All Because of You (Lakeview #2) (22 page)

Toby giggled and clapped his hands excitedly at the mention of the word ‘doggies’, no doubt thinking he was due another outing in the fields. Fat chance of that, she thought wryly.

Going outside, Tara headed straight for the kennels, Ben and Jerry circling around her feet. As she drew closer, she saw that littles and large were still in their individual holding pens and amazingly, all three were fast asleep.
Phew.

She turned away, and was just about to go back inside the house when she heard someone curse loudly. 

“Stupid friggin’ things…” a man’s voice hissed.

Following the direction from which the voice had come, Tara went towards the adjoining house. As she did, she spotted muscleman Luke standing outside his own back door, his face red and his fists clenched tightly. 

“Is everything OK?” Tara called across to him. “I heard someone shout.”

“Everything’s fine,” he replied, through gritted teeth. “I just have a couple of unwelcome visitors.”

“Oh.” Someone must have dropped by unannounced, she decided. Her own mother hated that too, hated people calling to visit when the house was in a state, so in a way she understood how he felt. Still, the cottage hadn’t been lived in for years and was bound to be less than perfect, and it seemed a bit rude of Luke to go running out of the house screaming about it.

“Do you think you could get rid of them?” Tara heard him ask then, his tone softer and a little hesitant.

“Excuse me?”

“I mean, do they bother you? Are you afraid of them?”

“Well,” Tara wasn’t sure how to answer that. Why the hell would people visiting
his
house bother her? “I’m not sure if …”

“I hate the little
bastards, always have. It’s embarrassing but …”

Oh, now Tara got it. Whoever his guests were, they must have brought children with them, and evidently Luke wasn’t a fan – to say the least. Glenn could be a bit like that too, and would often run a mile whenever Liz or any of her other friends brought their offspring to their house. Though if Glenn were to express himself in such a horribly violent way, she would have something to say about it. In such an
unbalanced
way …Tara began to feel a bit nervous. Was he quite sane?

And how he expected Tara to deal with these people on his behalf when she didn’t even know
him
was beyond her …

“I think they’re under the sink,” he added then, confirming for Tara that he really wasn’t the full shilling.

Under the sink?

“I opened the door, and two of them ran straight out,” he informed her, grimacing. “One
of them ran right over my hand. Aww, I can still see his bloody tail!”

Tail?
But right then it hit her and she understood exactly who, or rather
what
had paid Luke a visit. She tried to smother a laugh.

“Mice?” she clarified, her eyes widening in mirth. “You’re afraid of tiny, harmless, little mice?”

Luke’s expression paled at the mention of the word. “Rub it in, why don’t you? I know the place is old, but I thought it was so old that the little bastards wouldn’t be bothered with it.”  He shook his head. “There could be hundreds in there for all I know.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake.
” Tara was still struggling to keep a straight face. “Imagine someone your size being afraid of a tiny, harmless little animal like that.”

“Yeah
yeah, I know. But I can’t help it, OK? It’s just something that’s in me and I can’t help it. Some people are afraid of heights, others of spiders. Me, I’m afraid of mice.”

He said this in such a way that Tara knew it was killing him to have to admit it, especially in front of a woman.

“So do you think you could … you know … go in and take a look around? See where they went?”

Tara was laughing openly now, but felt almost guilty when she saw his petrified expression. This really was killing him. “OK, then.  But let me get Toby first – I left him inside on his own when I came outside to investigate all the noise you were making.”

Luke looked sheepish and, still smiling, Tara quickly went back inside to Toby, who was chattering happily away to himself and totally out of harm’s way. 

“Sorry about this, pet,” Tara told him as she lifted him out of the chair and strapped him into his buggy, “but the scaredy cat next door needs our help.”

“Cat!” Toby pointed out happily, as the two of them passed the cattery on their way through the garden to Luke’s house.

Leaving Luke to keep an eye on Toby (or indeed the other way round) Tara was in and out of the place within a few minutes, having opened and closed all the old cupboards, and checked in various nook and crannies, but there were no ‘visitors’ to be seen.

“I know you think this is hilarious, and I don’t blame you,” Luke said, when Tara eventually reappeared outside, “but I can’t help it. My mother used to freak whenever one appeared in our house when I was younger, so I suppose I’ve carried the fear since then.” He shrugged. “Stupid I know but …”

Tara was sorely tempted to keep teasing, but a look at his mortified expression told her it was unfair to embarrass him any further. “Like you said, it’s a genuine fear and most of us have them.” 

“It’s stupid,” he insisted and Tara suspected he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else. “I know they’re only tiny, but …” he winced again, “those bloody tails …”

“Well, they seem to have gone into hiding now. But I doubt that’s the last you’ll see of them so you really should think about setting down traps.”

“Ugh.” Luke shuddered.

“Well, if you’re not up to it, you’ll have to get somebody else in to do it. The place has been vacant for so long now, I’m surprised it isn’t ten times worse than it is,” she added thoughtfully.

“You know the place?”

“Yep. I grew up
in the village – and me and my friends used to come up here when we were teenagers to drink and chat and … you know.”

Luke smiled. “Right.”

“That’s why I got such a fright the other day.  Nobody’s lived there for so long that I just assumed –”

“I know. And I still feel bad for shouting at you. But to be honest, the renovation work is not going as well as I’d thought.” He rolled his eyes. “Those bloody TV programmes make it all look so easy.”

“True,” Tara laughed. “In twenty-four hours,
you
can make your rundown cottage into a show-house mansion. It’s not quite the same when you get down and dirty with it, is it? Although in fairness, I’d love to have a house of my own to decorate. The one we’re in now is rented. But it’ll be a long time before I can afford to get any house in Dublin, let alone one I can restore to its former glory.”

“Oh, you don’t live in
Lakeview anymore?”

“No, I’m just looking after the place for Liz. Oh, and speaking of
which, I’d better go – this little fella will be needing his lunch soon.”

“Well
look, thanks a million … um …I’m sorry, I don’t know your –”

“It’s Tara.”

“Tara. I owe you a cuppa, only I don’t even have a kettle in there yet. Speaking of which, can you recommend anywhere in the village for food? I was in that cafe yesterday, but they do all this posh organic muck, and I’m not really into – ”

“Why don’t you come back next door with me?” The words were out before she realised it. “I was just having lunch anyway. I could do you a fry-up, or an omelette or something.”

“Are you sure? I’d love that, but I really don’t want to impose.”

“Don’t be silly. After the shock you’ve had, you need a strong
mug of tea,” she added mischievously.

“I won’t argue with that,” Luke said, his form greatly improved as he closed the back door of his cottage behind him. “And I’d kill for a decent cuppa. Those choco-mocco things they serve in that caf
é taste like shaggin dishwater.”

So far
the weekend was not going well. 

On Friday morning, Liz and Eric had left for Belfast (picking up Maeve on the way) and Eric had been largely uncommunicative throughout the drive north. 

Understandably, he hadn’t exactly been in high spirits since learning about his uncle’s death, but at the same time he barely knew the man. Liz had never met him; in fact, Pierce hadn’t even been in attendance at their wedding three years ago, so she knew he and Eric weren’t close.

No, Liz knew her husband well enough to know that there was something else bothering him – something other than the death of an estranged relation. And, over the course of the weekend, she hoped she’d get the opportunity to find out exactly what that was. 

“It’ll be nice to get some time on our own, just the two of us, won’t it?” she’d said while packing a weekend bag for them to take to the hotel. “It’s ages since we’ve been anywhere without Toby.”

“It’s my uncle’s bloody funeral, Liz,” he’d replied shortly. “It’s hardly a romantic weekend away.”

“Oh, I know that, love – that’s not what I meant.” Liz could have kicked herself for sounding so unfeeling. But she’d been thinking out loud more than anything else. “I was just saying that it will be strange the two of us being away from Toby for the first time, that’s all.”

In Belfast, after the removal Friday evening, they’d spent much of the night at the family home, before eventually getting back to their hotel around midnight. So there had been very little opportunity for Liz to get her husband on her own and have the chat she so badly wanted. 

It was only late Saturday evening after the funeral, once they’d again left Maeve with her family, that she and Eric got any time on their own. 

Liz suggested going for somewhere local for dinner.

“I don’t know if I fancy it, Liz – I’m fairly whacked after today.”

“I know but we haven’t eaten anything other than salad sandwiches all weekend,” she argued. “All right then, forget about going out – let’s just have something here in the hotel.”

Eventually Eric relented, and now, possibly for the first time since the birth of their eighteen-month-old son, Liz and her husband, the man she loved with all her heart, were alone. But now that they
were
finally alone – sitting across from one another in the hotel dining room, Liz had no idea what to say to him.

Eric seemed miles away, his thoughts clearly still elsewhere. Should she risk it, she wondered, her heart rate accelerating. Should she just get it over and done with and come straight out and ask him if he was seeing Emma? If he had fathered her unborn child? Tears prickled at her eyes as she realised how unhappy they both seemed. This was no way for a married couple to behave. Tara had been wrong; far from bringing them closer, the time on their own seemed to only highlight just how far apart they were.

Still, she had to try. Something was wrong and she needed to fix it.

“I spoke to Tara on the phone earlier,” she said, trying to sound light-hearted. “She and Toby are having a great time, and he doesn’t seem to be missing us at all! It was good of her to baby-sit him, wasn’t it?”

“Good old reliable Tara,” Eric replied, and Liz thought she noticed an edge to his tone.

“The dogs are fine too, which is great,” Liz babbled on, deciding to talk about things that made her feel comfortable, normal everyday things. “I must admit, I did wonder how Toby would get on without us. He’s not used to being left with other people and I thought he’d be a bit teary.”

“Well, if Tara says he’s fine, then I’m sure he is,” Eric replied in a rather bored voice.

“Still, he’s been a bit troublesome lately,” she said. “I hope he hasn’t been getting up to mischief.” When Eric didn’t reply, she continued, “Yes, it was really great of Tara to offer to baby-sit this weekend, and she also said that if ever you and I want to go away for a weekend in a hotel somewhere, she’d love to do it again.”

“Did she offer to pay for the bloody hotel too?”

This time there was no mistaking his tone and Liz frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, Tara seems to enjoy throwing her money around, doesn’t she? The fancy clothes and fancy car. Next she’ll be buying a mansion in Dalkey.”

Liz was taken aback. She’d never heard Eric criticise his old friend like that. “Tara works very hard for her money, Eric. Same as you, me and everyone else. And I don’t think anyone can begrudge her anything, considering.” She looked away.  “Look, Tara was just being kind, and all she did was offer to baby-sit in order to give us the opportunity to get away now and again. We’ve barely had a second to ourselves since we moved to
Lakeview. I’m always busy with Toby, and the kennels, and if you’re not working, you’re out with …” She let her voice trail off, afraid that if she mentioned his nights out with his work friends or with Colm that it would sound like she was nagging. And Liz didn’t want that, not when she was trying to get their relationship back on track. “But if you don’t think we should accept her generosity again, then we won’t. But you know as well as I do that we have nobody else to ask.”