Page 26 of Just the Beginning

‘Brutal!’ Liam protested.

‘Sorry, that was a dick move on my part.’

‘Nah, it’s all good. Look, I’ll make you a deal, okay. By the time I come home for Ma’s party I’ll have sorted things out here with Caro one way or the other and you’ll have talked to Anya and found out how she really feels.’

‘Hold on a minute!’ Rick protested. ‘I never agreed to that.’

‘Bwoak, bwoak, bwoak.’

Rick gritted his teeth. Damn Liam for knowing how to push his buttons. Rick could resist most things, but being accused of chickening out of something had always been his downfall. ‘Okay, you’ve got yourself a deal.’

‘Great! We can compare notes when I see you in a few weeks. Oh, and while we’re at it, Saint-boy, you can tell me howyou got Davy to accept some help, because that’s little short of a miracle.’

‘It was nothing really,’ Rick muttered, that familiar queasiness at lying churning his stomach. He had to find time to speak to Davy. He supposed he could pop into the hotel next week on the pretext of seeing how Anya was getting on. That was a perfectly reasonable course of action given he was the one who’d recommended her for the job.

Plus it would be a good excuse to talk to her…

14

‘That’s it, girl, put a bit of elbow grease into it. Good grief, you need another top off an egg if that’s the best you can do.’

Anya raised her head enough to make eye contact with Davy, who was sitting on the closed lid of the toilet like a king on his throne. ‘I can do without the running commentary, thanks.’ Dropping her head back, she scowled up at the stubborn connection bolt underneath the sink in the bathroom of Room 12. If she could carry a bloody four-year-old and a bag full of shopping, then she could damn well get this bolt loose if it killed her.

‘Just offering a bit of encouragement,’ Davy offered in an unusually mild voice. She didn’t need to be able to see his face to know he was enjoying watching her struggle probably a bit too much.

‘Well I can manage fine without it, thanks.’

Once he’d realised how completely useless Anya was at most practical things – well, the ones that had never interested her, at least – Davy had been on a one-man mission to teach her everything he thought she needed to know. This week it wasplumbing. The previous week he’d taken her out in the car park and shown her how to jack up a car and change a tyre as well as how to check the oil, refill the washer bottles, and even how a set of jump leads worked. When she’d pointed out she didn’t have a car, he waved off her protests, insisting that these were the kind of things she might need to know one day. ‘What if you and Freya are stranded somewhere in the future because you can’t do something as basic as change a flat?’

Her answer before would’ve been that she’d call a garage and get someone out to fix it, but when Davy had mentioned how much just the call-out fee was likely to be, she’d blanched and decided that perhaps it was worth learning at least the basics. To her surprise, she’d begun to really enjoy herself. Acerbic comments aside, Davy seemed to be having a lot of fun too. He always had an anecdote to go with every task, some of which made her laugh so hard she couldn’t carry on with what he was trying to teach her. And it helped the days to pass. There was a flurry of activity around check-in and check-out times, but there were also a lot of dead hours to fill when someone needed to be around ‘just in case’.

She’d even come to enjoy the ritual of the post book as it was a great way to pick Davy’s brain. They would settle themselves in his office with a pot of tea and a couple of biscuits in the lull after check-out and go through everything. There wasn’t a scenario that came up which he hadn’t dealt with before. At first she’d just sat and written down his instructions, but lately he’d begun asking her what she thought they should do. She was surprised how much she’d picked up already. He also always wanted to know what Freya had been up to, and he’d been thrilled when Anya had presented him with a drawing Freya had done for him. It was pinned up on the wall opposite his desk and she often caught him smiling at it.

Ignoring the ache in her arms, Anya went to work on the bolt again. It shifted a fraction then stubbornly refused to move again. Gritting her teeth, she decided to distract herself from the frustration of the moment to talk over something that had been playing on her mind. ‘Freya is still insisting on dressing herself.’

Davy chuckled. ‘And what was this morning’s combo?’

Anya sighed. ‘A pink tutu over a pair of fuzzy green leggings I bought her last year to wear as winter pyjamas, and a yellow T-shirt with a sparkly panda on the front. Oh, and a red sou’wester.’

‘Ready for all weathers by the sounds of it. Very sensible.’

Anya propped herself on her elbows so she could raise her head and stare at him in disbelief. ‘She looks like a scarecrow, Davy! She’s got a wardrobe full of lovely clothes and every day she insists on going out looking like I’ve dressed her in jumble sale rejects. I don’t know what’s got into her.’

‘Have you asked her?’

She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘Of course I have, but she just gets upset, so I’ve had to back off.’

‘Poor kid’s been through a lot of change.’

She sighed. ‘I know. None of which is my fault.’

Davy shot her a sympathetic smile. ‘That’s not a criticism, pet, far from it. I think you’re doing an amazing job coping with everything, especially after all you’ve been through. Especially having to deal with my grumpy old arse every day,’ he said, smile widening into a grin.

‘I deserve a medal really when you think about it.’

He laughed. ‘That you do. Look, if you want my opinion on it, I reckon it’s about Freya trying to feel in control of something. Her whole world has been turned upside down, and for all you’ve done your best to protect her, she’s been through thewringer. There aren’t many things she can exert her will over, but what she wears is something that she can.’

Anya considered that for a moment. ‘You might be onto something there.’

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