Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ashleigh – 34 Tilgate Road, Brighton
‘Ashleigh, is that you?’ her nan called her as soon as she got through the front door. Ash picked Simon up for a quick cuddle after he’d raced down the stairs to greet her, tail wagging and overzealous tongue licking her face. Bleurgh. She set him back down and stripped off her coat.
‘It’s me, Nan. Are you still in bed? D’you want me to bring you up a cup of tea?’
‘Yes, please.’
Once Ash had unlaced her boots and made two mugs of tea, she went up to her nan’s room. She bumped the door open with her hip and Simon followed her in as she went over to the bed.
‘Feeling any better?’ She studied her nan carefully, seeing whether the bags beneath her eyes had improved or if she still had that hollowed-out look to her cheeks from being in pain.
‘Getting there. Getting there. Did you know across the road they’ve had another new sofa delivered? That’s two in the space of a year. What are they doing to them?’
Ashleigh sniggered and handed Nan her tea. Yeah. Sounded like she was getting back to normal.
Nan took a big gulp of the steaming-hot tea and sighed. ‘Ahh. That’s the stuff. Thank you.’
‘Did you get much sleep?’
‘A bit.’
Ash settled into the chair by the bed, propping her feet up on the mattress and flexing her toes to ease the ache after being on them all day.
Nan said nothing, and Ash took a sip of tea herself, waiting. Her nan was never one to beat around the bush but there was a tension in the air, like she had something to say and wasn’t sure how to go about it.
‘About those lights.’
Ash sucked in a breath. Ah. Here it was. The last thing Ashleigh wanted was to get into another unpleasant row. Nan may well have been feeling better but Ash could still feel the echo of fear in her veins from seeing her fall and be frail enough to need to be carried around afterwards – even if it was just for one night. Anything else Ash might be feeling following that night…well, it paled in comparison really.
‘You can keep them up.’
‘What?’
‘You can keep them up,’ Nan repeated, two dull red spots appearing on her cheeks.
What on earth was going on? Her nan was changing her mind and she was uncomfortable discussing it? Nanneverusually gave a flying Ferrero Rocher whatanyonethought about her opinion.
‘How come?’
‘Because…I may have been too hard on you the other night. I’m still disappointed you didn’t talk to me about it first.’ She shot Ashleigh a stern look that was much more like what she was used to. ‘But, being unwell like this – even though it’s not serious – has given me some time to reflect. In the grand scheme of things, some lights up for a couple of weeks are not so awful, I suppose…’
Oh. She wanted to retract Ashleigh leaving because maybe she was going to need her around as she got older? Ash could understand that. It had definitely brought it home to her that her nan was getting older and shewantedto be there for her. Even if it would have been nice to have been wanted around for herself, rather than for the help she could offer, she realised she didn’t want to leave. Not at the moment, when she was worried about Nan, and definitely not in that way: off the back of an argument. ‘Thank you. I feel the same, so, if you really do want me to take them down, I will.’
‘No. It’s fine. You can even put that huge tree downstairs if you really must – just so long as it doesn’t get in my way.’
Ashleigh laughed. ‘I’ve got to get some new decorations for it first though.’ And she explained about the obscene assortment she’d won at the quiz and hidden in a box under her bed.
Nan insisted on seeing them and Ash was shocked for a second time that day when they made Nan cackle like crazy. She agreed they couldn’t go on the tree but picked out a couple to wrap up and give to some of her friends. Ash wasn’t sure if it was because she wanted to shock them, or because they had a filthy sense of humour too. Either was a possibility.
‘Have you heard anything from your mother recently?’ Nan asked as Ash began packing the decorations away again, leaving the two Nan had selected on the top.
‘No. Not since she told me about the audition that was delaying her.’
Nan nodded and slumped back against her pillows. Ash hadn’t told her that she’d tried to contact her mum about Nan’s fall, and she wasn’t going to. It occurred to her for the first time that she wasn’t the only person who her mother ditched all the time.
Ash put the lid back on the box. ‘Maybe try to get some sleep now. I’ll put some dinner on for us once you’ve had a nap.’
