Chapter 13

Thirteen

"B oys, this is Eisen. He's kindly offered to help out with the plumbing. Isn't that great? We might have a shower soon."

"You will have a shower soon," Eis corrected.

Harry said nothing.

"I thought he was Chip?" Alfie wouldn't stop staring at his eyepatch. Sheesh. "You said he was called Chip."

"Chip is his nickname."

"Like douchekebab? That's what people at school call Harry. Sophie's brother is in Harry's class, and she told me."

"Is that true?" I asked Harry.

"No," he said, but he was lying. Again.

And Eis knew it too. "Shouldn't fib to your mum, buddy."

"You can't tell me what to do. You're just the plumber."

"Nobody can tell you what to do. But if you want to grow into a man instead of a douchekebab, you'll do the right thing."

Harry stared at him through narrowed eyes, and then his shoulders slumped. "They call me a douchecanoe, okay? Not a douchekebab."

He stormed off up the stairs.

Great.

That went well.

I looked at Eis, and he looked at me.

"Want me to…?" he asked, nodding towards the stairs.

"Could you just watch Alfie for a few minutes?"

"Sure."

I found Harry spread-eagled on the bed, his face smushed into the pillow. He refused to look at me. I perched beside him, desperately trying to think of a way to make things better.

"Things have been bad at school again?"

No answer.

"How long has this been going on?"

Silence.

"Do you want me to speak with Mrs. Bailey?"

"No!" Then, more quietly, "I'm not a snitch."

"Is Shawn involved in this?"

"No."

"Are you sure? If I'd known what a bad influence he was, I'd never have suggested you go to his house."

"You don't get it." Harry rolled over, and I saw he'd been crying. Shit. "Shawn was trying to help. He said his friends would let me hang out with them, but I had to prove myself first."

"Prove yourself by vandalising someone's property?"

"Prove I wasn't a coward. Then I'd get, like, protection."

"Did it work?"

"No, 'cos I got caught, and now they think I'm crap."

"How did they even know you got caught?"

"Alfie told everyone at his school, so now everybody at my school knows too."

Hell, Alfie was turning into the neighbourhood gossip. Why did young boys have to be so mean to each other? Harry had another five years at the comprehensive, and I couldn't let him spend that whole time miserable. I thought back to Eisen's words.

"What do you need?"

Harry looked puzzled. "Huh?"

"What do you need to help make this better?"

"I need for us to move back to Bristol."

Well, shit. I'd walked head first into that one.

"I can't get back together with your dad. He's with Luisa now."

"You don't get it, do you? I don't care about living with Dad; I just want to hang out with my friends again."

The pain in his voice twisted me up inside, and I felt guilty for digging the fragment of a silver lining from the dark cloud of misery. He doesn't want me to play happy families with Steven. But we couldn't go back, not when we'd moved to Engleby for a fresh start, for a better life.

"Harry, I wish that was an option. But I didn't have any friends in Bristol." Because I'd spent so long working to try to keep us afloat that I had no social life, and the few friends I had managed to make were also colleagues who didn't dare to speak out against Luisa in case they lost their jobs too. "Or a job, or help with childcare, and houses are so much more expensive there. But maybe we could go back for a visit? I've got another driving test soon."

Harry scoffed. "Yeah, right, like you'll pass."

Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, kid.

"Then we can go on the train. Make a day of it, catch a movie at the cinema, get fish and chips for tea. How about Saturday?"

My children came first. Eis would understand. At least, I hoped he would. If he didn't, that would mean I'd made yet another mistake, and I wasn't sure my heart or my sanity could take it.

A corner of Harry's veil of misery lifted. "Saturday?"

"Why don't you see which of your friends are free?"

* * *

Eis did understand. Of course he did.

"Need a lift?" he asked as he packed up his tools. Harry was still in his room, and Alfie was overjoyed because that meant he could watch whatever he wanted on TV.

"I can't ask you to drive all the way to Bristol."

"You're not asking; I'm offering." He gave a mock salute. "At your service. Just tell Harry I'm moonlighting as an Uber driver in my spare time."

Another of those waves of emotion crashed over me, and Eis was the one who wiped away the single escaped tear with a thumb.

"Is my driving that bad?" he asked.

"No, but mine is. I've already failed my test seven times. I'm going for number eight the week after next."

"Is it the parallel parking? I'm shit at that."

"I can do it fine with my instructor. But when the examiner's sitting beside me, I freak out and hit the kerb. Or I forget to look in my mirrors, or I make a wrong turn, or I accidentally break the speed limit. Maybe it'll be okay this time? I still have one more lesson before the big day."

I found myself wrapped in Eisen's arms, his chin resting on my shoulder. There was nothing sexual about it. It was like being hugged by a rock. A tough, impenetrable, overprotective, and weirdly comforting rock.

"If you believe you can, then you will. If you believe you can't, then you won't. That's a quote from Elizabeth Kennedy-Renner. Did you know she went skydiving on her eightieth birthday?"

"Was she crazy?"

"A bit." He leaned back and grinned. "People say I take after her."

"Have you ever been skydiving?"

"I was right behind her when she jumped out of the plane. There's a video somewhere if you don't believe me."

"Oh, I believe you."

Eis kissed my hair. "I've got a gym in Bristol. It's about time I paid a visit."

"How long since you last went?"

He considered that for a moment. "Sixteen months."

"Wow, you really did go full hermit, didn't you?"

"I haven't been in a great place," he admitted. "They'll be surprised to see me."

"Who's been running the place?"

"I have a great team. Even when I wasn't busy hermiting, I was always training or travelling, so I put in a structure that lets Four Rings run itself."

"Why is it called Four Rings?"

"MMA." He ticked off on his fingers. "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, boxing, and wrestling. Those are the disciplines that a fighter needs to master. There's other stuff in there too, karate and kickboxing, tae kwon do and Wing Chun, but those are the main ones. If Alfie needs something to do while Harry's with his friends, there are kids' classes on Saturday mornings."

"I'm not sure that would be a good idea. He'd probably try to karate-chop Anvil de Witt."

"What's Anvil de Witt?"

"A kid in his class."

"Anvil?" Eis blew out a breath. "Okay then. But seriously, the first thing we teach kids is that violence is a last resort. Respect comes first."

At least if Alfie was in a gym class, he wouldn't be picking up beetles from the pavement.

"Perhaps he could try a beginner's session?"

"I'll book him a place."

* * *

The rest of the week went surprisingly smoothly. Most of the time, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it didn't. I spoke with Marissa and let her know that work on the roof had started sooner than anticipated, and also that the plumbing was going to be cheaper than expected because a chap from the village had offered to help out.

Marissa, of course, put two and two together and squealed through the phone.

"You met a guy?"

"I literally just said that."

"Well, you left a lot of stuff out. No way would he be fixing your pipes unless he's into you. Tell me he isn't another insensitive jerk like Steven?"

"He isn't. He's totally different to Steven." I took a deep breath. "You remember when I was eighteen, I met a guy, and then he did a disappearing act on me?"

"It's him? Ohmigosh, he is an insensitive jerk."

"We had…well, not so much a misunderstanding, but he was terrible at communicating in those days. We're both older and wiser now, and I still really like him. Is that crazy? Wait, wait… Don't answer that. I know it's crazy. But we have this chemistry, and I can't stay away."

"If you're just using him for rebound sex, I guess that makes sense. Get it out of your system, that sort of thing."

"I haven't even slept with him. Recently, I mean. He brings me coffee and fixes stuff around the house."

"That's weird."

"Is it? I told him I wanted to take things slow."

Marissa paused before speaking. "Okay, as long as you're just using him for free labour and rebound sex, that could actually be a pretty good deal."

"Right." Wrong. If Eisen vanished on me again, he'd take what was left of my heart with him, but I didn't think he'd do that. For one, I knew his address now. I'd go over there with Harry and turn Twilight's End into a freaking rainbow. "Are you still okay to take me to my driving test?"

I'd kind of thought Eis might offer, but he hadn't, and we weren't at a stage in our relationship where I felt I could ask him for favours. He was already doing plenty as it was.

"The whole of that Tuesday is blocked out in my calendar, and Barbara's covering my shift at Fairfield House. The test is at two thirty?"

My stomach tightened just from me thinking about it. "Yes, but I want to get there early."

"And we can have a celebratory lunch after."

"Maybe."

"Don't be so negative. If I can pass, then anyone can pass." That didn't make me feel better. "Did you see Mum's latest photos?"

Oh, thank goodness, a subject change. "The ones where she dressed up as a cat and Dad looked all bewildered?"

"You don't think he's going senile, do you? Liam said confusion is a natural reaction to Hello Kitty, but Dad's looked puzzled in most of the pictures so far."

"He's fine, honestly. Dad just doesn't handle change very well. Remember when Mum swapped his Yorkshire teabags for green tea because it was healthier, and he drank nearly the whole cup before he asked her to check the ‘best before' date?"

"I guess."

We chatted for a few more minutes and then said our goodbyes. Marissa and I hadn't always seen eye to eye, especially as kids, but since the breakup, she'd been an absolute rock. I had a good family, Steven excepted, and more than anything, I wanted Eis to be a part of it.