Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Once we got home, Ben helped me get a tipsy grandpa inside the house and into the chair in his bedroom. He kept saying he wanted to have a nap. Grandpa’s eyes closed the second we gently rested his head against the chair. I placed a blanket from the bed over his legs in case he got cold.
We both crept out and tiptoed away.
‘I better get back and taste Rosie’s cakes,’ Ben said, with a smile. ‘You can leave your car outside mine for now as the snow is coming down.’
‘Thank you for helping me, Ben. I appreciate it.’
He nodded and, for a few seconds, we gazed at each other. Ben was no longer the handsome builder who made smartass comments. He was someone who knew Olivia and he was someone who made me melt inside. His pink lips looked soft and kissable, and I longed for his strong arms to pull me into another hug. We heard Layla coming down the stairs carrying Zac and the moment between us disappeared. Ben left with a smile.
‘Have you found Eric?’ she asked with a look of concern. Zac was busy sucking on his toy lion.
‘Grandpa was in the pub with Dorothy and is now sleeping it off.’
Layla nodded. ‘Why was Ben here?’
‘He helped me with Grandpa. Earlier he and I went sledging with his daughter, Rosie. He’s lovely.’
Layla cast me a puzzled look. ‘You’re looking dreamy. Do you like him?’
I felt my cheeks getting warm.
She didn’t let me answer. ‘A word of advice. Be careful with him. I’ve heard he’s a heartbreaker.’
‘Really?’ I gasped. ‘Ben?’
‘Have you met Denise – Vanessa’s sister?’
The tall woman with straight brown hair from the school hall appeared in my mind. ‘If this is the Denise who I met at the primary school the other evening, who had an issue with me painting the nativity stage scenery because of my family then yes, we have had a run-in.’
Layla nodded. ‘That’s her.’
‘She’s Vanessa’s sister?’
‘Yeah,’ said Layla. ‘Denise went on a few dates with Ben a few months ago. I’m not sure what happened but she told everyone in the pub he wasn’t nice to her and broke her heart. She tells everyone to avoid him.’
I scratched my head and tried to visualise Ben with bolshy Denise. They seemed an unlikely couple. The thought of those two together left me uncomfortable. Surely Olivia would have told me if Ben had red flags?
‘Be careful, Rachel, that’s all I am saying.’
I went into the kitchen and made myself a cup of tea. Layla followed. ‘Have I upset you?’
‘No,’ I said with a heavy sigh. ‘I do like Ben, but I think I am getting carried away. We took his daughter sledging, went for one coffee, had a “moment” and then he helped me search for Grandpa. My initial impressions of him were that he’s a decent guy. Do you want a cup of tea?’
She nodded and studied my face. ‘What was this “moment” you had?’
I flicked on the kettle. ‘I discovered that Ben and I have a connection. We both knew my best mate, Olivia, who died a few months ago.’
Layla placed her hand on my arm. ‘Sorry, Rachel, to hear about your friend.’
‘Thanks. In the café, I got upset over Olivia. Ben and I ended up hugging. What’s weird about Ben is that before Olivia died, she was arranging for us to go on a blind date. It never happened as he emailed me and then… I ghosted him.’
Layla raised her eyebrows. ‘Wow, that’s a bit mad.’ She let Zac crawl about with his toy lion.
I thought some more about what she’d said. ‘I’m glad you’ve told me though about Ben.’ Sam’s face appeared in my mind. ‘My ex-boyfriend dumped me on Christmas Eve last year. He’d been cheating on me. Eight months we were together. My friends kept warning me about his ex-girlfriend, but I didn’t listen, and I ignored the red flags. I need to learn not to go at a hundred miles an hour.’
Layla nodded. ‘I always thought Ben was a good guy, but Denise tells a different story. She said he was seeing several women at the same time as her.’
‘Several women?’
‘Just be careful.’
As I made the tea, I wondered whether Olivia had been wrong about Ben. Maybe after his partner, Sophie, died he decided to play the field. Grief can make people do strange things. I had one nagging doubt though, – if he was a player why did he ask Olivia to be his dating consultant? Those were the words she’d used that day when she came up with the idea of a blind date.
Layla took out her phone and groaned. ‘Another customer of mine has told me they no longer want me to do cleaning for them.’
I carried our mugs to the table. ‘Oh, I am sorry. Have they given a reason?’
Layla bowed her head. ‘Vanessa is behind this. She has made my life unbearable.’
‘Vanessa?’
She lifted her face to mine. ‘Ryan, my ex-boyfriend… He’s Vanessa’s son. When I found those photos on his phone from those women, I made the mistake of telling Vanessa. She accused me of lying. I even showed her the abusive texts he used to send me.’
‘He sent you abusive texts?’
Layla nodded. ‘He said some horrible things to me, Rachel. The next day after I told Vanessa, Ryan threw me and Zac out. Since then, my cleaning jobs in the village have started getting cancelled. By the time Mr Baxter comes back I will be fired from this one and then I really will be in trouble.’
‘Layla, I will do everything in my power to stop you from getting fired from this job. I will talk to my sister. We do need to think about how we can deal with Vanessa.’
‘What happened with your brother-in-law and Vanessa made her worse…’ She stopped abruptly, her eyes widening dramatically.
‘What happened with Frank?’ I asked.
Fear flashed across Layla’s face. ‘I meant… I… ummm.’ She was mumbling.
‘Layla, tell me what happened.’
My phone began to ring. It was Mum calling me from Tenerife. As I answered it, Layla scooped up Zac and raced upstairs.
Mum appeared on the screen. She was sat inside her villa against the white wall. Her tan looked amazing. ‘Where are the daily updates, Rachel?’
I clamped my hand over my forehead. ‘Sorry, I have been busy.’
Mum shook her head with disapproval. ‘It’s been hard to enjoy ourselves out here not knowing Dad is okay. Your aunty Karen has been worried about Dad. As his carer she’s missing him.’
I bit my tongue when Mum referred to Aunty Karen as Grandpa’s carer. From what Grandpa had told me, her visits lasted all of two minutes and were done on his doorstep. Aunty Karen was trying to impress Mum.
‘Rachel, put Dad on the phone please so we can all see him.’
‘Grandpa’s asleep and you all saw him the other day.’
Mum glanced at someone sitting behind her phone. ‘Rachel says Dad’s asleep.’
‘Tell her to wake him, Janice,’ Aunty Karen hissed. ‘I won’t sleep tonight until I know he’s okay.’
I let out a heavy sigh. ‘Mum, tell Aunty Karen that Grandpa is fine.’
Mum turned her attention back to the phone screen and to me. ‘Rachel, please do what Aunty Karen says because she’ll have one of her tension headaches and you know I struggle when she has one of those.’
Grandpa was still asleep when I crept went into the annexe bedroom. ‘Grandpa, wake up, Aunty Karen is on the phone.’
With a jolt, he woke up. ‘Dorothy?’ He called out looking confused. ‘Is that Dorothy?’
‘Show me him,’ barked Mum. I put the phone screen in front of Grandpa. She peered down the camera at him. ‘Dad, it’s me, Janice. You look groggy. Are you unwell?’
‘I went to the pub,’ he said, ‘think I had a few too many.’
Mum shrieked. ‘ What? Rachel let you get drunk. What the hell is she doing?’
I snatched the phone back. ‘Grandpa disappeared and I didn’t know where he was. It was stressful but luckily, I found him in the pub.’
In the background Aunty Karen was saying to Uncle Robert, ‘Rachel let Dad go on a drinking bender down the pub.’ Uncle Robert replied, ‘What was Rachel doing whilst your father was on a bender? Was she with a fella?’
‘Janice, ask Rachel what she was doing whilst letting Dad go on a drinking bender,’ Aunty Karen ordered.
Grandpa held my gaze. ‘Rachel, ignore them. I had the best time with Dorothy earlier. Your mother and Karen would never have let me do that.’
Mum overheard Grandpa. ‘Dad, you’re right there, Karen and I would not let you get drunk at your age. I honestly don’t know what Rachel is doing.’
Through gritted teeth I said, ‘I had no idea you were going to do a disappearing act on me, Grandpa. I came home and you’d left a note to say you’d gone on an adventure.’
He grinned. ‘I told you that was what I came here to do – go on an adventure.’
‘Where’s Maddie’s dog?’ barked Mum, making me groan. I’d forgotten all about Humphrey. Oh God, he was still missing and out in the snow. ‘I bet you’ve lost him as well.’
‘No,’ I lied, thinking on my feet. ‘Layla, the cleaner, is out walking him.’
‘The cleaner is walking Maddie’s beloved dog,’ Mum gasped. ‘Have you lost your mind, Rachel?’
‘Mum, please will you listen to me about what really happened with Grandpa,’ I pleaded. ‘I did not know he would be in the pub.’
‘Rachel, you’ve let us all down,’ snapped my mother. ‘You agreed to look after your elderly grandfather over Christmas and abide by our rules. We have had no regular updates and today you dropped him off at the pub to drink himself silly whilst you enjoyed yourself. We are all disappointed with you, Rachel. Maddie would not have behaved like this.’
I could feel anger at my family bubbling up inside of me. Mixed in with this was my frustration over finding out Ben was a walking red flag and an ongoing worry about who Maddie had married.
‘You should be ashamed of yourself,’ barked Mum.
‘Will you listen to me?’
‘I don’t need to listen to you, Rachel,’ snapped Mum. ‘This is serious. Gary was taking us out tonight to his favourite restaurant and now after hearing this, we won’t be able to enjoy our food.’
Something inside me snapped. My family were great at controlling at each other and manipulating situations. I was tired of their rules and my mother’s rants about how I had disappointed them all. For thirty-two years of my life, she’d been telling me this. In a moment of madness, I hung up on my mother. My hands were trembling as I stared at my phone. No one did that to Mum. If she was not going to listen to me then I wasn’t prepared to be shouted at. Once the call had gone, I turned off my phone.
Grandpa cheered and shook his fist. ‘Yeah, a family rebellion. This is great. Way to go, Rachel.’