Читать книгу One Day in Cornwall - Zoe Cook - Страница 16

Claire stayed almost a week in the end. She took time off work as holiday and moved in with Lucy, cooking her massive carb-laden meals and watching her eat them. They drank sugary tea from Lucy’s vintage harlequin-coloured, gold-rimmed teacups and watched their favourite rom-coms in the evening. In the daytime, with Lucy at work, Claire cleaned her flat from head to toe, polishing the bathroom bin, dusting skirting boards – the works. Lucy protested that she didn’t need to do all this, that she should go home to her own flat, which she shared with her lovely boyfriend Tim in Harrow. Claire insisted, of course, that she wanted to stay. It was clear how worried she was, but she didn’t ask any probing questions, and instead left it to Lucy to get back to strength, hoping she’d start talking at some point.

As Claire packed the few things she’d turned up with after Sophie’s phone call on Wednesday morning, Lucy watched her and her meticulous ways with admiration. She was the most practical and careful person Lucy had ever known. She looked after everything properly, had bags that matched shoes and gave an impression of togetherness that Lucy envied but which made her feel chaotic by comparison.

At the front door, with Tim’s car engine running, Claire pulled Lucy in for a hug and checked for the fortieth time that she was going to be alright.

‘You are in charge of your life,’ she said to Lucy, seriously, ‘And it can be whatever you want it to be.’

Lucy smiled at her sister’s sentimental ideas and nodded in faux agreement. ‘Lucy,’ Claire implored, more seriously than before, forcing Lucy to hold her eye contact. ‘I really mean it. And there’s something I need to tell you,’ she continued, with an expression now that Lucy couldn’t quite place. Was it worry? ‘I called Tom,’ she said, matter-of-factly, but too quickly. ‘I know what’s happening this summer. I know he’s asked you to be there. And I think you should go.’

With that, Claire disappeared into the darkness. The passenger door shut and the horn beeped a goodbye. Lucy stood on her front step, heart racing, tears threatening yet again, and a surge of anger, fear and something that felt like excitement trembling through her body.