Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

bit more than your dad was getting at the furniture factory.’
She was looking up at him like he was some kind of all-conquering hero. Her
face, when she turned to me, told me I should do the same. It could contain a
million messages, my mother’s face, and this one told me Dad should be allowed
his moment.
‘That’s great, Dad. Really.’ I stepped forward and gave him a hug.
‘Well, it’s really Will you should thank. What a smashing bloke. I’m just
bloody grateful that he thought of me.’
I listened to them leave the house, the sound of Mum fussing in the hall mirror,
Dad’s repeated reassurances that she looked lovely, that she was just fine as she
was. I heard him patting his pockets for keys, wallet, loose change, followed by
a brief burst of laughter. And then the door slammed, I heard the hum of the car
pulling away and then there was just the distant sound of the television in
Granddad’s room. I sat on the stairs. And then I pulled out my phone and rang
Will’s number.
It took him a while to answer. I pictured him heading to the hands-free device,
depressing the button with his thumb.
‘Hello?’
‘Is this your doing?’
There was a brief pause. ‘Is that you, Clark?’
‘Did you get my dad a job?’
He sounded a little breathless. I wondered, absently, whether he was sitting up
okay.
‘I thought you’d be pleased.’
‘I am pleased. It’s just … I don’t know. I feel weird.’
‘You shouldn’t do. Your dad needed a job. Mine needed a skilled maintenance
man.’
‘Really?’ I couldn’t keep the scepticism from my voice.
‘What?’
‘This has nothing to do with what you asked me the other day? About him and
the other woman?’
There was a long pause. I could see him there, in his living room, looking out
through the French windows.