Page 48 of Second Act at Appleton Green
She picked up another photo from the wedding of Nick and his sisters together. Jessica was in the background, looking at them with a furious expression on her face.
They had gone out long enough for her to go to his sister’s wedding, she thought, and she put down the frame as Maureen came back into the kitchen.
‘All sorted,’ she said cheerfully.
‘Now, tell me all about you,’ Maureen asked and Lily paused.
‘There’s not much to tell,’ she said but Maureen shook her head.
‘No, not having that. Nick won’t stop chatting about you: Lily does this, Lily said that. I want to know about the this and the that.’
Maureen opened a tin and put some lemon slices on a plate. ‘Now let’s take these into the living room, and I’m going to ask you fifty questions.’
‘Only fifty?’ joked Lily and soon she was sitting down, drinking tea and eating a slice, being grilled by Maureen about everything from her early childhood diseases to her favourite cocktail.
Nick came into the living room. ‘Okay, all done,’ he said, looking slightly harried.
‘We need to head off soon,’ he said to Lily.
‘Do we?’ she asked. ‘We’ve missed the movie.’
‘There’s a later time,’ he said. ‘At a different cinema, and we can still make dinner after.’
‘You could come back here for dinner,’ said Maureen hopefully.
‘Thanks, Mum, but we’ll do it another time,’ he said.
Lily put down her mug and plate as Nick’s father came into the living room.
‘Who’s this then?’ he asked. ‘A new one? You go through them like socks.’ The man laughed.
‘Dad,’ Nick said sharply.
‘Only joking,’ he said. ‘I’m Mike, Mike Stafford.’
‘Hi, I’m Lily,’ she said trying to keep her tone light.
Nick went through girlfriends like socks. Was that a joke? It wasn’t very funny.
‘I know. He told me all about you,’ he said with a warm smile and Lily felt herself relax a little but wondered what his sisters would think of her.Don’t worry about impressing them; you’re only here for the summer,she told herself. But the voice of doubt was in her head.
After she and Nick had left and they went to the movies, they sat through the film and she felt him reach for her hand.
She wondered if just spending the summer with Nick was realistic. She knew she was caring too much about what his family thought. It wasn’t serious, she reminded herself. It was just a bit of fun.
At dinner, Nick looked at her. ‘You know my father was joking about me having lots of girlfriends,’ he said.
‘It was a bit off-putting, I will admit,’ she conceded.
‘I know. He thinks he’s funny. He’s not,’ Nick said with a sigh.
‘And your mum brought up Jess,’ she said.
‘Oh God, was it about how she didn’t like Mum’s decorating?’
Lily nodded.
‘I took Jess there once, before a rehearsal to pick something up, and she insisted on coming inside with me, even though I was only going to be a few minutes, and then she proceeded to walk about the house and tell Mum how bad the feng shui was with all of her plants and art.’
