Читать книгу Christmas at Butterfly Cove: A delightfully feel-good festive romance! - Sarah Bennett, Sarah Bennett - Страница 14

Chapter Six

Luke waited until he could hear the water running upstairs, then stood and began to clear the table. George rose and began to work beside him silently, although Luke could tell he had something on his mind. He refilled the kettle, wiping down the spaces on the kitchen table as the older man cleared them and bided his time. Now he’d set his mind to things, he had all the patience in the world. Nee was his, until the day she said otherwise, and nothing would stand in the way of that. He’d had a long chat with Mia on the phone before he’d travelled up, and though she’d issued a number of outrageously dire warnings to him, she’d eventually come onboard with his plans.

The kettle bubbled and steamed and the loud click of the automatic cut-off switch set Luke into motion, rinsing their cups out, going through the familiar ritual of tea-making. ‘Coffee?’ he asked George, with a quick glance across to him.

‘Tea, please. I think I’ll take it upstairs with me, if you don’t mind?’ George brushed a few imaginary crumbs off the front of his neatly buttoned cardigan, then set his shoulders in a way that told Luke he’d made up his mind to speak. Abandoning the tea for now, he put his back to the kettle, giving his father-in-law his full attention. Face to face, he could see the girls had inherited their brown eyes from him, as well as a certain stubbornness around the jawline.

George folded his arms with a sigh. ‘I’m probably the last man with any rights to behave like a protective father, but I’m going to anyway.’ Luke nodded. He’d learnt about the difficulties within the Thorpe family over the past year, as neither himself nor Nee had spoken much about their backgrounds during their madcap courtship. ‘She’s lost all her spark, my poor girl, and I need to know whether that is down to you.’

A reasonable assumption, given all the man knew was that his daughter had walked out on her husband. ‘She wasn’t like this last summer, I swear. Kiki thinks it’s to do with whatever happened in New York. Has Nee said anything to you about it?’

‘Not a word. She spent most of her time at the care home, before, you know…’ A tight, painful expression crossed George’s face. ‘I went when I could, but I had to sit outside the room to avoid upsetting Vivian, and it didn’t seem fair to leave her alone.’

Luke tried to imagine the agony of it, especially for someone as self-contained as George. The excruciating embarrassment as people speculated and gossiped about the man who couldn’t even enter his wife’s room. ‘I’m very sorry for your loss.’ Such inane, pathetic words, but they were all he had.