Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

Mrs Traynor had waited until Nathan was taking care of Will one lunchtime,
then asked me to accompany her to the big house. She sat me down in the living
room and asked me how I thought things were.
‘Well, we’re going out a lot more,’ I said.
She nodded, as if in agreement.
‘He talks more than he did.’
‘To you, perhaps.’ She gave a half-laugh that wasn’t really a laugh at all.
‘Have you mentioned going abroad to him?’
‘Not yet. I will. It’s just … you know what he’s like.’
‘I really don’t mind,’ she said, ‘if you want to go somewhere. I know we
probably weren’t the most enthusiastic advocates of your idea, but we’ve been
talking a lot, and we both agree …’
We sat there in silence. She had made me coffee in a cup and saucer. I took a
sip of it. It always made me feel about sixty, having a saucer balanced on my lap.
‘So – Will tells me he went to your house.’
‘Yes, it was my birthday. My parents were doing a special dinner.’
‘How was he?’
‘Good. Really good. He was really sweet with my mum.’ I couldn’t help but
smile when I thought back to it. ‘I mean, she’s a bit sad because my sister and
her son moved out. Mum misses them. I think he … he just wanted to take her
mind off it.’
Mrs Traynor looked surprised. ‘That was … thoughtful of him.’
‘My mum thought so.’
She stirred at her coffee. ‘I can’t remember the last time Will agreed to have
supper with us.’
She probed a little more. Never asking a direct question, of course – that
wasn’t her way. But I couldn’t give her the answers she wanted. Some days I
thought Will was happier – he went out with me without a fuss, he teased me,
prodded me mentally, seemed a little more engaged with the world outside the
annexe – but what did I really know? With Will I sensed a vast internal
hinterland, a world he wouldn’t give me even a glimpse of. These last couple of
weeks I’d had the uncomfortable feeling that hinterland was growing.
‘He seems a little happier,’ she said. It sounded almost as if she were trying to
reassure herself.