The Green Hills of Home (14 page)

During the next couple of days
John showed no sign of going back to London; Gwen suspected he’d stay until
Oscar was home and settled, although he hadn’t said as much. Gwen was becoming
much happier in John’s company. His remorse over Oscar’s accident was genuine
and they both seemed to be making an effort to be kind to each other. When she
wasn’t with him, Gwen was constantly thinking of little things that she wanted
to tell John or discuss with him. She found him much easier to talk to now and
she particularly missed his conversation on the drive to and from the hospital
– he hadn’t come with her since Oscar’s accident, maybe he couldn’t face her
mother and thought she’d be angry with him. She wouldn’t - Gwen wasn’t quite
sure why, but she’d glossed over Oscar not being on his lead when he was hit.
She was happy to go by herself, but she knew that her mother would love John to
visit her again, and Gwen had to admit that she’d enjoyed seeing John with her
mother, making her laugh and talking to her so naturally.

She opened the front door and her
senses were greeted by the now familiar smells of John’s cooking, the delicious
warmth of the crackling fire and the gentle notes of Chopin wafting from the
stereo. John was pouring her a glass of ice-cold Chardonnay as she walked into
the kitchen.

Gwen didn’t resent having John in
her house at all when she returned from the hospital. In fact, she enjoyed
having someone to come home to, and not just any ‘someone’, John in particular.
And, although she hated to admit it, she did feel safer having a man in the
house at night.

It was then that John made the
announcement she was dreading, but had known was coming at some point.

"Gwen, I was hoping to stay
until Oscar was settled at home, but I’ve spoken to work and they need me back.
I’ve got to leave the day after tomorrow."

"Oh" replied Gwen, her
face coming very close to displaying the sadness that she felt at hearing this
news.

"We’re pretty much finished
here anyway" said John sensibly.

"Yes, of course, and Oscar
should be back that morning, you’ll be able to see him before you go."

The phone rang, making Gwen jump.
She caught John’s concerned gaze matching hers as she answered it quickly,
worried that it was the vet's with bad news about Oscar or the hospital calling
about her mother.

"Hello," she said.

"Hi sweetie, it's me, Sarah."

"Oh, hi."

"Are you alright?"
asked Sarah.

"Yes, sorry, I was just
worried in case it was the vet or the hospital on the phone."

"Of course, I didn’t mean to
give you a fright! How’s Oscar?"

"A lot better, he should be
coming home the day after tomorrow."

"That’s great news. The
girls have got some treats for him."

"That’s sweet of them."

Gwen could tell John was
listening to the conversation; he kept glancing over to check she was alright
and wasn't getting too upset talking about Oscar.

"I was also calling to see
if you’d like to come for dinner tomorrow night? Bring John as well. It would
be great to see you and you might not get the chance to go out for a while once
Oscar’s back home."

"Oh I don't know...."

John gave her a questioning look.

She mouthed "My friend,
dinner tomorrow."

John nodded his head. Gwen
decided to go along with his decision, it seemed easier to do so and she was
frequently discovering that he was very often right.

Gwen still visited her mother the
following day but she left the hospital a little earlier than normal,
explaining that she'd be going to Sarah's. When she got home John was ready to
go and had even managed to pick up a couple of bottles of wine to take with
them. Gwen was grateful he'd thought of it as she'd been so caught up with
worrying that she never would have remembered to take anything and then would
have been embarrassed when she realised. Her mother had taught her never to
turn up to a dinner empty-handed.

Gwen quickly ran up to her room
to freshen up and get changed.

"You look lovely," said
John as she made her way back downstairs. Her hair hung loose and she wore a
soft wraparound green dress that complimented her eyes beautifully, and
displayed her every curve without making it look like she’d tried too hard.

Gwen was momentarily stunned, but
quickly regained her wits to retort, "You mean I don’t scrub up too badly
when I make an effort?"

"No, I meant that you just
looked particularly nice this evening. Learn to take a compliment."

Gwen was silenced once again. It
wasn’t until a while later when they were in the car, with John driving, that
Gwen piped up with: "I apologise if I was rude to you."

"Sorry?" replied John.
Gwen was fairly sure that he was feigning deafness to get her to repeat what
she’d said.

"When you complimented me on
how I looked, I should have just said ‘Thank you’" clarified Gwen.

"Yes, you should."

"I guess I’m just not used
to you complimenting me," said Gwen moodily.

"So, let me get this
straight, you’re blaming me for your rudeness because I’m not usually nice?
That’s a good one," said John sarcastically.

"No, that’s not what I
meant!" replied Gwen crossly. Why did she and John always end up bickering
like this? "Look," said Gwen, as she turned towards him, "I
don’t want to argue with you, I just wanted to apologise, okay?"

"Fine" said John
shortly, but he said it without any malice and Gwen knew she’d been forgiven.

Gwen banged the old fashioned
knocker on Sarah and Owen's front door. As they waited for it to be answered,
she turned to John,

"Are you nervous?" she
asked him.

She didn't quite know why she'd
said this. She couldn't imagine him being nervous about anything really, but
she knew she’d be a little anxious if she were in his situation, meeting people
for the first time, so she wanted to make sure he was okay.

"No, should I be?" he
answered with a smile.

"Of course not, I was just
wondering," muttered Gwen, feeling silly for asking.

Sarah opened the door and ushered
them in. She was immediately the perfect hostess, welcoming John into her home
as if he were a dear old friend. The girls came downstairs, looking shyer than
Gwen had ever seen them when they spotted John in the hallway. However, all
their hesitancy melted away when John produced two enormous bars of chocolate
from behind his back. As they’d already brushed their teeth they dutifully
handed them over to their mother in exchange for a fervent promise that they
could eat them the following day. The twins then took one of John’s hands each
and led him to the sofa where they sat him down and promptly began a
presentation of what seemed to be every single one of their toys.

John nodded to Gwen that he was
alright and so she followed Sarah into the kitchen, where Sarah began asking
her about her mother and Oscar, and then about John’s work and how the book was
going.

Gwen had a definite hint of pride
in her voice as she explained to her friend what John’s job entailed and the
other authors with whom he worked.

"You two seem to be getting
on very well," said Sarah with a cheeky grin. She’d noticed how her friend
lit up when she spoke about John.

"We’re just work colleagues,"
said Gwen automatically. She was beginning to think she ought to have that
tattooed across her forehead.

"You’re glancing over at him
rather a lot for someone who is merely a colleague," teased Sarah.

"He doesn’t know anyone
here; I’m just checking he’s ok."

"Are we really that scary?"

"Don’t be silly, you know
what I mean."

"Well, he’s certainly got a
way with children," responded Sarah.

Gwen decided not to comment for
fear of incriminating herself further: even she didn’t know what she felt about
John; it was a topic her inner self was studiously avoiding. She was finding it
difficult to carry the conversation as she was trying to listen to what was
going on in the other room. She heard the twins and John chatting and then it
went quiet. Whilst Sarah was absorbed in the cooking Gwen took a quick glimpse
round the door into the sitting room. She couldn’t help smiling at the sight
that greeted her: John was flanked on either side by a little girl as he read
them Sleeping Beauty; they all looked very comfortable.

"Hello you guys," said
Gwen cheerfully.

"Shush" said both girls
together at her disturbance of their story.

John nodded to her with a smile
and returned to the book. Gwen went back into the kitchen and sat down again to
enjoy the glass of wine Sarah had poured for her. This first glass was long
finished by the time John came in to rejoin them, Sarah eventually having gone
to rescue him from her daughters’ clutches. Owen arrived back from work, and
making his apologies for being late, began a conversation with John about the
wine, which rapidly turned into a chat about rugby once they discovered that
neither one of them were very interested in wine beyond actually drinking it.

After Sarah had put the girls to
bed, Gwen helped her serve up the supper - a really delicious risotto with
salad and homemade bread.

"I’m sorry the girls were a
bit demanding, they obviously took a shine to you," said Sarah to John.

"Not to worry. I’ve been
meaning to catch up with my favourite fairy tales and it’s been a long time since
I’ve had such an effect on the ladies."

The smile he gave as he said this
sent butterflies straight to Gwen’s tummy; she knew the last part at least
wasn’t true.

"This is really delicious,"
said John as everyone tucked into the food. "What’s in the salad dressing?
Did I taste garlic?"

"Yes," answered Sarah, "Its
balsamic vinegar, a drop of mustard, salt, pepper and garlic olive oil which I
make myself."

"It’s fantastic," said
John simply.

"Thank you," replied
Sarah. "Do you enjoy cooking?"

"When I get the time, which
isn’t often."

Gwen piped in: "John’s been
cooking for me when I get back from visiting Mam; he’s pretty good."

"Pretty good?"
questioned John, raising his eyebrow.

"Okay, very good, is that
better?" asked Gwen laughing.

"Yes," said John.

"You won’t want John to
leave again," said Owen.

"The standard of food did go
down when you were back in London," said Gwen, blushing as she caught
John’s eye.

"There’s nothing wrong with
your cooking," said Sarah loyally, "No one can bake a potato and
stick some tuna on top of it quite like you," she added with a giggle. "Oi!"
said Gwen, with mock indignation, "I don’t remember you complaining when I
cooked for you after the twins were born."

"Of course not," said
Sarah, "You were like an angel to me."

"Has Gwen cooked for you?"
Owen asked John.

"No, but I’m beginning to
think that I should be grateful for that," replied John.

"I’ve made you sandwiches
almost every day!" said Gwen, turning to face him.

"And wonderful sandwiches
they were too," said John with a smile.

"Who’d like coffee?"
asked Sarah as she began to clear the table.

Gwen got up to help. "I’ll
make it," she said as she took some glasses over to the sink.

"That’s alright," said
Sarah quickly.

She caught Owen’s eye and they
chuckled. They looked at John and he joined them as they burst out laughing.

"I take it you’ve
experienced a coffee made in Gwen’s house then," said Owen to John as he
attempted to compose himself.

"I’ve remedied it,"
said John, and he proceeded to fill them in about the new coffee machine. "So
now I make the coffee," he concluded.

"He thought my coffee was so
bad he’d always pull a weird face as he took the first sip out of any cup I
made!" said Gwen.

"What sort of weird face?"
asked Sarah.

"I did not pull a weird face,"
retorted John.

"You did! It was like this,"
said Gwen, scrunching up her nose in a perfect imitation of John taking his
first mouthful of her coffee in the morning.

In the end Gwen was forced to
admit that it was probably best that she went nowhere near the coffeepot and so
washed up whilst John dried the dishes, Owen put them away and Sarah made the
drinks.

Owen suggested they get out a
board game. It was a bit of a tradition that they tried to fit in a game of
Monopoly with Gwen whenever they could. Gwen glanced anxiously at John to see
how he took the idea, doubting Monopoly would be sophisticated enough for him,
but he seemed quite happy to go along with it, as long as he could be the
racing car.

It was almost two in the morning
before Gwen and John were on their way home. Sarah and Owen had insisted that
they stay until the end of the game, despite knowing they’d be woken by the
girls in just a few hours. John won of course. Gwen wondered whether he was
capable of ever being less than the best at anything.

She appreciated that he’d only
had a single glass of wine at the beginning of the evening and so was able to
drive them both home. There was something very gentlemanly and old-fashioned
about his behaviour.

Gwen woke to the sun streaming
through her bedroom window the next morning. She was very conscious that John
was leaving today, and she knew deep down she’d find it hard to see him go,
particularly after the fun they’d had with Sarah and Owen the night before.

Despite not going to bed until
just after three, Gwen forced herself up at seven, knowing that poor Oscar
would hopefully be allowed home from the vets today and wanting to get
everything ready for him. There was no sign of any movement from John’s room as
Gwen crept past in her pyjamas. For once she’d be working before John; the
thought filled her with mischievous glee.