Chapter Three
At eight-thirty, on the morning of moving day, there was a timely knock at the door. The bleary-eyed removal team had arrived to take her whole life hundreds of miles northwards. Where the heck was Sam? He had only nipped out to get some cash for their journey.Trust him to miss this bloody bit,she grumbled to herself and winced as she got a paper cut from a sheet of labels.
Her mobile phone rang. ‘Where the bloody hell are you, Sam?’ she scolded as she answered the call.
‘Hey, honey, I am soooo sorry but I got a call from Ryan while I was on my way home from the ATM. There’s been a major glitch on one of the client databases in Leeds and he’s stressing like a crazy person. He really needs me to go in there to help out, just for a couple hours. They’ve been on it all night but Ry didn’t want to bother me unless it was absolutely necessary. He does understand how important today is, babe, he just really needs my help.’
He sounded apologetic but Mallory was unimpressed that this job, which he was supposedly leaving behind, was getting in the way of the most important day of their lives so far.
‘Well that’s just bloody great, Sam. What am I supposed to do? Go without you?’
‘Honey, I’m so sorry. Please don’t be mad. We were driving up separately anyway. I’ll just be arriving a little later, that’s all. You know I’d rather change this, but I can’t. No one else knows the system like me and Ry and it’s just not feasible for him to get on a plane right now when I know I’ll be able to fix it. I’ll get this thing dealt with and I will get on the road as soon as humanly possible. I love you so much, you know that, right?’
‘Well, I’m mightily pissed off with you right now. And you can tell Ryan to stick his problem where the sun doesn’t shine! This is so unfair, Sam, of all the days your brother needs you he chooses today? Really? It’s just not fair.’
She realised how immature she must have sounded when one of the removal men, barely out of his teens, grinned at her sulky retort.
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone then Sam suddenly burst out laughing. ‘You’re one crazy Yorkshire terrier, do you know that? Hey, baby, I’ll get there ASAP. I promise.’ His tone changed to a husky whisper, ‘And I can’t wait to get you on the rug in front of the fireplace and kiss every inch of that sexy body of yours. In fact, make sure the champagne is chilled, baby. I intend to get you good and drunk and take advantage of you tonight,’ he growled that deep sexy way that made her legs turn to jelly and her lower regions quiver with anticipation.
‘Well make sure youdoget up there ASAP. You have a lot of making up to do for this, mister.’ She gathered herself, glancing around to ensure no one could see the heat rising from her chest to her face.
‘I love ya, Miss Yorksher,’ he whispered.
‘I love you too, Mr Canada.’ She smiled. It was impossible to stay mad at him.
Her anger totally abated, Mallory joined the three men out at the truck to give them directions. When she got back to the house after waving off the truck filled with all her worldly possessions, she stood in the lounge looking at the bare walls and floor. Tears stung the back of her eyes and she remembered back to the day she moved in…
*
October 2005
‘Good grief, Mal! How much bloody stuff have you got?’ Brad exclaimed as he humped another box from the self-hire van into the little house. Josie and Brad had been together forever, it seemed. He was tall, very muscular and had that dirty blonde ‘surfer dude’ floppy hair going on. He was ruggedly handsome and had a scar above his left eye where his brother had hit him with a Tonka truck when he was five. Mallory looked at him as the older brother she never had. Being an only child it was great to have someone tough looking out for her.
‘Ooooh, only another three hundred boxes, Brad, don’t worry,’ Josie laughed as she and Mallory set to unpacking.
Brad moaned. ‘I don’t get how you two are just allowed to sit there doing the easy bit. I amone manyou know!’
Josie jumped up and ran over to her man, reaching up and slinking her arms around his neck. ‘Ahhh, but what a man you are.’ She kissed him deeply.
Mallory threw a cushion at the loved-up pair. ‘Aaargh, get a bloody room you guys.’
‘Hey, Westerman, I think a snog is the least I deserve for helping out,’ Brad complained, making a face at her.
‘Oh, don’t worry, by the look of it you’ll be getting payment in kind from lusty lips there tonight.’ Mallory laughed and Brad winked at what she implied.
They finished unloading and unpacking by ten o’clock that night and were all completely and utterly enervated. Pizza was ordered, but when it arrived they were pretty much past the point of being hungry. Brad had commented that they should just save it until morning. After all, there was nothing, whatsoever wrong with pizza for breakfast. The girls laughed hysterically whilst Brad tried to justify not wasting good pizza.
Josie produced a warm bottle of fake champagne and they drank it from mugs, raising a toast to Mallory’s new home and to the loving parents who had bought it for her.
Josie hugged her friend hard. ‘May you have many happy years here, sweetie pie. And enjoy tonight because Sylvia will be here tomorrow to tell you that your taste in IKEA furniture is deplorable.’ She laughed uncontrollably and Mallory knew that she was absolutely, unequivocally correct. She loved her aunt so very much, but boy could she be cantankerous and opinionated. It was going to be an interesting visit.
Aunt Sylvia arrived the next morning sharply at nine. She was dressed in a lilac twinset and her hair had a matching hue. Mallory stifled a giggle.
‘Daaaaahling!’ Aunt Sylvia yelled in her usual pseudo-posh accent, hugging Mallory hard as if years had passed since their last meeting; in actual fact, it had been the previous day when Mallory had finally moved out from the ‘Manor House’.
Sylvia was her dad’s older sister by around eight years. She had married a very wealthy man who had owned a string of butcher shops throughout Yorkshire. She had gradually become the stereotypicalLady of the Manor, but she had a heart of gold.
‘Come on then, lovey; show your old Aunt Sylvia around your new crib.’
