‘You… you should buy Elizabeth’s house,’ her mother whispered softly. ‘Let her have this place. It would set you both free to start afresh.’
‘Oh, Mum, I don’t know…’
‘It sounds perfect to me,’ Niall said. ‘You’d be living right next to the practice and it’d be a great project to take on. You’d love it, Mum.’
‘Think about it,’ her mother whispered before closing her eyes. ‘I’d like to know that everything is settled, before I…’
‘I promise, I will.’ Lucy bent forward and kissed her gently. ‘I’ll have a chat with Elizabeth, see what she thinks.’
‘Good.’ Her mother sighed with a satisfied quiver of her lips –the merest of smiles.
‘You know I kind of envy you all, here,’ Niall said softly.
‘No, you don’t.’ Lucy smiled. ‘We’ll be facing force-nine winds in winter while you’re basking in the hot sun.’
‘With my red hair and white skin?’
‘Okay, wear plenty of sun cream.’ Lucy laughed and then she looked at him. ‘You’re going to love it. I only hope you’ll want to come back for holidays and all that.’
‘Sure, if you’ll have me.’ That was it, really – Niall clearly wasn’t so sure that there would be a place for him. Perhaps he was already sensing that his move to Australia would put more than miles between them. Lucy’s life would take on a new unfamiliar shape of which he would no longer be a part. When Lucy thought about it, her biggest fear was that he might feel he didn’t fit properly anywhere anymore.
‘Of course we’ll have you,’ Lucy whispered, then she picked an imaginary piece of fluff from his grandmother’s cardigan. ‘Well, as often as you’ll come home and of course, your father will probably have plans for most holidays so…’
‘Probably. I’m sure he will,’ Niall said softly.
And that’s what it would be, one long trip, of staying in places that were not home. Niall looked out the window in silence, lost in thoughts that seemed to pull him in two. Six months ago, he’d have been packing his bags the minute his father agreed to have him. But now, over the last few weeks, his mother could see a new life was beginning to open up for him here in Ballycove. He had friends and a place he was beginning to call home. Was he already seeing the green of those far-off fields was not all emeralds? Perhaps. Lucy hoped he’d realise what he was leaving before it was too late.
She had a feeling he’d miss more than just the countryside and Ballycove. He’d miss his family, his mother and, yes, he’d miss his grandmother, but then, he’d miss her anyway, although perhaps he’d miss her even more on the other side of the world. He’d miss Dan who had taken Niall under his wing in a way that had meant so much to Lucy. Then there was Zoe too and the large group of friends he was so recently beginning to make. The truth was, he had gotten to know more people over the last few weeks than he had in all the time he’d been coming here and he liked them, Lucy knew. He was finally fitting in.
‘Mum, say if I didn’t go…’
‘If you didn’t go?’ Lucy turned to look at him now.
‘Yes, say I decided to stay here, in Ballycove, with you and go to the local school and we lived in the house on the hill – our house, a new start for both of us…’
‘I suppose… your father would be very upset.’ She looked out into the garden for a second. ‘Are you saying you’d like to stay here after all?’
‘I think so, yeah, if it would mean living here with you, being a proper family, going to a regular school and…’
‘Leaving Dublin, boarding school and settling for the local college?’ She looked at him and it felt like some of the stress and fatigue that had filled her head for months was slowly falling away from her eyes. ‘Oh, Niall, if that was what you wanted, I’d be over the moon, and nothing would make me happier, but are you sure you’d be happy here? It is a bit of a backwater…’
‘I’d like things back to how they were, before, you know, me and you and well, if you met someone new, I’d say we could all be happy together, right here in Ballycove.’
‘Niall, you’ve made my day.’ Tears were streaming down her eyes now and she pulled him close, hugging him until his embarrassment made him shrug her off.
‘That’s all I needed to hear. Take care of each other for me,’ Jo said softly, and then she took a long ragged breath and closed her eyes. That was it. She had just left them as easily as walking out to the next room with only a parting smile on her lips to let them know she was happy to go.