Page 88 of Forgive Not Forget

“He has a lot of hard work ahead of him, enough to keep him out of trouble for a while,” Katherine replied.

“He’s hiding in his room away from this lot.” Laura extracted her phone and tapped on it, clearly sending her son a message. Tom appeared at the foot of the stairs a few moments later. “Pop your shoes on. These ladies have something to show you.”

Tom did as he was told and followed Anna and Katherine down the path.

“Is this a rescue mission? Abi’s friends are so loud. I can’t even drown them out with my headphones.”

“Something like that.”

“Where are we going?” he asked.

Before long, they stopped beside the area of wasteland.

“Here,” Anna said.

Tom frowned. “The playground?”

“No, the BMX track,” Katherine corrected him.

Tom’s eyes darted between the two of them. “What BMX track?”

“The one you’re going to build here,” Katherine said, leaning on the fence.

“Are you serious? I can build a track here?”

Anna nodded and pulled another package out from the bag. “And this is for you.”

Tom twitched his eyebrows as he took it. “It’s not my birthday. It’s Abi’s.”

“I know. I don’t think she’ll mind. Open it.”

Tom tore at the brown wrapping paper to reveal a metal sign that read ‘Steve’s Acre’.

“I thought you could put it on the fence somewhere,” Anna continued.

Tom nodded as he stared at the sign. “I can’t believe it. Thank you. I can’t wait to get started.”

“Well, don’t get too carried away,” Katherine added quickly. “Andy, one of my gardeners, is going to help you with it. He’ll come and talk it over with you and make a plan. He has a lot of experience building these things, and he’s great with a spade.”

Tom nodded and wandered off over the rough grass, working out potential routes with an imaginary bike.

Katherine held her arm out for Anna to link into. “Miss Walker, would you care to take a turn with me to watch the sunset over the abbey?”

“I don’t mind if I do.”

As they ambled back up the high street, Anna noticed the front door to her old house was open. She strained to catch a glimpse inside and then stopped, setting her sights on the top of the high street where Abbey House dominated the view. It was time to look forward, not back, as she’d been telling Katherine.

“The visitor centre looks great now all the scaffolding has come down,” she remarked as they passed it.

Katherine sighed. “Was it worth all the effort?”

“Things that take the most effort are often the ones worth having. Like us.” Anna squeezed Katherine’s arm.

“I hope that’s not really how you see our relationship,” Katherine replied.

“Sorry, I don’t mean it’s an effort being with you, just that we’ve had to battle a lot of external forces.”

“That we have,” Katherine agreed.