Mermaid Hair and I Don’t Care: A romantic comedy about shoes, surf and second chances
Page 29
‘Because of him?’
‘She thought he was too flamboyant, too camp.’
‘I’m sure she would never say that.’
‘No,’ laughed Lily. ‘She’s not stupid; she’s not Oily Bastard.’
Jackson joined in her laughter. ‘That reminds me,’ he said. ‘I had an email from Bensons’ lawyers today. Our Oily Bastard should finally receive justice.’
‘For what?’ Lily rubbed her back as they walked up the beach.
‘It appears the company he went to after Bensons weren’t quite so tolerant of his behaviour towards women.’
‘Did he lose his job?’ Lily sighed. ‘He’ll just talk his way into another one and do it all over again.’ It still rankled with her that he’d been able to walk away blemish free from Bensons.
‘Oh no,’ Jackson smiled. ‘They reported him to the police. Opened a can of worms. Apparently, in the distant past, long before he came to Bensons, there had been suggestive remarks and inappropriate touching of a work experience student. Court case and, with luck, a custodial sentence.’
‘Serves him right. Justice. Yes. Pity about the poor girl.’
‘Nothing we could have done about that. It was before Bensons.’
‘I still think we should have prosecuted him.’
‘Well, as I said at the time, we had little choice. We had to ensure Bensons’ future and we had to safeguard all those jobs. He got his comeuppance in the end.’
‘I suppose.’
‘Will,’ Jackson called and whistled.
‘I can’t get used to that,’ Lily said, shaking her head.
‘Not our fault, that was already his name.’ He bent down, laughing and patting the rescue Jack Russell who jumped around his ankles.
Jackson had to almost haul Lily up the little beach path to the car park.
‘I will be glad when our little mermaid is born,’ Lily said, rubbing her back again.
‘Little mermaid. I like that.’
‘Maybe we should call her Ariel.’
‘Ariel?’
‘The little mermaid. You know, Disney.’
‘No.’ Jackson shook his head.
‘I suppose you didn’t spend your childhood watching girly Disney films.’ Not like me and Tess, she thought.
‘I thought Ariel was a character in a Marvel comic. I think.’ He shook his head again.
‘I was only joking. I don’t really want to call her Ariel, but we do need to decide on a name.’
‘Maybe that’s why she’s taking so long to make her appearance; she won’t come until we settle on a name. At least she won’t be saddled with the name Cyril. Though if we have another and it’s a boy, there will be expectations.’
‘Don’t even think about it,’ Lily said, getting into the car while Jackson loaded the boot. ‘This little one hasn’t arrived yet and I can’t even think about another. Whatever happens in the distant future, we’re breaking the Cyril tradition.’
‘You’ll get no arguments from me on that. And we will need to be careful to make sure there isn’t another quickly.’ Jackson got into the car and started the engine. ‘We didn’t expect our little girl to come along so soon, did we?’
‘No. But I’m not sorry.’ It was such a cliché, a honeymoon baby, but Lily had never felt so happy.
‘Me neither.’ Jackson squeezed Lily’s knee as he drove out of the car park.
Just before they pulled out onto the main road Lily noticed an old man standing on the corner in the distance. He turned and seemed to wave in her direction. He reminded her of Josh, Josh who used to work in Bensons’ post room, Josh who died the same day he was made redundant. Josh who Lily was convinced she had seen on her first day on holiday, the day she met Jackson.
‘Do you know him?’ Lily said, pointing in the old man’s direction. ‘Only it looks as though he’s waving at you.’
Jackson turned and looked where Lily was pointing. ‘Who?’
‘That old chap,’ Lily said, turning and looking again, but he had gone.
‘What did he look like?’ Jackson pulled out onto the main road.
She described Josh. ‘He looks like a guy who used to work at Bensons, in the post room. His name was Josh. But he died.’
‘Josh. He hasn’t got a son called Ewan, has he? Lives local.’
‘I think he did.’
‘I know him.’
‘If it’s the same guy, then he died.’
‘Then it can’t be the same guy. I saw him the day I met you. The day I pulled you out of the sea when you were drowning in three feet of water.’
‘Ha ha,’ Lily said, smiling.
‘Yeah. I hadn’t really been watching the sea that closely. Then he pointed you out and I saw that you were in the surf lane. I had noticed you earlier though, baking yourself on the beach.’ He smiled to himself.
‘Did he speak?’
‘No. He just waved and pointed. He was up on the beach path, not on the actual beach; he was too far away for conversation.’
‘That’s the day I saw him too; he set me on the right path when I got lost on my way to the beach. The thing is, which I found out later, he was already dead.’
‘Well, he couldn’t have been, could he? Not if we both saw him.’
‘No. It must have been someone who looks like him.’
‘Yeah,’ Jackson agreed.
They drove home in subdued silence; Lily wondering if they had really been brought together by the ghost of Bensons’ post room? Fate worked in mysterious ways.
Lily woke in the night, she shook a slumbering Jackson awake. ‘I think it’s happening.’
‘Is your bag packed?’
‘Yeah. In the hall cupboard.’
‘Is it time to go yet?’
‘I think it might be. And she still doesn’t have a name.’
Their little mermaid was born three hours later.
‘She has the bluest eyes,’ Jackson said, staring into them.
‘All babies have blue eyes,’ the midwife said. ‘They can change later.’
‘No.’ Lily and Jackson chorused.
‘I will say this,’ the midwife said. ‘I don’t see hair like that on a baby very often. It’s so long, she needs a haircut.’ She laughed and left them alone.
‘Mermaid hair,’ Jackson said, kissing Lily, then the baby on the forehead. ‘And look at those lips.’
‘They’re like ruby rosebuds. So cute.’
‘Ruby,’ Jackson repeated.
‘Beth,’ Lily said.
Ruby Beth Montgomery-Jones.
THE END.
Acknowledgements
My special thanks go to the following for their help, support and encouragement during the writing of this book: Amy Mayes, Sophie Mayes, Barbara Fulford, Jenny Tiley, Chloe Dodgson.
Thank you also to Alex McAuley for allowing me to steal some of his phrases, especially The Europeans, to Sinead Champ for chilli trout pout and to Marie Setterfield for the hair-raising incident which inspired chapter ten.
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One last thing…
Thank you so much for reading Mermaid Hair and I Don’t Care. I really do appreciate it. I am an Indie Author, not backed by a big publishing company, so every time a reader downloads one of my books, I am genuinely thrilled. I’ve worked hard to eliminate any typos and errors, but if you spot any, please let me know:
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CJ