First Love, Last Love

He gave a rueful smile. ‘I don’t consider you a stranger either, Lauri.’

‘Sorry,’ she said huskily. ‘I didn’t mean it quite like that.’

‘I know,’ his hand covered hers as it rested on the table. ‘You’re very like your mother,’ he said huskily.

‘I am?’ She looked startled. ‘But I’m nothing like her, or any other member of my family, come to that.’

‘I didn’t mean in looks, that red-gold hair and green eyes is certainly unusual in your family, that’s why I—’ he drew a deep ragged breath. ‘Never mind that. I meant that you’re kind and gentle like your mother was.’

‘I never knew her that well,’ Lauri told him regretfully. ‘But I remember her as being beautiful.’

He nodded. ‘She was, very. Without her I don’t think I could have got through the first years after Beth’s accident.’

‘You mean my mother helped you?’

‘Yes, she helped me.’ He seemed to have withdrawn into his thoughts. ‘Sorry,’ he shook his head as if to clear his mind. ‘Bad memories,’ he shuddered.

‘Alex told me you lost your son in the accident,’ Lauri said gently. ‘That must have been awful for you.’

‘Yes, awful. Jamie was only five.’

‘Terrible to lose your child.’

‘Terrible,’ he echoed, that strange look back in his eyes. ‘Even worse to lose the woman you love.’

‘Alex said it happened six months ago.’

‘What?’ He looked startled.

‘Alex said your wife died six months ago,’ she explained.

‘Oh,’ he nodded. ‘Yes, that’s right.’

‘Hardly time for the pain of her death to have lessened,’ she sympathised.

‘I was very fond of my wife, Lauri, but—What was that?’ he asked sharply as a door slammed upstairs. His eyes narrowed. ‘Is Alex here?’

She blushed at the implication behind that question. ‘No, of course he isn’t! He doesn’t stay here. We don’t sleep together.’

‘I’m sorry, my dear,’ Laurence was instantly contrite. ‘It’s just that knowing my brother-in-law as I do … Well, he has a certain reputation.’

‘I know. But the person upstairs is Steve, my uncle.’

‘Ah yes, I know him. He must be in his mid-twenties by now?’

‘Yes. But I—I didn’t know the two of you knew each other.’

‘We don’t,’ Laurence smiled. ‘I met him once or twice, that’s all. I doubt he would remember me, he could only have been about seven or eight at the time.’

‘I suppose so.’

‘Have you lived in this house long?’ he asked interestedly. ‘I remember that the family lived on the other side of town when I knew them.’

Lauri frowned. ‘I can never remember living anywhere else, so I suppose we must have been here some time.’

‘Then it’s lucky I met you with Alex. I would never have been able to find you otherwise. And that would have been a great shame in the circumstances.’

‘Because you knew my mother,’ she nodded.