Chapter 32
Tobias takes his phone out of his pocket and calls Olivia’s number.
‘Hello,’ she answers. ‘Finished already?’
‘Where are you?’ he demands.
‘I’m still at the hotel. I’ve been enjoying a nice tepid bath if you must know.’
‘What, another one?’
‘Yes, I felt so hot and sweaty after my walk this morning. Can’t seem to cool down.’
‘Who are you with?’ he asks accusingly.
Olivia gives a surprised laugh which echoes down the phone.
‘Well, no one was in the bath with me. I tend to take those things alone.’
He grunts in response.
‘What on earth’s got into you?’ she asks.
‘You know, you really must learn to calm down, Tobias. Think of your blood pressure. You’ve been getting far too het up lately.
This renovation, it’s not good for your health.
Perhaps you should just leave it to Bill and his men from now on.
Let me and Marcus manage the interior design side of things. ’
‘Oh yes, you’d like that wouldn’t you?’ he barks into the phone, pacing up and down inside the house, his words becoming drowned out by the usual buzz and grind of background noise. ‘And what else have you been managing behind my back while I’ve been busy getting this house built for you?’
She chuckles again but she sounds less sure of herself and Tobias can detect a note of reticence in her voice.
‘Darling, you’ve hardly been building it yourself.’
‘Yes, well I’m the one paying for it. The one doing the number crunching. Staring at spreadsheets until I go bloody cross-eyed, trying to keep everything on schedule and to budget. Keeping the whole bloody train on the tracks as per bloody usual.’
‘Tobias. I won’t say this again. Calm down and stop shouting at me or I will hang up.’
‘When were you going to tell me, Livvy?’
‘Tell you what?’ she says, her breathy voice wavering even more than usual.
He knows he’s got her rattled now and he enjoys this sensation of power for a moment before ploughing on.
‘About this half-baked plan to rent some silly little shop down here. I had some hoary old curmudgeon — according to the men, he’s known as ‘Old Ted’ — collar me here at the property, demanding rent, cash up front.
I must have looked a right bloody fool in front of everyone.
I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. ’
There is a long pause at the end of the phone and he can hear his wife let out a long-held breath which he interprets as regret.
‘Oh, that,’ she says finally.
‘Yes, that.’
‘I was going to tell you eventually. I just wanted to do it by myself, get everything finalised. I’m using my own money, before you say anything,’ she adds. ‘My nest egg from Mummy and Daddy.’
‘Oh Christ, Olivia. What a waste. I always said that you should have let me invest that money for you years ago. We’d be sitting on a nice little pot now.’
‘You mean I would be. It’s my money remember, Tobias. To do with as I see fit.’
‘Right, meanwhile I pay for everything else including the bankrolling of this renovation, which by the way is spiralling out of control thanks to you and the vagaries of that bloody architect.’
‘Marcus is doing a brilliant job,’ she says, rather too quickly for his liking. ‘In fact, he’s going to help me with the interiors of my gallery and studio space.’
‘Gallery and studio space?’ he parrots.
‘Yes, Tobias. I was an artist when you met me, in case you’d forgotten.’
‘Not a proper one, though. Be real, Livvy. It was only ever a hobby.’
‘And I worked in a gallery before Bella came along, remember? I was pretty good at that job as a matter of fact.’
‘Oh come on, it was a fill-in until you could get up the duff. You always made it very clear that you couldn’t wait to start a family.’
‘More importantly, I enjoyed it,’ she continues, railroading over his words.
He heaves a deep sigh.
‘That’s all well and good but how are you going to run this thing all the way from London?’
‘I’m not. That’s just it, Tobias. I’m going to move down here. Permanently. As soon as the renovation’s finished. I’m going to live and work here by the coast and start my own business and have a career again.’
It is his turn to allow the silence to draw out between them. He has stopped pacing up and down on the bare floorboards like a caged animal and comes to an abrupt halt.
‘What? And who’s going to look after everything at home? Look after me and Drew? And Belle, when she’s back from uni?’
‘You can look after yourselves. You’re all old enough now. Or you can hire some help. Find out how much it really costs to pay a cook, cleaner or nanny.’
He can’t believe he is hearing this.
‘I see,’ he says eventually. ‘Anything else you’d like to tell me, while we’re at it?’
She takes a breath as though weighing something up and then responds.
‘No, that’s all for now.’