Page 20 of Happier Days (Family Life in Somerley #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY

Eliza was bushed. She’d had Monday off, and was working most of the weekend, and yet it already felt as if she hadn’t had a break the previous one. Still, she had the memories. She’d gone to stay with friends in York, and even though the weather had been wet, she’d had a great time.

She and Maisie had met at the college creche, she too having a baby shortly after leaving school, and they’d kept in touch ever since.

Maisie was married now, to Darius. Her eldest, Clint, was an apprentice mechanic and she had two younger children too.

Maisie and Darius had been childhood sweethearts, and Eliza had often wondered if they would stay the course.

But they seemed devoted to each other, and it was so lovely to see.

It also made her feel lonely, reminding her of what she was missing.

Eliza had struggled when she’d first found herself pregnant. At sixteen, her whole life changed, and not in the way she’d planned. She’d hoped to go to university and move out of the village, despite her parents wanting her to take a job in the business.

But although she pretended the father was someone who’d come for a week’s holiday, it wasn’t true. She’d only slept with one man, and he’d left before she could tell him.

Would things have worked out differently for her if he’d stuck around?

Would she still have been with him, got married and had more kids together, like Maisie and Darius?

Who knew, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, she’d gone to college while her parents helped out with Willow when she wasn’t in the creche, completed courses in hospitality and management, and kept her feet firmly in Somerley.

Her parents had been amazing after the initial shock had worn off.

They’d created a suite for her downstairs in the hotel by adding a doorway through to a large unused storeroom and laid it out with a further bedroom, shower room, and living area with a small kitchen at one end.

She was back there again now. But it hadn’t always been that way.

Eliza had met James when Willow was four years old. He hadn’t been fazed by her having a child and loved to spend time at the hotel with her family. When he proposed, Eliza didn’t know who was more pleased, her or her mum.

On her twenty-fifth birthday, she and James had the biggest and best wedding ever held at the hotel. They had honeymooned in Cyprus, leaving Willow with her grandparents, and then they’d moved in with him, a couple of miles outside the village.

Everything had been going well until one morning, nearly five years later, when Eliza awoke to find the bed empty. It was quite early, the alarm hadn’t gone off, so she got out of bed and went downstairs to James.

She found him on the kitchen floor after having a fatal bleed on the brain. He was a week off his thirtieth birthday. Her world had come crashing down.

Since then, she’d been in a few relationships but nothing special enough to commit to long term. It was over eight years since James had died, and she still felt like a part of her was missing.

Eliza took a coffee through to her mum, who was working in the office.

‘Strange to see Harry back after all this time, isn’t it?’ Eliza said as she popped the mug onto the desk. ‘Especially after seeing Ava, too. It’s as if time has stood still. Mind you, Ava looks far better. Harry seems worn out.’

‘His father is dying. I thought he might have told you.’

Eliza grimaced. ‘No, he never said, but I didn’t catch him to speak to much last night. Is he back for good, do you know?’

‘He told me he’s clearing out the house and then moving on afterwards.

I expect he’ll be here for a few months.

’ Stella smiled. ‘It brought back so many memories seeing him. When they were younger, we’d call him, Jack, and Dan the three amigos.

You couldn’t tell one from the other, can you remember?

People used to ask me if I’d had triplets when they were in their teens. ’

‘I can recall when he was working behind the bar. He’d always end up helping his dad home when he’d had too much to drink. I had thought Harry might turn to alcohol, too, but it seems not.’

‘Yes, I’m glad about that.’ Stella paused. ‘Are you going to speak to him about?—?'

‘Must dash, Mum,’ she interrupted. ‘Lots to do.’

‘But we must talk.’

‘Yes, we will, when I’m not as busy.’

Eliza dashed out of the room and away from her mother’s stare. She couldn’t cope with that right now. Because it had been a shock as well as a pleasure to see Harry last night.