Lucy's Book Club for the Lost and Found: A heartwarming feel good romance novel(6)

‘About ten years altogether. But she’s only in her early seventies now; she didn’t have me until she was forty-one. I often wonder if that was part of the problem.’

Hattie paused momentarily before stepping out into the road after Lia. ‘How so?’ she asked.

‘Just because she wasn’t used to stopping. She was dancing from her twenties, touring with a professional troupe in the early sixties, and then later on when she and Dad got together they toured around holiday camps and cruise ships, a different one every season. Glamorous as it sounds, it must have been a hard life in many ways. When they finally decided to settle down and have me, that’s when it began to go wrong. My dad left when I was four. I don’t think a mundane life suited them, to be honest.’

‘So, your mum was a single parent too?’

Lia nodded. ‘And everything just stopped, apart from looking after me. I know she resented it, and then the dementia began to show itself from her mid-sixties I guess. She’s only needed full-time care in the last four years, though.’

‘That’s tough,’ declared Hattie, slowing her speed a little to keep pace with Lia.

‘It can be,’ Lia replied. ‘There’s only me. She has no other family, and I couldn’t bear to put her in a home. Plenty of other people are in the same boat. Didn’t you say you were on your own too? I know how hard it was for Mum being a single parent.’

Hattie wrinkled her nose. ‘Hmm, but it’s not quite the same thing as what you’re going through. Children go to bed a lot earlier for a start.’

‘They won’t always,’ countered Lia.

Hattie smiled. ‘True,’ she said, ‘but in my case being on my own is far preferable to the alternative. My ex is a scumbag. Believe me, I’m well shot of him. It isn’t easy bringing up a child on your own; there were days when Poppy was little when I’d spend hours trying to calm her crying and then would cry myself to sleep too, but at least I could provide some sort of stability for her. If I’d married her dad, that would have been impossible.’

Lia could understand that. It was hard work looking after her mum, a thankless task at times, but at least the decisions she made were her own. Things would be so much harder if she had to cope with interference from someone else. It sounded like Hattie had had a hard time, but Lia had only just met her and now wasn’t the time to pry any further. ‘You mentioned at the book club that you’d moved recently. Is that to be closer to your family?’

‘Not exactly.’ Hattie’s expression was unreadable. ‘I just felt I needed a change, that’s all. I used to live in Herefordshire; about an hour away. But I’m still only twenty minutes or so from my sister and half an hour from my mum and dad – just in the other direction.’

‘Well,’ said Lia brightly, ‘at least they’re not so far away that they can’t step in for babysitting duties every once in a while.’

This time Hattie gave a slight smile. ‘My sister’s pretty good, she helps out when she can, but I don’t like asking too often. You know how it is.’

‘Yeah, that’s certainly a feeling I’m familiar with – you’ve made your bed and now you must lie in it…?’ Lia stopped to look at Hattie; taking in the dyed black hair blowing around her face and the kind brown eyes that were ringed with a little too much eyeliner. ‘We’re two peas in a pod then, aren’t we?’ she said, wondering if she had been a bit too forward, but it felt so good talking to another human being.

Hattie gave an amused snort. ‘Hardly! I mean, look at you. You’re all slim and elegant, with gorgeous hair and I’m… not.’

It was true, Hattie’s red coat was straining slightly at the seams, as was her bright blue blouse underneath, but Lia had never seen anyone with such a friendly smile and the most beautiful clear skin. She was a little chubby, that was all.

‘I haven’t washed my hair for days, I’m wearing jeans that are six years old and a tatty fleece, so you can stop that.’

The two women looked at one another for a moment, feeling the growing bond of friendship between them.

Hattie reached out her hand to open the gate into the park. ‘You should learn to dance, you know, you really should,’ she said.

Lia puffed out her cheeks. ‘I know, a huge part of me would love to, but it’s not that easy. For starters, I’d need to find more care for Mum, and social services aren’t always that obliging, and—’ She broke off when she caught sight of Hattie’s raised eyebrow. ‘I know, I know, I’m just making excuses. It’s been so long since I did anything other than look after Mum, the thought alone terrifies me. Much as I’d like to, I’m not sure I’d actually have the nerve. I will think about it, I promise, but I’m going to take some convincing.’





Chapter Four





It was the time of day he liked best – early morning, with the sun just glancing across one corner of the pillowcase. They slept with the curtains open, summer or winter, but the effect was best at this time of year. Oscar always woke first, opening his eyes to see her beautiful face turned towards his. It was the first thing he saw every day and the last thing he saw at night. Strawberry-blonde curls spilled out across the pillow, and deep rosebud lips curved softly in sleep. Of course, the hair was grey now, the soft skin a little lined, but she was still the same to him as she had been when they married at the age of eighteen. And they’d said it wouldn’t last.