Page 15 of The Matchmaker
“You mean first?”
“What?”
I glance at Frank, who’s standing beside me with his hands on his hips. We’re at the bottom of my garden, half-hidden among the weeds as both of us squint in the mid-morning sunshine. Frank’s always been old to me. I guess everyone looks old when you’re a kid, but I swear the man hasn’t aged a bit in the last twenty years. Even now with his neat gray beard and his ruddy cheeks, reddened from broken capillaries and an apathy for sunscreen, I have no idea how long he has been on this green earth. Sixty years? Seventy? He could tell me he was thirty-eight, and I’d just have to accept it. I like that about him. His consistency. Makes me trust him more. Even if the look on his face right now isn’t exactly filling me with confidence.
“You’re supposed to say, do you want the bad news or the good news first,” I tell him.
“There is no good news,” he says bluntly. “You’re going to need to cut it down.”
“The branch?”
“The tree, Katie.”
“Thetree?” I stare up at my beloved hawthorn, which isn’t really that beloved but is still a pretty decent tree and one that I suddenly feel incredibly attached to. “According to who?”
“Me,” Frank says. “The person you asked to look at it.”
“But you’re meant to tell me it’s okay.”
He knocks on the trunk, producing a hollow thudding sound. “It’s not okay; it’s dead.”
“It’s sleeping,” I protest. “Trees sleep in the winter.”
“It’s April, your bark is peeling, and you’ve got no buds.”
“But—”
“Dead.”
He kicks the base of it for good measure and I scowl. But I know he’s right. It’s why I asked him to come up here in the first place.
“So now what?” I ask.
“Now you get a professional out to take a look and get it sorted.”
I make a face, not even wanting to think about the cost. “Can’t you do it? Since, technically, you’ve already had a look?”
He shakes his head. “You’re better off getting the right person, but I’ll help you negotiate. You’d want to do it soon, though. Along with everything else.” He glances around the garden. “You could hide a family of five out there and you’d never know it.”
“That’s a very specific number. Are you trying to tell me something?”
He gives me a look, one that softens when I smile at him. “If you need help, you just ask for it. You know that, right?”
“I do.” And Frank isn’t wrong. The place is a mess. I know it’s a mess. An acre of land surrounds the house and all of it is overgrown and wild. And not in the trendy, biodiverse way. More like a passing murderer might think this is agreatplace to hide a body.
“It will get dangerous for her,” Frank says, nodding toward the house. “I’ve almost tripped myself once or twice since I arrived.”
“I know.” I sigh, peering up at the tree. “I need to put a new ramp in at the front door. And then we need to get the bathroom done. Then we’ll do the tree. Then the garden.” And everything else. Just the thought of it all has me wincing. I feel like as soon as I tick one thing off the list, another three more expensive tasks get added to the bottom. Whatever I manage to save one month gets spent the next, and I can barely keep up with it all.
“Thanks for coming out,” I say, walking him back to his car. “I appreciate it.”
“I’m just glad I was able to make it. They’ve blocked off the entire road by Danny’s farm.”
“I saw.”
“You know, I never really bought into Anushka’s whole campaign. But it’s all getting a bit too much. Like one day, I’m going to wake up and won’t even recognize this place.” He gives me a fatherly pat on the shoulder. “You take care of yourself now. You can’t look after Maeve if you don’t look after you first.”
“I’ll do my best,” I promise, and stand in the driveway as he reverses down the lane before I turn back to my somehow still-standing house.
