Raven cleared her throat and gave Sue a little nudge. ‘Ummm … isn’t that the week of the cycle ride?’
Sue frowned.
‘The charity ride we’re going to do?’
‘You going on a bike ride, Suey?’ Dean looked genuinely interested. ‘Cool. What’s the charity?’ He popped a grape in his mouth, not noticing the daggers Katie was throwing in his direction.
‘LifeTime.’ She threw a panicked look at Raven who nodded encouragingly. ‘It’s a mental health charity.’
Raven picked up the baton. ‘It’s going along Hadrian’s Wall. Coast to coast.’
Sue didn’t have a clue why she was going along with this. Desperation, she supposed. She had been shoring up her resources to try and find a way to politely tell Flo (and Raven if she’d been waiting for Sue to say something first) that doing the ride really wouldn’t be her cup of tea. Today? It felt like a lifeline. A chance to show her family she was capable of making decisions on her own and putting herself on a new course in life. She had to be, really, didn’t she? Gary was never ever coming to Sunday lunch with her again.
Bev made a couple of little indecipherable noises then suddenly, ‘Is that the one Kath off the telly is doing in memory of that deadbeat brother of hers?’
‘He wasn’t a deadbeat, love,’ Katie’s father gently corrected. ‘He were a soldier for over ten years. Served his country, he did.’
‘Found himself at the bottom of a bottle fairly sharpish if the Mail is anything to go by.’
Martin shook his head and gave the table a patpatpat before saying firmly, ‘We can’t fault him for coming back with a screw or two loose with all of the muck he must’ve seen.’
Bev made another noise and finished off the rest of her Cabernet.
‘Sounds fun, Suey. Go for it!’
Katie glared at Dean. ‘Wouldn’t coming to the Canaries for a nice relaxing holiday with her family be more fun?’
‘Maybe Sue doesn’t want to come on a nice relaxing holiday with her family.’
Sue’s eyes widened. Was Dean disagreeing with Katie? In front of everyone?
‘C’mon, love.’ He filled up Katie’s wine glass even though her lips were already purple with the cheeky Cab Sav they’d opened after realising they had ‘company’ rather than plain old family for lunch. ‘Maybe we’re bulldozing her. We don’t want to push you, Suey. It’s your decision to make. We were just trying to think outside the box. Let you know we’re here for you.’ He said this whilst rising, indicating his wife should sit down then murmuring to her that he’d collect the dishes and something Sue couldn’t quite make out about the Nordic au pair she’d always talked about wanting.
Gosh.
Katie’s two front teeth rested atop of her bottom lip, poised for action, as she worked out how to respond.
Sue rose and also started picking up plates and cutlery.
‘I’d support you, Suey,’ Sue’s father said. ‘What do you need? A tenner? Twenty? I could put one of those sheets up down at the council if you like. Bev, how about you talk to the folk down at Asda’s and see if—’
Sue’s mother shut him down with a look that, shockingly, didn’t kill, then hoinked her chair round so she was angled, like a lady in waiting, towards Katie.
‘Not to impose, Katie, but I do hate waste and if there’s a free ticket going …’ she cast her eyes down to her hands then back up at Katie, ‘I’m always willing to help. I’ve never been to the Canaries.’ She flicked a quick glance at Sue that weirdly translated as, I’ve got this. Not strictly a show of support, but going to the Canaries hadn’t exactly been an offer of a free holiday, either, so … Sue let natural selection take its course. Granny Nanny was all over this.
Katie ignored them, sending twitchy little signals to Dean to intervene. It appeared her well-laid plans were being kyboshed by a Bev-shaped spanner. Hmmm. Perhaps Granny Nanny hadn’t gone down quite as well as expected in Florida.
Out of the corner of her eye, Sue caught Raven fastidiously finishing the remains of her meal, presumably trying to avoid the awkwardness of it all— no! Raven was covering her mouth with her serviette (cloth, because Katie didn’t ‘believe’ in paper) trying her best not to laugh. And then, just like that, Sue saw the funny side of it all.
The most genuine smile Sue had had in weeks bloomed upon her lips.
Gary would’ve loved this.
She could picture him perfectly, clutching his stomach as he tried and failed and tried again to tell the lads down the pub how Katie’s Perfect Plan was left in ruins by Raven and Granny Nanny.
‘Well, then.’ Dean clapped his hands together. ‘That’s settled that, then. Mum, you’ll be coming to the Canaries and Suey will be on her cycle ride. And while we’re at it, were you actually interested in looking after the children after school, Suey, or did you have other plans?’
‘Oh, I—’ Sue felt the daggers Katie was throwing her way, but all of a sudden, with her mother, father, brother and now Raven having offered these wonderful little gestures of support – her dead husband winking at her from who knew where … heaven? – she felt as though she could finally say what she should’ve said years ago when ‘a little favour’ turned into something quite different. ‘I have other plans actually. If that’s okay.’
‘Course it is,’ Dean said before Katie could say otherwise.
‘Now that that’s sorted,’ Sue’s mother was swiftly moving on, ‘Katie, if there’s any more of that lemon tart left …’
Chapter Thirty-Four
‘Sometimes I worry you love that dog more than you love me,’ Stu laughed, shuffling out of his slippers and folding back a triangle of bedding, as Flo gave her customary evening cuddle to Captain George before he curled up on his mammoth cushion on her
