Silly Games - 6

Chapter 6

 

                “Buster! You really are a menace! Come on!” Clipping his lead to the collar around his neck, Laura dragged the large Boxer away from the stream and after the five other dogs who meandered around her in a far more leisurely manner. “Right guys, call ALL of you behave?” She looked between the faces of the six animals and laughed at their expressions of confusion. “Ok! You win! We’ll all have a splash in the sea, ok?” Leading them down onto the sand, she kicked off her flip-flops and started to run for the sea.

All six loved a dip, and as soon as they realised that Laura was racing for the water’s edge, they all broke into various speed sprints as they beat her to it. As she ran in to the water, up as deep as her knees, she laughed at Marco, a tall standard poodle; he loved the idea of the sea, but hated the cold water and was backpedalling as soon as his claws touched the sea. Buster was still lolloping behind, since she’d been walking both him and Chardonnay, the overweight Golden Retriever had started to lose weight. They were never going to be as fast as Diego, the greyhound, but then running was his thing, or had been. He’d been rescued when a foot injury and meant he could no longer race for his owner, prior to the rescue Diego Goes! had been a Champion of the short sprint distances at many a dog track.

She laughed as Diego bounded past Peachy and Ozzie the two mongrels, they were both so nervous of the waves, but not so nervous that they didn’t try to follow the others. Laura kicked at the surf splashing the animals and they all bounded around her yapping. Chuckling she jogged through the water, following the coastline, splashing Marco who trailed them from the shore.

                “Come on Marco!” She bent down and patted her knees trying to entice the animal to join them, but he was too scared. After a few minutes she led the dogs back to the beach, dropping down to sit on the hard packed sand. The dogs, after shaking themselves all settled beside her, stretching out in the warm June sunshine.

Once her legs were dry, she stood and the dogs all uncurled themselves and made for the car.

Adam was sat a little further the sand watching the woman enjoy herself immensely, and it was intoxicating, he almost felt like a voyeur. He knew she was brought up in London, but as she cavorted carefree in the surf, he could see that she loved where she was, and she was so happy in her own skin. That was such a reflection on a happy childhood. He was so tempted to walk over to her, to be a part of her excitement, but he couldn’t do that. He’d meet her soon enough, but now wasn’t the time.

He was due in London, the shit was about to hit the fan and he needed desperately to be there when that happened. There’d be time to deal with Miss Marshall later, and he would deal with her. It was part of the plan; it was really inevitable that their paths would cross again.

His daydreaming and longing meant he’d not processed fully the scene in front of him, he’d wandered onto the beach to catch a few waves, but within moments the surf flattened, so now he was sat half out of his wetsuit, next to his board eating a sandwich...and it was that sandwich that had attracted one of her many mutts.  A poodle of all things was bounding in his direction with a hungry look on its face. Behind it came ‘her’, Laura, her long blonde hair flapping behind her as she ran, her long bare legs under ridiculously short denim shorts were athletic and expert over the uneven sand.

                “Marco! NO! Marco! STOP NOW!” Something she said worked because the animal that would tower over Adam’s seated form skidded to a comedic halt just a few metres from him. Adam’s heart was pounding, from the surprise of the attack he told himself and nothing to do with the breathless, flushed woman running towards him at a rate of knots.

                “I’m so sorry!” she breathed swatting at the dog playfully, “he’s normally so good...are you ok?”

Adam nodded, muttering “I’m fine”, then climbed to his feet. With his board under his arm he left the beach.

Rude bastard! She thought, as she watched the man disappear along the sand, and scratched Marco’s ear.

                “I know it was an accident sweetheart, ignore the horrible man. Ok?”

The six dogs were all excited after the run to catch Marco, so it took her a little time to get them back to her van, all the time she was emanating hatred for the unforgiving man on the beach. There had been a split second when she’d realised that there was a tall, tanned and muscular stranger on her beach and a large part of her pricked up in interest, but his poor tolerance of Marco - he was a bloody poodle for god’s sake, had quashed that. Sorry, but Dan Martin was STILL the only MOI (Man of Interest) around. And he was away for another ten days.

Laura had a few mornings of great surf that week, and by the time Friday rolled around, she had almost forgotten her trip to London. Mid June and the diary was picking up, there were quite a few lessons booked for the coming few days, they’d be flat out, what with the cafe and shop too.

She’d gone to bed early, the tide was going to be perfect at six the following day, and she was planning to get out in time for it. It was Alana’s turn to open up the cafe.

She had barely fallen asleep when she was woken by Ben calling her. Climbing sleepily out of her bed when she realised he wasn’t going away, she lumbered into the lounge. Alana was stretched out on the sofa, her bare feet resting on Ben’s lap, his free hand massaging them tenderly, his other hand holding out the phone to her.

                “It’s your mother!”

Her father had taken to emailing her, her mother never phoned her, this was unchartered territory.  Taking the handset she smiled a thank you then headed into the kitchen.

                “Mum? What’s up?”

She reached into the fridge for the carton of orange juice and was pouring a glass when her mother answered.

                “Laura? Oh thank god I found you!”

The desperation in her mother’s voice made her panic, “what’s wrong Mum? Is Dad ok? Are you ok?” Suddenly there was a pulsing in her ears that made it difficult to hear.

                “We’re all well darling, honestly, it’s just...well I need you to come home. Now.”

                “What? I was only there last week and it’s ten o’clock on a Friday night! I’m a three hour drive away. What’s happened?”

Her mother hushed to a whisper, “I can’t tell you on the phone, but I need you here, you NEED to be here. As soon as you can.”

Laura took a deep breath, they were approaching the busiest few weeks of the year, the weather and sea were all set to behave and be perfect for tourists this weekend. They would be rushed off their feet. It was more than an inconvenience to think of making the four hour trip to London.

                “Mum! I’m so busy...”

Her mother sighed, “I’ve never asked this of you before darling. It’s really important.”

Laura closed her eyes for a moment and took several deep breaths, “I’ll be as quick as I can.”

                “Thank you darling.”

An hour later she was on the M4. Ben had sensed her anxiety after the phone call, and he was as aware as Laura that her mother never called her.

                “Take my car,” he’d insisted, “you can’t think about driving that hunk of junk you call a van. I don’t need the car this weekend; I’ve got lessons all day tomorrow!”

                “I was going to help you!” She had protested.

But Ben was insistent, “something is obviously wrong. You HAVE to go. We’ll survive without you.”

She’d contemplated waiting until early morning to travel, but if truth be known her curiosity had got the better of her. She was desperate to know why her mother needed her home. And at eleven pm at night, there was no traffic on the motorway.

And there was no answer at her parents’ home either. Laura glanced at her watch. Admittedly it was after two in the morning, but quite frankly her mother had asked her to come home as soon as possible. And that was all that she had done. With a groan she took out her phone and rang the apartment. Eventually her mother answered the phone, sleepily.

                “Hello?”

Laura raised her eyes to the sky, this was typical of her mother, she lived in a parallel universe most of the time, she could swear. “Mum, it’s me, I’m outside!”

Her mother gasped, “oh darling! I didn’t think you’d come tonight!”

She groaned again, she didn’t remind her mother that she’d begged her to come as soon as she could. She was hardly able to wait until the following day, was she?!

Climbing the stairs, she hated the lift at the best of times; she found the door open when she got to the top. Her mother was pale, sat on the sofa in the lounge, looking forlorn and sad. Laura felt bad for cursing her earlier, and rushed to her side.

                “What is it Mum? I’ve never seen you like this!”

                “That would be my fault!” Both women’s heads snapped around to see Stafford Marshall, her father stood in the doorway.

                “Staff...where have you been? You took that call then disappeared; I thought you had left me, that you’d met someone else.”

Laura looked between the two with shock, they had the strongest relationship she knew, only the previous weekend they’d been like love sick horny teenagers.

                “Dad! What’s going on?” Her mother wasn’t used to being abandoned, since she’d met her father she had occupied an almost Princess like role in the family, and her obvious bewilderment was indictment to that fact.

Her father ran his fingers through his hair, and sighed, “you both need to sit down.”

Nothing he was saying was making any of this appear easier for Laura. She was twenty eight, she was hardly dependent on her parents, she hadn’t lived with them for ten years...but the thought of something happening to them, or their relationship scared her.

Her father sat opposite them and sighed, “I had a phone call at around half past four; we were supposed to be flying to Paris at eight, but what I heard meant I had to return to work.” He smiled affectionately at her mother. “And I haven’t called since, sorry Maggie! That was so wrong, but I‘ve been kind of tied up!”

Laura wanted to shake him and shout spit it out, but she bit her tongue and waited patiently.

                “Toby my solicitor called me, he’d been contacted by someone...” he bowed his head and shook it for a moment. When he looked up his face was taught and he looked a lot older than he had before, his eyes were haunted and his brow wrinkled. “Before I met you Maggie, I had a life...” he laughed, “well so did you...a man has turned up and claimed I’m his father!” He blurted it out and looked at them both earnestly.

Both women sat with slack jaws staring at the man who’d been the controlling influence in both their lives.

                “Say something...someone?”

Laura tried to moisten her dry mouth, then asked, “is he your son?”

Her father shrugged, “thirty something years ago, well before I met your mother I remember the situation that he has referred too. I was flying to Chicago, and...well I became more than friendly with an air stewardess.” He looked at Laura, “this is hard to say in front of you...but I spent time with her, then she told me she was married, and I never saw her again. Apparently that was his mother, and he is the product of that evening.”

Laura wanted to retch, her father...there were things a daughter didn’t need to know about, and then there was the fact that he had a child other than her...that scared her. She had no idea how to react, but when she saw her mother pale beside her, she realised that her concerns were the same as her own.

It was before her time, before both of their times, so neither could feel hard done by, or put out, but then life wasn’t that straight forward. Laura knew she had to make a gesture here, so she stood and moved towards her father and gave him a hug. He buried his face in her neck for a moment, and when they pulled apart her shoulder was wet from his tears.

                “I’m so sorry; I really hope you don’t hate me for it.”

Laura smiled, “of course not, Mum could never hate you, and neither can I, we both love you and this changes nothing.”

Her mother nodded, suddenly pulling herself out of the stunned silence. “Of course she’s right Staff, we love you regardless.”

The man pulled them both tight knowing that this wasn’t going to be easy, but he had a son, and he had to meet him, make things right.