Free Full House [Quick Read] by Maeve Binchy

business about having to do some work in London, you put your job at risk and came over to see me.’
    Ronan still wasn’t sure. She was smiling and had tears in her eyes but that could mean anything.
    ‘So this means …?’ He stopped and waited.
    ‘It means I’m coming home, Ronan.’
     
    Anthony was not a fusspot, he said, but really and truly the lads’ place was filthy. The bath had a black ring around it, and the kitchen was filled with the empty or nearly empty containers of takeaway food. If they missed bin night, which happened regularly, it meant that this rubbish could hang around for two weeks.
    Anthony found himself filling black bags every Tuesday just to keep the place from becoming a fever pit. They were a great bunch of guys and there was music day and night. But there was also a lot of smoking, a lot of drinking and very late nights.
    He remembered the clean kitchen back home in St Jarlath’s Crescent. When they had that lunch there with the roast lamb and things, it had all seemed like a high-class restaurant compared to where he was living now. And he was completely broke from buying food and drink. Amazingly, all the other lads had paid something at home. He never had. Maybe that’s why Mam had thrown them out.
    He had a job two nights a week, collecting glasses in a pub. Not real money, but enough to pay something, if that’s what it was all about.
    He needed to get his head clear.
    It was hard to do with the fumes coming from the kitchen.
     
    Helen found her party frock, and left a note for Mam on the kitchen table, thanking her again for the lovely Sunday lunch. Then she went and bought a bottle of champagne to take back to Maud and Marco’s.
    As soon as she opened the door, she told them that she wanted to celebrate the fact that she wasn’t bankrupt and to ask them what they considered a fair rent for her stay. She didn’t get to the end of her sentence as they cried they had something to celebrate too. Maud’s twin brother Simon had come back for a visit.
    And there he was, the boy she remembered from years back, but not serious and tense as he used to be. He was relaxed and tanned and … well … glorious.
    ‘Hello, Simon,’ she said, feeling that any minute she might faint.
    ‘Helen, you look terrific,’ he said, smiling at her.
    Maud and Marco looked at each other in surprise.
    It had actually happened. Simon had at last met a girl he was interested in. Even though it was their troubled, tight-fisted tenant, she was a girl …

Chapter Nine
     
    Then everything began to move very quickly indeed.
    Dee told Josie that it was like when they turned on fast forward in a video. People were running in and out of the house all the time. It was impossible to keep up.
    Ronan came back from London with a great smile on his face and began to collect Rosie’s clothes from the rail in the back room. Dee watched while he lovingly packed Rosie’s shoes in boxes and her handbags into clear plastic bags. He asked Dee for lessons in ironing and watched gravely as she showed him how to position the collars.
    ‘There’s more to it than I thought,’ he said.
    Dee actually felt that there was less to it than anyone thought, but wisely said nothing.
    Ronan also asked her how to make a good casserole. ‘I want to spend quality time with Rosie in the kitchen,’ he said.
    Again, Dee wondered why on earth he should want this, but patiently showed him how to make a few simple dishes. He was as grateful as if he had been given the deeds of a house.
    Anthony asked her advice about clearing up a very dirty flat. Dee offered to go and help him on the premises, but he said no, if she did that once they would expect it all the time. So she listed some detergents and disinfectants as well as cleaning materials. She suggested that he get a few big buckets and line them with black bags and that he make a list of who did what.
    ‘They wouldn’t take any notice, Mam.’
    ‘Then you could live with different