Wayward Son (Jensen Family #3) (45 page)

“I’m going to bed
,
” she told the
two boys.

“I’ll be there in a bit, I’m going to help Novak get his bed ready
,
” Gavin told her, turning to his friend
once she had left the r
oom
.
“Dad wants to talk
.
”

“About?” Novak asked.

“Mum, him and me
.
”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“I’m not ready to talk about her
,
or his relationship with her and the things he did
.
”

“Personally, I think it’s long overdue. You need to move on Gav, you need
to ma
ke peace with your Dad, he’s trying, and even I
can see that. Let him be a Dad to you, in my opinion it would be good for both
of you.”

“You’re supposed to be on my side
.
” Gavin said.

“I am, but deep down, you aren’t happy and you need him, he’s there for
you, you just need to let him
.
”

“I don’t know what to do
,
” Gavin admitted
.
“Part of me wants to internalise it all
but another part just wants to scream at him for not being there when she
needed him most and for being a complete bastard to her
.
”

“Perhaps
if you talk to him, you may get his
side of things, there are two sides to every story after all, he probably has
valid reasons for
some of the things he did and
he was there when she needed him the most, he was there when she died
.
”

“I guess. I hadn’t tho
ught of it that way
.
” Gavin mused.

“Go to bed, sleep on it
.
” Novak smiled
at his friend as he sat gingerly on the edge of the sofa bed
.
“And I do mean sleep, I know it’ll be
difficult with Angel lying beside you but I don’t want to listen to sex sounds
com
ing from your room
,
” he finished, he had stripped off his
t-shirt and laid back on the bed, he grinned at Gavin as he reached for his
headphones
, “And these only shut out certain
sounds.”

“You won’t hear anything
.
” Gavin told him
on the way to his bedroom.

Gavin woke early, he looked across at Angel, asleep on her stomach, his
old Led Zepplin t-shirt slightly rucked up on her slender back, her long dark
hair spread out on the pillow behind her. She looked so peaceful that he didn’t
want to wake her, he slid
from the bed, had a quick
wash before dressing and heading out of the room. To his surprise, Novak wasn’t
in the outer room; the sofa bed had been folded away with the sheet, pillows
and duvet folded neatly on one end. Jogging down the stairs, he found hi
s Grandma in the kitchen cooking huge amounts of bacon; his
friend was in the garden in the process of cleaning the pool.

“You know I can do that?” Gavin approached Novak.

“Of course but I was awake and figured I’d give you a head start, does
the water loo
k a little odd to you?” Novak replied.

“Yeah, it’s a strange colour and the level looks a bit low
,
” Gavin walked away only to return with
a water testing kit, “There’s a chemical imbalance
,
” he confirmed after testing the water,
he fr
owned down at the pool
.
“The water level is all wrong
.
”

“Morning
,
” Paul sauntered
towards them, steaming cup of coffee in one hand, his hair tousled, naked from
the waist up, his face extremely pale with thick dark stubble.

Gavin smiled
, “y
ou look awful
.
”

“Yeah, my head is
hammering, I shouldn’t drink
red wine, it does this to me every time
.
”

“We have a problem
,
” Gavin told his
father, holding up the test strip he had used on the pool
.
“And it looks like we have a leak
.
”

“Shit
.
” Paul left his
coffee cup on the table and disa
ppeared into the pump
house, he emerged after ten minutes
.
“Everything in there is bone dry
,
” he called from the far side of the pool then turned his back on the
boys and, standing on tip toe, peered over the fence to his
neighbours’
garden before rejoinin
g the two younger men
.
“Balls
,
” he said
.
“Next door’s garden is a mess, looks
like it’s been leaking for quite some time
.
”

“I’ll start draining it
.
” Novak put in
disappearing into the pump house.

“Looks like we’ve upset the natives
.
” Gavin gestured towards
the house where Monica
was ushering their red faced neighbour towards them.

“Mr. Jensen, your pool appears to have a large leak
.
”

“Yes, I’ve just noticed, I had a quick look over the fence, would now be
convenient for me to come and inspect the damage?”
Paul
asked, immediately switching into business mode.

Brian Godstone, neighbour, was slightly taken aback. With the previous
owners of this house and pool, he had been told where to go in no uncertain
terms when the pool had leaked. “Er, yes, come on over
.
”

Suzanne appeared as Paul and their neighbour came through the house, she
took Paul’s mug from him and, with the other hand passed him a shirt which he
slipped on as he went out through the front door.

Next door, Paul and Brian Godstone stood on the raise
d decking and looked out over the water logged garden in
silence for some time before Paul turned to his neighbour.

“I can only apologise
,
” Paul started
.
“I only wish I’d noticed the leak
earlier. The pool is draining now so hopefully you shouldn’t get muc
h more of the runoff, I’ll get some pumps in here by
lunchtime to get rid of the excess water and hopefully the weather will stay
warm and help to dry out the soil. Once the groun
d is a bit dryer, I’ll have my
landscape
gardeners come in and repair the dam
age or even give
your garden a makeover if you choose.”

“That’s very generous of you
,
” Brian
stammered.

“Not really
,
” Paul replied
.
“My pool has caused significant damage
to your garden, the least I can do is put it right
,
” he turned to leave.

Brian walked
with him
.
“The previ
ous owners of the house
were less than helpful when it leaked
.
”

“It’s done this before?” Paul asked
.
“I wish I’d known, I’d have had the whole thing refurbished before using
it. I’m sorry you won’t be able to make use of your garden fo
r a while but do feel free to join us in ours while yours
is repaired
.
”

“Thank you
,
” Brian paused
.
“I think we may have got off on the
wrong foot, I was so busy listening to the rumours and reading the newspaper
articles about you that I appear to have formed the wrong opinion.”

Paul smiled
.
“What exactly
have you heard about me?” he asked.

“This is em
barrassing, I’d rather not say
.
” Brian stammered.

“It’s ok, I can guess
. L
et me see, I’m
ruthless and uncompromising, I’ve had an exceptionally troubled childhood with
many suspensions and expulsions from school, teenage pregnancy, closure of a
boarding sc
hool, hostile take over’s, affairs etc,
etc
.
”

“That covers most of it
.
” Brian
admitted.

“Most of it is true and those bits that aren’t totally the truth do have
a grain of it in there somewhere. I am all those things and people generally
don’t cross me mor
e than once
,
but that is only the public side of
Paul Jensen
.
M
y wife would be the best one to tell you
about me personally, oh and Gavin is the result of the teenage pregnancy
scandal
.
”

“Really? He seems like a lovely boy, he always greets me when he sees
me
.
”

“Yes, his mother did an excellent job raising him
,
” Paul agreed, he held out his hand to
his neighbour
.
“I meant what I
said about joining us Mr Godstone
.
”

“Please call me Brian, my wife and I would be delighted to get to know
you and your family
.
”

“
Good, perhaps tonight would be convenient?”
Paul returned to his own property, smiling to himself that at least he had one
of the neighbours on board.

“Everything ok?” Suzanne asked, handing a plate to Monica.

“Yeah, I said I’d get it sorted, they may be j
oining
us tonight
,
” he added and
saw Suzanne frown
.
“He’s ok and
very pleased with the solution I offered him for his garden, just watch the
other neighbours fall over themselves to be friendly once we have the Godstones
on board
.
”

“They are our neighbours
, not a PR opportunity
.
” Suzanne replied.

Paul wrapped an arm around her and squeezed her tight
.
“Be a sweetie and get me some more
coffee, oh and a bunch of painkillers
,
” he said as he released her and returned to the garden.

“You’ll have to swim at work
.
” Angel was
telling Gavin as Paul approached.