Second Time Around (39 page)

‘Hello, love.’ Aileen went to fill the teapot and found the kettle empty. ‘You haven’t even filled it. What’s up?’ She carried it to the sink and then set it
on to boil before sitting down at the table.

‘Nothing.’ Suzie put her hand up to flatten her hair and tightened the belt on her dressing gown.

Aileen’s eyes narrowed. ‘You look like death warmed up and it’s eleven o’clock and you’re not even dressed. Are you sick?’

‘I’ve felt better,’ Suzie said, truthfully.

‘Will a cuppa and a nice warm scone help?’

‘Of course.’ Suzie said, managing a smile. The phone rang and she groaned irritably. There weren’t many people she wanted to talk to but she relaxed when she saw the display.
‘It’s Nora,’ she said, answering it as Aileen nodded and made the tea.

‘Hi, Suzie. Is everything okay? I only just got your messages. I was away for the weekend and forgot my phone.’

Suzie plunged straight in, her eyes on Aileen. ‘I’ve started remembering things.’

Immediately she had both women’s attention.

‘Oh, that’s great, Suzie,’ Nora said, all enthusiastic and, when Suzie said nothing, added. ‘Isn’t it?’ Suzie heard Nora’s uneasy tone and glanced up at
Aileen, seeing a similar look in her eyes. This wasn’t a conversation to be had over the phone.

‘Can we get together someday next week? You, me and Aileen? I need to talk to you both and clear up a few things.’

‘Sure. Wednesday?’

‘Does Wednesday suit?’ Suzie asked Aileen, who gave a solemn nod. ‘Yes, that’s fine, Nora. Thanks, I appreciate it. I’ll text you later with the
arrangements.’

‘Sounds serious,’ Aileen remarked, buttering a scone.

‘I suppose it is. There’s just so much to tell you and so many questions I want to ask. I need to figure out what’s fact and what’s fiction, and I’m hoping that you
and Nora will be able to help.’

Aileen frowned. ‘I don’t like seeing you so troubled. That’s not going to help your recovery.’

‘I’m fine. It’s just exhausting trying to make sense of everything going on in here.’ Suzie tapped the side of her head.

Aileen patted her hand. ‘I’ll do whatever I can to help, Suzie.’

Suzie and Percy were at the school gate when the bell rang. She smiled when she saw Bobby hurtling towards them. He dumped his schoolbag on the ground and crouched down to hug
the dog. Percy accepted the adoration and licked the boy’s cheek. Suzie could just imagine what Sharon would say if she saw that.

‘Don’t let Percy lick your face,’ she told him, picking up his bag.

‘Why not?’ He fell into step beside her.

‘Dogs lick everything, even disgusting things, and you really don’t want him to lick you with a poo-tongue, do you?’

‘Yuck!’ Bobby wiped his face in disgust. ‘Can I hold the lead?’

‘No. Remember? Not until we’re inside the park,’ she said.

‘Okay.’ He smiled and trotted along beside her.

‘Did you have a good time at school?’

‘No.’

‘Oh. Why not?’

‘We were telling jokes but no one laughed at mine.’

‘Did you laugh at any of theirs?’ Suzie asked him, knowing he rarely understood humour.

‘No.’

‘There you go, then. We all laugh at different things.’ She pointed at a man walking towards them with a huge German shepherd and a tiny Pekingese. ‘Look, twins!’

Bobby frowned. ‘They’re not twins.’

‘You see? And I thought that was a good joke.’

‘It wasn’t.’

‘See? We’re all different.’ With that, the man stopped to let the larger dog relieve himself and then walked on, leaving the mess behind him. ‘Hey!’ she called
after him. ‘You need to pick that up.’ The man ignored her and kept walking. ‘What an arsehole,’ she said, angrily.

Bobby nodded. ‘He had a big arse too.’

Suzie burst out laughing. ‘Now that was funny.’

They were just home and Bobby was eating his snack when Sharon arrived. ‘Surprise!’

She came into the kitchen and hugged her son. ‘Hello, darling.’

Suzie watched warily. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Keith said he might be delayed so I said I’d pick up Bobby. Have you done your homework?’ she asked him.

‘We’re not in long. He’s going to start straight after his snack, aren’t you, Bobby?’

The child nodded.

‘Don’t forget your reading,’ Sharon said as he climbed down and went into the hall to get his school bag.

Bobby grunted and went into the other room. She smiled at Suzie. ‘A few weeks ago it would have taken an hour and lots of tears to achieve that.’

‘I know, isn’t it great?’ Suzie sat down, shooting nervous looks at her daughter. ‘Have you been talking to Jess or Noel?’ she asked.

‘I have.’

‘Is that all you have to say?’ Suzie said, exasperated by Sharon’s nonchalance.

‘What do you want me to say? You got pregnant when you were single, so did I. The only difference was, Keith stuck around. Jess seems cool about it. That’s all that matters,
right?’

‘But how will you feel if she wants to tell people?’ Suzie asked.

Sharon shrugged. ‘It doesn’t really affect me.’

‘It’s bound to get back to Maurice,’ Suzie continued. ‘It will be a huge scandal.’

‘That doesn’t worry me and I doubt it will bother Noel or Jess either.’ Sharon glanced up at her. ‘How about you?’

Suzie snorted. ‘That lot always gossiped about me anyway. What do I care?’

‘There you go, then.’ Sharon helped herself to a pear from the fruit bowl in the centre of the table.

‘It will be a lot harder on Noel if he goes to live there,’ Suzie pointed out.

Sharon wiped her mouth with a piece of kitchen towel and looked Suzie in the eye. ‘Mum, if you’re trying to get me to talk Noel out of going to Limerick, you’re wasting your
time. He really wants to do this and I’m completely behind him.’

Suzie’s eyes widened as she looked at her younger daughter. ‘You knew he was going all along, didn’t you?’

‘He told me at Christmas that he was considering it, but then you had the accident and he never mentioned it again, and I didn’t think to ask. Why are you so against it?’

Suzie frowned. ‘Farming is a hard life and it’s dangerous.’

‘It’s what he wants to do. I just want him to be happy. I’d have thought you would, too.’

‘I’ll miss him.’ There. Suzie had said it. She had expected Noel to move out but hadn’t thought he’d leave Dublin, and certainly not to go
there
.

‘Oh, Mum.’ Sharon leaned over to hug her, and Suzie felt the firmness of her bump.

‘Would you want Bobby to go away?’ Suzie said into her daughter’s shoulder.

Sharon stroked her hair. ‘Of course not. I’m sorry. But it’s not far, not with the motorway. I know that you have sad memories, Mum, but there were so many happy ones,
too.’

Suzie sighed and rested her head on Sharon’s shoulder. ‘I suppose there were.’

Mandy frowned at the note on her desk, reading it while she tugged off her jacket. Douglas was out but there was no mention as to where, just that he was having some friends
over on Saturday night and asking her to book a caterer. In typical Thornton form, he hadn’t given exact details as to whether he wanted, hors d’oeuvres or a five-course dinner. She
sent him a text asking him to clarify. His response came back surprisingly quickly.

She scowled at his mysteriousness. He was probably enjoying keeping her in the dark, knowing how curious she’d be – and she was. Her life must be seriously dull at the moment.
She’d have to get out more. This Croatian trip had become a ridiculous obsession.

Douglas finally made an appearance as she was sitting eating a sandwich and reading a magazine. ‘Hi. Food is organised but I need to let them know what time you want it delivered, if you
need crockery, glasses and cutlery, and if you want them to stay to serve.’

‘Oh, God, no, that’s far too formal. All I need is the food.’

‘Who are you inviting?’ Mandy asked, giving in to her curiosity.

‘People who used to work for me a lifetime ago.’

‘Oh.’ Sounded like a boring pensioners’ evening. Still, she was curious. ‘Am I invited?’

‘Yeah, you can keep an eye on the caterers.’

‘Thanks a lot,’ Mandy said. She was unable to gauge his mood lately. Something was definitely going on but her probing had got her nowhere. Maybe Saturday would reveal something
about her enigmatic boss.

Suzie phoned Nora to let her know she was running late.

‘Take your time, sweetheart. Aileen and I are having a nice chat.’

Slipping her phone back into her pocket, Suzie continued to walk along the beach, going over everything in her head again before talking to her friends. What she needed to know most of all was
what she’d told them about John’s infidelity. She knew that she’d confided in Nora but she wasn’t sure exactly how much detail she’d gone into. It would be news to
Aileen, she was sure. She’d put all that behind her when she left Limerick. Her overriding wish was to keep it from Noel and Sharon. Whatever he’d done to her and Jess, John had loved
his children and they him, and she wouldn’t take that from Sharon and Noel. Of course, she needed Jess to go along with that. Would she?

Stopping, Suzie stared out to sea, took a few deep breaths and turned to head back up the strand and across the road to the restaurant.

The two women were deep in conversation and halfway through a bottle of wine when Suzie arrived.

‘I won’t get much sense out of you pair, will I?’ she joked, joining them at the round table in the busy restaurant.

‘Not true.’ Aileen held up the basket with one slice of bread in it. ‘Soakage.’

‘Have you had enough time to think?’ Nora asked gently after they’d ordered.

Suzie nodded, looking at each of them in turn. ‘I told you, my memory seems to be returning but I’m not sure that I can trust it. I’d like to run some things past you and see
what’s true and what’s imagined. And, if you know something that I don’t, please tell me. I need to know that my memories are as real as I believe them to be.

‘Also, I’ve known you both a long time and regard you as my closest friends, but I’ve kept something from you because, well, I had to.’ She pulled a face. ‘At
least, I
think
I’ve kept it to myself, but you may tell me different.’

‘This sounds serious.’ Aileen sat forward in her chair, looking concerned.

‘It’s not bad news and nothing to do with my health, or anything like that,’ Suzie reassured her.

‘Thank goodness for that,’ Nora said, reaching for her glass. ‘Go on, then.’

The two women listened intently, while Suzie told them about Jess, about John and his affairs, about Noel’s decision to go into farming with his uncle, about Douglas Thornton’s true
identity and then there was the small matter of her sister.

‘I was stunned that Jess knew what John was up to but, I suppose, she was a smart teenager and protective of me,’ she said, finally. ‘The other two don’t know anything at
all about their dad’s affairs and that’s the way I’d like to keep it. Their memories of their dad are untainted and, as that’s all they have left, I don’t want to take
it away from them.’

‘It won’t go any further,’ Nora promised, and looked at Aileen, who immediately nodded.

‘Everything you’ve told us is in confidence, Suzie. I won’t tell a soul.’

‘Thank you.’ Suzie shrugged and gave them a nervous smile. ‘I think that’s everything.’

‘That’s quite a lot to take in,’ Nora said. ‘Firstly, how’s Jess?’

‘Fine. It turns out that Doug was right and she had noticed John treated her differently. Now she finally understands why and that she wasn’t to blame.’

Nora frowned. ‘Well, of course she wasn’t, the poor child.’

Suzie said nothing. She wasn’t going to start criticising her husband. The facts spoke for themselves. ‘You honestly never looked at her colouring and wondered?’ Suzie
smiled.

‘Never gave it a thought,’ Aileen said with a shrug.

‘Me neither,’ Nora said. ‘The other two are the image of John, and Jess is like you. And your memory is correct. You never even hinted at this before,’ she reassured
Suzie. ‘You did exactly as John asked, even after his death. Not that he deserved such loyalty.’

‘Doug kept at me to tell Jess. He said she had a right to know. But I was so sure that she hadn’t suspected anything, I didn’t see the point.’

Nora nodded. ‘You told me that you were sure he was cheating on you and I wanted you to confront him and threaten to leave and take the children away, but you wouldn’t hear of
it.’

‘I wouldn’t have gone through with it. and it didn’t seem fair to expose the kids to his behaviour. And’– Suzie sighed – ‘I suppose part of me still
felt grateful to him for giving me and Jess his name and a home.’

‘Fuck that!’ Aileen said, looking outraged. ‘You gave up everything to follow him to the middle of nowhere, gave him two wonderful children, and you were a good and faithful
wife.’

Nora was nodding her agreement. ‘You were a great wife, Suzie. It didn’t matter how much he was out wining and dining in the name of work, you put up with it all without complaint
and reared three kids almost single-handed.’

‘Did I tell you about Mandy coming on to him?’ Suzie asked Nora.

Nora shook her head. ‘No but, to be honest, it doesn’t surprise me. She’d flirt with any man with a pulse and certainly wouldn’t let the small fact that he was your
husband get in the way. You were crazy to let her come and stay.’

‘You never liked her.’ Suzie said with a wry smile.

‘No, I didn’t. I always felt she used you, and, no matter what you did for her, she never appreciated or even acknowledged it. When she moved in with you that time, I just
didn’t trust her. I always got the feeling she was envious of you.’

‘Hardly. The last thing Mandy wanted was a family or a boring life in the country.’

‘No, but I think she craved security. When you moved back to Dublin I expected you to see a lot more of each other, but it was quite the reverse. Now I know why.’

‘I still don’t know if Jess knows about her. She walked in on John and I rowing one night but I don’t remember what it was about or what she overheard. But she’s
certainly not close to her aunt.’