Trying Not to Love You - Part Ninety Five

Chapter Ninety Five

Two days later, two days of unadulterated pleasure, from walks on the beach, to lying in bed together until after midday, to meals in beach front bars, feeding each other seafood and perfect steak, they had to reluctantly leave for home. Martha could feel the tension in Sonny at the thought of heading back to the village, but she was looking forward to seeing Ethan more than anything.

                “No one’s been living in the pub,” she offered as she lowered herself into the seat beside him on the plane.

                “What does that mean?”

She shrugged, “that we’ve got to decide how we do things at home. Do we live in the flat? The pub? What about Lucy?”

Sonny groaned, “this life shit is harder than I thought.”

Giggling she took his hand, interlinking their fingers, “it is. I’m thinking about Ethan, I don’t want to disrupt him, then there’s Lucy...I don’t want to abandon her.”

He nodded, “it makes more sense to move into the pub, I’ll see more of you that way...but it’s not ready to be lived in, we have to take time sorting that out. We can maybe move in in a few weeks time, once we...” he laughed, “once YOU have got in liveable. As for Lucy, doesn’t in depend what happens with this Henry chap?”

Martha had told him all about Lucy’s lost love at some point over the last couple of days and Martha felt genuinely sorry that after telling the man about Lucy she’d abandoned that cause leaving him in the lurch for a while.

Slumping back in her seat she closed her eyes, “it’ll work itself out, it has to.”

Squeezing her hand, he relaxed back too, “I love you.”

They hired a car to get home, it was easier than a train or a taxi, and with their luggage it was their only real option. And it was Sonny that drove into town. He pulled up outside the flat, the restaurant was obviously closed, and the street was quiet, which was a relief. Lugging their bags upstairs and straight into her bedroom, Martha gasped as Sonny immediately wrestled her onto the bed. 

Laughing she smiled at him, “you can put it off as long as you want, but we have got to go to the pub. You hear? It’s probably in a right mess now, and will probably take us two weeks to get things back up to date.”

He groaned burying his face into her neck, “want to stay here.”

She wriggled from under him, “you Sir, have an obligation, a business and a responsibility. Now come on.”

Offering a hand, she pulled him to his feet.

Sonny paused at the door to the pub, “we don’t mention anything about Jade, or Spain...it’s just today onwards, ok.”

She squeezed their linked hands wishing silently that he’d fully let go of the past, “and us?”

He unwrapped his hand from hers, then threw his arm around her shoulder, “that is something I will NEVER hide from again, ok?”

The lunchtime trade could be quiet or really busy, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it, but as they opened the door, at least forty pairs of eyes flicked to stare at them, and most widened in surprise at the sight. Sonny’s hand squeezed at her shoulder then led her into the room.

                “Ok all?”

From amongst the crowd her father appeared, and Carl rushed to Sonny first, pulling him into his arms, in a hug that Martha could see almost brought tears to Sonny’s face.

                “Bloody hell son, we have missed you SO much!”

Stepping back from him Carl beamed and Sonny, in his typical fashion glanced around and said, “nice to see you’ve all made the effort to welcome me home!”

Martha shook her head, then made for the bar, Paul their knight in shining armour stood there, and seeing her he rushed over for a hug, “you found him then? I never doubted you would.” And the smile was genuine, he was pleased for her, and she’d never appreciated him more that at that moment. He’d saved her, enabled her the time to go off and look for Sonny, her happiness was determined by his generosity.

                “I owe you, more than I can ever tell you!”

Paul laughed, “actually I enjoyed the responsibility. He looks well.” He nodded in Sonny’s direction and she looked at the man she loved being hugged and welcomed by a few of the regulars.

“He’s special Paul, I know most don’t see it, but he is.”

Paul smiled, “and he’s a VERY lucky man, don’t you forget that.”

Martha watched things unwind confidently, she didn’t need to be close to Sonny to feel close to him, every now and again as he re-familiarised himself with the building and the patrons, she sat beside her father on a bar stool with a glass of orange juice.

She’d been there barely forty minutes when it was time to pick up Ethan, she’d missed him so much, but she’d promised him she’d bring Sonny home. Smiling at him she waited until he came to her.

                “I’m going to get Ethan.”

“You’ll bring him here?” there was an almost desperation to his voice.

She nodded, “he’ll never keep away. I was under strict instructions to bring you back.”

Sonny smiled, pulling Martha into his arms and kissing her passionately, much to the catcalls and wolf whistles of the patrons.

Ethan clung to her neck like a limpet, he’d missed her too. And as she walked with him attached to her to the pub, he constantly asked questions about Sonny. Was he going away again?  No...hopefully not. Did he miss me? Yes definitely.

As she approached the building he wrestled to be set down, then ran across the forecourt and into the door. By the time Martha pushed open the door to the pub, she witnessed Ethan hurtling into the squatted down Sonny’s arms and the two hugging as though their lives depended on it. It tugged at her heart strings so dramatically, the two most important people in her life showing her how devoted they were to each other.

                “Missed you squirt, come see what I’ve got?”

Ethan still hugging him nodded as Sonny carried him behind the bar to pick from the snacks that were in vast volumes behind there. Martha slid onto a barstool and watched them both together for a moment. This was everything that she wanted. It wasn’t going to be easy, he would be working, she’d be looking after Ethan, but knowing that they were coming home to each other, sharing their downtime with each other was all that she wanted.

An hour later she told Ethan that they had to go home. Whilst Sonny wanted to join them, she told him he had to stay, his staff had pulled out all the stops to run the place in his absence, he owed them some time, some support.

                “I’ll make dinner, then when Lucy gets home I’ll run some over to you. Ok?”

He nodded, “it’ll have to do. Then I want to discuss decorating upstairs, already the distance is killing me.”

She laughed, “it’s forty metres tops.”

                “And out of my eyes sight!”

With pizza and garlic bread laid out in front of them, Ethan and Martha were laughing as they ate, and they were sat there giggling when they heard Lucy on the stairs.

                “Martha? Are you back? IS that you?”

Martha jumped up and was at the door from the stairs as it opened, “I have missed you SO much Aunt Lucy.”

The older woman met the frantic hug head on, “not as much as we’ve all missed you. Did you find him?” She paused, “no need to answer, the infantile grin and John Wayne swagger gives it all away!”

Martha blushed, “was just about to offer you some pizza!”

Lucy pulled out a chair and slid in opposite Ethan, “pepperoni? My favourite!”

He grinned, over the months they’d become allies.

A couple of hours later, after dropping Sonny some food then conspiring to a grope and a secret snog in the cellar, and a bedtime story and bath for Ethan, Martha settled down in front of the TV with her Aunt.

                “So how was it?”

Martha dropped her head against the back of the sofa, eyes closed, “strange. He was so determined to stand by his guns, to see out all the things he’d chosen that he was going to risk losing me...us.”

Lucy sighed, “he has nothing but his instincts, I suppose none of us are unfortunate to know how he feels, what he’s been through. It’s all about counting our chickens.”

Martha nodded, “I didn’t think I’d be able to convince him to come home, he was so stubborn, so pigheaded.”

Lucy nodded too, “those are the characteristics that you love. He is who he is...you can’t change him.”

                “I wouldn’t want to. I swear.”

Martha’s eyes popped open at the feel of two arms wrapping around her, fingers sliding under her pyjamas. She’d tried to stay awake, wait for him to come home, but it wasn’t to be. She’d been exhausted, almost asleep on the sofa, then she realised something, he was coming home to her, she was where his home was, and it didn’t matter about anything else. So she’d changed into her pyjamas and slipped under the duvet, convinced that she’d manage to read her book until he got back to the flat.

                “You ok?” he breathed his lips against her ears. As she let his arms’ slide around her, she moved back so that her back pressed up against his chest, and as his arms pulled her closer, she sighed.

                “I’m brilliant now that you’re here.”

And it was true.

The weekend was hectic. Now that they were a couple, that there was no end in sight, they wanted forever, Martha was happy with Sonny crossing boundaries with Ethan. SO Saturday morning, straight after breakfast, Sonny joined them on a trip to the swimming pool. As soon as Sonny sae Martha in swimwear he realised that life wasn’t going to be easy. IN fact encounters in the hallway before she was fully dressed, Ethan bursting in as he was about to devour Martha, family life was rife with complications. But as he woke in the morning to find Ethan wrapped around him, or Martha kissing him, he knew that it was all worth it.

                “Are we going to talk about Michael?”Martha asked Monday morning after their first weekend as a family. She’d loved every moment, but her memories of the man she’d seen before she’d left to find Sonny haunted her. All weekend she’d wondered how to broach the subject, and was annoyed that they’d not had this conversation sooner.  But then she knew that Sonny didn’t want to talk about it, about him, and that was why she was risking unsettling their equilibrium so soon.

He shook his head, “don’t push it Martha, we’ve had a good start, I’m in no rush to start things with him.”

                “You NEED to find out what happened. WHY he was there. We promised a new start Sonny, that should include him too. He’s your father!”

Sonny pulled on his running shoes and shook his head, “stick to taking Ethan to school there’s no job in amateur psychology for you.” then he ran out.

Martha shook her head, clearly there was still SO much to deal with. Now was obviously not the time, so she called Ethan from his lengthy sojourn in the bathroom and left for school. None of that meant that she wasn’t liviv with the way he’d spoken to her, but she’d deal with it, deal with him as soon as she could.

She had so much catching up to do, being away for a week had thrown her off balance, and as she was walking around the supermarket her phone rang.

                “Is that Martha?”

It was Henry, Aunt Lucy’s ‘friend’; she had been rather neglectful of him.

                “It is, Henry I can only apologise for not being in touch, I’ve been away.”

He sighed, “I guessed as much, I’ve got to go to London in a couple of days, I’ll be passing your way, I was wondering whether you could arrange for me to meet Lucy. I’m desperate to see her.”

Martha smiled to herself, she had no idea how it would all go when she told her aunt, after all this was a huge thing, but she hoped that deep down she’d be over the moon. The thought of it all made Martha SO nervous.

                “I’ll see what I can do; I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. I need to have a chat with my aunt.”

By mid morning she’d unpacked her shopping, made the beds, washed the dishes and started on a meal for the evening. Sonny was talking about them decorating the rooms above the pub, about moving in, so once things were in hand at home, she made for the pub.

It was quiet, no one there bar Cyril, an elderly man who everyone knew in town who spent lunchtime in the pub EVERY day. He barely looked yup when she entered, but Sonny did. he was behind the bar, looking as delectable as ever, no one wore a long sleeved t-shirt like he did, and he had on her favourite jeans, worn, soft and arse clinging. But she wasn’t in the mood to be genial.

He had the good fortune to look a little sorry, and that helped. Marching up to the bar, she stood hands on hips, “you might have surrounded yourself with women who worshipped the ground you walk on and find you punching walls and throwing your weight around sexy and attractive, but I’m not one of them. You were out of order earlier.”

He blushed, “it’s a moot point for me, ok? I shouldn’t have shouted.”

She nodded, “no you shouldn’t. Just because I’ve missed you and want you in my life does not mean I’ll put up with that shit. Ok?”

Again he nodded, “alright, I get it, I’m sorry.”

She laughed, “first time for everything, clearly!” With a brisk nod, she moved towards the door to upstairs, “I’m here to sort out upstairs, and then the books, the rotas. I got used to working here when you were away, so I’m going to work here from now on.” Giving him her biggest smile, she flounced past him.

Sonny watched her go, shaking his head, when would she ever stop amazing and surprising him. He’d thought she’d strop for days after him being rude to her, but no, she was in control, bossing him around regardless. He glanced up to see Cyril looking at him with a bemused expression and rolled his eyes. “Women, hey?”