Page 108 of When We Are Old

“It’s perfect,” she said, and I sighed a little.

“It is.”

“Love you.”

“Call you soon.”

We hung up just as I took the turning back into the city centre. I’d need to ring Morgan at the farm and tell him I couldn’t make it. Unless maybe… I shook my head. No, I wasn’t going ask Ryan to go. The shop was my responsibility, no one else’s.

Cutting through some back streets just north of the main city the phone rang again.

“Matt, Julie’s just dropped Jack off.”

At Mam’s words I nearly rear-ended a delivery truck.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “I’m on my way there now. Julie said Jack has a temp, she was going on about the hospital.”

Mam dropped the phone and I could hear her calling Jack over, part of their conversation drowned by the sound of footsteps.

“He’s fine, bit of a runny nose and a sore throat, but nothing that some good fresh air and a bowl of soup won’t fix.”

Checking the traffic in the rear-view, I smiled to myself. Mam firmly believed that there was nothing a bowl of chicken soup couldn’t fix. She’d taken the title of a book she’d once read to heart—literally. I think she might have missed the point of it.

“What’s she doing, Mam?”

“Matt, love. She’s making life as difficult as she can. And you know she will. What’s Henricks said this week?”

“Not much. That we have to have grounds to prove she’s unreliable to care for the children.”

I scowled at the memory of my fruitless conversation with my solicitor, knowing that every call cost me money, but didn’t get me anything I needed.

“Well she’s just dropped Jack here because she has a lunch appointment. I don’t know what more you need, Matt.”

“Me neither.” I glared through the window at the blue sky above. “Fuck it. I was meant to be going to London this afternoon.”

“Go. I can have the boys.”

“No. No. Then I’d just be as bad as her.”

“Hardly! Don’t be so sodding dramatic.”

“Listen, I’ve got a meeting out at Wyevale Farm. Can you look after Jack until I’m back from that?”

“Of course. Listen, Matty. Can you go and get Hugo straightaway? You know how the boys worry when he’s left with Julie; she forgets to feed him.”

“Yeah, already on my agenda.” I indicated and darted down a side road so I could go back on myself again. “I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

As soon as the call cut off, I hit Julie’s number on speed dial. Unsurprisingly it went to voicemail. A spike of adrenaline pumped through my veins as I pictured Jack, sick and unwell and being bundled off like an unwanted package on Ma’s doorstep. “Julie. We need to talk. This can’t carry on. I’m coming to get Hugo, and you need to seriously think about whether you even want the boys full-time because right now I’m going to say that you don’t. You aren’t fit to be a mother to them, so maybe it’s time you let them live with me. At least that way I won’t have to keep making things better when you let them down.”

I hung up with a rueful smile. Wouldn’t it just be far too easy if she handed them over with a cheery wave. My smile turned grim. She was a McStandish, and she’d fight me, whether she wanted those boys or not.

All the Good Plans

Ronnie

“What about this one?” Ma pushed the laptop across the kitchen table towards me, using her finger to tell me how incredibly amazing the two-bedroom townhouse was. I peered close to where it wagged, and scrunched my face.

“I don’t know why you're renting anyway,” she tsked. “Surely it makes sense to buy and invest.”