‘I had no choice, Ed. I wouldn’t have been able to cope at all without Greg; you’ve been away, then Lauren had to go. He’s been amazing.’
Greg’s eyes darted in her direction.
‘Actually, I nearly lost my job coming here—’ he began.
‘Greg! I didn’t know that.’ Maddie frowned at him.
‘It’s fine, we’re just very-short staffed at the centre, but I couldn’t just leave you like this, could I?’ And with that Greg pushed past Maddie and Ed and walked out the front door.
*
An hour later, Maddie and Ed were sitting on the sofa watching some old film, neither of them with the energy to discuss things any further. They had avoided the subject because Maddie realised he was tired, emotional and had just got off a fourteen-hour flight. They’d kept to how the blessing had gone, Ed had shown her a few more photos, explained that Adity was staying a bit longer as her granny was on assisted breathing now; the doctors had said days apparently, he sighed. They discussed the flight, how he was making a trip to Exeter later in the month. Ed had opened some cans of tomato soup as she’d attempted to put a brush through her hair.
She glanced out at the garden, at the newly cut grass and the freshly weeded borders, the last rays of sun spreading its fingers along the wooden fence, and she bit her lip. The two people I love the most in the world are at loggerheads. She sighed, turning the volume up on the TV. They sat with soup and toast on trays together, with Taffie curled up by their feet, staring at the TV, but neither of them watching it.
62
A couple of weeks had passed and she hadn’t heard a jot from Greg. She’d gone back to the café to work a few part-time shifts. It looked like Lauren wasn’t coming back from the States – her mum was too ill – and Sue needed the help. Ed had been pottering about at the cottage. He’d fixed the old shed, but seemed to be allergic to weeding or cutting the grass. He had also taken a trip to Exeter to look at accommodation for him and Adity and visited the university bookstore to buy some of his course books, which had been had more expensive than he’d realised, plus he’d had to put a deposit on a flat. His money from his odd jobs travelling was drying up. He’d been stomping around the kitchen making a cup of tea, after his bank rejected his overdraft application earlier that morning.
Maddie couldn’t afford to give him much money She frowned. Her wages just about paid for her food every week. She was being cautious with the money Olive had left her. Maybe when she sold Maris Cottage there would be enough to give Ed a bit of a hand with his university costs, but then there would be his student loan to pay off, too. Damn Tim, she thought, remembering all her savings that had been squandered.
‘I need to get a job, something around here,’ Ed had mumbled to her that morning.
‘I’ll look at the noticeboard at the café,’ she’d said as she left. He’d been hunched over his computer on his bed and he looked up from his screen. ‘Adity’s coming back next month and we need a month’s rent in advance for that bedsit.’
Later, as Maddie was wiping down some surfaces at the café counter and rearranging the day’s baking – fairy cakes with swirls of creamy vanilla icing; cream eclairs, which made her smile, thinking of Olive; generous squares of homemade millionaire shortbread with a thick layer of toffee; a stunning thick Victoria sponge – she heard the little bell on the door go and looked up. A man she vaguely recognised from the sailing club who’d been at Olive’s blessing walked in, wearing pink shorts and a jaunty, striped polo neck. He was in his late forties probably, with sunglasses round his neck on a string.
‘Hello, what can I get you?’ Maddie beamed as he came up to the counter.
‘Ooh, these look nice – let’s have an eclair and a cappuccino, thanks.’
Maddie started to warm the milk for the coffee and put an eclair on one of her hummingbird plates and took it over.
‘Weren’t you at Olive’s funeral?’ the man said, taking the plate from her.
‘Yes. I, erm, scattered the ashes.’
‘Oh, I remember.’ The man smiled. ‘And these were her favourites.’ He pointed to his eclair.