Page 51 of Amazing Grace

Once again, there were yesses all round and Ruth and Grace looked at each other and grinned. Monica would be the perfect choice for a guest speaker. They had hoped that their idea of a small local slimming support group would be a good one, but now they knew it was going to be a resounding success.

Beryl came over and thanked Ruth and Grace for a great evening.

‘Ladies, can I just say that I have thoroughly enjoyed myself tonight. Since my Keith died, I’ve not gone out much. Everyone I know is in a couple and I feel like a spare part, and I’d much rather stay in and read a good book anyway. I feel like I’ve already made some lovely new friends and I’m really looking forward to the next one. Thank you so much for giving me a new lease of life.’ She held one of Grace’s hands and kissed both her and Ruth’s cheeks. She practically skipped out of the door. Grace felt her heart swell at the thought that they’d been able to create something that was quite life-changing for someone else.

Maureen and Gill waved as they left and Grace laughed as she heard Gill say, ‘Shall we just get a cone of chips on the way home then, instead of a full portion, Maur?’ She knew that these two were going to be a lot of hard work but a lot of fun, even if they didn’t lose any weight!

As the last member of the first group shut the door on their way out, Ruth high-fived Grace as she said, ‘God, I think I love you, Grace! Don’t we make an awesome team? Roll on next week!’

Ruth and Grace cleared away all the plates and put the chairs up on the tables. It was a habit of Ruth’s that she’d got from her days of being a teaching assistant years ago and she insisted that it made it easier for the floor to be cleaned the next morning. It was time for home; they were both exhausted but still buzzing from such a brilliant evening.

‘You’re pretty awesome, Gracie, do you know that?’ Ruth flung her arm round Grace’s shoulder as they walked towards their cars.

‘You’re not so bad yourself, gorgeous!’ Grace replied as she kissed her on the cheek and waved goodnight.

* * *

The next day the shrill ringing of the telephone interrupted Grace and Archie from making low-fat flapjacks as a tester for Busy Bodies. It was her father.

‘Grace, I have something very important to tell you and I really hope you are sitting down.’

Lord above, she thought, her heart starting to race in her chest. ‘What on earth has happened?’

‘I’m going on a cruise with Gladys. I really hope you don’t mind, but we will be sharing a cabin. I would never want or be able to replace your mother,’ he blurted out, ‘but I have realised that it is nice to have company in my twilight years and that I think your mother would want me to not waste a moment longer being miserable and wishing she were here.’

Grace stifled a giggle of relief. ‘Oh! That sounds good. Tell me all about it.’

With the relief evident in his voice, he told her all about the cruise. A few of the residents from the retirement village were going and some of the staff were going along too, to be on hand should they be needed. Grace thought it sounded a wonderful idea and realised that it must have taken a lot for her dad to have plucked up the courage to make this call.

‘I am happy for you, Dad,’ she said. ‘And for what it’s worth, I’m sure you’re right and that if Mum were here she’d be gallivanting around the world with a sugar daddy so I reckon you should go for it!’ They said goodbye and hung up.

Despite her words of encouragement to her dad, Grace felt a pang of sadness when she put down the phone. She knew that no one would ever replace her mum. How could they? While Gladys was a lovely lady, she was very different to the vibrant, beautiful, vivacious lady that her mum was when she was taken way before her time. While these days she had wonderful memories when she thought of her mum, she was always going to be sad for the future they’d never have together; sad for Archie that he wouldn’t know how it felt to have a proper nanna who adored him.

Grief is such a strange thing, she reflected.One minute you feel perfectly fine, then the smallest trigger can devastate you all over again. A song, some words, a place you drive past, a memory, a voice, or the sight of someone who reminds you so vividly of the person you’ve lost, and all of a sudden you are back in a moment when you realise they are no longer here.

This was all on her mind when the doorbell rang, but her thoughts paused when she saw Mark standing there. Quietly, he asked whether he could come in and have a word. Archie appeared behind Grace, delighted to see his dad unexpectedly on his doorstep.

‘Hi, Dad!’ he said, grabbing him in for a hug.

Grace smiled at the love Archie had for his father, and after Archie had greeted Mark, she told him to go upstairs and get ready for bed.

She took Mark through into the kitchen and she stood as he made himself comfortable sitting at the breakfast bar. Realising that he didn’t look like he had any intention of going for a while, she sat down opposite him. He started talking about what a lovely sunny day it had been and he didn’t seem to want to get to the point of why he had come.

‘Well, what did you want to talk about, Mark?’ she asked. ‘I presume you haven’t come to talk about the weather.’ She was starting to feel braver when speaking to him.

‘I’ve been thinking about us, Gracie. I have a serious proposition for you.’

Grace raised an eyebrow and thought,This is going to be interesting.

‘Lorraine is going away soon for a week with her friends on a hen party. I’ve decided that you and I should use that time to see if we can put the past behind us to build our family again. We, as Archie’s parents, have a duty to our son to be family, and I know that you, as his mother, would want to do what’s right for him. It’s only ever been you, Grace. I wouldn’t be with Lorraine now if you hadn’t kicked me out.

‘It makes sense to do it while Lorraine’s away, then she won’t know about it and if it doesn’t work out, we can go back to how things are now and she need never know.’

Grace laughed out loud. A short, sharp laugh. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

‘So, let me get this right. You want us to get back together for a fortnight while your girlfriend is away to see if we can make it work out? If it does, you’ll leave Lorraine, if it doesn’t, you won’t tell her that it even happened. Is that what you are saying?’

‘Yes, that’s right,’ Mark said blithely. ‘You, me and Archie back together, trying to do stuff as a family. This is the best thing for all of us. Just think, you’d have Archie with you every night and every day. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted? I know I’ve been a bit of an arse in the past, Grace, but I’ve changed, I truly have. I can be the man that you want me to be. I can help you more. Let’s be a family again.

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