Page 45 of Coming Home to Hope Street

‘I could ask you the same thing. You’d been gone for six months before we left Manchester so I’m not sure why you’re here.’

‘Apart from wanting to see my daughter, I’ve actually missed my wife too.’

Livvy puffed out the air she’d been holding in. ‘That’s a new one on me.’

‘I have!’ he reiterated. ‘What about you?’

‘I missed you when you left the first time, and perhaps the second but not so much after that. You were always running away, leaving me to pick up the pieces.’

‘I’m sorry.’ He had the decency to hang his head for a moment. ‘You know how I hate myself and go off to get sorted out. Last time was a pretty rough episode and I thought I was coming out of it, but then when I came to talk to you, you weren’t there. No one knew where you’d gone either.’

‘Now you know.’ She looked at him, half despising him, half accepting he was back. ‘How did you find us? Did Pip call you?’

He nodded. ‘Don’t blame her. She just needed to see her old dad.’

Livvy wanted to say more but could see Pip hovering in the doorway while the kettle boiled. She held on to her head a moment, wondering what to do. She was waiting for him to say the words she didn’t want to hear but could never refuse. Her daughter needed contact from her dad, no matter how much she despised what Kieran had done to them.

But she wasn’t sure she could go through another period of them trying to get on. There was no love left between them. Of course she loved him, but she wasn’tinlove with him, and hadn’t been for years. Just a touch from Callum had shown her that. She hadn’t felt electricity between her and Kieran like that for some time.

Kieran was great company to the outside world, but he had rocked hers time after time. And she didn’t want him to control her life ever again. She had to be strong.

‘So how come you never told me you had siblings?’ Kieran asked once coffee was made and Pip was sitting next to him again, her arm tucked through his.

‘It’s a long story,’ she said.

‘We have plenty of time to catch-up, I suppose. In the meantime, how about I take you both out for breakfast? Is there anywhere nice in this place to do that?’

‘We could get a fry-up at Ray’s Café,’ Pip said. ‘It’s only a few minutes’ walk.’

‘Why don’t you two go and I’ll catch you later? I don’t think I can stomach anything right now.’

‘Cool!’ Pip got up and pulled at her dad’s hand. ‘I’m going to have a full English. What do you fancy?’

Kieran stood up; his face furrowed. ‘Are you sure I can’t tempt you?’

Livvy waved them away. ‘No, I’ll be fine.’

‘See you later, then.’ Kieran clapped his hands together. ‘Come on then, Pipsqueak. Lead the way.’

As soon as the front door closed behind them, Livvy dropped back in the settee. It was typical. Just when she was getting on her feet again, feeling a little more confident about coming back to Somerley, Kieran appeared to spoil it all.

As she thought back to the first time she’d met him, she wondered what the hell she was going to do now.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Livvy had met Kieran soon after she’d arrived in Manchester. It was his laughter that had drawn her to him.

She’d been having a great time at college, even though she was finding it harder than she’d thought. They were in a pub near campus. The nightlife was amazing, and she’d been out most nights with her friends.

Kieran was with a group of men she hadn’t seen before. They were all hanging on to his every word as he told them some anecdote, his hands doing a lot of the talking. Kieran had laughed along with them, the noise infectious.

He caught her looking and gave her a smile that made her stomach flip. She returned it and over the course of the next few minutes, they eyed each other across the room. Finally, Kieran sauntered over, and in no time he was sharing that same laughter with her.

The friends she was with – probably Marnie, Steph, and Kaz back in those days – were mostly together unless one of them was dating, and even then they would always be out as a foursome on Friday nights. But they didn’t mind when after a couple more drinks, Kieran offered to walk her home. He’d pulled her into a shop doorway on the main road and kissed her with a passion she would never forget. Within a month, they were a couple; within two months she’d practically moved into his flat.

Kieran was four years older than her and worked on a construction site. He was a brickie by trade, sometimes travelling up and down the country following the jobs he could get. Often, they were twelve-month contracts, but good money. And Kieran loved spending it.

When he’d asked her to move to Birmingham with him, Livvy had been ecstatic. She hadn’t given college a second thought, quitting immediately and they moved into a rented flat while Kieran worked on a large development of residential houses. Livvy found work in a café until she could find something more permanent. She went out with a few girlfriends of the men Kieran worked with, but it was nothing like the friendships she’d developed in Manchester.

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