Never Letting Go

Chapter 21

"When did you get the pergola built?"

I accept the glass of orange juice my mum hands to me and wait for my dad to respond to my gran's question.

"Alvin built it for us during the week," my dad answers, his gaze moving over the dark wooden structure we're sitting under that's attached to the house. "A little thank you for the work I helped him with the week before at his house."

"You're not overdoing it again, are you?"

I look from my dad then to my gran. Her worry for her youngest child is something all parents seem to have when it comes to their children's health. She never wants it to be noticeable that she's slightly scared about her children but it's there. It can be heard in her words and seen in her eyes despite how hard she tries to hide it.

Despite being in her early seventies, she still looks like she could be in her fifties. She has a youthfulness that shocks most people when they hear of her actual age. You just have to look at my dad and you'd say the same thing about him even though he's in his early fifties. My dad's two older brothers are the same.

It's clearly something they've gotten from my gran rather than my grandpa.

"Work has been pretty light the past few weeks," my dad tells her.

"That's good," she smiles on an outtake of breath. "Very good."

She starts to eat her food but it doesn't take long before my grandpa is speaking up and almost starting an argument over my dad not working hard enough.

"Since when was taking things easy ever classed as work?" He pipes up. He's looking at my gran and waiting for her response but it doesn't come. She just continues to eat, taking no notice of her husband who keeps telling us of the amount of years he worked and how it was to give his family the things he wanted. "Do you think I took it easy for my sixty-plus years of working? I did not!"

"Walter, that's enough." Is all my gran tells him.

"I'm telling it how it is." He takes a bite of food then points his fork towards Declan who's sat across from me. "Declan, you still going to university in a couple of weeks?"

Declan looks up from his plate and blinks. "Yes."

"And what's the course you're going to study?"

"Mechanical Engineering at University of Surrey," Declan answers.

"Did you get the grades you needed?"

"I did."

"How long is it for?"

"About four years or so."

"Staying at home and travelling in?"

"Yes."

"And what about you, Chloe? How's your course going?"

I look at Chloe briefly before taking a sip of juice. It'll only be a matter of seconds before he's speaking to me and for all I can't tell him much about my job, I still know he'll grill me about it to a point.

"Going into my second year in a couple of weeks," Chloe answers.

"Are you enjoying it?"

"I am."

"Putting in the hard work?"

"Of course."

"And what about your work, Kaylee?"

And there it is.

"Busy as always," I tell him.

"Working your ass off?"