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“I just can’t imagine Mum with a baby. I can’t imagine her doing normal, day-to-day parenting stuff. It’s mostly Louise who looks after me when I’m with them. Mum’s always there, but Louise is the practical one.”
Hugh thought back to the time when they’d been a family of three. Emmy’s assessment seemed fairly accurate.
“Your mum was never really comfortable around you,” he finally said. “Not in an awful way. She loved you, but she worried she was getting everything wrong. When she dressed you she panicked that she was going to dislocate a limb. Or she worried you’d choke while she was feeding you.” He imagined how exhausting it must have been for Nancy to constantly feel like a failure. Maybe it was her lack of confidence that had made him feel as though he knew what he was doing. Looking after Emmy was his comfort zone, and being a parent was an area of his life where he’d always felt confident.
“I guess it was really Louise who wanted a baby,” Emmy said. “I don’t think Mum’s changed that much since I was a baby.”
“Are you sure you’re okay with it?” Hugh asked. “Your mum was worried it had upset you.”
“No. It wasn’t that. Not really. It’s just … I don’t know, sometimes it’s hard being with Mum.” She turned to him with a sad smile. “I like it when it’s just you and me. Everything is easier then.”
Hugh’s mind raced. During their phone calls he’d been quite open about the fact that he’d been spending time with Allie. Emmy hadn’t been overly inquisitive, which only now occurred to him as being odd.
While he’d been single-mindedly assuming it was Nancy’s news which had upset Emmy, he hadn’t considered that it could be something else entirely.
Like him dating.
CHAPTER 36
Arriving at the cafe before it opened on Monday morning was intentional. Allie was hoping to catch Verity for a private chat, but it occurred to her as she knocked on the door that she might have staff with her.
The speech that Allie had practised fell out of her head the minute she laid eyes on Verity crossing the cafe to let her in. It was the sympathy and warmth in her eyes that threw Allie. She’d been expecting a hostile reception.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Verity said, tilting her head as she opened the door. “I was going to try and get in touch with you later.”
Allie only mumbled random noises.
“Come in.” Verity opened the door wider. “Let’s go into the kitchen for a chat.”
“Thanks,” Allie said and followed Verity behind the counter and into the kitchen beyond. At Verity’s insistence, she took a seat at the small table at the side of the square room. “I wanted to explain,” she said while Verity filled the kettle. She took a deep breath, trying to recall what she’d intended to say.
“Dad has been trying to get me to come back here for years,” she said, staring at the grooves in the wooden tabletop as she got straight to the point. “I never wanted to. Then Dad got insistent. He claimed the business wasn’t doing well and he wanted me to come and figure out why. He said it would be easier for me to see how the business was running if no one knew who I was.”
Verity snorted a laugh.
“It was pretty ridiculous.” Allie felt her muscles relax.
“But nobody suspected anything?” Verity asked.
“No.”
“Why would they, I suppose.”
“I actually thought someone would recognise me.” A smile played at Allie’s lips. “I was even a bit offended at first that they didn’t. I know that being a celebrity in the golfing world isn’t like being a film star or anything, but when things were going well I was recognised a lot and I felt kind of famous for a while.”
“I was sorry to read about your injury,” Verity said kindly.
“Thank you.” Automatically she rolled her shoulder. “It felt like the end of the world for a while, but recently I’ve started to think things work out just as they’re supposed to, even if it doesn’t always feel like it at the time.” She thanked Verity when she set a mug of tea in front of her and joined her at the table. “Dad said the real reason he wanted me to come here as a waitress was so that I could have a more normal life for once, without so much responsibility.”
“That makes sense.” Verity blew on her tea. “It was a ridiculous way to go about it though.”
“I’m not sure he was thinking clearly. He’d just had a heart attack and was trying to devise a way to get me out of the way so he could avoid telling me.”
Verity’s eyes widened and she set her mug down. “Goodness. Is he okay?”
“Yes. I only found out this week. My cousin called me to say he was having surgery so I dashed back for a few days, but he seems to be doing well now.”
“That’s a relief. You must have been worried sick. What with your mum as well …”
