Page 4 of The Summer That Changed Us

Chapter Two

Grace slowed down as she approached the next junction, rapidly scanning the place names on the faded signpost, hoping to see her final destination amongst them. Ah, there it was, Merle Bay, five miles. She indicated and turned left, rather late in the day according to the driver behind her who honked a horn angrily at her.

‘Grace?’ said Zoe via the car’s speaker system. ‘Are you still there?’

Grace was beginning to regret ringing her sister hands-free after leaving the motorway. She’d never done this journey before and the roads had become narrower and windier as she’d got closer to the coast. She and Myles had always split the driving on long trips but now her bum was numb and her shoulders stiff with tension. The satnav couldn’t give her verbal instructions now that she and Zoe were speaking, and she was a bit worried she was going to miss some vital turning. On the plus side, the scenery with its wall-to-wall green fields under wide skies was gorgeous, and it felt like balm to her weary soul.

‘Yes, bear with, almost missed the sign for Merle Bay and this road is virtually single track. Not far to go now, I’m only a few miles away.’

Zoe sighed heavily. ‘I’m really not sure that you’re doing the right thing, you know.’

‘Really?’ Grace smiled to herself. ‘If only you’d mentioned it.’

‘Ha ha.’

‘Trust me on this one, Zo,’ Grace tried to soothe her younger sister for the umpteenth time. ‘Right now, I need some space. I need to be somewhere new, where there isn’t a memory of him imprinted into every inch of the place.’

The line was quiet for a moment. ‘I get that, I just don’t understand why you have to be quite so far away. There must be millions of places closer to Birmingham, closer to me. I worry about you and I’ll miss you. And the kids will miss their Auntie Grace.’

Grace swallowed hard, determined that her voice wouldn’t give away just how vulnerable she was feeling. The grief she carried from losing her husband last November changed from moment to moment. Sometimes a weight on her shoulders, at others a tightness in her chest. Or like today, it brought more tears. She’d stopped at a motorway services and bought two takeaway coffees: a latte for herself and a flat white for Myles. Only to remember she was driving solo. Would always be driving solo from now on.

She’d leaned on Zoe a lot since Myles died; her sister had been her rock and she’d miss that support, but now, five months on, she needed a change of scene.

‘I know you worry,’ said Grace, ‘but you’ve got enough on your plate without me adding to it.’

‘Nonsense,’ said Zoe dismissively. ‘There’ll always be room for you here, remember that.’

‘Thanks.’ Grace’s heart melted with love for her sister.

Zoe was a single mother of two: Daniel, aged eleven, a quiet biddable boy, with strawberry-blond hair, nose permanently in a book, and flame-haired Ruby, just seven months old, and who looked set to crash through life creating the most noise possible. Zoe was divorced from Daniel’s father, who’d been so unreliable with child support payments that Zoe had lost the will to keep chasing him for money. Nobody knew Ruby’s father, including Zoe herself. After waiting years for her prince to come and give her the second baby she wanted, she’d visited a sperm bank and chosen a donor. She hadn’t told Grace until after she’d had her twelve-week scan; Grace had never wanted children, but she couldn’t help feeling proud of her sister for making her own dreams come true. And Ruby, born last September, had certainly been a ray of sunshine during the darkness of last winter.

Grace and Myles had always helped out financially when Zoe’s pride would let them: baby equipment, trainers for Daniel’s growing feet, two new tyres when Zoe’s car skidded on black ice. Myles had even set aside a little nest egg for each of the children in his will.

Last month, Zoe had found a nursery place for Ruby and had gone back to work as a nurse on a men’s ward of the local hospital. Grace admired her for juggling family life and a demanding job with zero help from the fathers but her sister’s return to work had highlighted her own inactivity. So here she was, taking action.

‘In Northumberland, where no one knows me, I can be as sociable or as antisocial as I want, and I can be just me, not the remaining half of “me and Myles”. And then there’s the future; I need to think about who I’m going to be without him.’

Grace gripped the steering wheel so tightly that she felt her rings cut into her fingers. Her wedding and diamond engagement rings, still sparkling after sixteen years, and her newest one, an eternity ring, Myles’s gift for her fortieth birthday six years ago. But they hadn’t had an eternity, they hadn’t even managed another decade. Myles had died of a heart attack, aged sixty-one, just months after he’d retired. Grace wasn’t just mourning the love of her life, she was mourning the future they’d never have: the fun, the travel, time to be spent together enjoying the fruits of their hard work.

‘Well, looking on the bright side, at least you’ll be free from Myles’s kids for a while. Pair of vultures,’ Zoe muttered. ‘I hope you haven’t given them your new address?’

‘Austin and Liv aren’t that bad,’ Grace chided, not mentioning that of course she’d given her stepchildren her address.

Not that they were children anymore; Austin was twenty-nine and Olivia twenty-seven – which was the age she’d been when she’d met Myles. She’d sent them a message on the Byron family WhatsApp group and told them that she was renting a house for six months in Merle Bay and that they’d be welcome to visit anytime. No reply as yet, but then they were probably busy; she’d have been the same at their age. It would be a shame to lose contact with them, after all of these years watching them grow up.

Grace had never tried to mother them, but she’d always supported Myles in being a good father. It had taken a few years to earn their trust, especially from Olivia who was very close to her mum. But the four of them had always got along well together, had fun even. Mind you, if she never heard from his ex-wife again, she wouldn’t lose sleep over it. Grace had tried hard to be civil to Julia, but she was a cold fish. It was as if she was jealous of Grace, which was silly because it had been Julia who’d left Myles and that had happened long before Grace came on the scene. Myles and Julia were the same age, fifteen years older than Grace. Julia had hinted that she thought Grace had been far too young for her ex-husband, but Myles had a theory that she was jealous that his second marriage was clearly happier than his first.

‘Sorry,’ said Zoe, not sounding in the least apologetic. ‘But when I think about how much their father has already done for them and how grabby they’ve been since his funeral. Makes my blood boil.’

‘They’ve lost their beloved father,’ Grace continued smoothly, ‘and don’t forget he was in their lives long before he was in mine. It’s normal for them to want to have his things as mementos; there are memories attached to some of his things that don’t mean anything to me.’

Myles had been a demonstrative man, touchy-feely and never passed an opportunity by to give her a hug or a kiss. He taught her not only how to love but to be loved. It was the same with his children whom he adored and who idolised him in return. Grace had always been proud of the relationship he’d had with his kids. Most of her divorced friends complained about the lack of interest their ex-partners showed in their children, but Myles had always made an effort to stay involved in their lives.

Zoe sniffed. ‘Funny how the only things they wanted were the expensive stuff: his Rolex watch, Tiffany cufflinks and his art collection.’

‘Myles would be pleased they wanted them,’ said Grace loyally. In truth, she had been a little shocked at how quickly his son and daughter had come round to claim what they saw as rightly theirs. But she had the benefit of age; at forty-six Grace knew that the most important things in life didn’t come with a price tag. Without Myles, possessions were meaningless, nothing could possibly be as valuable to her as a heart full of happy memories of their life together. ‘And if they bring them comfort, why not?’

Zoe made a disgruntled noise and Grace smiled to herself and glanced at the satnav screen.