Page 34 of The Runaway Wives

‘Oh, Mum, Dad won’t do that to you. You know he won’t.’

‘Molly, the house is on the market and your dad has booked a trip to Spain this weekend to view some houses over there. He’s already doing it to me.’

‘Look, Mum, I had a long chat with Dad last night when I came back from my flight and he’s really down and missing you. Please try to work this out.’

‘Me? How can I work it out when I’m not the one doing it? I’m quite happy to stay in our house and live the life we’re living. It’s your dad who’s hell-bent on changing it. Are you saying that I should move to Spain when I don’t want to, simply to please your dad?’

‘No, of course not.’

‘Then how do we resolve this because your dad has made it clear that he’s not giving up “his dream” for me?’

There was a silence then Molly whispered, ‘Oh, Mum, this is horrible.’

It was horrible. Babs couldn’t believe it was happening. ‘It is, but your dad is the one you have to talk to, not me,’ she said firmly.

Long after the phone call had ended Babs sat by the window, thinking. They’d been together forever, her and Geoff, thirty-seven years married. They had been inseparable, never even had holidays apart until now. Was that part of the problem? Was Geoff worrying that life was passing him by, wanting new experiences? And maybe a new woman in his life. Perhaps that’s what this was really all about? Geoff knew she didn’t want to live in Spain, but he wouldn’t let it go. Was he deliberately trying to push her into divorcing him, not wanting to be the ‘bad guy’ and actually leave her?

She didn’t know how to deal with this. It had all escalated so fast and the situation was running away from her. Suddenly they were heading for divorce and it seemed that the only way she could stop it was to give in to Geoff. Then what sort of life would she have? They’d end up divorcing anyway. She’d come away with Dee on impulse, wanting to make Geoff realise that she was serious and he couldn’t decide something as important as this by himself, but what did she do when they had to be out of the holiday cottage on Saturday? Would Geoff have gone off to Spain by himself? Was this really the end of their marriage?

She looked up as Dee tapped on the door. ‘Kettle’s on. Want a cuppa?’

‘Coming!’ Babs pulled on her dressing gown and went downstairs.

‘Are you still up for going back home later on Saturday so we can go to the fundraising garden party?’ Dee asked.

Babs knew that she was diplomatically asking her if she was intending to reconcile with Geoff and go to Spain. No, she wasn’t. Which meant that she was potentially going back to an empty house. So yes, she’d be happy to stay over for the garden party too. Then she would have a whole week back at home without Geoff to figure out what to do. And to get some legal advice. She’d be blowed if she’d be showing anyone else around in that time though so the estate agents could cancel any viewings.

‘That’s fine by me,’ she agreed. ‘It sounds like it’ll be fun.’

After breakfast they went for a walk along the harbour front then popped into Moira’s Café for a snack. The agency had sent a young scatty-looking lad to help out.

‘He’s been mixing up the orders all morning.’ Andi sighed. ‘I know he’s new, but he’s supposed to be experienced. I hope he shapes up soon.’

‘How was Edna when you visited last night?’ Dee asked as Andi made a pot of tea and put it on a tray with two cups, milk and sugar.

‘She was very sprightly. They’re keeping her in one more day for observation but then Mabel is picking her up tomorrow. They’ll be at the house about three in the afternoon, whilst Edna collects some things. She said to tell you in case you wanted to pop in again to say goodbye.’

Dee and Babs both nodded. ‘That would be great.’

Suddenly there was a loud crash from the kitchen. ‘Oh heck, what’s Tyler broken now!’ Andi exclaimed, jumping up to find out.

‘Poor Andi, looks like she’s got her hands full,’ Babs said.

Dee nodded. ‘Hopefully she’ll get more staff soon, or Moira will be back.’

* * *

After a walk around the Maritime museum, which was very interesting, they had another stroll along the estuary, on the outskirts of the village where the new development was taking place. Babs studied the board detailing how the finished development would look.

‘It looks amazing, lots of apartments, shops, plenty of job opportunities,’ she said. ‘It will bring a lot of much needed income to the town, surely?’

Dee glanced over at the muddy estuary. ‘It sounds like it will be a big improvement, but the trouble is the locals won’t be able to afford most of the housing, so will still be driven out. I can understand Glenn’s point, although I do think the basic idea is a good one.’

They carried on around to the warehouse conversion that was going to become the Artists’ Studios. Kenny had invited them to drop in, saying he would be there today and could show them around. ‘Hello, there, I was wondering if you’d come along,’ he said cheerily when he saw them.

‘It takes more than a couple of cocktails to knock us out,’ Babs told him.

Kenny grinned. ‘I bet it does. Great night though, wasn’t it? You two have certainly livened up the place.’

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