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She clambered out of the bath tub and padded downstairs, with Liam following.
He’d only intended to fix her front door – smooth the warps in the wood, stop it making such a racket when it scraped across the tiles, and protect it with some paint. But there was so much to do in the house, he hadn’t felt he could abandon her once the door was done. So he’d started nipping in when he could spare an hour or two.
Now he’d been calling in for a fortnight, and their initial awkwardness with each other had eased into a quiet companionship. Rosie seemed distracted a lot of the time, grieving for her mum and missing her life in Spain, so they didn’t really talk much. When they did speak, it was always about the house or the farm or her work abroad. And when her boyfriend rang, she never mentioned that Liam was there.
In the kitchen, Rosie filled the kettle at the sink and switched it on. ‘Nessa came in yesterday after work and helped me paint the conservatory, which was…’ She spotted the list on the worktop near the fridge and turned it face down. ‘It was kind of her.’
She stood with her back to Liam for a few moments before turning with the list in her hand. ‘Did you see this when you came in?’
‘I didn’t mean to but it was hard to miss. I didn’t realise you were still trying to track down the mysterious J.’
‘I’m interested to know who he is so I’ve been through Mum’s address book for everyone whose first name begins with J, and I’ve started trawling through recent mentions of local people online.’
‘It seems like a lot of effort to find someone who brought flowers to a funeral.’
‘Mmm.’ Rosie stared into the distance. ‘How well do you get on with your dad?’
‘My dad?’ That was a bit left field, but Rosie nodded, with the same anxious expression Liam remembered from school. ‘I get on fine with him, I guess, considering he’s so much older than me. He didn’t settle down with my mum until he was well into his forties. Before that, he was quite the ladies’ man, apparently.’
‘That’s where you get it from.’ Rosie’s cheeks flushed pink. ‘Sorry. I just meant—’
‘I know what you meant.’ Liam shrugged, resigned to his reputation and the fact that people weren’t allowed to change in Heaven’s Cove – even if heartbreak ripped you apart and you weren’t the same person at all once you came back together.
‘Can you keep a secret from everyone, but especially from Belinda?’ Rosie’s eyes looked huge, and when Liam nodded she carried on staring at him as though she was trying to read his mind. ‘OK,’ she said at last, ignoring the kettle belching steam at the ceiling. ‘Keeping this to myself is driving me crazy. When I went to see Morag a couple of weeks ago, the midwife who delivered me, she said that my Mum told her that’ – she swallowed, before blurting out in a rush – ‘my dad who brought me up isn’t my real dad.’
That wasn’t the secret Liam was expecting, not at all. He’d anticipated a stash of cash in the attic, a handy windfall to fund Rosie’s globetrotting life. Not a secret, long-lost father.
‘Do you know who he is?’
Rosie shook her head. ‘Morag didn’t know and Mum never told me. She never told me anything, it seems.’ Sliding the teapot towards her, she started shovelling in spoon after spoon of tea leaves. ‘It makes me so angry with her. Is it all right to be angry with someone you love? Someone who’s died?’
‘I’d be furious.’
She paused from filling up the teapot. ‘Would you, honestly?’
‘I would. I’d feel let down and kind of duped.’
‘That’s it, exactly.’
‘But your mum was a good person and must have had her reasons for keeping you in the dark. Do you want to find your father? Is that what the list is about?’
‘I think I do, though it feels disloyal to my dad – the man who I always called Dad, even though he left us.’
‘He brought you up, hewasyour dad. But he’s not here any more so you can’t hurt him.’
‘I know.’ Rosie swallowed, close to tears.
‘What does Matt think about all this?’
‘He’s trying to be supportive but he’s not that interested. He thinks I should let sleeping dogs lie and go back to Spain.’
‘He might have a point,’ said Liam, though it stuck in his throat to agree with her boyfriend.
‘Probably, but I’d like to know where I come from and why Mum was so secretive. Can you imagine finding out that everything you thought about your parents was built on a lie?’
He couldn’t imagine it. His mum and dad drove him mad at times. Living in the same house as your parents at the age of thirty was always going to throw up challenges. But he never doubted that they told him the truth.
Liam shook his head. ‘What makes you think that the mysterious J who put flowers on your mother’s grave might be your real dad?’
