Practically Perfect (39 page)

‘It was magical.’ She looked up at him in wonder, only partly because of the deer.

He sighed, let go of Caroline’s lead and took her in his arms.

After that they had had to make do with phone calls and now Rob was about to go away, but they’d promised each other they would meet up for a proper, grown-up date when he returned.

It was now early in the morning. Rob was waiting for them to arrive before he went to work and later that morning Laura was going to drive back to Yorkshire. Anna
was
feeling very anticlimactic. Laura, aware of this, was being bracing.

‘I can’t believe so much has happened so quickly,’ she said, checking her rear-view mirror and getting a good view of Caroline’s head. ‘You’ve done really well!’

‘Sit down, Caroline,’ said Anna, half-heartedly and ineffectually. ‘It’s amazing what you can get done if you’ve got a really good incentive, and you’ve been wonderful. If I hadn’t had you to drive me to look at houses, I’d have had to make do with Cirencester’s answer to Kirsty and Phil.’

‘They probably would have been excellent, but an estate agent is never going to give you totally unbiased advice.’

Anna didn’t comment. She felt she could have managed without Laura’s advice actually, but didn’t say so. She would have preferred to search for a new project with Rob; she respected his opinion, it would be a huge advantage knowing in advance what the listed buildings people would accept or reject, and it was always useful to have someone to help with the measuring up. The fact that she was in love with him was, she tried to convince herself, completely beside the point.

‘Mm,’ she murmured.

‘And your holiday cottage is sweet!’ Laura went on brightly. ‘With a garage for your extra stuff. Couldn’t be better, really.’

‘No,’ Anna agreed flatly. ‘Except if I could have had Caroline, of course.’

Laura sighed with a patience only a mother could muster. ‘Well, that would have been the icing on the cake, naturally.’ She frowned. ‘I don’t know why you’re so depressed, Anna. You’ve sold your house; you’ve had an offer – a very low offer – accepted on a new one. You’ve got everything going for you!’

‘I know. It’s just …’

‘What?’

‘Rob’s going away for work. It’s not long, but …’ she stopped again.

‘What?’ Laura’s sympathy was waning but she was valiantly trying not to show it.

‘While I think we’ve got something – something really lovely – going on, I was so horribly wrong about Max.’

‘But Rob’s wonderful! He’s good-looking, he’s kind to animals, he seems to have a steady job. How could you be wrong about him?’ Laura was now losing her battle to remain patient.

‘Max was very good-looking, much more affluent, and while I don’t think you’d describe him as an animal lover, he didn’t kick puppies, I’m sure.’

‘Well,
I’m
sure Rob’s much more suitable.’

‘You never met Max!’ Perversely, Anna felt the need to defend him. ‘And whoever fell in love with someone because they’re suitable?’ She shot her sister a sideways glance. ‘Except possibly you.’

Laura laughed. ‘That proves my point! The fact that a man ticks all the boxes for a mother-in-law doesn’t mean you can’t fancy the pants off him.’

Anna smiled and patted her sister’s hand on the gear lever. ‘I’ve kept you away from Will for too long, but I do want to thank you. You’ve been a real star. I couldn’t have done it all without you.’

‘Yes you could,’ said Laura briskly. ‘But something I can’t do without you is find the way to this bloody place. Do we turn left or go straight on?’ They had come to a crossroads Anna vaguely recognised.

‘Straight on,’ said Anna after a moment’s thought. ‘I would have gone mad if I’d had to show all Chloe’s curious friends round the house on my own. I was beginning to
sound
like a demonstrator who has to learn their lines by heart.’

‘I enjoyed it. It reminded me of when we did up that flat together,’ Laura said. ‘Anyway, you might get quite a bit of work from them. It’s important to have a showcase.’

‘I hope so. And at least Dorothy came at the same time as the buildings inspector.’

‘He was nice, wasn’t he? Very helpful, I thought.’

‘Yes, he could have been much worse. In fact, he was excellent. He didn’t demand any more fire-resistant walls or air bricks or anything like that. He could have done, and I would have had to have done it before I let Julian buy it, I’m sure.’

‘Right,’ said Laura a few moments later as they set off through the wood towards Rob’s house, ‘I’m going to sit in the car while you hand over Caroline. I think you and Rob need a little time alone.’

Anna thought she and Rob needed a lot of time alone but as she knew that Rob had to go to work and Laura had to go to Yorkshire, she would have to be happy with what she could get.

She led Caroline up the path and Rob, who had been watching for her, came out of the house to meet them. Anna felt suddenly nervous. Supposing she’d imagined the electricity between them during that kiss and that lovely romantic walk together? Supposing it was just lust or something? She was still fretting about her mistaken feelings for Max. How could you be sure you’d found gold just because it glittered? A proverb wandered vaguely around in her mind. She might be as wrong about Rob as she was about Max. She was such a noodle!

Seeing Rob smile made her realise that her feelings were perfectly real, which was a relief, but she was left with a shyness that made her talk too much and too fast.

‘Hi! Sorry I’m a bit later than I said. I hope I won’t make you late for work! Oh, of course, you do flexitime, don’t you?’ she rambled.

He smiled. ‘Yes, I do do flexitime, and no, you haven’t made me late for work. But on the other hand, I’m afraid I haven’t even got time to offer you a cup of coffee.’

‘Well, Laura’s in a hurry, too, so I couldn’t have had one,’ she said, disappointed all the same. ‘I’ll get Caroline’s bed. Will she be all right with your lot, do you think?’

‘She’ll be fine,’ he reassured her, bending slightly to stroke Caroline’s ears. She leant in to him adoringly.

Anna smiled. ‘And remind me what’s happening to them while you’re away?’

‘My neighbour is going to come in twice a day, but there’ll be people here, too – I’m having some work done – so they won’t be on their own much. She’ll let them out, feed them, and take them for a long play in the field. She even watches television with them after she’s fed them in the evenings. Just as well: we wouldn’t want them watching anything unsuitable.’

Anna smiled politely. ‘I’d better get Caroline’s things. Then we must be going …’ He hadn’t even kissed her cheek.

‘Why don’t you stay and have a look at what I’ve done since you were last here? I’ll get Caroline’s stuff. I can say goodbye to Laura at the same time.’

Anna helped herself to a drink of water to ease her dry mouth and then wandered through the house. There were lots of signs of activity. One of the kitchen walls had been demolished and Anna could see where he intended to put in an extension. It would be very nice, she thought. A cement mixer, a couple of sawhorses and some electrical tools were pushed into one corner.

‘It’s going to be jolly nice, Caroline,’ she said to the
dog
, who seemed to sense her imminent abandonment. ‘You’ll be fine. You must be used to living with other dogs, after all, and I’m sure Rob’s dogs have very good manners.’

‘They have,’ said Rob, coming back with his arms full of bedding, ‘and I suggest you say goodbye to Caroline now. I’ll get them settled together before I go to work.’

‘OK,’ said Anna, suddenly near tears. She knew that Caroline would be fine, would probably forget her the moment she met her new friends, but the hectic time Anna had had and the fact she was saying goodbye to Rob, too, had stretched her nerves.

‘All right, Caroline,’ she said, trying not to let her voice betray her emotions, ‘you’re going to stay with Rob for a bit, but it’s only for a short time, while my house sale goes through and we can move into our new home.’

She put her arms round Caroline’s neck and laid her head on Caroline’s for an instant. Then she straightened up. ‘Right, now I must let you get on.’

‘Oh, come here,’ said Rob and pulled her into his arms.

He hugged her so tightly she couldn’t breathe, but that was fine because this was where she wanted to die, held tightly in Rob’s strong arms.

‘I’m only going away for ten days,’ he murmured into her hair moments before asphyxia set in. ‘Then I’m going to take you somewhere really nice for dinner.’

Anna kept her eyes closed and didn’t let go. ‘That would be wonderful,’ she muttered into his shirt. ‘Or fish and chips would be OK.’

He laughed and released her, ‘I think I can do a bit better than that.’

‘Whatever.’ Pulling herself away was like prising a limpet from a rock. ‘Anyway, I must go. Bye bye, darling,’ she said.

‘Is the darling for Caroline or me?’ asked Rob with a hint of sadness in his smile.

‘You decide,’ said Anna, trying for playfulness and not quite bringing it off. ‘I’m going now. Goodbye!’

His bear-like hug had gone a long way to restoring Anna’s spirits. It had made her feel more sure of her feelings and his. They had plenty of time to build on their friendship and, in Anna’s case, the sudden spasms of lust could well become real and lasting love. Caroline would be all right; everything would be all right. The future was fun and exciting. But she’d still had a break in her voice when she’d said goodbye.

Laura left later that morning and Anna spent the next couple of days distracting herself with odd little jobs that weren’t absolutely essential, but she wanted to leave the house as near perfect as possible for Julian. For her professional pride. Then, still feeling proud of her achievement, but with a huge wrench, she left the cottage for Dorothy and Ted’s holiday home. Only frequent calls and visits to Chloe kept her spirits up.

‘I know,’ said Anna brightly, just after she had had lunch with Chloe and her younger boys the following week. ‘Why don’t we find that place you told me about? Where there are trees that are easy to climb? You’d like that, wouldn’t you, guys?’

Amid the general agreement Chloe said, ‘And would you like to call on a certain person on your way home?’

Anna gave a confessional sigh. ‘He might not be back yet. He was away for about ten days, I think. He has rung me a couple of times but he found it really hard to get a signal so I’m not quite sure what he’s up to.’

‘What did he go away to do, exactly?’

‘It was to help out in the office where he worked before.
He
took holiday to do it!’ Anna was indignant to think of Rob using his much-needed time off to work, especially as it took him away from her. But that’s why she adored him – he was so generous. ‘Although they will pay him of course,’ she went on, ‘and his house is going to swallow money, so he does need it.’

‘So why did they need him exactly?’ Chloe was gathering sauce-garnished plates and stacking them in the dishwasher.

‘Oh, a huge backlog. They’d lost a member of staff, apparently, and had to wait for the new person to join.’

‘So you’ve been in touch enough to find out all that, at least.’

‘Yes,’ said Anna, sighing again. ‘But not the exact date he’s coming home. It depended on how much he could do, and how quickly.’

‘OK, boys, give the table a wipe someone. I’ll just switch on the dishwasher. We won’t need boots, just hoodies. Let’s go!’

Tom and Harry, and even Anna and Chloe to a lesser extent, had spent a happy afternoon climbing trees, eating digestive biscuits, and swigging orange squash out of a bottle. They were now on their way back, having picked up Bruno from school, taking the diversion necessary to visit Rob, if he should be home.

‘How will he feel, us all turning up, if he’s just got back from a trip?’ asked Chloe.

‘He’ll be thrilled to see us! Well, he might not be, but considering he’s probably not there, I’m sure it won’t be a problem. I might get a glimpse of Caroline!’ Anna added, to give the impression it was not just Rob she wanted to see.

‘I thought you said the other night it was better for you
not
to see her, so you didn’t get all emotional about it,’ Chloe teased.

‘I know, but I’ll see her when I visit Rob anyway, and it shouldn’t be too much longer before I complete on my new house.’

‘I thought there were problems with the searches?’

‘Chloe! You’re not supposed to make a note of everything I say and hold it against me when I want to change my mind about something!’

Chloe laughed. ‘OK, guys. We’re going to see if we can find Rob.’

‘Oh goody,’ said Bruno. ‘I like Rob.’

They got a little lost and had to negotiate the lanes until they thought they were going in the right direction. Chloe, who knew the area best, was fairly confident they were on course. Anna didn’t think it looked right, but kept her thoughts to herself.

Suddenly, Chloe said, ‘Hang on – is that smoke?’

It was definitely smoke, a very large cloud of it. ‘Either someone’s having a massive bonfire,’ said Anna, ‘or …’ She felt all the moisture drain from her mouth, and the blood from her bones. She felt very sick. ‘Oh my God!’ she whispered. ‘Are you sure we’re where you think we are?’

‘’Fraid so,’ said Chloe, biting her lip. ‘I would so like to be wrong.’

They drove towards the smoke. Even the boys seemed aware that the atmosphere in the car had changed and sat quietly in the back. Harry had fallen asleep in his booster seat.

Anna felt as if her insides had turned into a pit of snakes. She was sweating and unconsciously she leant forward in her seat and brought her knees up, to try to quell the
churning
. He’s an adult, she told herself. He’s perfectly capable of walking out of a burning building.

Chloe glanced across at her. ‘It’s terribly unlikely it’s Rob’s house, Anna,’ she murmured, hoping the boys wouldn’t catch on to what she was saying. She didn’t want them asking questions she couldn’t answer.

‘There are no other houses around. If it isn’t a bonfire, it must be Rob’s house. But he might not be back yet.’ A thought suddenly hit her. ‘The dogs! Caroline!’