Page 38 of The Price of Love
‘All right, point taken.’
‘So, we ought to make her rest more, but just let her finish cleaning the place first, yeah?’ Ash moved his feet to let me sitdown. ‘Besides, you know what she’s like for jumping up and down over bits and pieces. Oh, and Cal was asking how your laptop’s been performing since he had his wicked way with it.’
‘It’s been fine.’
‘Give him a call, will you? He’s driving me crazy. I think he gets off on thinking about you.’ A pleasant, warm feeling crept through my stomach, like a delayed-action vodka. All right, I was spoken for in the firmest way possible. But even so, it was encouraging to know that men still found me attractive. ‘But then,’ Ash went on, ‘he doesn’t get much action. He’d fancy anything that talks to him nicely. Even a scraggy bitch like you.’
The bird of happiness mutated into the vulture of viciousness. ‘Yeah, and I noticeyou’vebeen home a lot more since you came back from Prague. Waiting for the antibiotics to start working, are you?’
‘Bitch.’
‘Prick.’
‘Ah, the joy of family life,’ Flint remarked, walking in on our bickering session carrying a huge stack of files in a plastic box, obviously on his way to the recycling bin with the remains of his previous life. ‘I’ll bet Bree decides to stick at one child.’
‘Well, Paddy’s not going to help her out if she decides she wants another, is he?’ I rummaged around in my bag for my phone, then put it down on the table, to shove all the rubbish back into my bag. I really needed to clear out this bag. Or — lovely thought,buy a new one. . .
‘No, thank God,’ Ash said. ‘If this one turns out to be anything like him, can we stuff it back in again?’
‘Excuse me, you are not stuffing my child back in anywhere.’ Bree came into the room on the tail end of Ash’s remark, with her hair tied up and wearing a neatcirca1950 apron tied around the bulge at her front. I hoped she hadn’t heard my observation about Paddy. ‘Will, could you give me a hand to untie thisplease?’ She turned and presented the strings of the apron. ‘I can’t reach around the back.’
As I scrabbled at the too-tight knot, Flint dumped his box of files onto the table. ‘Let me do it.’
‘Flint.’ I looked up.
‘What?’
‘Have you put all that stuff down on top of my phone?’
‘Um. Whoo, sorry, Will.’ A tentative sideways movement of the files, like clearing the rubble from an earthquake victim. ‘Oh dear.’ The cracked screen was crazed into a hundred little pieces and we all stared at it. ‘Can you tape it up?’
‘I’ll tapeyouup.’ I sighed. There would be no more saucy night-time texts to or from Luke until I could get the screen replaced. Or he got a new charger, whichever came first. ‘I’m going to bed.’
‘I’m going to give the dogs their last walk.’ Bree stretched her back. ‘Either of you two coming?’
Ash just sniffed flamboyantly and spread himself farther along the sofa. ‘I’ll come,’ Flint said. ‘If we can go up to the allotment.’
I left them quarrelling quietly about how far two elderly spaniels should be expected to walk in a day, and hastened upstairs. This was my best opportunity to get an undisturbed bath, and I intended to make the most of it.
Chapter Eighteen
‘That’s it. So, what do you think?’
Luke had parked on the deserted tarmac and was pointing over at a large warehouse undergoing beautification. Scaffolding surrounded it. Huge plate windows gleamed between poles and girders. The whole thing was contained behind a rigid chain link fence which drooped in places like a slut’s fishnets.
‘Gosh. It’s huge.’ I got out of the car, Luke hesitantly following. An enormous digger stood framed on the skyline, arrested by nightfall in the act of scooping a bucket of gravel. A mini-crane and two cement mixers hugged the shadows. ‘It’s like aTwilight Zoneepisode ofBob the Builder.’
‘You can’t go on site.’ Luke stopped me climbing the fence by grasping my hand. ‘Health and safety.’
‘But it’syoursite. You own it.’
‘It means I get sued if you fall down a hole. Come on, we can walk round outside the fence. This is the back. Round the front is where all the cars will be parked, and where the offices will be.’
I skipped to keep up with his fast walk. ‘Why are you allowed to stay here then?’
‘Who’s going to get sued ifIfall down a hole? I just have to take my chances. Besides, I know where all the holes are.’ He pointed again. ‘Over there, where the roof’s on, that’s where I’ve got my meagre bedroll, my microwave and my kettle.’
I pulled a face indicating sympathy, and went to squeeze his arm, but he’d already pulled away.
