Free Summer Season by Julia Williams

panelling in the hallway and made it lighter, but what with work and looking after Sam, I haven’t really had time to finish what I started.’
    He looked sad, as if something pained him.
    ‘You’re right about the garden of course, that was the one bit of the place Claire really liked. I should have got it sorted.’
    ‘Well, now you’ve got me here, you can,’ said Kezzie.
    ‘Really?’ Joel looked as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing.
    ‘Really,’ said Kezzie.
    ‘It’s masses of work,’ said Joel, ‘and I won’t be able to help you much.’
    ‘I know,’ said Kezzie. ‘But I think it would be amazing to restore it, a huge privilege. Please let me.’
    Joel stood for a moment looking as if he were battling with some inner demon, then he gave Kezzie a huge, and charismatic grin.
    ‘You’re on,’ said Joel, and it was all Kezzie could do to stop herself from punching the air in delight.
     
    It was a quiet evening in the Labourer’s Legs, only a few punters had wandered in. It was the middle of the month, so people were probably saving their money till pay day, there wasn’t any football on and the darts match scheduled for the night had been cancelled, leaving the sandwiches that Sally the landlady had laid on wilting on the bar.
    ‘Go on, take them home with you at the end of your shift,’ Sally said to Lauren, with a slightly patronizing, sympathetic tone, as if she’d never be so foolish as to have been left holding one baby, let alone two. She also seemed to assume because Lauren was young she couldn’t do anything for herself. Lauren had to bite her tongue from saying that it was most unlikely that two four-year-olds would be interested in stale prawn sandwiches, let alone risk a tummy bug. It was a battle at the best of times to get them to eat anything other than chicken nuggets and chips.
    The clock dragged slowly towards 8 p.m. Two hours into her shift and already Lauren was losing the will to live.
    ‘Mind if I pop upstairs to put my feet up for a bit, love?’ Sally’s inevitable request came as it always did, early on in the shift. Then a bit later on she would wander down, and say, ‘You’re all OK for locking up, aren’t you, love?’ before disappearing again to leave Lauren cashing up alone.
    Lauren’s mother was always telling her to stand up for herself, but jobs for single mums didn’t come easy in Heartsease and she couldn’t afford to give it up, much as she frequently felt like telling Sally to stick her job.
    Bored, she half-heartedly let her eyes settle on the TV screen in the corner, which was tuned in to Sky Sport, and began to clean the bar surface down.
    Phil Machin, one of the regulars, walked up to the bar. ‘Barrel’s gone, love,’ he said smiling cheerfully. So off she went down to the cellars to change it.
    When she came back, she spotted a missed call on her phone, which she’d left at the bar. It wasn’t a number she recognized. Odd. She wondered who it could be. It was probably a wrong number.
    Around 9.30 the place started to fill up a bit. The lads from the cricket club were on a pub crawl, so it was nearly 11 p.m. before she spotted another two missed calls. Who on earth could be trying to contact her?
    As it had got busy, Sally and her equally lazy partner, Andy, had made their way downstairs, and Lauren was relieved that for once they let her go at just after 11. At least she’d be on time for her mum.
    As she walked back up the road home, the phone rang again.
    ‘Who is this?’ she said.
    ‘Lauren? Is that you?’
    Oh my God. Lauren stood stock still, her heart hammering wildly in her chest, as she heard a voice she hadn’t heard in a very very long time. ‘Troy?’ she said incredulously.

Chapter Six
    Lauren pushed Sam up the road on her way back from the school run. It was nearly half term, the weather had turned from bright autumn golden days, to a wet, windy drizzle which was doing little to lift her spirits. She was