Chapter 16
Their holiday to France had been, all in all, pretty perfect.
Her first trip away with Pete had been ten days in Spain, taken last October on a late deal. She’d enjoyed relaxing by the pool, cocktails and bingo at happy hour. She’d soaked up the last of the sun, topping up her reserves before the winter.
But this had been a different holiday altogether. Not least because he’d thought to book it himself. He was working now, learning and earning on the building site as well as doing quite a trade as an odd-job man around his estate.
When he’d surprised her with tickets to France, she’d wondered why she hadn’t thought to go there since her French school trip six years before.
She’d closed her eyes and remembered the sunshine, the simplicity, the slow pace of life.
First kisses and morning croissants and above all, the feeling she’d had when she was last there – a simple contentment.
Before the clear water of her life had muddied irrevocably.
They’d driven early to the airport and were sitting at the café sipping the last of their coffees before their flight home.
It was a sunny day and they’d chosen an outdoor table with a parasol that did nothing to shade them from the sun.
But it was raining in England so they’d decided to make the most of their last hours on holiday, top up their tans while waiting for the queue to start forming.
‘I could live here, you know,’ she’d said.
Pete, leaning back in his chair, eyes closed against the bright morning sunshine, had opened a single eye. ‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Me too,’ he’d said, his voice lazy and content.
‘No, I mean really.’
The eye opened again. ‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah. Why not? I’m sick of working at Boots, and you’ve nearly finished your apprenticeship.’
He shook his head. ‘Nah.’
‘Give me a good reason why not?’
‘Um, I can’t speak French?’
‘You can a bit.’
‘Hardly. And anyway, what would we do?’
But she had the answers for him: they’d stayed in a B that had seemed like a fortune!
Surely, they could do that too? The house prices were low.
Dad had given her a bit of cash when he’d moved in with Linda, calling it ‘an early inheritance’, though they’d both known it was guilt money.
‘You’re really serious, aren’t you?’ he’d said when they’d boarded the plane.
She’d shrugged. ‘Kind of. Yeah. I mean… I really think I could be happy here, Pete. I feel as if maybe this is my place.’