Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Traffic was slightly less chaotic than usual, meaning Flynn arrived at work a quarter of an hour early. His phone on the passenger seat showed a message from his mum. He pressed dial on her number instead of typing out a message.
“Hi,” she said. “I didn’t know if you’d be at work already.”
“Not quite. I just pulled into the car park and have a few minutes to spare.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet Lily this time. She must be gutted that you have to work.”
He smiled, thinking of how easy-going Lily was. “She’s okay. Not thrilled, but she doesn’t make a fuss.”
“That’s good.”
“It’s a shame we couldn’t meet up with you.”
“Yes, but I’ll be over to Scilly as soon as you’re back there. I’ll meet her then. Any news on that?”
“No. I should hear really soon.”
“How did Lily react to the news? That must have softened the blow of you having to work while she’s here.”
“Umm…” He rubbed his eyebrow. “I haven’t mentioned it yet.”
“Why not?”
“I thought it was probably better to wait.”
“You said you were going to tell her when she got here…”
“Yeah, but then I decided I should wait until it was definite. I don’t want her to get excited and it not happen.”
“But you passed your exams. I thought the whole reason for fast-tracking you through the process was for you to take the sergeant’s job on the Scillies?”
“Yeah. But it’s not official yet.”
“Flynn,” she said, the word conveying more disappointment than should have been possible.
“What? I’ll tell her as soon as it’s official.”
“I thought things were serious between the two of you?”
He shifted, resting his weight on the steering wheel. “It is serious.”
“Then why are you keeping secrets from her?”
“I’m not. I’m just waiting to surprise her.”
The silence made him wince.
“What’s going on?” she asked after a moment.
“Nothing. Why?”
“Is this to do with your father, by any chance?”
His stomach twisted.
“Tell me,” his mum demanded. “You promised after he came to visit you in the summer that you wouldn’t keep stuff about him from me. If he’s up to his usual tricks, you can tell me. You don’t have to try to protect me.”
“I’m not,” he lied. He absolutely hated involving his mum in issues concerning his dad. “He hasn’t even done anything. I haven’t heard a peep out of him since I saw him on St Mary’s.”
“And that’s upset you?” she asked softly.
He swallowed hard, not sure what the truth of that was. “He must know I’m after the sergeant’s job,” he said wearily. “I don’t think that will have escaped his attention.”
“Maybe he’s fine with it. He was the one who wanted you out of the way over there to start with.”
“Yeah, but I think he also enjoyed the fact that I didn’t want to be there.”
“Can he really intervene when other people have agreed to you taking the job? Sergeant Proctor told everyone how good you were at your job, and PC Hill has also recommended you for the job. Your dad will look petty if he steps in and says anything against it.”
“Part of me thinks the same, but I don’t trust him. Also, because I’ve seen Gina and the kids a couple of times since I’ve been back in London. I’m sure he must know about that and I can’t imagine he’s happy about it.”
“He might not be happy about it, but I don’t think there’s much he can do about it. Or maybe what he’s doing is making sure your promotion goes through so you’ll be back on the Scillies and out of the way.”
“I’ll still see Jake and Rosie, even if I’m back there. Rosie is desperate to visit me.”
“Are you worried about him getting in the way of your job, or getting in the way of you spending time with your siblings?”
Emotions clogged his throat. “Both.”
“You should definitely talk to Lily about all this.”
“I don’t want her getting her hopes up about me moving back.”
“Why? You think she can’t cope with a bit of disappointment? Because from what you’ve told me about her, she can handle it.”
“Of course she can. I just don’t want her to be disappointed. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll be disappointed enough myself without having to break the news to Lily.”
“So if it doesn’t work out, you won’t even tell her you applied? If you end up being disappointed by your dad again, you won’t share that with her?”
He hadn’t considered that.
“How would you feel?” his mum went on. “What if Lily kept things from you because she decided you were better off not knowing?”
“Okay, you’ve made your point.” And she’d made it incredibly well, considering she had no idea they’d been through exactly that scenario recently – Lily keeping her problems to herself to avoid causing him stress. He’d been furious, and hurt that she didn’t feel she could lean on him.
“I’ll tell her,” he said. “Before she goes back to Scilly, I’ll tell her everything, regardless of whether I know for sure about the job.”
“I have a good feeling about the job. You’ll make a great sergeant.”
“I hope so.” He felt a jolt of warmth at the idea. And then a pang of sadness that he’d never be able to tell Sergeant Proctor his news. But if Sergeant Proctor hadn’t died, Flynn would have never gone for the promotion. He released a breath as he tried to get his head around that.
“I better get into work,” Flynn said. “Thanks for the lecture.”
She chuckled. “Sorry, but sometimes you need a lecture.”
“I’m not arguing.”
“Let me know as soon as you hear about the job. I want to start planning my holiday on the Scillies.”
“I will.” Hopefully, she wouldn’t be too disappointed if the promotion didn’t go through.
He’d been avoiding asking his sergeant if he’d heard anything about the promotion, not wanting to hassle him about it, but as he exited the car, he decided that was exactly what he was going to do. He’d hassle whoever he needed to.
He wanted to know about the job – and his future.