Page 57 of When We Are Old

Hannah nodded slowly. “Yeah, I guess.”

Ronnie looked at me like I’d grown two heads. “Have a good day.” I gave her a wave.

She hesitated and I could read her face, the way I always had. “I’ll be here when you get home.”

“Promise?”

“One hundred percent.”

“Ugh, I’m going to chuck up.” Hannah made gagging noises and Ronnie pushed her from the kitchen.

“Yeah while I might chuck in Jewson’s office” I heard her mutter.

“Don’t you dare.”

“Might.”

They pushed one another out of the door and once it was shut, I turned for Nonna. “Come on then. What’s next?” I motioned to her crossword book and she gave me a wide smile pulling it towards her. “You know you need Varifocals, right?”

Her glare would have beaten a lesser man.

“Only saying because my mam just got some. I could find out where she got them from and go with you if you like?”

My need to win over Ronnie’s family knew no bounds. I needed to make up for fifteen years of lost time and if I went to the optician with her then it would give me less time to brew on what the future held.

“Oh really?” She hesitated from her death glare.

“Yeah, sure. They look great too. Very stylish.”

“Well I’m supposed to be signing the paperwork on the apartment today.”

I shrugged and glanced around the kitchen. It had so much potential once the pine cupboards were gone. “Plenty of time I guess.”

She nodded and placed her pen between the pages of the crossword book. “Yes.” A wide smile. “I guess there is.”

“I need to get some running shoes and stuff; we could go to Kingston?”

She patted her hair and gave me a full smile. “It’s nice you are willing to spend time with me.”

I sipped my coffee. “Of course. I want to be part of Ronnie’s life. That includes you doesn’t it?”

She pondered this for a moment. “Yes, I guess it does. Normally I just have to contend with Angela slopping around the place with her hangovers and vulgar language.”

I grinned wide. “She’s not all bad.”

Ronnie’s mam laughed and shook her head. “I’m not Ronnie, you don’t need to lie to me. I realised how jealous she was of Ronnie right from the beginning. She was always here in the early days of Ronnie’s marriage, when they had Hannah.”

“Really?”

“Well.” She leant closer across the table, like we were conspirators. “Ronnie always said she liked it because she was by herself.”

“Oh really?” I pretended innocence, but it didn’t take a genius to read between the lines of Ronnie’s behaviour.

“Well, Paul worked a lot.”

My phone rang in my pocket, cutting off the secret conversation in a kitchen coloured with pine and terracotta.

“Excuse me.” Stretching from my chair, my knees clicking, I stepped away.