Page 123 of Best Summer Ever

‘Well,’ Josh carried on, ‘I hope no one here is taking his foul outpouring personally.’

Clearly, this wasn’t the first time Josh had had to deal with the fallout from his father’s bad and rude moods. What a horrible father to have. I could imagine Josh apologising for him wherever they went: restaurants, shops – everywhere where they came into contact with hard-working people just trying to go about their business.

‘Sadly, we’re used to it,’ said the nurse in a matter-of-fact tone, then added, ‘but from what I’ve experienced of him so far, he’s… next level.’

She then checked herself, which couldn’t have been easy, given what she and the rest of the staff had been subjected to. I could still hear him sounding off and, as far as I knew, he was in the room on his own so no one was listening. His continued rage couldn’t be doing his already strained and stressed heart much good.

‘I’m going to page the consultant who has assessed Mr Alford, so he can talk to you himself,’ the nurse said. ‘And then perhaps I could ask you to fill in the forms your father has refused to look at?’

‘Of course,’ said Josh, sounding a little embarrassed.

‘I’ll go and find a seat,’ I said to Josh. ‘Just come and find me when you’re sorted. There’s no rush.’

‘You don’t want to meet Dad?’ Josh asked, raising an eyebrow in faux surprise.

‘Perhaps not tonight.’ I smiled. ‘Maybe when he’s feeling in… a better frame of mind.’

‘Never then,’ said Josh, planting a soft kiss on my mouth.

‘Quite possibly not,’ I responded, quickly kissing him back.

While Josh was kept occupied with the consultant and then the nurses – did the form filling really require all three of them – and then his dad, I sat at the end of the corridor and mulled over the day’s events. There was certainly plenty to think about.

I looked through the list of Wynbrook Bloom Instagram followers, but couldn’t spot Laurence among them. He’d either created an account and set it to private so I couldn’t identify him or was searching for the page every day rather than following it, not that it really mattered.

Now the materialistic moron knew I wasn’t in line to inherit a rural fortune, I felt certain he’d stop keeping tabs and retreat for good, both online and in real life. And good riddance. Maybe he’d even unfollowed the account already.

Josh and Algy, on the other hand, were stuck with Thomas because he was family. Even if they didn’t want to be tied to him, they were, by blood. Knowing Josh as well as I now did and having heard more than enough of his father in the brief time I’d been in earshot, I knew which branch of the family I preferred. I’d had my ups and downs with both my mum and my dad over the years, but as the nurse had said of Thomas Alford, dealings with him were next level.

I had just arrived back on the ward, having fulfilled the sudden urge to go outside and phone my parents to tell them we would never mention Laurence’s name again, that I loved them and that I was very happy to be back living, and now also working, on the estate, as well as giving them a quick update about what was going on at the hospital, when Josh came to find me. His shoulders were hunched and he looked absolutely exhausted. I guessed there had been no kind wordsor make up moments between him and his dad. Perhaps they weren’t going to be tied for life, after all…

‘How’d it go?’ I asked.

There was no point in asking him again if he was okay because he clearly wasn’t.

‘Not well,’ he said grimly. ‘Not well at all.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ I sympathised, as he sat on the seat next to me.

‘It’s fine,’ he said, leaning forward and pushing his hands into his already messy hair. ‘It was bound to happen sooner or later and it’s not as if I’ve lost anything.’

‘What was bound to happen?’ I asked.

Josh sat back and rested his head against the wall and for a moment I thought Thomas Alford’s temper had caused his heart to give up for good, but it wasn’t that.

‘My grandfather already was, but I’m now also officially estranged from my father,’ Josh told me. ‘And I always will be.’

‘Oh, Josh,’ I whispered.

‘It was inevitable,’ he said with a shrug.

‘And are you sad about that?’ I asked.

‘No,’ he said, shaking his head, ‘I’m not. If anything, I’m relieved, to be honest. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to be good enough for him, but I was never going to meet his impossibly high expectations, was I?’

‘Given what I’ve heard of him tonight,’ I nudged, ‘I don’t think anyone could.’

‘I think I always reminded him too much of Grandad,’ Josh said and I smiled. ‘I thought it would feel strange saying it,’ he smiled too, ‘but it doesn’t.’

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