Spring Blossoms at Mill Grange

family manor in Worcestershire?’
‘Family tradition for them, apparently. Both his elder brothers married there before they emigrated.’ Tina heaved a sigh. ‘I want to marry here and so does Sam, but he’s obviously wary about upsetting his folks after so long without being part of their lives.’
‘What will you do?’
‘Stick to my guns and get married here and deal with the fallout.’ Tina grimaced. ‘So, what’s your woe?’
Helen lifted her glass in salute to her friend’s determination. ‘Ah, well, unlike you, I have no right to feel put out, but I still do.’
‘Are we going to need an interpreter for this conversation?’ Tina was already lost.
Helen pulled a face. ‘Between you and me, Tom and I were supposed to be going out tonight.’ Before Tina could comment, she added, ‘Not on a date. Just to talk over something work related. We thought it would be nice to get out of Upwich for a bit. There’s a good Indian restaurant in Tiverton apparently. We were going there.’
‘Are you sure it wasn’t a date?’ Tina refilled Helen’s fast disappearing wine. ‘It does sound like one.’
‘It was just a change of scene. That’s all.’
‘But you’re here with me, with the air of someone who’s been let down, rather than looking like someone who’s had a work chat cancelled.’
Helen couldn’t help but chuckle. ‘What on earth does acting like someone with the air of being let down look like?’
‘Oh, I’ve no idea, but you know what I mean.’ Tina tilted her head to one side. She knew Helen liked Tom, and she was pretty sure Tom reciprocated, yet nothing had happened. If tonight was his way of having a non-date-date, then something must have happened to stop him. Or his bottle had gone. ‘I know Tom’s gone out tonight, because his car’s missing. So, what happened?’
‘Sue happened.’
‘Dylan’s mum?’ Tina was about to become indigent on Helen’s behalf, when she realised. ‘Dylan’s okay, isn’t he?’
‘Yes. He’s the reason Tom’s gone out with Sue. She wants to discuss giving him more time with Dylan, add his name to the school contacts list and such like. That way Tom will be notified when there are parent’s evenings and stuff.’
‘Hence you saying you have no right to feel put out about Tom not being able to take you out.’
‘Exactly.’ Helen took a sip of drink as she watched the customers of the busy pub carrying on around them, exchanging friendly waves and chats with each other as they settled to their drinks and meals.
Tina put down her glass. ‘It’s just a hunch, but I suspect Tom isn’t in a hurry to start another relationship, with such a messy one still hanging over him.’
‘I know.’ Helen popped the final peanut into her mouth. ‘I wish to goodness I didn’t like him, but I can’t turn the feeling off. It’s ridiculous at my age! I’m nearly… I’m thirty-nine for goodness sake.’
‘It doesn’t work like that.’ Tina paused. ‘You aren’t really worried about turning forty, are you? I know loads of forty-somethings who say life gets better and better.’
‘Me too, it’s just…’ Helen took a moment to think how to phrase her thoughts. ‘Look, it isn’t that I’m single. It isn’t that I don’t think my life is complete without a partner. Nor do I feel I haven’t achieved anything with my life. I did think all those things for a while. Took each of those issues in turn and worried about them – but it isn’t any of that… it’s… I don’t know…’
‘Is that how you felt when you came to Mill Grange last September?’
‘Pretty much. I was working through the, “I haven’t achieved anything with my life because I’ve been in the same job for years and have no man,” phase at that point. That passed when you and Thea made me see I’d been working too hard and simply needed a break. But then, just as I was chilling out, and wasn’t constantly thinking about museum planning meetings and school trip quotas—’
‘Tom came along, you realised you fancied him like crazy and now you’re stuck with feelings you can’t do a thing about.’
Helen ruffled her curls from her eyes. ‘Hell! It is all so bloody cliché!’
‘Everything about love is.’
‘Love?’ Helen dismissed the notion. ‘I fancy him. Not the same thing. I’m sure if we could just be friends that—’
‘Friends with benefits? Is that what you want?’ Tina’s eyebrows rose as she picked her wine back up.
‘Best of both worlds.’
‘If you say so.’
‘I do say so.’ Helen wasn’t sure if she was as convinced by this argument as she sounded. ‘Tom is absolutely the last sort of man I should fall for.’
‘Because he has a past?’
‘More because I don’t. He has more baggage than a luggage shop, has fought with the army all over the world and has a son. I have a wide knowledge of Roman archaeology and can dig a decent hole.’
*
Sue was already waiting for Tom when he arrived at the Indian. Finding himself wondering if she was sat at the table he and Helen would have occupied if they’d come here together, Tom tried to rein in his thoughts.
It wasn’t a date. Helen wanted to talk something work-ish through and you suggested a change of scene. That’s all.
Sue’s hair wasn’t the same colour it had been on Monday. It was much quieter in tone now, a light brown rather than her usual jet black or bright pinks and purples. It was as if her hairstyle was reflecting the changes she was making in her life.
Waving when she spotted him, Tom realised he hadn’t looked at Sue as anything other than someone who simply needed to be dealt with, an inconvenience on the way to his son, for years. He’d forgotten she was attractive, especially when she stopped trying to make herself look younger than she was.
Tonight, her usual teen fashion style had been replaced by a smart shirt and jacket. Her makeup was more subtle, and her fingernails, currently curled around the menu, were