Wish You Were Here. Victoria Connelly

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      ‘About the home.’

      ‘What do you mean?’ he asked, looking up from his ice cream.

      ‘I mean, if we got a carer, you could come back and live in your own home.’

      He shook his head. ‘We’ve been through all this,’ he said. ‘Haven’t we?’

      ‘Yes, I know, but I just don’t like the idea of you being there all on your own.’

      ‘And you’d rather have me at the mercy of Stella?’

      ‘She doesn’t have to live there. She’s big enough to get a place of her own. I can’t believe she’s never thought to do that.’

      He took a lick of his ice cream. ‘Alice – you mean well – I know you do – but you know my thoughts on this. I’m not having either of you worrying yourselves about me all the time. Carer or no carer, if I was at home, you’d be fussing around me all the time and you’ve got your own lives to live. I’m not going to do that to you. Besides, I like the home.’

      ‘You do?’

      ‘There’s company there. I’m not on my own at all as you so often think.’

      Alice narrowed her eyes. ‘You’ve met somebody, haven’t you?’

      Her father smirked. ‘I might have done.’

      ‘Really?’ Alice laughed. ‘Tell me!’

      Their matching blue eyes locked together but her father wasn’t saying anything.

      ‘You naughty man!’ Alice said. ‘I’ve been imagining you sat in a chair in a corner of some lonely room with nothing to do all day and, all this time, you’ve been flirting!’

      He chuckled. ‘I’m a wicked old man,’ he said.

      ‘What’s her name?’

      ‘I forget.’

      Alice frowned. ‘Oh.’

      ‘I’m kidding, for goodness’ sake!’ he said with a chuckle.

      ‘Oh, Dad!’

      ‘Her name’s Rosa and she’s eighty-two.’

      ‘Eighty-two?’

      ‘Yup! Who would’ve thought your old man would be somebody’s toy boy at seventy years of age?’

      ‘You’re incorrigible!’

      ‘So, that’s my love life up to date. Are you going to tell me what’s going on in yours? Any nice young man on the horizon?’

      ‘On the horizon? If there is, I think I need a telescope because I haven’t spotted him yet.’

      For a moment, Alice thought of Ben Alexander at work – his handsome face and lopsided smile that always made her heart flutter.

      ‘There is somebody,’ she said quietly, ‘but he doesn’t even know I exist.’

      ‘Why not? Why doesn’t he notice a pretty young girl like you?’

      ‘Dad! I’m not pretty and I’m not that young anymore either.’

      ‘What nonsense!’

      ‘It’s true! I’m just ordinary – I know that – you don’t have to be kind. Stella was always the pretty one.’

      Her father frowned at her. ‘How can you say that?’

      ‘Because it’s true.’

      ‘You are so beautiful, Alice. You have a pure and giving heart—’

      ‘And the sort of face nobody looks at twice.’

      ‘But nobody wants to look at a beautiful face if it hides a cruel heart,’ he said and Alice couldn’t help wondering if he was talking about somebody in particular. ‘Listen,’ he continued, ‘Stella might get all the attention when it comes to the opposite sex and she might get her own way when it comes to you and me but just be careful.’

      ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘You mustn’t trust her so wholeheartedly. She takes advantage of you.’

      ‘Well, I’m used to that.’

      ‘But you mustn’t let her—’ he paused.

      ‘What?’

      Her father shook his head and something inside him seemed to close down. The conversation was over; he wasn’t going to elaborate.

      They finished their ice creams and then drove home in virtual silence. The winter sky had darkened dramatically and Alice turned the car headlights on. Her father’s eyes kept closing and she didn’t prod him into wakefulness with conversation although she was desperate to know what he’d meant about Stella.

       You mustn’t trust her so wholeheartedly.

      Of course, Alice knew that her sister wasn’t completely honest all the time but she was used to all the white lies and Stella wouldn’t be Stella without them. But was there something more sinister than that?

      Alice turned into the tree-lined driveway and the south front of Bellwood House rose up out of the immaculate lawn to greet them. It was an imposing Georgian house which had been extended and modernised to provide more ground-floor facilities for its residents. Her father, though, despite his wheelchair, had insisted on having a first-floor room because he wanted a good view.

      Alice pulled up outside the front door and one of the carers, Sam, was immediately there to help. He always had the uncanny ability to spring up out of nowhere when he was most needed and Alice watched as he helped her father into his chair, wheeling him up the ramp into the home.

      ‘No need to come with me,’ her father told her.

      ‘Are you sure?’

      ‘You’ve done quite enough for today, my dear.’

      Alice bent down and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Give me a call soon, won’t you?’

      ‘Of course,’ he said, grabbing hold of one of her hands. ‘Thank you.’

      Alice smiled at him. ‘Happy birthday, Dad.’

      She watched as Sam wheeled her father’s chair into the lift up to his room on the first floor and waited for him to return, peeping into the main sitting room which overlooked the front lawn and wondering if she’d catch a glimpse of Rosa. Would it be too intrusive to ask for her? she wondered. Yes, it would and what would she say, anyway? Excuse me – are your intentions towards my father honourable? No, she was quite sure that he was old enough to know what he was doing when it came to the opposite sex.

      At last, after settling her father into his room, Sam returned.

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