style="font-size:15px;"> ‘I turned him down.’
‘You turned him down?’ Ruth repeated, somewhat stunned.
‘Mum, he’s too rich. I would have been miserable.’
‘It wouldn’t have been an easy life,’ her mother said, feeling terribly sorry for her obviously heartbroken daughter. But she was proud of her too. Jess had a very sensible head on her shoulders. There weren’t many girls who could turn down a man like Ben.
‘Mum, I have to go to bed,’ Jess said, tears threatening once more.
‘You do that, darling. I’ll go tell your father that you’re home.’
‘What?’ was Joe’s first reaction. ‘She turned him down, did you say?’
‘Yes,’ Ruth said with a sigh.
‘Ben won’t take that lying down,’ Joe said. ‘He’ll come after her.’
‘Do you think so, Joe?’
‘You mark my words. That man’s crazy about our Jess. He’ll be on our doorstep in less than a week.’
But he wasn’t.
A week went by. Then two weeks. Then three.
Still no contact from Ben, either by phone, email or in person.
Joe couldn’t believe it. Ruth wasn’t quite so surprised. Maybe it was a case of out of sight, out of mind. Men, she believed, fell out of love more quickly than women.
On the following Sunday, Ruth did suggest Jess ring him, but this was vehemently rejected.
‘No, Mum, there’s no point. He’s not going to give up his lifestyle for me and I’m not going to give up mine for him. That’s the bottom line. So he’s being sensible, not contacting me. It would only delay the inevitable. And make it even harder for me to move on.’
‘But you’re not moving on,’ Ruth pointed out, frustrated. ‘You’re not even sewing any more!’
‘Give me time, Mum. It’s not even been a month.’
It had been, in fact, three weeks, four days and five hours since she’d last seen Ben, Jess thought bleakly. And even longer since she’d slept in his arms. Which she had the night before the funeral. It had been quite wonderful to have Ben make love to her, face to face, then to fall asleep with her head on his chest and her arms around him. She would remember the way that had felt for ever.
That Sunday night, Jess dreamt a futile dream where she and Ben got married somewhere overlooking a beach. An Australian beach. Shelley Beach, she recognised after she woke. It was an upsetting dream because that was only what it would ever be. A stupid dream! God, was she ever going to get over that man? Maybe she should have said yes and been miserable in New York, for this was just as bad, living life without him. Maybe worse!
She had to work in the office that day. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be a busy day for Murphy’s Hire Car with hardly any phone calls or bookings coming in. She had way too much time to twiddle her thumbs, drink endless cups of coffee and think depressing thoughts. By the time twelve o’clock came, Jess had had enough. She stood up from her desk, deciding that she needed distraction or she’d go stark, raving mad. She would go to the movies, find herself a silly comedy. Or an action flick. Putting on the answering machine, she made her way from the office over to the house where she found her mother in the kitchen, packing away the food shopping.
‘Mum, I think I’ll go to the movies this afternoon. Do you mind?’
‘Not at all. I’ll look after the office.’
‘Thanks, Mum.’
Ruth Murphy watched her daughter walk off slowly, thinking to herself that it would take Jess a long time to get over Ben. A small, selfish part of Ruth was glad that nothing had come of their relationship. She could not bear to think of her only daughter going off and living in America. At the same time, she could not bear to see her so unhappy.
Sighing, she finished putting away the shopping, made herself a sandwich and coffee, then toddled over to the office. After checking the answering machine—there’d been no calls—she ate her lunch, then picked up the book she kept there for reading when the office was slow. But she’d only finished a few pages when the phone rang.
‘Murphy’s Hire Car,’ she said brightly.
‘Hello, Ruth.’
Ruth sat up straight once she detected the American accent.
‘Is Jess there?’
‘No,’ she said, feeling both anxious and defensive at the same time. ‘Jess isn’t here at the moment. Are you calling from New York?’
‘No, Ruth. I’m parked just down the road from your place.’
Oh, dear Lord, he had come after her, like Joe had said.
‘I tried Jess’s phone several times but it’s turned off.’
‘She’s at the movies.’
‘At the movies?’ He sounded puzzled, as though he couldn’t imagine why she would be at the movies at this time of day.
‘She needed to get out of the house, Ben. She’s been very down since she came back from New York.’
‘Did she tell you what happened?’
‘Yes, she did. We’re a very close family. There are no secrets between us.’
‘I love your daughter, Ruth. And I mean to marry her.’
Ruth was taken aback by the fierce determination behind his words.
‘In that case, what took you so long to come after her?’ she couldn’t help throwing at him.
‘I needed time to change my life so that she would accept my proposal.’
‘What do you mean? How have you changed your life?’
‘I would rather discuss that with Jess, if you don’t mind. Though, there is something I’d like to ask her father first, if he’s here.’
‘Well, yes, he is. He’s working on one of the cars.’
‘I’ll be there shortly.’
When Ben hung up, Ruth just sat there in a total panic. Clearly, Ben meant to ask Joe for Jess’s hand in marriage. What else could it be? She should have warned Ben that he might not get so civil a reception from Joe. He was mad as a hatter with Ben. Alternatively, she could race down to the shed and warn Joe that Ben had come to win Jess over.
But she’d dithered too long, Ruth realised when she saw a white sedan speed past the office on its way to the shed.
Joe heard a car pull up outside, but he was underneath one of the limousines when the driver walked in, so all he saw was a clean pair of trainers and some
