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By the time she arrived, pulling up on to the gravel driveway in front of the impressive red-brick home, she was convinced it wasn’t going to work and she’d be straight on the phone to Mark, telling him to come back. How could he do this? Leave her in charge of two teenagers and this house while he swanned off to London?
As she switched off the car engine, the enormity of the responsibility hit home. Would she need to shop for groceries? What would they have for dinner that evening? What time did they need to get up in the morning, and out of the door, to make it to school on time?
Just breathe,Thea told herself, remembering what her therapist had taught her; to do calming exercises whenever she got stressed.I’m going to need to do plenty of those when I walk in that house, she thought.She remembered previous visits, and imagined nothing had changed. Whereas she liked her little flat to be minimalist and orderly, with everything in its place, her sister was the opposite. When Jenna had lived in London, her house had just seemed chaotic, and she’d brought that mindset here to the cottage. It seemed to have been made worse by the fact that they’d been in the throes of renovating it.
Thea had commented on the mess on her last visit, and Jenna hadn’t taken very kindly to it. She had come back with her own caustic remark; she’d said,Wait until you get married and have children – you’ll find out your priorities change. You won’t be cleaning all the time.
Thea had taken exception.I don’t clean all the time, she’d replied.
Then she’d caught what her sister had said under her breath:No wonder you’re still single.
Thea had corrected her on that score.
‘Well, you haven’t moved in together, have you? You know what your problem is? I don’t think you can commit.’
Thea sighed, thinking back to that conversation.Yes, it was true, she shied away from commitment, from change. But now she and Miles wouldn’t be moving in together even if she had decided that she was ready to share her life and her orderly flat with someone. She wasn’t looking forward to telling her sister that she was single again. She imagined that, like Gracie, Jenna would just tell her the right person hadn’t come along yet.
And how was that going to happen? I work in the basement of a museum, locked away in a room with two other people all day, apart from when I do school tours.She knew what Jenna would say to that; put yourself out there. Join a gym or a class; you might meet someone.
She wasn’t interested in joining a gym or a class. What was the point of meeting someone there? It’s not as though they’d have anything in common if she was at the gym or a class she hated.
Thea sighed as she got out of the car and looked at the house. She was not looking forward to this. She was already counting down the days to the weekend when Mark returned.
Thea reached inside the car and grabbed her suitcase, sliding it off the back seat. She shut the car door and locked it. She had expected at least one of the twins to open the front door; she knew they must have heard the car turning up, spewing gravel as she clamped her foot down too hard on the brake and skidded. It wasn’t exactly the most dignified arrival.
Thea was already missing London, although she couldn’t deny how lovely the location was. She stood for a moment, breathing in the sweet countryside air. There was no traffic noise, no sirens going off in the distance – just the sound of birds chirping and the rustling of the wind in the trees. It reminded her of her childhood.
Despite the blustery October weather, the late afternoon sun had peeked out from behind a huge grey cloud, suddenly brightening up the otherwise grey day. It brightened Thea’s mood too. She caught herself smiling at her surroundings. It was a world away from her life, and everything that she was familiar with, and yet this part of the worldwasfamiliar. It was where she’d spent the happiest time of her life, before everything had changed.
Chapter 20
Thea walked up to the front door. On the ground floor of the house, there were four floor-to-ceiling Georgian windows – two on either side of the front door – looking over the lawn and the gravel driveway. She didn’t see either of the twins looking out of the front windows to see who had arrived. But she did hear one of them, Katie, behind the door.
‘Winston, for goodness’ sake, let me answer the front door, will you?’
Who the hell is Winston?Thea thought. Did they have a friend round, or was someone babysitting that Mark hadn’t told her about?
The front door opened. Katie stood there holding on to the collar of a large yellow dog.
Thea’s eyes went wide at the sight of the dog, an excitable golden retriever. Mark hadn’t mentioned they’d got a dog. She’d have to feed it, walk it. Why couldn’t it have been a cat? She sighed. She didn’t know the first thing about looking after a pet.
Katie’s fingers slipped from the collar and the dog leapt forward, barking, slobbering, and jumping up at Thea.
Thea took a step back and lost her footing as the dog’s weight pushed her backwards before she had a chance to right herself. She took a tumble backwards, landing on her rump. ‘Ouch!’
‘Winston! You naughty dog. Come here!’
The dog licked Thea’s face before running over to Katie. She wagged a finger. ‘You are a very bad dog. How many times have you been told not to jump up?’
Not nearly enough, thought Thea, getting to her feet. She looked at the large, exuberant dog and thought perhaps she had an idea about how her sister might have broken her leg.
‘I didn’t know you had a dog, Katie.’ Thea didn’t remember them having a puppy the last time she saw them.
‘We got him a couple of weeks ago. He’s a rescue.’
‘How old is he?’
‘Ten months, I think.’
