Page 28 of Coming Home to Roseford Villas
‘OK, but I’m sending you home before you have to get breakfast on for your guests!’ Rory grinned.
They broke apart, and Leo began to unpack the thermal bag. Inside was a still warm lasagne and foil-wrapped garlic bread, which both tucked into with gusto. As they chatted over dinner, Rory found herself wanting to know more about what had brought Leo back to the UK but didn’t know how to broach it. Eventually, she decided the direct approach, much as it had been the last time, was best.
‘So,’ she began, having taken a sip of her wine. ‘Here we are, and I still don’t know why you’re really back in this country. If you want to tell me, I’m all ears.’
Leo leaned back on the bench seat and paused for an almost unbearably long time. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘it’s like this…’
30
‘Look, this is hard for me to talk about,’ Leo said. ‘Can you bear with me if it all seems a little disjointed?’
‘Of course,’ Rory replied. ‘Take your time. I’m here for you.’ She waited while he gathered his thoughts, and then, taking a deep breath, Leo began talking.
‘You already know that physically I’m a bit of a wreck these days.’ He gave a nervous laugh. ‘I think I made that clear when we spent the night together. There was a pretty nasty car accident about two years ago which left me with a column of metal in my spine, and I had to have several discs removed as a result of the impact. It also left me with a lot to work through, psychologically. That had some, er, interesting physical effects, too, as you know.’ He coloured slightly. ‘Nothing I can’t handle, but it’s something I always have to be aware of.’
‘So, what happened?’ Rory asked.
‘My wife Corinne and I had been out to a fundraiser for a local charitable foundation just on the outskirts of town,’ Leo said. ‘It was late, and we were both tired. We’d had a long few months, but the law firm was starting to take off, and the contacts were spectacular. It finally felt, after years of graft, thatwe were getting somewhere. It was just as well. We were a great business partnership, but our marriage was into injury time. We’d patched things up as best we could, but after five years, we were both beginning to realise that we were better lawyers than we were husband and wife. I don’t think, even if things hadn’t worked out in the way they had, that we’d have been far off a divorce.’
Leo took a gulp of his drink. They’d switched to red wine as they ate, but neither had drunk much from the bottle, both mindful that they had a lot to do the next day. ‘Sorry,’ he said as he began to cough. ‘I don’t actually drink much any more. Too many meds since the crash.’ He looked at her and resumed the story. ‘Corinne and I were arguing, as usual. It was all we seemed to do. Corinne… she was over the limit but she insisted on driving us home because I had a fucking awful migraine. I should never have let her behind the wheel, but I was kind of past caring. We were five miles from home when she lost control and smashed into a tree. The passenger’s side of the car took most of the impact.’
‘Christ,’ Rory breathed. ‘That sounds horrific. Was Corinne injured?’
‘Only superficially,’ Leo replied. ‘And thankfully, we were fully covered in terms of insurance, so I was well taken care of. But when I finally got out of hospital… well, you can imagine. We were past injury time and into penalties, as far as the marriage was concerned. I didn’t move back home, as I needed a more adaptable place to live, and although we were working together, we haven’t lived together since. The divorce has been going through, slowly, but with the business in the equation it’s been difficult to wind everything up. It got to the point when I just had to get out of there, so I applied for a job in London.’
‘Doing a similar thing to what you were doing in Melbourne?’
Leo smiled. ‘The job starts in September. It’s a step down from being a partner, but it’s with a decent firm in Canary Wharf, and it’ll give me a way in to practising business law in the UK. I’m their contact for their Australian arm, which is right up my alley. In the meantime, when Aunt Vi and Uncle Bryan contacted me, it made sense to come over here a few weeks early and have a change of scene. They’re planning on selling up and wanted someone to look after the place while they look for somewhere in a warmer climate. They’re in Spain as we speak.’
Rory tried to silence the voice that was reminding her just how far away London was from York. After all, just because they’d started something, it didn’t mean that either of them was ready to jump into anything more serious. She would be back up north in September, and it sounded as though Leo still had a lot to work through, fresh start or no fresh start.
‘So, when will everything be finalised?’ Rory asked.
‘Well, the job’s all sorted, and my divorce is done in all but name,’ Leo replied. ‘These things take a while, but Corinne’s not contesting much. Potentially, it could have been so much nastier, but, weirdly, now the relationship’s over, we’re getting on better again. The space has been good for us, and ultimately, it’s made sorting out the business side easier. The piece of paper that says I’m a free agent should be through by Christmas: Hallowe’en, if I’m lucky.’
‘And how do you feel about that?’ Rory asked.
Leo shook his head. ‘Relieved, for the most part. Corinne’s guilt about the car accident was difficult to come to terms with, even though she knew I felt responsible, too. I should never have let her get behind the wheel that night. Luckily, she wasn’t too far over the limit, and she kept her licence, but it was too much to move on from, in the end. Compounded with the fact that we were already in trouble, there really was no going back.’ He looked downcast for a moment, but Rory got the feeling it wasn’tregret, merely the acceptance that things, however difficult, had to change.
There was a pause, and suddenly, she was sixteen years old again and madly in love with him. ‘Oh, Leo,’ she murmured. She reached out and pulled him close. ‘I keep forgetting that all the time we were apart, we had our own lives. And I keep having to remember that I’m not the kid I was, and neither are you. But this is all such weird territory.’
‘Tell me about it!’ Leo laughed nervously. ‘This is not what I expected to be doing this summer.’ He paused. ‘Don’t get me wrong but meeting you again does rather complicate things.’
‘The London job?’
Leo nodded. ‘When I came to Roseford, I was dead sure that I’d be packing up my stuff again and starting at the law firm in Canary Wharf in September. Now… I’m not so sure.’
Rory’s heart began to beat faster. ‘It’s early days, Leo. You can’t base decisions on what might or might not happen between us.’
‘I know,’ Leo replied. ‘But I also know that, after everything I’ve been through over the past couple of years, there’s no point sticking with something that you know is wrong. The accident taught me that.’
‘But you can’t rush into things, either,’ Rory observed.
‘Rory.’ Leo’s voice was suddenly calmer, more gentle. ‘We’ve had twenty years apart… do you honestly think we’re rushing now?’
As he enfolded her in his arms, Rory wanted to believe that he was right, but her own inner voice was telling her that it would never be as simple as all that.
31
