He’d assumed, once they’d had a chance to think about it, that Karen and Dave would put the property on the market. Orcombe’s location made it a prime destination for eager weekend commuters looking to escape city life. However, they’d settled for a quick, easy sale instead and, thanks to the miracle of two solicitors who had heeded their clients’ instructions about concluding the deal swiftly, they were in the final stages of exchanging. His investments had been cashed in for the deposit and he was the sole holder of an eye-watering mortgage. The monthly payments were less than his current rent, so it wasn’t like he’d overextended himself. It was just the overall figure that made his knees a bit wobbly.
It had been too good an opportunity to pass up and, if he changed his mind, he could do the place up and put it back on the market. ‘If I get some time alone with him, I will.’
Luke leaned forward to rest his arms on the table. ‘So, you can tell me to mind my own business, but how are you going to afford two places? The rent on my flat is sucking my will to live, along with the bulk of my salary.’
‘I’m giving up the flat.’ Saying it out loud, acknowledging the truth of what he’d been doing over the past few weeks, sent his stomach roiling. It wasn’t only his flat he’d given notice on.
His brother sat back in his seat. ‘You can’t be thinking of commuting from Orcombe every day.’ Aaron stayed silent, watching the thought process play out on Luke’s face. There was a reason he was crap at poker. ‘Oh.’ Luke glanced out of the window and back again. Red splotches sat high on his cheekbones and, when he spoke, there was a thread of anger in his tone. ‘So, when were you going to tell me?’
‘Come on, Spud, don’t be like that. I’ve barely got to grips with this myself.’ Aaron shrugged his shoulders, not liking the guilt weighing on them. Luke was a grown man, they had their own lives. He tugged at the collar of his shirt. ‘Is it me, or is it hot in here?’
Luke had chosen to study and then live in London in direct opposition to his mother’s wishes. There’d been tears and recriminations for weeks and his brother had faced it all with remarkable stoicism. He was the only person immune to Cathy’s attempts at manipulation, and the only one she would forgive anything. And, in his heart, Aaron knew Luke had chosen London to be near him, an open declaration of support and an enormous eff you to his mother. He owed him better than this. ‘I didn’t plan for this to happen, but the cottage was too good an opportunity to pass up, and I’ve been feeling out of sorts for a while.’
His brother scrubbed his face with his hands, like he was trying to erase the anger bubbling. ‘What will you do for work?’
Aaron shrugged. ‘I’ll try and increase my freelance stuff, take a financial advisor’s course to expand my range. It’s a prime area for older people and those looking to retire, and with all the changes the government’s been making to pensions, there’s a market for it. I might even look at mortgage brokering in time. If going independent doesn’t pan out, then I’ll look for an accountancy firm in the area.’ That was his least-preferred choice, but at least his qualifications were transferable to anywhere in the country. Coming home to his own place, setting down some roots and becoming part of a community would be worth almost any price.
Luke chewed his bottom lip as he stared into the middle distance. His thinking-face their dad called it. Aaron grinned as a memory drifted up of Luke sitting at the kitchen table, the exact same expression screwing up his little features, legs swinging back and forth as he tried to puzzle his way through his maths homework. He’d sit there for hours before asking for help, stubborn little sod. A fierce rush of love and pride flooded him. ‘You could do it, too, you know.’ His soft words startled Luke’s vacant stare back into focus.
‘Do what? Have some kind of emotional breakdown and chuck everything I’ve worked for away?’
Aaron laughed. ‘Nah, leave that to Daniel.’ He reached out to cover Luke’s hand with his own, holding his gaze as he let the smile fall from his lips. ‘I’m serious. I’ve never known anyone who works harder than you when you set your mind to it. Think about how much fun we’ve had down at Butterfly Cove. Your designs for the studios are brilliant.’
Luke snorted. ‘I can’t just open my own firm of architects, I don’t have the experience, or the finances, to do it.’
‘So do something different, expand your options same as I’m doing. Project management, design jobs for small tradesmen like Jordy and his dad. Lots of little things to keep busy and build a client base.’
Luke shook his head. ‘This is your adventure, Aaron, not mine. I can’t live in your shadow for ever.’
Is that what he thought he’d been doing? ‘Then don’t. Take your place beside me where you belong.’ His mind raced a mile a minute, building on the possibilities. His voice rose in excitement. ‘Imagine it – Spenser Brothers Limited. You and me against the world, Spud!’
Luke shook his head again, but he couldn’t stop the broad grin lifting the corners of his mouth. ‘You’re off your head.’
‘Probably. You in?’
‘Why the hell not?’
***
Aaron paced the kitchen, checked his watch again and sighed. He hated being late, to the point of irritating friends and acquaintances with his need for punctuality. Those who knew him well often gave him a later meeting time so he didn’t arrive miles before anyone else. Laughter carried from the living room where his dad and Luke were watching a sitcom while they waited. The mistress of the grand entrance, Cathy would be at least another ten minutes. Needing to do something, he grabbed a couple of bottles of beer from the fridge and went to join the others.
Luke took the offered beer, then leant to one side to see the screen when Aaron didn’t move quickly enough. Knowing his reputation as an annoying big brother depended upon it, Aaron stood his ground, taking his time to pop the lids off the remaining two beers and handing the spare to his dad.
‘Shift your arse!’ Luke kicked him none too gently in the shin.
Aaron stayed put. ‘It’s not like you haven’t seen it before.’
‘That’s not the point.’
He bit the inside of his cheek so as not to laugh. They’d slipped into the same banter routine they’d been throwing at each other for the past twenty-odd years. ‘Then what is the point?’
‘Daaad!’ Luke whined, sending them both into gales of laughter.
‘How old are you two?’ Brian Spenser made a fair attempt at his best stern-dad voice before giving up and taking a mouthful of his beer. ‘Sit down, Bumble, you’re making the place look untidy.’ Aaron’s grandmother had knitted him a black-and-yellow-striped jumper when he was a baby. Mum had said it made him look like a bumblebee, and the name had stuck. He was years past such a childish nickname, but he and his dad both clung to it. A shared connection to his mum, of which they had precious few.
Aaron plonked himself down on the sofa next to Luke, still grinning. The silly moment had loosened the tension from his shoulders and he relaxed deeper into the cushion behind him. Cathy was as Cathy did and it was stupid to get wound up over something he would excuse in any of his friends.
An advert break interrupted the sitcom, and his dad got up and crossed the room to lean out into the hallway. ‘Come on, darling. The table was booked for five minutes ago,’ he called up the stairs. The local
