Raincoats and Retrievers, A Novella

by Cressida McLaughlin

  Chapter 4

  Cat’s good intentions turned to nothing, because, while Cat wanted to help Will and Juliette, there was a part of her brain that was telling her to leave them to it. She didn’t know them very well, and things were never as simple as they seemed. Besides, what would she say? I can see that your marriage is in trouble, and I want to help? I’m sure there must be more to your husband’s sudden lack of responsibility than meets the eye? My parents are happier than they’ve ever been and you need to give Will a chance?

  Juliette was always kind to her, and Cat didn’t want to risk upsetting her, so she continued to walk Alfie and Effie and say nothing. Just as she tried to act normally around Joe, while not mentioning that she knew he was drawing a cartoon about how calamitous she was. She’d also pushed all thoughts of Mark to the back of her mind. It had been a few days since he’d all but ignored her on the doorstep, and there hadn’t been a single text, or call, or sighting of the man who had until recently been so attentive.

  She found herself looking wistfully up at his house just as Jessica sashayed past, jacket wound tightly around her against the unseasonably cold weather, her knee-length boots soft, brown leather.

  Cat herself had exchanged her summer dresses for cropped trousers and a striped, boatneck jumper, a cotton scarf to keep the wind from her neck.

  ‘He’s gone to London,’ Jessica said. ‘Didn’t he tell you?’

  Cat shook her head, feeling a cold sting of distrust. ‘No, he didn’t. Did he take Chips?’

  Jessica nodded. ‘He wasn’t sure how long he’d be, so he took her with him. He didn’t seem very happy about going, though. I wonder if things with his film have fallen apart? Just when it was going so well, too.’

  Cat chewed her lip. ‘Oh, I hope that’s not it – he seemed so positive about this one.’ But if that was true, it could explain his distance that night, though she would still have appreciated a text to know that he was going. And then a memory flashed into her mind. Talking to Joe on the sofa; her phone distracting her and her clearing the message without reading it. She hadn’t gone back to look at it, had felt so despondent about Mark that she’d refused to even consider sending him a message. With dread crawling into her stomach, she resisted the urge to get her phone out immediately.

  ‘He may need a shoulder to cry on when he gets back,’ Jessica said, rubbing a perfectly manicured hand up Cat’s arm. ‘And I think that your shoulder would fit perfectly. Cute jumper, by the way. Trying to coax back the sunshine? I’ve pretty much given up.’ She flicked her blonde hair behind her shoulder and gave Cat a warm, polished smile.

  ‘It might not be gone for good,’ Cat said. ‘If we all believe enough, keep our fingers crossed.’

  ‘I wish I had your optimism.’

  Cat laughed. ‘I don’t feel very optimistic at the moment. Thanks for telling me about Mark.’

  Jessica frowned. ‘Of course. I would have thought he’d have told you first. Must get on – are you picking up my darlings tomorrow?’

  Cat nodded and watched her walk away, then pulled her phone out of her pocket and went into Messages. There was one from Mark, which read:

  Sorry about before. I have to go to London, a few weeks maybe. Shit happens. Will be in touch. M.

  Cat closed her eyes. It was an apology, of sorts, but it didn’t fully explain his behaviour. And he hadn’t been in touch again, no follow-up text or phone call to explain why he’d had to go. She tapped out a reply:

  I’ve only just found this! Hope all is OK, call when you can. Cat. Xx

  She walked back towards number nine. Mark had had to go to London at short notice. His film was in trouble, which was awful, so perhaps there was nothing more to his coldness towards her. Had she been too quick to jump to conclusions? Everyone was allowed a bad day, weren’t they? Mark would be away for a few weeks, and when he got back, Cat was going to be bold, take the bull by the horns, stop asking everyone what they thought of him and find out what she thought of him – every bit of him – for herself.

  Despite the miserable August, the biting winds and the squally rain, Fairhaven and, in particular, the picturesque, seaside area of Fairview was a popular holiday destination. Families braved the weather to make the most of their time off work and school. The beach was busy, kids untroubled by a few showers because they would get wet swimming anyway, parents sheltering under colourful parasols doubling as brollies. The Pavilion café was constantly busy, the picnics and games of cricket continued (if a little less enthusiastically), and Fairhaven town centre was chock-a-block with people shopping and café-hopping. The local mood was as buoyant as ever, and Cat wanted to applaud everyone for their resilience.

  Polly seesawed between revision and exams, and on the last day of August, she left the house early to sit her final one. Cat hugged her goodbye, trying to dispel the nerves in her own stomach, and – unusually, with a day off – thought she might join the holidaymakers, walk into the town centre and browse round the clothes shops.

  But as she left home, she found herself turning towards the Barkers’ house instead of the shops and, before she’d had a chance to properly examine what she was doing, she’d walked up the steps of number six and knocked on the door. She expected Juliette to answer, only because she was the one Cat usually talked to, so was taken aback when Will opened the door, his green eyes smiling at her.

  ‘Hi, Cat, how are you?’ He was dressed in a bright yellow T-shirt, and shorts that ended in frayed hems, but there was a shiny black wetsuit underneath, skintight to his wrists and ankles. It looked weird. ‘I didn’t think you were taking Alfie and Effie today.’

  ‘I’m not,’ Cat said. ‘I’m, uhm…’ She glanced around her, looking for inspiration, and saw the retrievers’ leads hanging on a hook by the front door. ‘I was wondering if they were OK?’

  ‘OK how?’ Will folded his arms, his feet wide apart. Was he practising? She couldn’t help it – everything she thought about him was now connected to a surfboard. Did he sleep in his wetsuit?

  ‘They seemed a bit…snappy with each other last time I took them out. Like they needed to – to sort a few things out.’ Where was she going with this? She couldn’t help Will and Juliette by using their dogs as a metaphor.

  ‘Really? They seem fine now.’ Will pointed to the front room, and Cat took a step forward and peered through the doorway. The two retrievers were curled up in a single basket, a twist of sleeping paws and tails.

  ‘Oh,’ Cat said. ‘My mistake, then. Sorry to have bothered you.’

  ‘You didn’t bother me,’ Will said, ‘though I am wondering if that’s what you really came here for. Because “snappy” sounds a bit more like me and Jules, not our dogs.’

  Cat considered laughing his comment away, trying to take it as a lucky escape, but she couldn’t. Her shoulders sagged. ‘I’m sorry. I noticed that things seemed a bit…rocky between you the other night. And it’s really none of my business, but I—’ What could she say? That she was a professional interferer?

  ‘I heard about what you did for Frankie and those lovely girls,’ Will said.

  ‘You did?’

  Will nodded. ‘News travels fast round here. Have people been talking about us? On Primrose Terrace?’

  Cat shook her head. ‘No. Not really. I mean, Elsie and I may have mentioned that…’

  ‘That we’ve not kept things as quiet as we could have?’ Will gave her a rueful smile.

  ‘It was silly of me to come,’ Cat said. ‘It’s none of my business.’

  ‘Listen, I’m about to head down to the cove, do a bit of practice. Fancy coming?’

  ‘To surf? I’ve never surfed.’

  ‘You could look after Alfie and Effie. They’re allowed on that part of the beach, and I was going to leave them sleeping and walk them later, but this could kill two birds with one stone.’ He grabbed his keys from a table, whistled to the dogs, who deftly untangled themselves and came running, and joined Cat on the top step. ‘And then you c
an tell me why you really came to see me. Deal?’

  Cat didn’t have anything she desperately wanted in town, anyway. ‘Deal,’ she said.

  She and Will sat on the soft sand of the cove, watching Alfie and Effie play close to the water. It was still early, and with this area of the beach mostly deserted, they had taken the opportunity to let the dogs off the lead for a bit. Cat had skinny jeans and a red cable-knit jumper on under her navy parka. It would be September tomorrow, still technically summer, but she felt as though she needed all the layers she could get.

  She hadn’t seen the waves as large as this before, had often brought the smaller dogs to this area and let them play in the shallows.

  ‘I didn’t realize it got like this,’ Cat said, pointing.

  ‘It’s not the most consistent beach for surfing round here, but when it’s good, it’s one of the best.’

  ‘And the dogs don’t get in the way?’

  Will shrugged, dug his toes deeper into the sand. ‘Not really. And mostly people are pretty considerate. The surfers here are like their own little community, backing each other up, looking out for one another. I guess that’s partly to do with how dangerous it can be, but mainly it’s just because everyone’s so laid-back, so friendly. The moment other surfers turn up, we’ll put Alfie and Effie on their leads.’

  ‘I’m holding you up,’ Cat said. Will’s surfboard was still strapped to the roof bars of the Passat in the car park. ‘Don’t you want to make the most of it?’

  ‘Of course, but…’ He scrutinized Cat, appearing to weigh something up in his mind. ‘I think you have something to say. About Juliette and me. About the fact that we’ve not been getting on as well as we could. It wouldn’t take an Einstein to work it out, would it?’

  Cat looked out to sea and squinted. ‘Oh, no, I don’t really. I mean…every relationship has its ups and downs, doesn’t it?’ It was Joe, rather than Mark, who came to mind, and she pushed the thought away. ‘It’s none of my business.’

  ‘It is when we’re keeping the whole street awake with our arguing,’ Will said, sighing. ‘We’ve clashed, recently, over my decision to give up work.’

  ‘I’d heard,’ Cat said softly. ‘My dad did a similar thing. He used to work in insurance, and one day he just packed it in, started spending his time at the allotment and inventing these weird gardening contraptions. Some of the stuff he comes up with…’ She shook her head. ‘A watering-can hat thing so you can keep your hands free while you’re watering, and he’s been working on this handheld rotating seed sower.’

  ‘An innovative Monty Don?’ Will laughed.

  ‘Something like that. He’s never going to set the horticultural world on fire, but he loves it. He’s happy and…after some initial misgivings, my mum was too. And now – you heard the other night – they’re packing up to go travelling round Canada, in a bloody camper van!’ She laughed. ‘They both had such straightforward jobs, but now…They’re proof it doesn’t have to be nine to five. I guess I don’t need to tell you this, though.’

  ‘I’m touched that you’ve taken the trouble to come and talk to us – well, me. It sounds like your parents have been through it, too. The thing is, I’ve not given up work, I’m just taking a break until the end of the year. My job in London was long hours sandwiched between a long commute. Sometimes I stayed in London and didn’t see Jules for days. It was stressful, it was a world of pressure that I thought I was coping with.

  ‘And then my friend, Thom, died. I’d worked alongside him for years and he was always cheerful. Always. Even when a deal went wrong or he’d spent his birthday staring at a computer screen. Nothing ever got to him.’

  ‘What happened?’ Cat whispered.

  Will shrugged, looking out at the waves. ‘He had a heart attack. He was forty-seven years old. I’m a year away from that, and I – I thought, fuck it. Get away from the pressure. And surfing is my release. It’s the most freeing thing I’ve ever done, it’s made me alive to so many things I’ve been ignorant of for years. God knows, I’ve tried to get Jules to come with me.’

  ‘She’s not keen?’

  ‘It’s almost as if she sees surfing as the evil that’s lured me away from her. But I’m at home every evening, I’m cooking more, making the effort, and her reaction is to spend more time at her office. I’ve done this because I love her so much, and I miss her. But I don’t know how to get through to her.’

  ‘Is she worried about…the financial impact?’

  Will sighed and rested his head on his folded arms. ‘I don’t think so. We’ve got enough saved, we’ve been careful, and I’ve told her this is only until the end of the year. I’m already putting feelers out for something closer to home. Our kids are grown up, Alex is off in Australia and Corinne’s at university. I thought it was time for Juliette and me to spend time together, but she thinks it’s the ideal opportunity to focus on her career.’

  ‘It sounds tough.’ Now that Cat knew more of the truth, she thought Elsie was right. She didn’t have the experience or understanding to help them. ‘Have you spoken to Juliette, really spoken to her about it?’

  Will shook his head and whistled to his dogs as a large, bright-blue van pulled up in the car park and a man and woman emerged, already dressed in wetsuits. Will waved at them and the couple began walking over.

  ‘That’s Harvey and Zara,’ Will said. ‘They pretty much live in the van, chasing the waves around the coast. And the van’s a surfer’s treasure chest. If you need to borrow it, they’ve got it. Harvey, Zara!’ Will stood and shook their hands. Cat pushed herself up and greeted them.

  ‘Good to meet you, Cat,’ Harvey said. He had a fuzzy ginger beard, some of the hairs close to blond, and his face was weather-worn and freckled. Zara was petite, with jet-black hair and porcelain skin that seemed unaffected by the sun. Her large eyes were dark grey.

  ‘You should try the waves some day,’ Harvey added, when Will explained that she was a dog walker, and had never been surfing.

  ‘What dog do you have?’ Zara asked, her eyes lighting up.

  ‘Oh, none of my own yet. It’s a bit complicated.’

  ‘Well, then you need to meet Paddlepuss.’ She turned and called back to the van. ‘Paddlepuss?’

  Cat watched as a small fawn pug jumped down from the back of the van and ran, as fast as his short legs could carry him, over to their group. His tiny, curled tail was wagging, and Cat dropped to her knees, let him lick her arms and rubbed the short fur between his ears.

  ‘Oh my God,’ she whispered, ‘he’s adorable. Why Paddlepuss?’

  ‘He’s only good with small waves,’ Harvey said, grinning. ‘Not a full surfer, yet.’

  ‘It’s a surfing term,’ Zara said, when Cat frowned. ‘For someone who stays in the shallows. Paddlepuss loves the waves, but he’s never going to be able to go too deep with those tiny legs.’ She looked down at him, and Cat could see the adoration in her eyes. She felt a sting of envy.

  ‘It’s a great name.’ Cat laughed as the pug danced in small circles and then went to sniff Alfie and Effie, who were standing close by, panting after their run.

  ‘If you ever want to have a go,’ Harvey said, pointing to the water, ‘we can kit you out. Just say the word.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Cat said, clipping the leads onto the retrievers. ‘I will.’

  ‘They seem nice,’ she said to Will, as Harvey and Zara went to get their surfboards, Paddlepuss trotting along behind them. ‘And what a lovely dog.’

  ‘They’re good guys. And as I said, everyone helps each other out – you can pretty much tell that just from saying hi.’

  ‘I can,’ Cat admitted. ‘So why don’t you let me try and help you?’

  ‘I’m sorry?’ Will asked.

  ‘Let me look after Alfie and Effie for a night. I’m three doors away – I could pop in regularly to check they were OK, walk them. Take Juliette away, somewhere without surfing and work phone calls and your dogs. Just the two of you. Talk to her properly.
If she understands it better, if you tell her how much all this means to you, maybe she’ll be more accepting.’

  ‘You’re happy to do that?’

  ‘More than happy. It’s easy for me, and it could make all the difference to you.’

  ‘God, Cat –’ Will ran his hand back through his hair – ‘that would be wonderful. Thank you. Now all I need to do is convince Juliette to leave her work iPhone at home and come away with me.’

  Cat left Will unstrapping his board from his car and took Alfie and Effie up along the cove, stopping at Capello’s Ice Cream Parlour. Despite the colder weather, they were still working to their longer opening hours, and Cat could see Frankie through the window. Not wanting to leave the dogs on their own she waved, and her friend came out to greet her.

  ‘Cat,’ she said, ‘it’s lovely to see you. And these guys!’ She gave each of the retrievers a hug. ‘How are things?’

  ’I can’t complain,’ Cat said. ‘How are the girls, and how’s Leyla settling in?’

  ‘Oh, Cat, Leyla’s a dream!’ Frankie shook her head. Even in her Neapolitan-coloured apron, Frankie still managed to retain her individuality, with a black T-shirt underneath and several thin braids running through her ponytail. ‘She’s friendly and polite, so clean, great with the kids. She’s already done babysitting duties, though one of Lizzie’s friend’s mums has got all four of them – Olaf included – for me today. Owen’s been so flexible about my hours, and the girls still can’t get over me working at an ice-cream parlour.’

  ‘You’re beaming,’ Cat laughed.

  ‘There’s a lot to beam about. Most of it down to you.’

  Cat waved her away. ‘I planted a seed, that’s all.’

  ‘You got my arse into gear, and I met Owen – and Leyla – through you and Polly. You don’t get how much you’ve helped out.’

  ‘I’m happy to,’ Cat said. ‘Truly. But I have come to ask you something else. I’m having a few drinks for Polly tonight at ours – she’s sitting her last exam right now – and I wondered if you wanted to come?’