Free The Good Life by Martina Cole Page B

you were a boy.’
    Cain smiled his thanks, and swallowed his drink in one mouthful. She immediately poured him another.
    ‘I’m sorry, Mum, for the way she treats you.’
    Molly flapped a perfectly manicured hand at him. ‘Oh, you don’t need to apologise, son, she’s a funny fecker and no mistake. I don’t know what you saw in her,’ she said bitterly, ‘but she does love you, you know.’
    He sighed once more. ‘To be honest, Mum, that’s the trouble.’ He closed his eyes in distress. ‘That girl I told you about? For the first time ever I can’t fuck and run. I have never felt like this before, not even about her upstairs.’
    Molly leaned across the expensive glass-topped table and grabbed her son’s hand in hers. ‘Don’t make any decision yet, son. Some things need to be thought through long and hard.’
    He had told her about this Jenny, but she saw now it was more than a passing fancy. This would cause untold ructions if it was to come out − especially with everything going on. It grieved her that he had inherited her own capacity for loving too much. If truth be told, that was her only real mistake in this life − loving people too much. And the wrong people. Always the wrong people.

Chapter Thirty-Four
    Jenny knew that Cain’s wife needed him and she was happy enough to take a back seat for now. What had thrown her was this visit now from his mother. She let her into the flat, pleased that it was clean and tidy and her own mother wasn’t in. Thank God for small mercies.
    Cain made sure her mum had a regular income nowadays and that had lightened Jenny’s burden considerably. It meant that there wasn’t the continual shortage of money that caused Eileen to become so erratic, and it also meant there was less chance of strange men being there in the mornings. He had promised Jenny a flat of her own too, but she would wait and see if that materialised.
    What he didn’t seem to realise was that she didn’t want anything from him − she never had. She was happy just being with him − that was more than enough for her. She felt at times, though, that it wasn’t enough for him, that he was the one who wanted more.
    Now here was his mum on her doorstep and she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to react. She brought Molly through to the lounge and offered her a seat. Jenny had never been so nervous in her life; when Molly had introduced herself on the doorstep she had almost fainted with fright. Cain’s mother was here, asking if she could talk to her.
    Molly looked at the beautiful girl before her and wasn’t surprised that her son was infatuated with Jenny. Not only did she have a very calming way about her that was attractive in itself, she was utterly exquisite − that was the only word − and those eyes would make any man fall off the wagon, so to speak.
    Molly sat down on the battered old sofa, and smiled at Jenny’s palpable anxiety. ‘Sit down, child. If I was here for a row it would have been well on by now.’ She smiled to take the edge off her words and saw the girl physically relax.
    Jenny decided she liked Cain’s mother even if she had come to read her the riot act. She would just accept whatever the woman had to say − what else could she do?
    ‘Would you like a cup of tea or something?’
    Molly nodded happily. ‘That would be grand.’
    She followed Jenny into the little kitchen and watched the girl carefully as she prepared a tray for their tea. She almost felt the urge to cry at the sight of this child − because that is all she was − trying to make things look nice. A tea tray in a house like this! It showed her mettle if nothing else. This was a girl who wanted more out of life. Molly knew about the mother, but who was she to judge? After all, she hadn’t been much better in her heyday.
    The quiet wasn’t menacing like it was with Caroline. Jesus, she could be in the house an hour before an offer of a drink came her way. Caroline loved everything about her