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“Well, David liked the house so much that he asked if we would sell it to him. And you know, darling, I really think we’re ready for a change now. I’d like to do something where I could spend more time with you. Maybe take my photographs for a living instead of running the B&B.”
“But why can’t you do that now?” He frowned. “If Mr. Trent is going to live here, can’t we just stay living here with him?”
She felt a faint color touch her cheeks at the simplistic suggestion. “It’s going to be his house, though, darling, and he might not want us to live here.”
“Of course he would. He thinks you’re ace, mummy. I know, because he told me.”
She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. “Did he?”
“Yeah. He said you’re one in a million.”
She compressed her lips. It was bad enough that Marcus had lied to her, but involving Maxie in the fiction was unforgivable. Rage reignited in the pit of her stomach. “Be that as it may, we’re going to move. I’d like to see more of Grandma Rose. Wouldn’t you?”
“Yeah, mummy. I love Grandma Rose. But what about my school?”
“I know it will be hard to leave it behind, but we can find you somewhere really fantastic. I was thinking we’d go have a look at some campuses over the holidays.” With the money she’d make when the sale went through, she’d be able to afford a great school for Maxie. It was a definite silver lining to the whole catastrophic incident. The only silver lining.
“Let’s look at some places on line when you get home from school.” She gave him a quick hug and stood up, wiping her hands on the apron she wore. “Come on now, cheeky chops. Time to get you to class.”
“Can I take Luke Skywalker?”
She looked at him tenderly, and relaxed her usual ‘no toys’ rule. “Yes, sweetie. As long as you keep him in your backpack once you get there. Try not to lose him, okay?”
“You’re the best mum, ever!”
She seriously felt like anything but, yet the words were still nice to hear. After an uneventful drop off at school (the subject of moving apparently relegated to unimportant clutter in his mind amidst looming Star Wars battles), Katie discovered she didn’t want to go back to Wadeford House. Not yet. Not on her own.
The local café was buzzing and she slipped inside, ordered a coffee and sat down at the back. What she needed was a quiet coffee to regroup and then she’d head home and start thinking about boxing their lives up for a move. Only a few minutes after getting her cappuccino, Katie’s best friend Angela walked in with Ryan Macaulay. Talk about bad timing.
“Hey, Kitty!” Angela smiled enthusiastically, latching arms with Ryan and walking over to the table. “What’s new?”
“Actually, I do have news.” She said, encompassing both of them in her smile. “I signed the contract. We’re moving.”
“Moving?” Ryan raised his eyebrows. “When?”
“In the next couple of weeks, once term ends.”
She saw Angela’s face react first with surprise and then pleasure. “I’m really happy for you, Kit. A change of pace will be good for you.”
Katie wasn’t so sure but she didn’t say so.
“Well, now you’ve finally got to give in and let me take you to dinner,” Ryan said with a cheeky smile. Katie was glad that he was reacting with light-hearted humor. It showed that his romantic persistence was little more than a bit of fun. She didn’t need to feel guilty for letting him down on top of all the other emotions swirling through her.
“Hmmm,” she winked at him over the rim of her cappuccino. “How about we all go for dinner at the pub tonight? Maxie’s got a school dance and is staying with a friend afterwards.”
“Perfect. I’ll pick you up around seven?”
She nodded. “This is not a date, Ryan.”
He rolled his eyes. “We’ll see how you feel at the end of it. Once you’ve been subjected to the full force of my charms!”
She laughed, and felt a slight improvement in her spirits.
At least the prospect of a night out with good friends gave her something to look forward to. She started boxing up precious family mementos first. The things she knew she would want to take with her, which she could send up ahead to store at Grandma Rose’s house while she looked for a new home for them.
It was slow work though. For everything she packed, there were two more things that she stopped to look at in detail. To remember with a smile or a tear. Maxie’s first drawings, which were really just unintelligible scribbles that he’d proudly proclaimed, “mama, cat, house”. The tiny little bracelet he’d worn in hospital when he’d been born, encircling a dear, fragile ankle. Out of nowhere, she felt a clutch of cluckiness, only the baby she imagined wasn’t another Maxie. It was half Katie Collins and half Marcus Harris. So real was the mental image her brain supplied that she sucked in a deep breath.
“That’s enough walking down memory lane for one day,” she said to herself, sealing up the box with packing tape and trudging it to a guest room to store for now. She’d cut it fine and barely had enough time to throw on a change of clothes. She rifled through her wardrobe, instinctively shying away from her favorite dress, because it was the dress she’d worn the first night she’d known Marcus. The dress he’d watched her slowly take off, right before they’d made love for the first time. She might as well burn it, for all the likelihood of her wanting to wear it in the future. She threw on a pair of jeans and a nice top, thinking a night at the pub called for a casual outfit anyway.
