Page 21 of A Very Happy Halloween

“You got along well, huh? Were you visiting with her when we first met?”

“I came to drown my sorrows before the trial. But she locked the liquor away, so I went to the Hand and Flowers, and that was when I met you again. Funny how fate works, isn’t it? The court case brought us together, and then it forced us apart.”

“And now you’re here.”

“Now I’m here.”

There was a long silence as our gazes locked, and we both smiled at the same time. Maybe later, much later, I’d raise a glass to Grandma Renner.

Eis dug through my meagre toolbox and tutted a bit, then poked around the rest of Marigold Lodge. His verdict?

“You’re right; the plumbing’s fucked.”

“Super. Maybe I could just knock the house down and start again? At least a tent would be waterproof.”

“I’ve written a list of the stuff we need. You’ll have to get an engineer for the boiler, but I can help with the rest.”

I didn’t want his help. No, actually, that wasn’t quite right. I didn’t want to need his help. But pride was a luxury I could no longer afford, along with branded groceries and the electricity bill.

“The big hardware store has plumbing stuff, I think. I mean, there are pipes and joints and tubes of sealant.”

“I’ll get everything delivered this week.”

“Here?”

“No point in getting it delivered to my place.”

“Uh, okay? I have some clients booked in, but if I know when the delivery might come…”

“Clients?”

“At Cutting Edge. I work as a hairdresser, but only during school hours. Mostly the older clientele because they’re retired. I was supposed to be doing Mavis Butterfield’s perm today, but her brother’s in the hospital, and— You don’t really need to know any of that.”

“Right.”

“What did you think I was doing all day?”

A shrug. “Being a mother?”

“That’s not a job.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Okay, it’s not a job that pays money. Did your mum stay at home all day?”

“No, but we had a nanny.”

Eis and me, we came from different worlds. His family had staff. He lived in a mansion-slash-castle and owned a thriving business. I lived hand to mouth and prayed we had a mild winter because the boys and I would freeze otherwise.

“Well, I’ve got to work, Eis. I’m really lucky because my sister won the lottery and bought this place for me to live in rent-free, but we need to eat.”

He sucked in a breath. “We’ll go to the hardware store today.”

“But you don’t want to.” I’d have to be blind to miss the tension in his shoulders and the way his fists clenched at his sides. He hated the idea. But why? Then I realised. I realised that in all my googling, I’d never found anything recent. His online story stopped with the incident in the car park. He’d been carted off in an ambulance, and after that, he’d disappeared from public life. And at Twilight’s End, he’d been fine with my anger but not with my pity. “You worry about people looking at you?”

“Either they stare, or they do that thing where they pretend to be engrossed in something else and keep glancing in my direction. Strangers can’t look me in the eye anymore, and I know what they’re thinking—poor dumb fuck, what happened to him? Sometimes I want to wear a sign: it was acid, I know it’s ugly.” He gave the heaviest sigh. “It used to be much worse. Right after it happened, my skin was red and angry, and Edie keeps telling me it looks okay now, but I’d still rather stay at home. Fuck,” he spat. “Now who’s having the pity party?”

“Edie’s right.”

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