I can afford it. We’d be doing each other a favor.’ He paused. ‘James was my only child. What else am I supposed to do with my money?’
Ellie nodded. ‘I know, and I’m grateful. But… it just feels like too much.’
‘OK, how about this then? Say I buy the flat anyway. And you don’t move in, and squatters take over the place, and they wreck it and cause all kinds of trouble and end up bringing down the whole neighborhood.’ He shrugged. ‘If that happens, it’ll be all your fault. Everyone in Primrose Hill will hate you.’
She smiled. ‘No pressure, then. Um, can I meet you downstairs in a couple of minutes? I’d just like to… have another look around on my own.’
Tony followed the estate agent down the stairs. She knew she was being ridiculous, but it was something she just needed to double-check. Ellie closed her eyes, concentrated hard, then opened them again.
‘Oh ye of little faith,’ said an amused voice behind her.
Turning, she saw Jamie leaning against the closed living-room door. White shirt, clean jeans, arms crossed, head shaking in good-natured disbelief.
Oh, thank God.
‘Did you seriously think I wouldn’t turn up?’
She exhaled with relief. ‘I just wanted to make sure.’
‘Well, I’m here.’ He spread his arms. ‘Ta-daaa!’
‘Your dad’s been amazing.’
‘I know. He gets it from me.’
Ellie searched his face. ‘So what do you think?’
‘About this place? It’s fantastic.’
‘Should I say yes, then?’
‘I think you’d be stupid to say no,’ said Jamie.
Which was cheating really, because the words were coming from her brain. She was making him say them.
Oh well. He didn’t seem to mind.
‘Right then.’ She nodded. ‘I’m going to do it.’
Jamie winked and gave her the kind of encouraging smile she missed the most. ‘Good.’
Chapter 5
‘God, look at this place, it’s like a dream come true, you’re so lucky… oh no! Sorry!’ Paula clapped her hands over her mouth. ‘I’ve done it again, you’re not lucky at all. Ow.’
‘From now on, every time you say sorry I’m going to have to hit you over the head with a cushion.’ Ellie put the gray velvet cushion back on the sofa and gave it a little house-proud pat. Had it only been a month since she’d come along with Tony and seen the flat for the first time? But that was the power of cold hard cash for you; with no need for a mortgage, Tony had simply put his solicitors on to it and the sale had gone through in record time.
And now here she was in her new home, surrounded by packing cases and so far not missing the old Hammersmith flat at all.
Well, it had only been three hours.
‘OK, tell me what to do.’ Paula made a show of rolling up her sleeves and looking efficient. ‘I want to help. Shall we start on these?’ Without waiting for an answer, she ripped the tape off one of the boxes and said, ‘Just let me know where you want everything to go… oh… oh no, are these Jamie’s?’ Appalled, she hurriedly bundled the armful of shirts and sweaters back into the box. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it! I didn’t know!’
Paula left at five. Between them they had done a fair amount of unpacking, and it had been kind of her to give up her day off to come over and help. Ellie was grateful, but it had also been kind of exhausting. Emotional, soft-hearted Paula had welled up on three separate occasions. Unwrapping a silver photo frame containing a picture of Ellie and Jamie on their honeymoon in Cornwall, she’d wailed, ‘Oh God, how can you bear it?’
Watching from the bedroom doorway as Ellie had packed some of Jamie’s favorite clothes away at the back of the wardrobe, she had declared tremulously, ‘I don’t know how you cope.’
And when she heard about Ellie having lugged three bags of Jamie’s belongings down to the charity shop, she had wiped her streaming eyes and hiccupped, ‘Oh, Ell, you’re so brave.’
Like she had any choice. Ellie had found herself, not for the first time, having to comfort Paula.
Not even for the hundredth time, come to that.
***
The next morning Ellie didn’t wake up until gone eleven, partly because she was exhausted but chiefly because her alarm clock was still packed away in one of the boxes she hadn’t got round to tackling yet. The good news was that she had three days off work, so it didn’t matter. In her white terry-cloth dressing gown, she sipped a mug of