The Peas and Carrots Series Boxset 1, page 43
part #1 of Peas and Carrots Series
‘You don’t mind, do you?’ she said.
‘You go ahead,’ Eric replied. ‘Just let me know if you need anything.’
She smiled sadly, narrow and tight lipped.
‘Thank you, Eric dear. I will.’
Shortly afterwards Philip arrived at the house. With a spray of fresh roses, a box of chocolates, and his normal yet freakishly luminous smile, he swept into the hall as if it were a ballroom.
‘Grandad!’ Abi shrieked, delighted to see her grandfather again so soon. ‘Are you going to live here now too?’
Philip bent down and lifted Abi up into his arms.
‘We shall have to see, my little mon amie. We shall have to see.’
Eric rolled his eyes. Yvette saw.
Dinner was non-stop talking. All of it Philip.
‘Do you remember that time in Ecuador,’ he said, chowing down on Yvette’s homemade, veggie meatloaf, ‘where they handed us those guinea pigs?’
‘As pets?’ Abi said.
‘Not exactly,’ her grandfather replied. ‘And what about that time in the Cayman Islands with the stingrays? Now that was something really special, wasn’t it, my love?’
It was as though he was running through a back-catalogue of every good thing the pair had done together over the last forty years.
‘And Verona? What year was that? Sixty-four?’
‘Sixty-eight,’ Yvette corrected him.
‘Sixty-eight, of course, you’re right. Still, Violetta.’ Philip kissed his fingers, then flew them from his lips. ‘What a girl, what a voice.’
Fortunately, Philip’s incessant chatter and Abi’s constant barrage of questions distracted from the obvious animosity within the room.
‘Is everything all right, dear?’ Yvette said, bringing Suzy’s silence to both Abi and Philip’s attention. ‘You seem rather quiet.’
‘Just thinking,’ Suzy said.
‘About what?’ Yvette said.
Suzy didn’t reply. After twenty-seconds of silence, a cold swell engulfed the dining room and everyone’s eyes, Eric’s included, became suddenly distracted by the table-top etchings. The silence expanded, and a deep-rooted gnawing drilled away at Eric’s insides. This was familiar. He had sat through family dinners like this before. Silent, awkward, uncomfortable. He remembered them well. But they’d always involved his family, not Suzy’s, and more often than not the cause for the tension had been Eric himself. Eric took a deep breath and prepared himself to be a grown up.
‘This meatloaf—’
‘So, Dad,’ Suzy said, clipping Eric’s sentence while spearing a potato with her fork. ‘How long are you planning on staying?’
‘Like I said, I’ll stay as long as—’
‘But what about work? Surely they can’t keep your job open indefinitely?’
‘Well,’ Philip lowered his fork to his plate. ‘I’m on holiday at the minute. And we’ve got plenty of time saved up. Besides, I don’t think indefinitely will play into it, will it dear?’
He grasped his wife’s hand and squeezed it. Yvette’s timid smile flickered.
‘I was looking,’ he said, ‘and there’s a position going in the Maldives. Senior dance instructors at an all-inclusive. I know it’s not what we’re used to, but I thought it might make a nice change. Get off the boats. Try something new. And you have always loved the Maldives, haven’t you, dear?’
‘Maybe,’ Yvette said.
‘Or Iceland. I saw a position going in Iceland. And Grenada. There were two there. Didn’t you have a friend who worked in Grenada, Vetty? Perhaps he could put in a good word for us?’
‘Perhaps,’ Yvette said and pushed a piece of meatloaf around her plate.
Philip grinned his talk-show host grin.
Eric feared another silence was once again about to consume them and was considering what other polite topics – other than the meatloaf and weather – he could use to break it when Philip dropped his knife on to the plate with a clatter.
‘I almost forgot,’ he said, brushing his hands on the thighs of his trousers and pushing his plate into the centre of the table. ‘I’ve got a bit of a treat for you.’
‘For me?’ Abi bounced in her seat.
‘Not this time, I’m afraid. This one’s a treat for your grandmother.’
While Abi sank sulkily back into her chair, Suzy stiffened.
‘Box tickets,’ Philip continued, oblivious to their reaction. ‘To see Hamilton. It’s a matinee performance. I tried for the evening, but they were completely booked up. I had to call in some favours just to get these. I thought we could go down next Friday, book ourselves into the Ritz, make a weekend of it.’
‘The whole weekend?’ Yvette asked.
‘Of course. That is all right, isn’t it?’
Yvette’s bottom lip disappeared under her top row of teeth.
‘Granny,’ Abi said, following her grandfather’s example and dropping her cutlery with a clatter onto her plate. ‘I thought you were going to take me to one of your lessons next weekend.’
‘Well, I …’
Philip reached over and stroked his granddaughter on the shoulder.
‘Don’t you worry, she’ll have plenty of time to give you some dance lessons when she gets back. Maybe I can teach you, too. How does that sound, a bit of ballroom dancing with your grandad?’
Abi pouted.
‘We weren’t going to a dance lesson. We were going to a magic lesson.’
‘Magic lesson?’ Philip frowned.
Yvette blushed.
‘Crystal healing,’ she said. ‘It’s a crystal healing course.’
Philip’s face tightened and pinched before cracking open into a full smirk.
‘Good God, it looks like I came back just in the nick of time,’ he said. ‘First hippie clothes, now crystal healing. Another week and you’d have been jumping over sticks naked in the back garden.’
Chapter 21
FOR THE REST of the week, Philip continued to invite himself over for breakfast and dinner. Eric would have liked to have made his own presence as minimal as possible, but it was tough. Every time he caught Yvette’s eye, there would be a sharp tug behind his ribs and he would feel obliged to stay and offer her some form of moral support. Particularly with Suzy barely making it downstairs most days. While Eric would never question the amount of work she was currently submerged beneath, he suspected that her father’s presence in the house was also playing a large part in her absence.
‘Has your mum mentioned to you what she plans to do at all?’ Eric asked one night when Suzy crawled into bed, well after midnight.
‘Not a word,’ Suzy said. ‘But if she’s staying or leaving, I wish she’d just make up her mind. One way or another.’
When Friday arrived, Yvette readied herself for their trip to London.
‘Are you sure you don’t want me to give you a lift to the station?’ Eric said. ‘I really don’t mind at all.’
Yvette shook her head. ‘It’s fine, honestly. I like the fresh air.’
‘I can run you down?’ Suzy said, having left the shackles of the laptop long enough to bid her mother farewell.
Once again, Yvette declined. ‘Honestly, I’m perfectly fine walking by myself,’ she insisted.
Eric examined his mother-in-law as she slipped her handbag over her shoulder. Some days, the wonderment of how she could ever have raised Suzy and Lydia was beyond belief. Other times, the three of them were so clearly cut from the same cloth. Today, it was difficult to tell. Yvette was dressed in her old clothes, with a feathery scarf and chandelier earrings all set off by the massive emerald ring of her grandmother’s that she’d refused to let Eric use to propose, but there was something not quite right. The bright lipstick didn’t seem to suit her so much anymore and made her mouth droop downward; the false eyelashes made her face look tired and small.
‘I hope you have a wonderful time,’ Suzy said, kissing her mum on the cheeks.
‘So do I,’ Yvette replied.
In place of missing her crystal healing course, Eric had arranged for Abi to go for a sleepover at Tom and Lydia’s for the night. They would keep her there for the morning, then he and Suzy would go and join them for dinner on Saturday night. That meant that for the first time in as long as Eric could remember, they were going to have the house to themselves, all Friday night and Saturday morning.
‘What’s the most romantic thing someone has ever done for you?’ Eric asked Fleur as he composted the last of the rotten parsnips from the crop.
It was such a waste. Next year, he decided, he would be planting more manageable amounts. Different varieties, that was the key. Make sure he didn’t end up with any gluts.
‘Me?’ Fleur said.
Her hands were placed in a tight grip around Margo as she stroked her feathers. The chicken, it appeared, was not too keen on this, as indicated by its constant cawing and clawing at Fleur’s skin.
‘I’m not sure. My ex took me on holiday once. It wasn’t a surprise though. I had to book it. And pay half. I’m not sure if that counts as him taking me on holiday or not? Chocolates. Fancy hotels. Ed Spencer made me a heart shaped card out of jellybeans when we were in primary school. Although I couldn’t eat the jellybeans as they were covered in glue, which seems like a waste now I think about it. I guess that’s it, really.’
‘Hmm,’ Eric mulled. ‘Suzy’s not a big fan of jellybeans. But what about in the house? Would you find the whole rose-petals-on-the-bed-thing cheesy? Or a candle-lit bath? What would be the most romantic thing ever?’
Fleur put the chicken back in the run and mulled the question over.
‘My cat was a present,’ she said. ‘Not from a boyfriend though, but it’s still the most thoughtful gift I’ve been given. I’d just moved up to London. Never lived by myself before. Never even been on my own.’
‘I didn’t know you had a cat.’
‘Colin. He died last year. He was sixteen, so he’d had a pretty good life.’ Her gaze wandered off into the distance. ‘I still miss him, actually. Weirdly he was my best friend, keeping me company when I didn’t know anyone. In a way, I suppose he kept me sane. I guess I probably shouldn’t say that out loud.’
With her head still lost in her thoughts, Fleur reached into the run and retrieved another hen.
‘I’m guessing that Suzy wouldn’t want you to get her a cat as a romantic gesture?’ she said, ignoring the onslaught of talons into her wrist.
‘No,’ Eric said as an idea began to formulate in the back of his mind. ‘She most definitely would not want a cat.’
Suzy had mentioned wanting a puppy since they first met. She had never had pets as a child, due to the sporadic nature of her parents’ living arrangements, and later because of her ex-husband Pete’s litany of allergies, although Eric suspected his aversion to commitment also played a part. The garden in London was nothing more than a concrete box and they’d both decided that it just wasn’t fair to bring up an animal when they were both so busy working. But they were home now, a lot. And how often had Suzy mentioned being lonely in the last few months? How many times had she wished she had an excuse to get out of the house and go for a walk? A dog was the ideal excuse. She could meet people with a dog too, take it out for walks, rides even, now that they were both using their bikes. It would be perfect.
Eric strode over to the allotment entrance. Yvette’s dance class flyer was in the exact same position he had pinned it nearly two weeks ago, and next to it the same A4 sheet of paper.
Red Setter Puppies For Sale, the notice read.
Eric didn’t bother taking a photo of the sign. He typed the number directly into his phone and rang them straight away. Romance was not something to ruminate on. Romance required action. When the phone was answered, and the availability of a puppy confirmed, he launched into full operation mode. Everything had to run according to plan.
By six-thirty Eric’s nerves were shot. Suzy had left with Abi to go to Tom and Lydia’s around five. He had also persuaded her to pick up a takeaway to give him a little more time.
‘Please can you go and get it?’ he whinged. ‘They always get the delivery wrong over the phone.’
‘Mine’s never wrong.’
‘Yours might not be, but mine always is. They always give me chicken instead of beef. And they never listen when I say no onion unless I’m actually there to say it.’
‘Then you go and get it, Eric. I’ve been sitting all day, the last thing I want is to sit in the Chinese after dropping Abs off.’
Eric pulled his best pleading face.
Suzy frowned, clenched her jaw and then relaxed it.
‘Fine. I don’t care. I’ll go and get my boots on.’ She called up the stairs, ‘Come on, Abi, we’re leaving now.’
‘Drive safe,’ Eric shouted after her, waving as she pulled the Audi carefully out of the driveway. It was time to put the plan into action.
‘All Kennel Club registered,’ the owner had told him as Eric stood in the puppy filled kitchen. ‘Only got bitches left I’m afraid.’
Eric had gone straight from the allotment to Tesco earlier in the day to stock up on puppy related paraphernalia. He had arranged to meet the owner at her house – just a few miles outside of Burlam – at two o’clock.
‘Litter was fourteen, but these five are all that’s left. And I’ve got another two people coming to look tomorrow, mind you. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all gone by Sunday. They’ve had all the jabs, of course. Fine to socialise if you have other animals.’
‘That one,’ Eric said, not having listened to a word the woman had just said. ‘I want that one.’
His chosen pup was lying down, apart from the rest of the litter, and since Eric’s arrival she’d done nothing but stare at him. Her deep brown eyes drooped down and her paws – four times too big for her body at least – stuck out from under her chin. Every now and again she would cock her head as if trying to figure out what was going on inside his.
‘That one?’
‘That’s the one.’
Eric took a tentative step forwards, then stopped. For a brief second, he thought she might bolt and scurry back to the safety of her siblings. But her head cocked, her eyes blinked, and less than a heartbeat later her tail was thumping hard against the floor. Only when Eric put his hand down to stroke her did she close her eyes. A soft hum vibrated through him as she nestled herself against his palm.
‘This is the one,’ Eric said again.
He picked her up and cradled her in the crook of his arm. This little girl was going to make everything right.
After handing over a ludicrous amount of money, the next stop was Hank’s.
‘It’ll just be a couple of hours,’ Eric assured him. ‘As soon as I get Suzy out the house, I’ll call you.’
‘You need to bring her now,’ Eric said, having started the call to Hank before Suzy and Abi were even out of sight. ‘And don’t forget the food and the bed. And the chew toy. Don’t forget the chew toy, I think it’s her favourite one.’
‘It’s all packed and ready,’ Hank assured him.
‘Don’t bother knocking, just come straight round the back, all right?’
‘Got it.’
‘Okay, see you in five.’
Eric was about to hang up when he remembered one last thing. It wasn’t the most important element, but he did want to do things properly.
‘I don’t suppose either of you two have a bow, do you?’ he asked.
After a fair bit of consideration, Eric had decided that the conservatory would be his room of choice when it came to his wife’s surprise. The cloudless night sky added a constantly changing background of stars while the lack of soft furnishings would also offer the least chewing opportunities for the as-yet-unnamed puppy. Also, it had direct access to the garden where it would be necessary to house the puppy for the short time until his big reveal.
He was two-thirds of the way through lighting mountains of cathedral-style candles when Hank and Jerry appeared in the back garden. Eric waved them in.
‘Good God,’ Eric said, on surveying his newly purchased puppy. ‘What the hell is that?’
Around the puppy’s neck was tied a lime green bow tie, the magnitude of which Eric had never before encountered. The frilly lace material looked like it was something off one of Yvette’s dancing get-ups, and the knot alone was almost double the size of the poor dog’s head.
‘I had a few props left over from last year’s Halloween party. I think this was used for somebody’s pumpkin costume,’ Jerry said.
‘I guess it’ll have to do.’
Eric stretched out a hand and scooped her out of Hank’s arms.
‘It’s all right, little girl,’ he said. ‘You’re back with Daddy now.’
Just like Suzy, Eric had never owned a dog before. Growing up, his father had never been keen, and with all the weekend trips away in Sally, he didn’t think it would be fair. Still, Eric saw himself as a dog person. He could see it now, walks along the river front, the puppy’s neckerchief fluttering in the wind. Winter evenings curled up in front of the fire, his slippers obligingly delivered. She was everything he imagined and more. Before now, Eric had only believed the concept of love at first sight to exist on a purely biological level, but now he wasn’t so sure. Her wet nose burrowed in under his chin, and the smell of earth and lanolin rose from her fur.
‘Have you had a setter before?’ Hank said. ‘Lovely dogs. Lovely temperament.’
‘No, I haven’t,’ Eric said.
‘Oh, she’ll be grand. Great for Abi too. Obviously, she’ll be barking.’
‘You mean loudly?’
‘Oh no, I mean barking as in crazy. Setters, they’re bonkers, the lot of them.’
Eric looked at the bundle his arms. The ball of fluff rose and fell, and a slight whimper escaped from her lips.
‘Not this one. She’s perfect.’ And almost as if she’d heard him, she lifted her face towards his and gave him a long, slobbery kiss on his cheek.
