Page 48 of Six Steps to Happiness
She heard number eight’s back door suddenly open, followed by Gaye’s chatter.
“But it’s such a lovely evening,” the woman said to the sound of clinking glass. “There’s no point sitting inside when we could be enjoying ourselves out here.”
And so the games continue,Ronnie thought.
As she listened to the sound of a bottle cork popping, she felt irritated. Gaye had to have seen her setting things up for that night’s recital, and was making her presence known in the hope of ruining it. Ronnie took in the three chairs again, realising that Nick and Gaye could pull any stunt they wanted with PC Jack Shenton in the audience.Jack Shenton,Ronnie thought, her stomach doing a little summersault. She still couldn’t believe she’d invited him.
“Nick,” Gaye called out, as Ronnie headed inside. “Could you come here please.”
Leaving them to it, Ronnie closed the door behind her and checked her watch. Instead of being stuck in the house, she would have liked to have spent a bit of time practicing her musical arrangements before her guests arrived. She might not have much of a repertoire, butThree Blind MiceandLondon’s Burningwere tricky pieces for a newbie musician like her; another couple of run-throughs wouldn’t have hurt.
Wondering what to do instead, Ronnie found herself distracted when raised voices filtered in from outside. But whereas she’d usually attempt to decipher Nick and Gaye’s conversation, Ronnie shook her head, happy to dismiss it. Determined to succeed at Willow and Bea’s six-step plan, Ronnie refused to let anything spoil the evening ahead. And as the voices, at last, died down, she decided that whatever they were talking about, it was none of her business.
Moments later, Ronnie’s front door burst open. “Ronnie!” Nick shouted. “You really are pushing your luck.”
Her shoulders slumped. “Not again.” She wondered what she was meant to have done. Having learnt her lesson following the man’s last visit, she’d left Nick and Gaye alone ever since.
As Nick stormed down the hall, Charlie flew under the table. Ronnie reached down and gave him a comforting stroke. “It’s okay, boy,” she said, and in acknowledging the dog’s fear, told herself it was time to change the locks.
“Where is it?” Nick asked. As he stomped into the room, his eyes darted from one corner to the next.
Watching him, Ronnie couldn’t believe the man’s change in behaviour of late. When he’d first walked out on their marriage, he did everything he could to avoid being in Ronnie’s presence. Lately, the man couldn’t stay away. “Where’s what?”
“That mutt of yours. He’s in here somewhere.”
“Excuse me?” Whatever argument Nick had come for, she was not going to have it.
“Oh, don’t play the innocent with me.”
Ronnie raised her eyebrows, wondering what on earth Nick wanted with Charlie. She felt the yellow Lab secrete itself at the back of her legs.
“You probably trained the damn thing in the first place.”
Ronnie looked at her ex in all his blustering glory. “You don’t get to do this, Nick,” she said.
“Do what?”
“Keep bursting in here, shouting your mouth off on a whim.”
Nick scoffed. “I think you’ll find this is my house. I’m the one who paid for it.”
“No, Nick. You relinquished any rights to this property the day you walked out.” Ronnie knew she was spot on morally but didn’t have a clue where either of them stood from a legal position. She made another mental note, this time to make an appointment with a solicitor. In the meantime, she simply hoped that she looked like she knew what she was talking about, while holding on to the old adage thatpossession was nine tenths of the law.
“Wellthatcertainly isn’t yours.” He pointed towards number eight’s garden. “So why you’re letting that excuse for a dog, that mutant…”
Ronnie pictured Charlie’s muddy feet as he sprang from the LimelightHydrangea whenever she called. He hadn’t been trying to evict a hedgehog or a mouse, or dig down to Australia at all, he’d been sneaking into next door. She felt the yellow Lab shaking as he leaned further into her legs, her pulse quickening in response. Nick had no right to scare her dog like that. He had no right to be so nasty about such a beautiful loving animal. In fact, he had no right to do any of what he’d done.
Standing there watching him fume, Ronnie stared at her ex-husband, for the first time properly questioning what she ever saw in him. She silently scoffed. No matter what names he called Charlie, no matter how he mocked her, Nick personifieduglyin every sense of the word. Ronnie just couldn’t believe it had taken twenty-five years to notice.
“Like I said, you don’t get to do this. You’re a hypocrite, Nick. I don’t know how you’ve got the gall to complain about anyone being on or in your property without permission, when here you are, yet again, stood in my kitchen uninvited. As for acting superior, considering your conduct, that says more about you than it does me.”
“What do you expect the way you’ve behaved?” Nick smirked. “Then again, like mother like daughter.”
Nick had seen her mother’s abusiveness first-hand; he’d helped pick up the pieces when Ronnie had finally found the courage to break off contact. And standing there, Ronnie couldn’t believe how low he would stoop to make whatever point he was trying to make. But whereas she knew his remark was supposed to sting, that it was supposed to shut her up, strangely, it did neither. “Yet, I was good enough to stay married to you for twenty-five years,” she said instead. “Good enough to raise your daughter.” Ronnie laughed. “You’re an adulterer, Nick. A man who sneaks around behind his wife’s back, having some dirty affair with some bint of a woman. You’re not a cut above. You don’t have the moral high ground. It’s shocking that you ever thought you did.”
“And you’re not a victim.”
Ronnie had had enough. “Get out.”
