The Summer Guest Page 10

  ‘That’s not the welcome I was hoping for,’ he said, pulling his fingers through his jet-black oiled quiff. ‘I’m a single man. I’d like to ask you out on a date.’

  Kathleen’s heart was doing flips in her chest. She knew if she let go of her grasp on the door she’d begin to tremble. ‘I’ll consider it,’ she said. ‘When were you thinking of?’

  ‘How about now?’ he answered. ‘No time like the present, huh?’

  ‘How did you find my house?’ she asked coyly, playing for time.

  ‘I asked your cousin Maeve,’ he said proudly. ‘I told her I was smitten with you and I needed to find you.’

  Kathleen giggled. Jackson hopped from one foot to the other, jingling change in his trouser pocket. ‘So, what do you say, Kathleen?’ he asked. ‘Will you come out with me?’

  She couldn’t think of anything she’d like more. Glancing over his shoulder she spied a shiny sky blue Buick parked at the kerb.

  ‘I’ll drive you wherever you want to go,’ he added.

  ‘I can’t tonight,’ she said evenly.

  ‘Tomorrow, then,’ he shot back.

  Her smile was the only answer he required. ‘I’ll be back same time tomorrow. You won’t regret it!’ he had called over his shoulder as he ran to his car.

  By the time the DART pulled up at Caracove Bay, Kathleen was feeling tired and emotional. She’d have given anything to have Jackson waiting for her in that Buick right now.

  She got out of the train and began to walk towards the hotel. When she saw a newsagent, she grabbed a postcard from the stand outside, probably the cheesiest one available, and went inside to pay for it. Then she found a bench looking out to sea, sat down and fished a pen out of her bag.

  My Dearest Jackson

  Today was wonderful. I took a train to Howth by the sea. You would’ve laughed till you cried if you’d seen me. I tried to mingle with some gorgeous Japanese tourists. Yes, I got caught and made a total fool of myself for a change!

  I met a lovely man by the name of Rodger. I’m guessing he’s around our age. He was so kind and friendly that I asked for his number. I hope he didn’t take it the wrong way. I forget that people do things differently around these parts. I think I may have put my foot in it. What’s new? I love you and miss you. I wish you were here.

  Your loving wife x x

  Chapter 11

  Lexie’s feet hurt. She’d had an unexpectedly busy day at the gallery. Still, she mused, she ought to know by now that sunshine brought people out in droves. As she locked the main door to the gallery she was just in time to catch Larry at the fishmonger’s before he shut up shop too.

  ‘Talk about cutting it fine!’ she said, as he beckoned her in.

  He flicked the lights back on and made his way around the counter. ‘I’ve nothing out on display, Lexie. It’s all in the cold room. What had you in mind?’

  ‘What’s good today?’ she asked.

  ‘Everything, of course,’ he joked. ‘I’ve a few queen scallops left, if you think Sam deserves a starter this evening.’

  ‘Delicious! Have you enough for three? We’ve a guest joining us.’

  ‘I’ll have a look now. After that I’ve black sole, which I know you both adore.’

  ‘Done!’ Lexie said. ‘I’ll take a bunch of your asparagus and two lemons as well.’

  ‘No bother,’ he called, from inside the cold room. ‘You’re in luck.’ He emerged smiling. ‘I’ve exactly nine scallops left. Three each tossed in garlic butter with a bit of crusty bread and you’ll be in seventh heaven!’

  ‘You’re a star,’ Lexie said. ‘We’ve a lovely American lady with us tonight. She used to live in our house when she was a child.’

  ‘Is she single?’ Larry asked, leaning over the counter hopefully.

  ‘No!’ Lexie giggled. ‘You’re incorrigible! Besides, I thought you were besotted with my mother, God help us all.’

  ‘Ah, your mother is a fine woman,’ he said, gazing into the middle distance. ‘But so far that’s a real case of unrequited love.’

  ‘Well, you haven’t seen my American lady yet.’ Lexie laughed. ‘But perhaps she mightn’t be your type.’

  ‘Lexie …’ He paused and clasped his hands together around his rotund belly. ‘Do you think I’d be fussy? As long as she’s halfway mobile and has a strong pulse, that’ll do me.’

  Lexie paid him for the fish and veggies, then set off for home. Poor Larry had been openly hunting for a wife since the day she’d met him, twenty years before. Penelope barely tolerated him, which upset and embarrassed Lexie at times. ‘He’s crass and loud. I don’t appreciate him waddling out from behind his counter and trying to kiss my hand,’ Penelope complained.

  ‘You take him too seriously, Mum,’ Lexie said, with a grin. ‘He’s a decent old soul. Don’t be offensive – please.’

  ‘He might come in handy if I pop my clogs,’ Reggie said.

  ‘Reggie! I’m not finding this conversation amusing. Can we drop it?’

  Tiddles was waiting on the doorstep when Lexie got home. He miaowed and rubbed against her legs furiously. ‘That’s a lovely furry welcome,’ she said, scooping him up and nuzzling her nose into his furry head. ‘You’re looking very handsome in your stripy tights today.’ She unlocked the door and brought him inside.

  She’d only just put the fish in the fridge when Sam arrived in behind her.

  ‘Hey!’ she said, walking out to the hall to kiss him. ‘You’re earlier than usual.’

  ‘I was at a meeting just outside town and made a management decision to bunk off early.’

  ‘Good for you. I got yummy scallops and black sole from Larry for supper.’

  ‘Excellent,’ he said. ‘Did he declare his undying love for Penelope again?’ Sam loosened his tie.

  ‘He was more interested in hearing about Kathleen. I’d say he’d be here now if I’d suggested it. I did point out that she’s married, but you know Larry.’

  ‘Speaking of which, what time are we expecting her?’

  ‘I said around seven thirty,’ Lexie said. ‘You’ve loads of time – it’s only just gone six.’

  ‘Fantastic. Just what I wanted to hear,’ he said, as he picked her up and kissed her firmly on the mouth. ‘Is something wrong?’ Moments later, Sam pulled back. ‘You seem distracted.’

  ‘I know. I’m sorry. It’s just …’ Lexie hesitated. ‘I need your reassurance on something.’

  ‘Okay, shoot,’ he said, mildly perplexed.

  ‘My mother has invaded my thoughts,’ she continued. ‘Lately she’s been probing about whether or not we’re going to finally start a family.’

  ‘Ah, I see,’ Sam said, nodding. ‘And what conclusion have you come to post-invasion?’

  Lexie stared at him, trying desperately to read his mind.

  ‘Hello?’ he said, waving his hand in front of her face. ‘I know we’re compatible and soul-mates and all that, but I’m not a mentalist, Lexie!’

  ‘I’m worried about saying the wrong thing,’ she confessed.

  ‘To me?’ he said incredulously. ‘Come on. I think you know me better than that.’

  ‘I know neither of us wants babies, and that’s what we always said, but I’m going to have to be really direct with my mother to get her off my back once and for all.’

  ‘What kind of stuff is she saying?’ Sam asked.

  ‘Ah, the usual, that we’ll regret it if we allow the window of opportunity to slip by. She keeps pointing out how much we both adore Amélie and Calvin, yadda yadda yadda. You know the drill.’ Lexie waited but Sam didn’t reply.

  ‘Sam?’ she stared at him. He averted his gaze. ‘Sam, talk to me,’ she said. ‘You are still on the same page as me on this, right?’

  ‘Sure,’ he said eventually.

  ‘So why don’t I believe you all of a sudden?’

  ‘I …’ He pulled his fingers through his hair and blew out air noisily. ‘Maybe …’ He looked at her. ‘Don’t blow a gasket here, okay?
But maybe your mother has a point, what with the window and time passing and all that …’

  His words hung in the air, like thick black smoke, chilling her to the bone.

  ‘How about we mull it over for the next week?’ he suggested, and smiled.

  ‘What?’ She burst out laughing.

  ‘I’m being deadly serious here, Lexie,’ he said. She realised his smile was nervous. ‘I’d like you to spend the next week being aware of children and babies as you go about your business.’

  ‘You’re cracked, do you know that?’

  ‘Maybe,’ he conceded, ‘but this could be a very useful exercise for us both. Let’s take the week to observe children and look at whether or not we feel we’d like one of our own.’

  ‘Can we go to Argos and buy one on sale or return?’

  ‘You’re not taking me seriously,’ he said, with an astonishing sadness in his voice.

  ‘Give me a break, Sam. This is bananas!’

  ‘Can you indulge me, please?’ he begged. ‘I need this exercise so I can make up my mind too.’

  ‘Okay, your wish is my command,’ she said, holding up her hands in defeat.

  Lexie felt sick. At that moment Sam might as well have told her he’d been having an affair, she felt so slighted. They’d agreed! This issue was set in stone, as far as she was concerned. Why in the name of God was he suddenly back-pedalling?

  ‘We can say what we feel to one another, right?’ Sam was asking anxiously.

  ‘Pardon?’ she asked, playing for time as she attempted to hide her shock.

  ‘We can have a discussion and explore this thought process together, can’t we?’

  ‘Of course,’ she said, forcing a smile. ‘Sure we can. And don’t forget we’ve got Calvin’s party on Sunday. There’ll be lots of children there. We could go the whole hog and imagine it’s our child’s party, if you like.’

  ‘Are you angry with me?’ Sam said.

  ‘No!’ she said, sounding a little high-pitched. ‘I’m just trying to get into the swing of the experiment, that’s all.’

  ‘Good for you,’ he said, clearly relaxing. ‘I was chatting to Josh earlier and he said Maia’s going all out. I think she’s having a game of Freak the Neighbours, actually. She’s pretty much booked an entire fun fair for the day.’

  ‘I know,’ Lexie said, with a genuine smile at the thought of her best friend’s plans. ‘When Maia decides she’s doing something, she goes for it hammer and tongs.’

  ‘Okay, I’m having a shower,’ Sam said, heading upstairs. ‘Then I’ll go down to the basement and make sure it’s okay to show Kathleen.’

  Sam normally enjoyed singing very loudly in the shower. He knew he was tone deaf, but Lexie would either come in and join him, just to shut him up, or bellow up the stairs that he ought to be muzzled.

  Today he wasn’t in the mood for acting like a goon.

  This baby-talk was a bit odd. He could see that Lexie was uncomfortable with it. But he was fairly certain she was only being so negative because of her mother. The two women rubbed each other up the wrong way. Always had. Sam simply wanted to be sure she wasn’t denying both of them the opportunity to become parents just to spite Penelope.

  Lexie knew she needed to prepare dinner but she was rooted to the spot, lost in her own astonished thoughts. What was going on in Sam’s head? Had her mother got to him? Had he been brainwashed by his friends?

  She glanced towards the stairs and noticed the silence. Sam wasn’t murdering some poor song in the shower. Clearly he was on the fence with all this. Spooked. That was it. All she had to do was bide her time and they’d have a frank discussion about the fact that neither of them had changed their minds and that would be that.

  As she began to prepare dinner Lexie forced herself to partake in Sam’s proposed game. She owed him that. She needed to ensure she was being honest when they had the defining chat.

  She looked down at her flat, toned tummy. Would she welcome stretch marks and a bulging belly? Would she love a baby the way she was expected to? Would she have the patience to nurture and teach a tiny person all the things he or she needed to know? What if the baby had something wrong with it? She thought back to the days following Calvin’s birth. Maia was amazing now – she adored Calvin and said he was her saviour – but Lexie couldn’t help remembering how devastating it had been in the beginning. So many conflicting thoughts zoomed around her head she almost felt nauseous by the time Sam appeared in his favourite Hollister shorts and T-shirt. Lexie had boiled tiny new potatoes, mixed them with mayonnaise and garlicky French dressing and sliced some thin ribbons of cucumber into a separate bowl.

  ‘I’m keeping it very simple,’ she said. ‘I don’t want Kathleen to think we’re too formal. If she’s to consider staying in the basement, I’d like her to feel at home.’

  ‘Good plan, Lex,’ he said, showing no sign of his pre-shower tension. ‘I’m going down to have a scout around. Call me when she arrives.’ He went out through the front door.

  They’d once been able to access the basement via the back of the staircase, but it had been blocked off for years.

  Lexie marvelled at how easily Sam could drop an emotional grenade, compartmentalise it and carry on as normal. She, however, needed to look less like a rabbit in the headlights, with Kathleen on the way, so she put a CD into the stereo and hummed along to Carole King. Her music therapy worked: she became so engrossed in singing the haunting tune, ironically called ‘It’s Too Late’, that she didn’t notice Kathleen arriving.

  ‘Hello?’ Kathleen called. ‘I hope I’m not barging in. The door was on the latch and I rang the bell twice.’

  ‘Sorry,’ Lexie cried. ‘I was having a Carole moment!’

  ‘So I heard.’ Kathleen gave her a box of handmade chocolates.

  ‘Ooh, delicious! Thank you, Kathleen, you shouldn’t have.’ She kissed the older woman on both cheeks and ushered her into the kitchen. She was genuinely happy to see Kathleen because she liked her a lot, but Lexie couldn’t help feeling relieved that she was there: the strange atmosphere between herself and Sam might dissipate. ‘Wine?’

  ‘Yes, please,’ she said. ‘Is Sam still at work?’

  ‘He’s down in the basement. Let’s bring him a glass of wine and you can have a look around.’

  ‘I’d love to.’ Kathleen smiled.

  Moments later they joined Sam, who was fiddling with a light bulb.

  ‘Hey, Kathleen,’ he said, jumping off a chair. ‘There are a few things that might need fixing if you decide to move in.’

  ‘Hi, Sam,’ she said. ‘I can’t see many things myself, and it’s so much brighter than I was expecting.’

  ‘We painted it all cream and added those glass double doors leading onto the yard to optimise the natural light,’ Lexie explained, as she handed Sam a glass of wine. ‘But, as you can see, it’s just an empty shell.’

  The living area was open plan, with the original flagstones and fireplace. A compact yet perfectly functional kitchenette at one end led to a corridor.

  ‘There’s a large bedroom and shower room, which I’d suggest you use, and a small box room if you have visitors,’ Sam said. ‘You’ll need a bed, sofa and dining set. These chairs are from the yard outside. I reckon you might like something less industrial.’

  Kathleen wandered around, wide-eyed. ‘It was such a dingy damp space when I was a girl. My mother didn’t allow us down here much. It smelt of mildew and was infested with spiders.’

  ‘It was fairly rank when we moved in, wasn’t it?’ Lexie said to Sam.

  ‘Yeah – and it was full of boxes for about three years!’ Sam said. ‘I had a week off work at some point and decided to sort it out. I hired a skip and cleared it.’

  ‘We got it to this point with the intention of renting it but never went any further,’ Lexie explained. ‘Come out and we’ll show you the little yard. It leads to the main part of the garden via stone steps, but it’s quiet and private if you don’t feel like
socialising with the riff-raff upstairs.’

  ‘It’s gorgeous!’ Kathleen exclaimed. ‘I could plant some pretty flowers in those containers if you were agreeable.’

  ‘Are you saying you’d like to move in, then?’ Sam grinned.

  ‘Well, if you both still think you could cope with me,’ she said tentatively.

  ‘Of course we could. I just hope you don’t mind us practising our clog dancing in the upstairs hall,’ said Sam.

  ‘Or our cage fighting in the back garden,’ Lexie added.

  ‘Not one jot, assuming you have no objections to me taking up the drums,’ she quipped. ‘How about we start by saying I’ll rent the place for a month? If we feel it’s not as easy as we hope, I’ll be out of your hair. No hard feelings.’

  ‘That sounds perfect,’ Lexie said.

  ‘Fine by me,’ Sam added.

  ‘I took the liberty of sniffing around the estate agents in Caracove Bay earlier. Would one thousand euro a month sound like a fair rate?’ Kathleen asked.

  ‘That sounds totally exorbitant,’ Lexie said. ‘I don’t think we need anything like that, do you?’ she asked Sam.

  ‘No way. I’ll tell you what,’ Sam suggested. ‘How about you help out with purchasing some furniture – say, a sofa, sofa-bed and dining set in IKEA – and we’ll leave it at that?’

  ‘You’re going to choose a three-thousand-euro sofa now, aren’t you?’ Kathleen teased.

  ‘At least!’ Sam laughed. ‘One made from cow hide and gold bars!’ He locked the basement, then ceremoniously handed Kathleen the keys. ‘How about we make a trip to IKEA this weekend?’ he said.

  ‘If you’re happy to be stuck with me, that’d be great,’ Kathleen said.

  ‘That sounds like a song!’ Sam joked. ‘I’d be delighted to be stuck with you.’

  ‘Let’s mosey up to the kitchen so we can get some food,’ Lexie said. ‘I’m in the danger zone where I’ll decide I can’t be bothered cooking in favour of another glass of vino!’