Page 26 of Second Act at Appleton Green
Lily smiled and hugged herself for a moment. ‘Nick has a lovely voice. I’d love to hear him sing Marius fromLes Mis. He would be perfect.’
Gran raising an eyebrow at Lily who laughed. ‘Perhaps he might be what the doctor ordered for you?’
‘Don’t try and set me up with your nurse, Gran. I’m only here for the summer.’
‘The summer? You said only a month.’ Gran clapped her hands.
‘Is that okay?’ Lily asked. ‘I mean I don’t want to overstay my welcome.’
‘Is that okay?’ Gran beamed. ‘It’s excellent news. We can have a wonderful last summer.’
‘Last summer?’ Lily asked, but before Gran could answer the doorbell rang.
Lily went to the door and there was Nick in his nursing shirt and pants, carrying his bag and with a shower chair and another walking frame.
‘Morning, Violet; morning, Lily,’ he said with his eye catching hers, and she felt those silly butterflies rise in her stomach again.
‘Oh, I didn’t know you were here today,’ Lily said, aware of how she was dressed and wishing she didn’t look like she had slept in a charity bin.
‘I’m supposed to be here tomorrow but I thought I’d drop these off,’ he said, ‘to help make Violet’s daily living easier.’
‘What’s all that rubbish?’ Gran asked from where she sat at the kitchen table, glaring with narrowed eyes at the equipment. She was suspicious of anything new, having told Lily when she suggested a coffee machine for the cottage, that she would sooner drink pond water than that newfangled muck.
‘It is an assortment of things to keep you out of hospital or a nursing home.’ Nick was kind but firm. ‘I call them a compromise.’
Lily couldn’t help but admire how he handled Gran’s prickliness with such ease, because she was testing her patience right now.
Lily bit back a flickering smile. ‘Gran, it will help you remain independent. Surely that is worth a little bit of a compromise?’
‘Independence? Funny! I was climbing trees and chasing sheep when you were both but twinkles in your parents’ eyes,’ Gran said, but Lily observed her glare softening somewhat as she once more stared at the tools. ‘I just don’t think it’s necessary. It was one fall, and we’re already cramped in this house, without adding more contraptions.’
Lily was ready to tell Gran exactly what she thought when she heard Nick speaking in his kind and gentle way, which was never condescending but always respectful.
Nick patiently went over the purpose for every object. ‘The chair is for the shower; this frame will enable you to go about more safely. Mrs Baxter, these are not restrictions. They are pieces of equipment to enable you to keep doing what you love, which is be independent.’
Gran huffed at him. ‘Well, if it means that it will keep those busybodies from the hospital and my own son and daughter-in-law from suggesting a nursing home, then I will try your contraptions. I won’t guarantee I’ll enjoy them, though.’
‘You don’t have to enjoy them, Mrs Baxter, but I expect you will enjoy the ongoing independence.’
Lily turned to Nick and both of them suppressed grins. Although it wasn’t exactly acceptance, from Gran it was a settlement between them. Lily felt a warmth in her chest as she watched Nick keep talking with Gran, softly nudging her into walking a little further with the frame, his hand hovering at her back to guide her. Finally Gran was back in her chair, after doing a lap of the room, while Nick rearranged a few small items of furniture to make room for the frame.
‘I’ll pop these upstairs,’ said Nick. ‘And then I’ll give you a quick check-over.’
‘Cup of tea?’ asked Lily as he carried the items upstairs.
‘Yes please, if it’s made, but don’t go to any trouble,’ he said as he went upstairs.
‘Go on, get your leading man a mug,’ teased Gran as Lily shook her fist playfully at her.
‘Shh, or you’ll be popped in the shed with the old pots,’ Lily whispered as she made Nick a mug of tea.
‘That’s elder abuse that is,’ said Gran loudly for Nick’s ears as he came back downstairs.
‘What’s elder abuse?’ asked Nick as Lily set about making the tea.
‘Lily said she’d pop me in the shed with the old garden pots.’
‘Don’t forget to use your frame on the way there,’ Nick said as he sat down at the table, and Gran and Lily burst into laughter.
