was all she said, and when Harvey’s eyes came Daniel’s way it was clear he hadn’t been in on this little plan of hers either. ‘Your dad took enough away from us all,’ she lectured. ‘Don’t let him take away your relationship too.’
But sometimes Daniel wondered whether they were too late to save it. And maybe he did have the Luddington stubborn streak after all, because he wasn’t about to suck up to his brother if Harvey couldn’t be man enough to accept he’d changed and was back here with good intentions. And if Daniel didn’t cave, Harvey was unlikely to, and so they were at an impasse. An impasse not even the thrill of the Christmas season with all its twinkling decorations could push through.
Melissa came over with Harvey in tow and said an awkward hello but Daniel stepped forwards and hugged her. It wasn’t Melissa he had an issue with, after all. ‘Good to see you again – didn’t get much of a chance to talk in the pub the other night. How’s work been? I hear you’re in cabin crew now.’ He was rambling, but it was either that or the strong, silent treatment and something about his mum’s presence, knowing she’d been through a lot of shit with his dad and then with him going AWOL for so long, made him at least make an attempt to be civil.
Daniel sensed that his good mood after Lucy’s close company at the waffle shack was about to disappear when his mum went off chatting with Melissa, leaving the boys alone.
‘I didn’t know she was going to do this,’ he said to Harvey without looking at his brother. Both stood there, a couple of metres between them, as though their attention was solely on a tree.
‘What are you really doing back in the village, Daniel?’
‘What kind of a question is that?’ He turned and gestured to the shack behind them. ‘I think the shack kind of speaks for itself.’
‘But why here?’
‘This was my home as much as yours – you don’t own the Cove.’
‘Never said I did,’ Harvey huffed. ‘But wherever you go you bring trouble.’
With a sigh he admitted, ‘Once upon a time you would’ve been right.’
‘So, you’ve changed all of a sudden?’
‘Why is that so hard for you to accept?’
‘Experience.’
‘Your experience of me was a long time ago and even then we didn’t hang around with each other a whole lot, not in the end. You barely knew me before I left.’
Harvey’s voice went up an octave. ‘You’re right, I didn’t know you, you made it hard to do that.’ He reined it in when a couple next to them looked their way. ‘But I knew the things you did, the people you upset, including your own mother.’
‘Mum knows I made mistakes and yet she is giving me the benefit of the doubt. Not that she needs to, she can see I’m different to who I was back then. You know, sometimes it’s as though you had to endure our dad and I didn’t, as though you were the only one suffering.’
Harvey pushed his hands into his pockets when blowing on them seemed to do no good in holding off the December chill. ‘I never thought that.’
‘Maybe not.’ He crumpled the polystyrene cup when he’d finished his mulled wine but it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as he’d hoped it might be. ‘But you think I’m just like him, don’t you?’
‘Dad?’ Harvey shook his head. ‘I hope to God you’re not.’
‘I don’t bully women and kids so there’s no comparison.’
‘I know.’ Harvey’s admission startled Daniel into silence. ‘I don’t think you’re like him at all, but he brought trouble and then you did. I suppose that’s where the comparison lies for me.’
‘Yeah, well, thanks to friends I’ve made along the way, I pulled myself out of a pretty dismal existence and I think I’m of good character now. But I don’t suppose you’re interested in hearing about any of that.’ Harvey seemed stunned at his claims. His mum knew what Daniel had been through, how he’d got from there to here, but he’d asked her not to share it with anyone, including his brother. He wanted to make peace on his own terms, not for Harvey to feel sorry for him and that be the measure by which he was judged for who he was now.
Daniel waited to see if his brother would ask more but when he didn’t, he walked away. The silence was even worse than