Chapter 30
Kat didn’t make it more than half an hour into the film they’d chosen and the next thing she was aware of was Harry nudging her gently awake.
She’d been so deeply asleep it took her a few moments to surface enough to focus on his smiling face.
He was perched on the side of the bed. ‘Good morning, sleepyhead.’
‘Morning?’ Kat scrambled into a sitting position, her head still thick with the cotton wool of too much sleep. ‘What time is it?’
He patted her leg through the covers. ‘It’s only just after six, no need to panic. I’ve brought you a cup of tea.’ He tilted his head towards a steaming mug on the bedside table.
‘Thank you.’ She reached for his hand. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t believe I just crashed out like that.’
‘It’s fine, you obviously needed it.’ Her stomach chose that moment to unleash an enormous rumble and he laughed as she yanked her hand back to press it to her middle in embarrassment.
‘I’ll make you some breakfast.’ He rose.
‘You’ll have to come into the kitchen though because I have a strict no-crumbs-in-my-bed rule. ’
After a quick diversion into the bathroom to clean her teeth and wash her face, Kat felt much more awake as she walked into the kitchen clutching her tea.
She was expecting a couple of slices of toast and butter, but she should’ve known better given who she lived with.
In the time it would have taken her to get all the ingredients together, Harry presented her with a plate of French toast piled high with fresh berries, whipped cream and drizzled with honey.
‘This looks amazing, thank you.’
‘You don’t need to thank me, I like cooking for you.’ Harry took the chair opposite, his own plate heaped with a portion probably double the size of her own. He picked up his fork and pointed at her plate. ‘Eat up.’
Kat had never had a big appetite but she fell on the food in front of her with alacrity. She ate almost everything before setting her cutlery down with a satisfied sigh. ‘That was amazing.’
Harry grinned at her over his raised fork. ‘I couldn’t send you off to battle on an empty stomach.’
She knew he was only joking but it didn’t stop her stomach giving an unhappy lurch. ‘God, I hope it’s not that bad.’
Harry must’ve realised his mistake by the way his face fell. ‘Bloody hell, Kitty, I’m sorry, that was a stupid thing to say. Do you really think your dad will give you a hard time?’
‘I honestly don’t know how he’s going to react, but he’s not going to be happy, that’s for sure.
’ She took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders.
‘At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what he thinks because I don’t regret what I did yesterday.
It needed saying, and I did it for his benefit.
Whether or not he’ll believe that is up to him.
’ She pushed her plate away and stood, walking around to his side of the table to place an arm around his shoulder.
‘Thanks for breakfast.’ Leaning down, she pecked a kiss on his lips. ‘And thanks for being you.’
Kat was the first one in at work and she made haste to get everything set up for the day.
When her father hadn’t shown up by ten minutes before they were due to open up, she headed into the office to fetch her phone and call him.
Moments later she heard the jangle of the front door and her dad appeared in the doorway.
The first thing she noticed was how tired he still looked, the dark circles under his eyes the colour of fresh bruises.
The second was the grim expression on his face. ‘Hey, Dad.’
He slipped his coat off his shoulders with a sigh. ‘Still Dad, is it? I was half expecting I’d be Gavin after the way you spoke to your mother yesterday.’
Okay, they were going to get straight into it. Kat crossed her arms and bolstered her nerve. She wasn’t a child to be scolded. ‘All I did was tell her a few home truths. It’s a conversation I shouldn’t have had to have with her, but we are where we are.’
Her father shook his head. ‘You had no right, Katrina, these are private matters between your mother and me.’
Kat couldn’t hold back a laugh. ‘Private! How can they be private when half the village has been involved in her sordid carryings-on?’
‘Enough, Katrina, please!’
His tone as much as the volume he used stopped Kat in her tracks. She could count the number of times he’d shouted at her on the fingers of one hand. ‘You’re going to side with her on this, aren’t you?’
‘She’s my wife. What did you expect?’
She should’ve known it was coming, but even so it was a sickening blow.
All her life she’d done everything she could to help hold their family together, but she would always be on the outside of the tortured mess of her parents’ marriage.
Her father expected loyalty yet wasn’t willing to give an ounce of it in return.
She swallowed hard. ‘I need to open up.’
Her father stepped aside to let her walk past him. ‘You’ll be pleased to know that one good thing came out of your conversation with your mother,’ he called after her.
Kat paused and looked back at him. ‘And what’s that?’
‘She’s agreed to come back to work full time next week. Once we get her settled back into a routine you’ll be able to ease back on your hours, or leave altogether if that’s what you really want.’
It took a few seconds for her brain to process what he was saying. ‘She’s coming back to work, just like that?’
Her father frowned as though he couldn’t understand why she sounded so surprised. ‘We had a long talk about everything and she’s promised to make the coffee shop a priority.’ He shook his head. ‘I thought you’d be happy but it seems like there’s no pleasing you.’
Kat leaned against the doorframe. ‘Don’t make this about me, Dad.
If she’s agreed to support you here more, then I’m very happy to hear it, but what else is she going to do?
Whatever it is that drives her to keep hurting you hasn’t just magically gone away.
She needs proper support, professional counselling. ’
Her father removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes with a weary sigh. ‘You never stop pushing, do you?’
‘And you give in to her too easily,’ Kat snapped. She shook her head. ‘Sorry, Dad, I don’t mean to pick a fight with you. If she’s really serious about making things up to you and it’s what you really want then I’ll do what I can to support you.’
‘It would go a long way if you would apologise to her.’
Kat couldn’t stop the incredulous laugh that burst out. ‘Me? Apologise to her? Jesus Christ, Dad.’
‘She’s very upset, Katrina.’
‘Yeah? Well, that makes two of us! Look, I’ve said my piece to her and I don’t intend to give her a hard time about anything, but I won’t apologise because I’m not sorry.
I promise I’ll behave professionally and be polite to her if we happen to be on the same shifts, but that’s it.
You can’t ask this of me, Dad.’ She cut herself off and took a deep breath. ‘I’d better go and open up.’
‘It’s important to her so you understand that I had to try.’
It was only important to Jen because without Kat’s buy-in she wouldn’t be able to get back on the fantasy merry-go-round where they all pretended everything was fine. ‘I get it, Dad.’ Didn’t mean she had to like it.
‘There’s just one more thing. I know it’s a lot to ask but I want to take your mum out for the day on Friday.
There’s that nice spa over at Port Petroc so I thought a bit of pampering and a nice lunch, a way of celebrating things getting back to normal.
If I can get someone in to cover for me are you happy to open and close? ’
Kat hadn’t thought there was anything left inside her to break but apparently there was. She was too upset to be angry any more, too exhausted to argue about anything. ‘Do whatever you want, Dad. I don’t care.’
When Kat got home that evening, Harry had already gone to work downstairs.
She went straight to her room, stripped off her work clothes and headed for the shower.
Closing her eyes, she stood beneath the spray and let it wash away the day.
Behind her lids, her eyes burned but no tears came.
Maybe she had it wrong and what she’d said had really given Jen the wake-up call she needed.
Maybe a spa day was all her parents needed to get their marriage on track.
Maybe I’ll win the lottery and be able to buy the shop next door and never have to worry about anything again.
Dressed in her cosiest pyjamas and slippers, Kat shuffled into the kitchen and opened the fridge door to survey the contents.
The first thing she noticed was a bottle of white wine in the door.
A Post-it had been stuck on the label with the words ‘DRINK ME’ written in very wonky block print, the K facing the wrong way.
Kat laughed then quickly bit her lip as it turned shaky and the tears that hadn’t come suddenly threatened to overwhelm her.
She shut the fridge and rested her forehead against the cool metallic door, taking long, slow deep breaths until the feeling passed.
She opened the fridge again and took out the wine with a smile.
She was about to close it when she noticed the covered dish on the middle shelf with another wobbly message: ‘EET ME’. ‘Oh, Harry.’
She was just mopping up the last of the delicious chicken stew with a hunk of the sourdough loaf and contemplating a second glass of wine when she heard Harry’s key in the front door. She rose to greet him with a smile. ‘Hello, what are you doing here?’
He still had a dark blue bandanna tied over his hair as he leaned down to kiss her. ‘I’ve got five minutes so thought I’d pop up and see how work was.’
‘I’m going to need a refill if you really want me to get into it.’
‘That bad?’ Harry asked with a half-laugh as he picked up her glass.
While he poured her some more wine, Kat gave him a quick rundown of what her father had said. ‘So there we have it, everything’s rosy again and she’ll be back at work on Monday.’
Harry set her drink down in front of her with a frown. ‘I can’t believe he expected you to apologise to her. And he’s going to leave you on your own on Friday so they can have a nice day out together?’ He shook his head. ‘He’s taking the piss, Kitty.’
The fact she’d been thinking the same thing didn’t make it any easier to hear. ‘If he thinks taking Jen to a spa for the day is going to fix everything then he can get on with it as far as I’m concerned.’
Harry set his hands on his hips. ‘And what if it doesn’t?’
She picked up her wine and sat back in her chair, wondering why he seemed angry with her when none of this was her fault. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Come on, Kat, you don’t really believe your folks are going to kiss and make up and everything will be fine.’
‘Well, of course I don’t! But Dad’s not prepared to listen to reason and I’m done trying to make him. Once she’s back at work I’ll be able to reduce my hours and really focus on making our dream for the cookery school come true.’
‘And what happens when it all goes tits up? What happens when he gets on the phone and begs you to help him because Jen flakes out on him?’
Kat stared up at him in disbelief. Why was he being like this? ‘If – when things go wrong then he’ll have to deal with it. I’m done with the coffee shop, Harry. The only thing I care about is the cookery school – and you.’
Harry dropped his head to stare at the floor.
His hands were still braced on his hips and she watched as his chest rose and fell, rose and fell as though he was breathing away his emotions the way she had herself not too long ago.
When he lifted his head, the anger was gone, but she didn’t like the worry that had replaced it.
‘Don’t promise me things you can’t follow through on; don’t promise yourself those things either. ’
‘I’m not, I’m really not.’
He closed the distance between them and bent to kiss her. ‘Sorry, I’ve got to get back.’ He straightened up and touched a gentle finger to her cheek. ‘Will you wait up for me?’
Part of her was still upset with him for challenging her and she hated it because it reminded her too much of the way her mother reacted.
But she was much more upset with herself because deep down she was scared he might be right.
Well, she’d have to do her best to prove him wrong – prove them both wrong.
She stood and stretched on tiptoe to put her arms around his neck. ‘I’ll wait up for you.’
She’d been waiting a lifetime for him and she wasn’t going to let anything ruin the best thing that had ever happened to her.