Happy Ever After (19 page)

Connie was engrossed in her crossword, her cappuccino almost finished, when she heard a familiar voice say, ‘Look, Melissa, there’s Connie.’ She looked up to see her ex-husband and his daughter walking in her direction.

‘Well, hello,’ she smiled, pretending it was a big surprise.

‘Hi, Connie,’ Melissa smiled back at her. ‘How’s Miss Hope?’

Connie laughed. ‘You say that every time we meet. She’s fine and lazy, sunning herself in the garden when I was leaving. Hi, Barry.’ She looked up at her ex, noting that he looked stressed and tired. To her surprise, he leaned down and kissed her cheek. ‘Hi, Connie, what a nice surprise. What are you doing here?’ He played his part perfectly.

‘Well, I’m supposed to be meeting Debbie to look at some furniture, but she’s running a little late so I decided to treat myself to a cappuccino,’ Connie explained.

‘We were just going to have a coffee ourselves – would you mind if we joined you?’

‘Not at all,’ she said warmly. ‘Is that OK with you, Melissa, or did you want to go somewhere else?’ Connie asked the teenager.

‘No, this is cool. Will Debbie be long?’

‘Shouldn’t be. I got a text to say she was on a Dart, so she should be here in the next five minutes.’

‘Random. Just a regular coffee for me, Dad, please.’

‘What? No mocha?’ He looked at her in surprise.

‘No, just coffee please.’

‘And a doughnut of course?’

‘No thanks. Just coffee. I’m on a diet,’ she murmured.

‘You look very well, Melissa, you’ve dropped a few pounds. Well done for staying off the junk. I wish I could.’ Connie sighed.

‘You look great,’ Barry assured her. ‘Will you have another cappuccino?’

‘Ah, what the hell. Why not?’ laughed Connie, thinking how nice it was to spend a Saturday morning sipping cappuccinos with extended family. It was a good thing that Melissa had gone into the church on the day of the wedding, before the confrontation with Aimee had occurred, or she might not have been so friendly, and it would have made things very awkward. Connie felt a little sorry for Barry. It must be a bit like walking on eggshells for him at times, having two families to contend with.

‘Here’s Debbie,’ Melissa pointed out, waving shyly at her half-sister, who was hurrying along the footpath.

A look of surprise crossed Debbie’s face as she caught sight of the three of them. ‘Well, hi, what’s all this? A family gathering?’ she said a little breathlessly, coming to a halt beside the table. ‘Sorry I was a bit late, Mum,’ she apologized to Connie, leaning down to give her a kiss.

‘I was having a cappuccino while I was waiting for you, and who came along but Barry and Melissa, bound for an early coffee too, so I said I’d have another one with them. But if you’re in a hurry we can head off,’ she said easily, not wanting it to look too staged.

‘Aw, don’t do that,’ Barry exclaimed, shooting her a glance of dismay.

‘No, no, it’s fine.’ Debbie sat down. ‘I’m gasping for a cup of coffee.’

‘Latte, cappuccino, mocha, regular? Let me get it,’ Barry said, smiling at Connie, noting how well her strategy had worked.

‘Latte, please.’

‘And a doughnut?’ he urged.

‘Oh, yes please.’ She grinned at Melissa, who was smiling back, delighted to see her big sister. ‘Hi Melissa, how’s life?’

‘Cool. Have you any photos of the wedding?’ she asked eagerly.

‘Aw, heck, I have some on a disk, but it’s in my other bag, and I have a present for you too,’ she added.

‘Have you? Savage.’ Melissa was chuffed.

‘Yeah – if I’d known I was going to bump into you, I’d have brought it with me. I’ve one for Dad too.’

‘Thanks, Debbie. I appreciate that.’ Barry smiled at his daughter, and Connie was glad she’d done as he’d asked. It was very enjoyable sitting having coffee with him and Melissa and, best of all, Debbie was completely relaxed about it.

‘So, Mum, you’re thinking of buying a new table?’ Debbie leaned back in her chair and squinted in the sun as they waited for their order to be delivered.

‘Actually, the table I was looking at is gone, and it was an end-of-the-line model,’ Connie fibbed. ‘So I won’t be buying it, unfortunately. It was too late to tell you when I found out. You were already on the Dart. So I’ve brought yourself and myself on a wild goose chase.’

‘Oh, that’s a shame.’ Debbie made a face. ‘Anyway, it’s nice to see you for coffee on a Saturday morning. And I’m glad I’m up reasonably early, the house is a shambles and I’ve a load of washing to do and I haven’t even unpacked from America, so I won’t stay too long, if you don’t mind.’

‘No problem, love,’ Connie assured her. ‘How’s Bryan?’

‘Oh, fine,’ she said nonchalantly. She turned to look at Melissa. ‘Hey, how about, if you don’t have anything on, coming back with me to the house, and I could give you your present. You can pop back to Dun Laoghaire on the Dart after I show you the photos if you’d like?’ she invited.

‘Deadly.’ Melissa beamed. ‘My friend Sarah can’t meet me until later ’cos she’s got visitors coming and has to tidy her room, and I’ve nothing on. Mom’s, like, not feeling well, so I guess we won’t be doing anything today, so thanks, that would be savage.’

‘What’s wrong with Aimee?’ Connie asked politely.

‘You’ll never guess.’ Melissa rolled her eyes dramatically, unaware of the look of dismay on her father’s face as he tried to flash a warning glance at her. ‘She’s got morning sickness; she, like, just did a pregnancy test. Half an hour ago. It was totally amazing. I watched the lines turning blue. Debbie, you’re going to have another half-brother or sister and you’re going to be twenty-five years older than it and, by the time it’s my age, Dad will be in his mid-sixties, and if you have a baby, our baby will be its aunt or uncle, and it will only be a bit older than it. How random is that?’ She rattled on artlessly, completely unaware of the shocked expressions on Debbie and Connie’s faces, and the consternation on her father’s.

‘Melissa, it’s a bit early to be telling people, in case anything goes wrong,’ he interjected quickly.

‘Oh!’ his younger daughter said, putting her hand to her mouth. ‘Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. But Connie and Debbie are family anyway,’ she pointed out.

‘Don’t worry, we won’t say anything to anyone,’ Connie said, kindly patting her hand. She was astonished by the news. Knowing what she did of Aimee, she suspected a baby would be the last thing the younger woman would want. No wonder Barry looked stressed and distracted. Having a baby around in your mid-fifties was no joke. Aimee would probably go mad if she knew Melissa had spilled the beans to her and Debbie.

‘Wow, Dad!’ Debbie stared at her father.

‘Wow indeed,’ he said sheepishly. ‘A big surprise all round, you might say.’

‘Well, I hope the morning sickness passes soon. Oh, look, here’s the coffees,’ Connie said diplomatically, bringing an end to the discussion.

‘Are you enjoying your hollies?’ Debbie took her cue from her mother and changed the subject.

‘It’s, like, a bit boring sometimes,’ Melissa confessed as she took a gulp of coffee. ‘My friend Clara has gone to their place in Spain for a month, and Sarah’s going to the country next week for a fortnight, so that’s a bummer.’ She gave a deep sigh.

‘Umm . . . well, maybe some evening I could meet you after work, and we could go to the pictures, if you like,’ Debbie suggested, licking the doughnut sugar off her fingers.

Connie could have kissed her daughter when she saw the look of pure happiness light up the younger girl’s eyes.

‘Do you mean it? I’ll give you my mobile number, and we can arrange it whenever it suits you,’ she said enthusiastically.

‘Maybe the two of you might go out to the house when I’m away and just check up on Hope for me. My neighbour is going to feed her, but I’d say she’d love the company,’ Connie said casually, not wanting to railroad the half-sisters. They had, after all, only met half a dozen times or so. It was much better for their relationship to evolve at its own pace, and not because she and Barry were pushing them into it.

‘Sure,’ Debbie agreed easily. ‘I’ll bring you for a spin in the soft-top. We’ll be like Thelma and Louise,’ she grinned.

Melissa guffawed at the notion. Riding around in a convertible with her half-sister was a seriously cool scene, and she’d make sure to get Debbie to drive down past the People’s Park, where lots of her schoolmates hung out, so that they’d see her. She’d wear her Moschino sunglasses and look ever so sophisticated.

‘
That
I must get a photo of,’ Barry chuckled, smiling at Connie. This meeting was working out far better than he could ever have hoped for, and it was all thanks to his ex-wife. He felt like kissing her. He’d seen the shock in her face when she’d heard about Aimee’s pregnancy. He should have warned Melissa to say nothing, but he’d been in such a heap he hadn’t thought of it. Connie had been extremely tactful, changing the subject so easily that Melissa hadn’t even noticed. Aimee would go ballistic if she knew that Connie and Debbie knew about the pregnancy. If Melissa was going to go to Debbie’s now, it would give him a chance to have a talk with Aimee in private. They were going to have to discuss the matter at some stage. Why not get it over and done with? He was not relishing the prospect.

Connie saw his distracted expression and felt a pang of sympathy for him. Here she was as free as a bird more or less, with only herself to worry about, and he was staring fatherhood in the face. She might be alone and lonely sometimes but, right now, she was glad she wasn’t in Aimee’s shoes.

‘See, they had flash flooding in the south of Spain and torrential rain,’ Debbie said wickedly as she finished the last of her doughnut, unaware of the longing glances Melissa was giving it.

‘Don’t be such a horrible child,’ Connie remonstrated.

‘Seriously, the weather’s pretty appalling. One of the girls at work went a week ago and only got one fine day.’

‘It will be gorgeous when Karen and I go,’ Connie said firmly.

‘My gran and granddad have a villa near Marbella, but we haven’t been there in ages,’ Melissa sighed. ‘I wish we had a place there. Dad said he’d think about it.’

‘Really?’ Connie arched an eyebrow at him. This was news to her.

Barry shook his head. ‘Melissa, don’t be saying things like that,’ he rebuked. ‘It depends on how an investment I’m considering goes. With the downturn in the property market over there, it’s a good time to buy.’

‘Well, the best of luck with it,’ Connie murmured, wondering whether, if they’d stayed married, would she have ended up with a pad in Spain.

‘How about we head off?’ Debbie glanced at her watch and then at Melissa.

‘Yep.’ Melissa stood up readily. ‘See you guys.’ She smiled at her father and Connie. ‘And don’t worry, Connie, we’ll go visit Miss Hope for you. Enjoy your holiday.’

‘Thanks for the coffee, Dad. Are you going to come to the Dart with us, Mum?’ Debbie asked Connie.

‘No, I think I’ll hop over to Marks, seeing as I’m in Dun Laoghaire. I could do with a new swimsuit and sarong for scorchers on the beach,’ she teased.

‘OK, I’ll ring you later, then.’ She dusted the crumbs off her trousers and stood up. ‘Bye.’

‘Bye, girls, have fun.’ Connie smiled as she watched the pair head off towards the Dart station, both laughing as Melissa stumbled briefly in her impossible-to-walk-in wedges and Debbie held out a steadying hand to straighten her teenage half-sister up.

‘Well, that’s a sight I never thought I’d live to see.’ Barry couldn’t hide his delight. ‘It’s great, isn’t it? Thank you so much, Connie. You’ve been a real tower of strength. I very much appreciate what you’ve done over the years to try and bring Debbie and I and Melissa together. And I really, really am grateful for what you did today, and the fact that you don’t hold grudges.’

‘Why would I hold a grudge?’ asked Connie in surprise.

‘Well, I walked out on you and Debbie, so there’s that . . . and then the business with Aimee outside the church.’ He grimaced.

‘What went on between you and me is our stuff, the same as what was said between me and Aimee is between us. It’s nothing to do with Melissa. Why would I try and sabotage her relationship with Debbie? I’m not
that
petty, Barry,’ she retorted, a touch caustically.

‘That’s what I’m saying, Connie,’ he said hastily. ‘You haven’t an ounce of pettiness in you, and it’s thanks to that that our daughters will become close, real sisters. That’s what I’m trying to say, however ham-fistedly I’m doing it.’

‘It wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t persisted, so there’s a pair of us in it then,’ she said crisply.

‘You’ve a generous nature, Connie,’ he said earnestly.

‘Ah, will you give over.’ She leaned down to pick up her bag.

‘Don’t go.’ He placed his hand on her arm.

‘I’ve chores to do, Barry.’

‘I think Aimee wants to get rid of the baby. I didn’t know she was pregnant, and I don’t think she was going to tell me. Only that I discovered the pregnancy test I don’t think I’d ever have known. Can you believe it? I don’t know what to do or how to deal with it. I’m in shock, at my wits’ end. She’s completely betrayed my trust. She wants to abort our baby.’ It burst out of him, an eruption of words and emotions that left her open-mouthed.

‘You don’t know that for sure. Have you spoken to her about it?’ she asked quietly, dropping her bag back to the ground.

‘No, not yet. I literally only found out an hour ago. I suppose now’s the perfect time, with Melissa out of the way but, to tell you the truth, I’m dreading it.’

‘That’s understandable,’ she murmured.

‘What will I do if she wants a termination? I’m convinced she was going to have one without telling me. How can I make her keep the baby?’ Barry looked at her beseechingly.

‘Barry, that’s for you and Aimee to decide. It would be totally inappropriate for me to tell you what to do or say,’ she demurred.

‘Ah, Connie, don’t be like that. I need your advice more than I’ve ever needed it.’ Under his golfing tan, he looked pale, tired, defeated even. Gone was the brash, boyish, confident man she’d married.