‘Ruby?’ I prompted when she didn’t answer. ‘Ruby?’
She turned her head and seemed to take a few moments to register where she was. ‘Oh, it’s you, darling. Did you ask something?’
‘I asked whether you were skipping breakfast this morning.’
‘I’m not really hungry.’
I bent down by the Christmas tree and switched the fairy lights on. ‘You’ve got to eat. You’ll be nothing but a bag of bones in that gorgeous bridesmaid dress if you start skipping meals.’
‘That Iris Davies is getting me a yoghurt. If she remembers, that is. She’s so giddy these days, I wouldn’t be surprised if she brought me a used teabag instead.’ Even though she’d cracked a joke, Ruby didn’t smile. Instead she turned and gazed out the window again.
‘You look like you could do with some fresh air. Should I get your coat for a wander round the garden?’
‘I don’t want to keep you from your work and get you into trouble.’
‘Keep me from my work? What do I always say my number one priority is?’
Ruby smiled at last. It was a weak one, but it was a starting point. ‘Making the residents happy.’
‘Exactly. And right now, my favourite resident doesn’t look happy, but Rhys has made something for the garden that I know will make you smile. Shall I get your coat and boots?’
I linked arms with Ruby as we set off down the pathway. Rhys and his team had made great progress in the gardens, creating gentle slopes with wooden handrails to help the residents who weren’t so steady on their feet, with seating at regular intervals. He’d carefully chosen colours, smells and textures to facilitate a journey for the senses.
‘So, are you going to tell me what’s going on?’ I asked after we’d walked down the first slope in silence.
‘I don’t regret telling you about Teddy but it’s churned up so many memories and I suppose the upshot is that I want to see him.’
I nearly squealed with excitement. ‘Teddy?’
‘For goodness’ sake, Callie. Did you not listen to a word I said in York? Teddy’s in the past. Done. Forgotten. Well, not forgotten, obviously, but definitely in the past.’
‘Then who…?’
‘Edward. I want to see my son.’
I stopped walking. ‘Really? But…’
‘I know, darling. You don’t have to say it. He hates me and never wants to see me.’
I thought back to Ed’s aggression when Rhys and I had visited, culminating in our swift ejection from his home. ‘Maybe Rhys could ask him again?’ I could hear the doubt in my voice.
Ruby indicated that we should carry on walking. ‘No. I can’t ask him to do that.’
‘I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.’
She shook her head. ‘He doesn’t say much about his father, but I’ve been on this planet long enough to pick things up. I can tell that their relationship is strained. I’m not going to do ask him to do anything to damage it further.’
‘So what’s your plan?’
Ruby sighed. ‘That’s what I was trying to work out when you found me in the lounge just now. I’m thinking I might write to Edward. He’ll probably tear it up, but I feel I need to try. If I do write, will you read it before I send it?’
‘If you’d like me to.’
‘I would.’ She patted my hand. ‘You’re a good girl, Callie. Now what did you want to show me in the garden?’
I smiled at Ruby’s way of changing the conversation, making a very firm statement that the original subject matter was closed. For now, anyway. ‘It’s at the bottom, overlooking the sea.’
We made our way down to a wooden bench, lovingly crafted by Rhys from driftwood. I led Ruby to the front so she could see the dedication. Reggie’s name was carved into the middle of the backrest, above a heart-shaped cut-out, and the names of his closest friends at Bay View were carved across the rest of the backrest in smaller letters.
Ruby gasped and her hand went to her mouth. ‘Oh my goodness. That’s… that’s… oh, it’s so beautiful.’
I remained silent, watching the emotions flicker across her face.
‘Oh my goodness,’ she said again. ‘Did Rhys really make this?’
I nodded. ‘The driftwood came from local beaches and he’s been working on it for weeks. He toyed with a grand unveiling but we decided that it would be more meaningful for the residents if we spread the word and let them visit in their own time with their own thoughts.’
‘I think that’s a good decision, darling.’ Ruby perched on the bench and ran her fingers along the names, then looked up at me, a warm smile finally lighting her face. ‘Reggie would have loved this. And it’s in his favourite spot.’
I sat beside her. ‘I know. Mine too. When I think of him, it’s always to picture him either producing sherbet lemons out of my ears or sitting down here with his crossword puzzle and never getting more than two or three clues completed because he couldn’t stop gazing at the view.’ And who could blame him? It really was stunning.
The wind whipped my hair and I noticed Ruby shivering. ‘I don’t think the weather’s quite as nice as the view today. Time to retreat?’
I helped Ruby to her feet and we made our way back inside.
‘Ah! There you are.’ Iris held up two yoghurts. ‘You said raspberry but they had vanilla too. I know how much you love vanilla and they hardly ever have it so I brought you both.’
Not a used teabag in sight, then. I raised an eyebrow at Ruby who smiled.
‘Thank you, Iris. That’s very kind of you. Would you like to join me in the lounge for a cup of tea while I eat them?’
‘That would be lovely.’
‘Is William coming over?’ Ruby asked.
‘Not until this afternoon.’
‘Do you think he could come over this morning? There’s something in the garden that I’d like to show you both.’ Ruby turned to me. ‘Can we keep it quiet until they’ve seen it?’
‘Of course. I’ll leave you ladies to it.’
I headed towards the office feeling warm and fuzzy. It had definitely been a good decision not to make a big thing about the bench. How lovely that Ruby wanted to personally show it to Iris and William. Hopefully that would keep her mind occupied and that smile on her face for the morning at least, because writing to Rhys’s dad was guaranteed to make that smile slip.
33
‘Argh!’ Iris crumpled up a piece of paper and tossed it towards the bin the following afternoon.
I poured her a cup of tea and made my way to the large table in the corner of the residents’ lounge, which we used for games and activities. ‘I’m pretty certain you can buy confetti,’ I said, nodding towards the balls of paper on the table and floor. ‘You don’t have to create your own, you know.’
Iris took the cup of tea and sighed. ‘I was only nineteen when I married my Walter. I’d forgotten how much goes into organising the big day.’
I sat beside her. ‘What are you trying to do?’
‘The place cards. I bought some scented pinecones and I want to slot each guest’s name into the top of one to make the place settings a bit more festive.’
‘Sounds lovely.’
‘It would be if my writing wasn’t worse than a small child’s. I used to have beautiful handwriting, but the arthritis makes it hard to hold a pen.’ She picked up a packet of cream cardboard rectangles with scalloped edges. ‘Just as well I decided to practise on paper first or I’d have wasted all of these.’
‘I can do calligraphy,’ I said. ‘I don’t mind writing them, unless you’re particularly wanting to do them yourself.’
Iris grasped my hand. ‘Goodness, no. I’m more than happy to delegate. I had no idea you could do that.’
I shrugged. ‘I haven’t done any for ages so I might need a few practice goes, but I’m sure it’ll soon come back. My brother bought me a kit for Christmas when I was fifteen and it became an obsession for a while.’
‘Are you sure you have the time?’
‘Hand them over. It’ll be a pleasure. I’ll need some new ink but I can nip into town when I finish at four and start on them tonight.’
‘That would be a godsend. Thank you so much.’ She handed me the cards and a list of names. ‘I’ll give you some money for the ink before you go.’
I shook my head. ‘You’ll do no such thing. I won’t do them if you try to pay me so you can stop shaking your head right now. Would you like black ink or would you like me to do a colour? Perhaps a forest-green to be Christmassy?’
‘Forest-green would be wonderful. Thank you so much.’
Standing up, I slipped the packet of cards into the pocket of my tabard. ‘Where’s Ruby, by the way? She’s usually down here well before the tea trolley arrives.’
‘In her room writing a letter, I think.’
My stomach did a somersault. ‘Did she say who she was writing to?’
‘I don’t think so, but I did think it a bit odd. Ruby never writes letters.’
The door opened and the residents started filing in for their afternoon tea. I returned to the trolley to serve them but my mind was on Ruby and her difficult letter to Ed. Sadly, I expected she was right and it would go straight into the bin or on the fire and the words she’d likely have agonised over for hours would go un-read.
When I finished my shift shortly after four, I slipped out of the building and caught the bus into town. I finally remembered to nip into the cobbler’s to get a set of keys cut for Rhys then headed for Bay Books on Castle Street.
At closing time, I left the bookshop, with three paperbacks and two pots of ink. Peering into my bag, I smiled. I couldn’t wait to get started on the place settings and maybe delve into one of the paperbacks before bedtime.
‘Careful!’
I stopped just in time to avoid colliding with a heavily pregnant woman.
‘Maria?’
‘Jesus!’ she cried. ‘You’re everywhere. Leave me alone.’
‘I’m not stalking you. I needed to get some things from the bookshop.’ I lifted my branded paper bag to prove it although we were right by the door so she had to have seen me coming out. ‘How’s it going? How’s the baby?’
‘Like you care.’
‘I do care.’
With a shake of her head, she turned and strode towards the main precinct.
‘Maria! Wait.’
She stopped and spun round to face me. ‘Seriously, Callie, just leave it. We’ve got nothing to say to each other anymore. I know I hurt you but you could have destroyed my life. You got me sacked and I came this close to being evicted.’
‘I swear it wasn’t me. I just—’
‘You just want to interfere, like always,’ boomed a male voice.
Crap! Tony.
‘What are you doing with her?’ Tony demanded of Maria. ‘Don’t tell me you’re best friends again?’
‘Not after what she did. And what are you doing here? I thought you were meant to be in Liverpool.’
Liverpool? Very likely a lie. Squirming, I tightened my grip on my bag and started to move round them but Tony stepped into my path.
‘Move!’ I demanded, trying to sidestep him.
‘I’m glad I bumped into you,’ he said. ‘So you and gardening boy are over, then?’
My stomach somersaulted. ‘No, not that it’s any of your business.’
‘You’re still together? Interesting. Well, I suppose women are often attracted to a certain type. Obviously your type isn’t monogamous.’ He laughed as he grabbed Maria’s arm. ‘Come on. I’m starving.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ I called after them, finally finding my voice.
Tony turned round, a sickly grin on his face. ‘Long blonde hair? Cracking figure? Baby girl?’
Izzy. A wave of nausea hit me and I had to lean against a shop window to stop myself from slumping to the ground. I gulped the cold air. Blurred figures with armfuls of shopping bags drifted past me, revealing glimpses of fairy lights in the shop windows opposite, like a kaleidoscope of colour in my darkening world. No. Tony was lying. It was his way of getting revenge on me for messing up his life, despite the fact that it was him who’d done that spectacularly without my help. Rhys was nothing like Tony. I trusted him implicitly. Thing was, I didn’t trust Izzy and I wouldn’t have put it past her to try something on with Rhys. Tony had obviously seen them together to be able to describe her and to know she had a baby. Maybe he’d seen Izzy making a move. Or maybe he’d simply seen them together and decided it was the perfect way to wind me up.
Catching the bus home ten minutes later, I still felt shaky. I hated that Tony continued to have power over me. At least Rhys would be at the flat when I got back. I’d tell him about my confrontation and he’d reassure me that Tony was the liar that I knew he was, and everything would be fine.
The flat was in complete darkness. Where was Rhys? Why hadn’t he called? I took out my phone. On silent. Three missed calls and a voicemail. I dialled into my messages: ‘Hi Callie, it’s me. I didn’t want to leave a message but I can’t get hold of you. Izzy’s not feeling well. She says she’s not up to looking after Megan on her own and has asked me to stay over. I’m really sorry. I love you.’
Tossing my phone onto the sofa, I clenched my fists. No way was she ill. It was another of her ridiculous games. What was wrong with the woman? I dashed around the room, flicking on all the fairy lights in an effort to cheer myself up, then changed into my fleecy PJs and flung myself onto the sofa. My stomach rumbled and I groaned. Rhys was supposed to be picking up something for dinner.
Rolling off the sofa, I opened the kitchen cupboard and curled my lip at the empty shelves. Anyone for pasta? I had shells, bows, spirals and spaghetti, but nothing to accompany them.
I pushed my bowl aside fifteen minutes later. Urgh. Pasta with baked beans was definitely not a taste sensation.
My phone started ringing. It was so tempting to ignore Rhys and continue to sulk, but it wasn’t his fault I’d had an encounter with Tony and it wasn’t his fault he’d had one with Izzy.
‘Oh, thank God!’ he said when I answered. ‘I was beginning to think you’d been kidnapped by aliens.’
‘I switched my phone to silent earlier and forgot to switch it back. I got your message. Is she ill?’
He lowered his voice. ‘She looks a bit pale and she’s quieter than usual.’
‘Not ill, though?’
‘I ... well, I couldn’t be sure. She says she was sick before I got here.’
‘And you believe her?’
‘I want to believe her.’ That was so like Rhys, wanting to see the best in people, but it also told me that he didn’t believe her because he’d have told me outright if he did. I wanted to tell him about Tony and Maria but was that fair? He was committed to staying at Izzy’s and I was going to place him in a difficult position if I insisted on him coming home to comfort me. And what if she really was ill? I was ninety-nine per cent certain she wasn’t, but that nagging one per cent was enough to keep my mouth shut.
‘It’s probably just as well you’re not here,’ I said, brightening my voice. ‘I’ve volunteered to write some place cards for Iris’s wedding so I wouldn’t have been much company.’ What I really meant was that I was glad I had a distraction from thinking about him and Izzy, alone together, all night. I trusted Rhys. I did. Yet I’d trusted Tony too and look how that had turned out.
34
I barely slept. Every time I closed my eyes, I either pictured Rhys with Izzy or imagined Tony cornering me. Lying in the darkness in the early hours, every creak of the building had me flicking on the light, scrambling out of bed to check the locks, and peering nervously into dark corners.
I hated that Tony made me feel unsafe in my lovely flat. Maybe it was time to move. He could still track me down at work but at least he wouldn’t know where I lived. Where would I go, though? Moving in with Rhys was the obvious choice, but he rented a room off a friend who was always polite but managed to sli
p in little comments that made it clear that it was his house and overnight visitors were tolerated occasionally but certainly not welcomed or appreciated. Mind you, if Rhys was cheating on me with Izzy, then moving in with him wouldn’t be an option anyway because we wouldn’t be together; there was no way I’d tolerate infidelity. I shook my head to dislodge the thought. Rhys was not cheating on me. He’d never do that.
I wondered whether to call the police and tell them about Tony, but what could I say? Bumping into him outside Bay Books had been pure coincidence. Other than that, there’d been one text and a kerb-crawling incident in the space of a month. It didn’t exactly spell out a pattern of him harassing me, did it?
At about 4.30 a.m., I gave up on sleep and curled up on the sofa with a cup of tea and a documentary about the increasing popularity of knitting; anything to take my mind off Rhys and Izzy, Tony, and Maria. I must have drifted off eventually because I woke up a couple of hours later with a crick in my neck, icy-cold feet, and a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach that one or both of the situations was about to come to a head.
My shift wasn’t due to start until two that afternoon but I decided to go in an hour early to give Iris the place cards and to see if I could catch up with Rhys. Iris and Ruby were coming out of the dining room, arm in arm, as I entered the building.
‘Did you manage to get some ink last night?’ Iris asked after we’d exchanged greetings.
‘I did one better than that.’ I indicated that we should go into the residents’ lounge and pulled an envelope out of my bag when they’d both sat down. ‘All done.’
‘All of them?’ Iris opened the envelope. ‘Oh my goodness, they’re beautiful. Such accomplished penmanship.’ She showed them to Ruby and they both gushed about how talented I was.
‘Thank you so very much, my dear,’ Iris said. ‘But I wasn’t expecting you to drop everything and do them all last night. Didn’t you have plans with your young man?’
‘We did, but his evil bitch of an ex decided to interfere yet again and, of course, Rhys put her first like he always does.’ I flinched at their shocked expressions and no wonder. I’d never heard such venom in my voice before.
Making Wishes at Bay View Page 17
