of that himself? It all made perfect sense. His father – randy old goat – had had enough affairs for a half-brother to pop up.

‘It’s possible,’ said Nancy slowly when she’d called in to the office after his phone call. They were sitting on the sofa in his room with the large frieze of The Thames behind him that his father had had specially commissioned for the wedding before Nancy’s. ‘But I do think he would have told me.’

She squeezed his hand. ‘I know it’s difficult to believe this, Ed, darling, but your father and I told each other everything. Including the fact that the love of his life was your mother. I understood that. Although I was, apparently, a close second.’

Ed’s heart lurched. There was only one subject he couldn’t talk about to anyone else – not even with Nancy.

‘This man I know . . . He has links with a private detective agency. Says he might be able to help.’

Nancy shrugged. ‘Why not? I used one once to check up on someone. It cost me a lot but it was worth it, just for peace of mind.’

‘Really?’ He looked at his stepmother with new interest. ‘Then you don’t think it’s mad?’

‘Go for it. If this young man is demanding what he says is his right, then you have the right to check his background. Now look, darling, I’ve really got to go. I’ve got an appointment.’

He had to hand it to her. Nancy didn’t need to work after she’d married his father but she insisted on keeping on her job as a fashion buyer for a prestigious department store. ‘I like to keep busy,’ she had said when he’d suggested she took it a bit easier after Dad had died. No doubt she had several admirers. What would happen if she married again? Bloody hell, Christmas would get so busy that they’d have to have two December 25ths.

‘What about you?’ She gave him a knowing look. ‘Any girls on the horizon?’

‘No way! I make it a rule not to start a new relationship at this time of the year. If you give them a nice present, they think you are serious. If it’s small, they put you down as mean. And even worse, they want you to meet the family at some festive do.’

Nancy roared with laughter as he walked her to the door past the pretty auburn receptionist who gave him a shy smile. Catching it, his stepmother squeezed his arm. ‘Just go slowly this time, whoever you pick.’

‘Thanks for the advice.’ He placed his cheek against hers briefly. ‘By the way, who was it that you asked that detective to check out?’

Nancy smiled sadly. ‘I think we both know that, don’t we darling? But don’t worry. He hadn’t been doing what I feared he had. Your dad really loved me, Ed. Almost as much as he loved you. He might not have shown it but he did. And that’s why we owe it to him to do the right thing about this share business.’ She touched him lightly on the shoulder. ‘Don’t you think?’

Did Nancy mean what he thought she meant? About doing the right thing? About not getting too close because that wouldn’t be the right thing?

Why, wondered Ed, as he walked back to his office, did he keep falling in love with the wrong women? Why couldn’t he find a nice uncomplicated girl and just settle down and have children which is, after all, what he really wanted to do.

Don’t look across at the reception desk. Don’t.

Too late.

Bugger.

She wasn’t there.

Diving into his office, he shut the door behind him. Right. That was it. Three calls; one which he’d promised Karen he would make. The second that he’d promised Nancy he’d make. And the third that he promised himself he’d make.

‘Hugh?’

Why did some people’s voice messages sound as though it was really them answering in person? ‘It’s Ed. Perhaps you could ring me back when you can. I’ve decided to take you up on your offer. Thanks.’

The second wasn’t so easy. ‘Tatiana? I know you’re there, listening to your answerphone. You were out of order coming round the other week with your girlfriend. Stay out of my life. Got it? And stay away from The Kid too.’

The third was to another mobile. This time, he used the office phone otherwise the little sod would recognise his number and not pick up. ‘Whatsup?’

‘What do you mean, what’s up?’ Ed tried to sound firm. ‘It’s after lunch and you’re meant to be at college. The cleaner will be there in a minute, God help her.’

‘She’s already here. I told her the Durex packets were yours.’ There was a snort of  laughter. ‘She believed me too. ‘Sides, remember the twelve hours a night sleep rule for teenagers? I didn’t get to bed until 5am so I’ve still got a lot of catching up to do. Clocked?’

Clocked? That meant ‘understood’, didn’t it?

‘If you don’t get your arse off to college, I am going to come and kick you out of bed myself. And another thing, stay away from Tatiana.’

There was a snort of amusement. ‘You’re so boring, Ed! What happened to the big stepbrother I knew who understood how to have fun?’

Fun? ‘And another thing, where’s my razor?’

‘Used it for my pubes last night. I’ll put it back.’

No thanks. His other phone was going now. ‘Got to go. See you tonight. And don’t miss dinner this time.’

‘Miss dinner?’

It was the pretty new receptionist. He’d been speaking in the other phone by mistake! ‘Sorry, Ed. Have I caught you at a bad time?’

‘Not at all.’ Ed took a deep breath. ‘I’ve just been in a tricky meeting, that’s all.’

‘I know. I saw her earlier.’

‘You mean Nancy? That’s my stepmother.’

‘Sure.’

‘Honestly. In fact, you ought to know more about my family if you’re going to work for me.’ Another deep breath. ‘In fact, I was just wondering. Would you care to  join me for a sort of pre-Christmas drink tonight?’ He tried to sound casual. ‘Call it part of your induction.’

St Mawes was wonderful – especially the harbour. I’d have liked to have done more but it was difficult. At one point, I tried to hold his hand but he pulled it away.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I don’t feel comfortable doing that.’

He said the same in bed that night as we lay on the cool, crisp, white linen sheets, at opposite ends of the soft, deep double bed.

Why, I wanted to scream like the gulls outside. But if I had, he might have told me something that I know already. If he knows that I know, it will all be out in the open and then I might not be able to sort it this time.

But if I just go along with this – ride out the storm – it might still be all right.