When Love Knocks Twice (A Contemporary Love Story) Read online

  “ Oh. Are you going to take up the offer?”

  “ Well, that's the thing. We already have. But the four of us have been discussing it and we'd like you to come with us.”

  Tom didn't respond at first, staring into the middle distance in an unfocussed sort of way. John was finding it difficult to work out what was going through his father's head and was about to break the silence when Tom spoke out.

  “ No,” he said emphatically. “I've got a better idea.”

  But he had no chance to explain what his better idea was because the phone rang. He reached out instinctively and picked it up, reciting the phone number in greeting.

  “ Is that Tom?” came a distant and slightly tentative voice.

  “ Yes it is,” he replied.

  “ Tom, it's Emily.”

  Gail still felt like hitting everything. Everything she did she carried out with more force than was necessary as if she wanted to take out her frustration on any inanimate object that got in her way. She had made some bread that didn't turn out quite right because she had enjoyed kneading it so much. The cushions on the settees had never been so well pummelled in their lives. The hoover had beaten the carpets until the dust cried mercy.

  And still she didn't feel any better. Oh, get over it woman, she chastised herself. Life sucks. Live with it.

  Somewhere around mid-afternoon the phone rang and as it was within reach, she picked it up.

  “ Hello?”

  “ Hello, Gail?” came Tom's voice.

  Gail paused while she tried to stay calm.

  “ Tom, how nice to hear your voice. Did you have a good journey home?” She thought she was doing a good job of nonchalant, whilst aware that her voice could crack given the slightest encouragement.

  “ No, I didn't. I had a terrible journey.”

  “ I'm sorry to hear that, but you got home safely?”

  “ Yes, but the problem was, all the time, I was going in the wrong direction, and when I got home I didn't want to be there.”

  “ Tom..” interjected Gail, but Tom went on.

  “ You see I can't breathe without oxygen, and at the moment you are my oxygen, and I'm not sure that I can survive without you.”

  Gail took an involuntary breath that was in danger of turning into a sob. “Tom, I'm not sure this is a good idea. You're five hundred miles way, and we talked about this.”

  “ I know,” replied Tom, after which there was a long silence.

  During the silence, in the phone's background Gail heard a motorcycle go passed, at the same moment one went passed her house. A thought flicked through her brain. She moved swiftly through to the hall, throwing open the front door, to find Tom standing on the drive with his mobile to his ear.

  “ It's no good,” he called, “Five hundred miles isn't an excuse any more.”

  She couldn't help herself. She flung herself at him unceremoniously and clung to him, something he reciprocated with equal fervour.

  “ Oh, we have got to find a way to make this work,” she pleaded in a voice muffled by his coat.

  He raised her face to his. “We do. And we will,” he reassured her.

  Finally

  Gail stood in the kitchen doorway, leaning on one stick, steadying herself against the door-jamb, and watched the people milling around her kitchen. They were all together for the first time in ten years, the four children, ten grand-children, and two great-grandchildren. They had all arrived that morning as part of their silver wedding celebration.

  She watched Tom sitting at the kitchen table and helping his great-grandson with his Lego model. Her mind went straight back to that day twenty-five years before, when Tom had come to dinner and changed their lives forever.

  She felt a hand on her shoulder and Emily drew alongside her, an arm around her shoulder. She was watching her mother eyeing Tom.

  “ You picked a winner there, Mum,” declared Emily, and then continued. “And I reckon he picked a winner too.”

  Gail glanced up at her. “Thank you dear. You know, I think we did. I forgive you for phoning Tom without telling me.”

  “ What are daughters for?”

  At that point Tom looked up and noticed Gail watching

  him, and returned her smile. His smile was a little lopsided since his mild stroke two years ago, shortly after his eighty fourth birthday. She was growing to love that smile.

  He still took his walk every morning to the newsagents to get the morning paper, tackling the crossword over breakfast. She had recently had to abandon joining him on his walk as her arthritis was becoming too painful.

  Why did I deserve two such wonderful marriages, she thought? I must have done something right.

  When Tom had returned to her on that day twenty five years ago, they had determined to make it work and later that evening, over the kitchen table, he had proposed. She hesitated only long enough in her mind to thank Gordon for their wonderful life together, before accepting this proposal for a new life.

  She and Tom were married a month later. Tom's sons had insisted that if Tom wanted to move in with Gail then that was fine by them. They did not want to get in the way of their father's happiness.

  So Tom did. And life had been good. He and Gail spent a lot of time travelling up and down the motorway, because Gail had been adamant that Tom's children and grand children should not suffer as a result of his moving north. But as soon as the grandchildren were old enough to travel by train on their own, there had been many a happy school holidays with their grandparents, working in the garden, building dens and myriad other activities designed to amuse.

  They'd been back to Skye several times, visiting their old haunts, laughing about that first holiday.

  Gail's reverie was broken as she realised that Tom was by her side.

  “ Hi you,” he murmured.

  “ Hi yourself.”

  “ Good time?”

  “ Excellent time.”

  “ What were you thinking?” he inquired.

  “ I was wondering how we managed to have such a wonderful time these past twenty five years.”

  “ Hard work and determination,” he posed, a twinkle in his eye.

  She hit him on the ankle with her stick. “Fool.”

  It had been a very good twenty five years. Their instincts had been right, even after a week. They had fit together like a pair of old slippers. There had been much laughter, and there had also been tears, but there had always been contentment. They had had their health scares as they had got older, but now even at eighty six, they were still capable, determined, and doggedly independent. Tom's stroke had had no lasting impact other then the slight droop on one side of his face, and his only other impediments were hearing aids that had a tendency to whistle when he was hugged.

  “ How are the joints holding up?” asked Tom.

  “ My body reflects the fact that it is eighty six years old, but the rest of me is still no more than sixty, or on a good day I'm still twenty one,” she replied. “In my mind I can still skip and jump.”

  “ Do you ever wonder where we would be if I hadn't decided to wander into the church that day?”

  “ Or if I hadn't been on the flower rota.”

  “ It doesn't bear thinking about really.”

  “ We have been so very lucky haven't we?” suggested Gail. “We've both had two wonderful marriages. It's like we've been given two lives instead of one.”

  “ And it's not over yet,” declared Tom emphatically.

  “ No,” agreed Gail, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. “It's not over yet. Thank goodness. Happy anniversary my darling.”

 

 

 
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