Trying Not To Love You

Part Three

Part Three

Martha was still in shock, she'd pulled the huge vehicle past the farmhouse and into the yard with relief. Never more glad to park a vehicle. The trauma of the hospital visit, of actually seeing her father was compounded by the physical challenge of driving the least responsive vehicle in the world home. The last thing she expected to see as she finally parked up, was the door at the far end of the coach house to open, and for 'him' to step out, the man she'd seen in the pub the previous night. For a moment she tried to fathom why he was in her home, and as the penny dropped that this was the lodger Aunt Lucy was talking about, he was followed out into the morning sun by the same disruptive blonde he was with the previous night. She looked terrible, her hair a mess, her heels ridiculous on the cobbles of the yard, and her 'last night's' dress making the walk of shame complete. Then like the previous night she wrapped herself around him and proceeded to eat his face.

He stood there, accepting her ardour, much as he had the previous night, taking but not reciprocating, and it was ugly, but she couldn't drag her eyes away, and when the two moved slightly, she met those eyes again, over the blonde's shoulder, wide open and almost goading her as they STILL kissed obscenely. And she almost stumbled.

She didn't know what had stunned her the most, the fact that HE was the infamous lodger, that he had brought that girl home to her father's farm, or that he had waved at her so arrogantly as she got out of the vehicle. Not that she had much time to think about him, the nameless man; she had to get to grips with things before she went back to the hospital. There was a time and place to deal with all that. And deal with him she would.

The restaurant office was chaos, though there was a computer there, it didn't seem to have much on it. She did find a huge file of bills, invoices and hand written accounts and the phone numbers for her father's accountant and lawyer, so she spent most of the morning up to her eyes in figures, dates and orders, a phone wrapped around her head.

"So glad..." it was a slur, but Martha knew what her father meant, he was pleased that she'd come home, and the fact that he was talking to her, well that was so special. She tried to blink away the tears, but when one escaped and coursed down her cheek he moaned sorrowfully.

She reached out and stroked his hair, "I love you Dad." Carl Sullivan's eyes glittered at that, but a reply was clearly too much for him, so she carried on, "I'm on the case with the restaurant." She explained all that had happened that day. "I'll keep everything going, but you keep thinking if there's anything I need to know, ok? I found your journals, so I've got some records, though I'm still trying to work things out. The horses I'm struggling with...way out of the comfort zone of a shop manager. Fortunately I'm good with the numbers."

Her father's eyes widened, but she merely patted his hand, "I'll sort it. Don't worry, just get well. Okay?"

Nodding, he closed his eyes.

"You tired?" He nodded again, eyes still closed. "Ok, I'll leave you for now; I'll be back in the morning. I'll call tonight, see if you need anything, the nurses can let me know," she added quickly.

She drove home through a veil of tears, could things get any worse?

As Martha pulled into the track that led to the farm she spotted one of her father's prize mares loose in her path.

"Shit!" She screeched to a halt, as much as a half tonne chunk of junk could screech. "What the fuck?"

Jumping out of the vehicle, she moved slowly towards the nervous animal. She had no way of restraining her, and no way of leading her out of danger, so she had to rely on her tact! As she backed the animal towards the yard, she glanced alongside the building to the damaged fence on one side of the paddock. The empty paddock.