“His mate Ned’s invited him to his parents’ caravan in Blackpool for a couple of weeks. Plus, one of us will need to go with Johnny to the hospital, to see what they say,” he said.

“Hmm, you’re right.”

“Plus, cleaning Essie’s place is hardly a matter of life or death,” Jake added.

Liv shot him a glare. Her tiredness after traveling had taken its hold. She set her cream jar down on her bedside table with a thud. “I told you I’m helping with her writing. What if that’s a matter of life and death?”

He eyed her for a while. “What do you mean?”

A compulsion swelled inside her, making her want to spill everything that had been going on in her life. She tried hard to swallow it back. When she was with Jake, she felt like she was on a boat with no paddles being swept farther and farther out to sea. Sharks were beginning to circle. Meanwhile Jake was on the shore not even noticing she was drifting away.

At this moment in time, Liv wished she could reveal how Essie had entrusted her with a huge last wish, and how she was delivering it and thriving. Yet she couldn’t say a thing, or else she’d risk losing her inheritance.

“Nothing,” she muttered. “I’ll take Johnny for his appointments.”

“Good. Thank you.” He squeezed her leg. “Perhaps he can go to Essie’s place with you some days. Give you both some company.”

Liv thought about trying to write while her teenage son lounged around on the cream leather sofa. “Can’t he go into Paperpress with you and help out?”

“He’s not much use with one arm.”

Johnny called through from his room. “I can hear everything. Go to sleep.”

Liv lay down and roughly pulled the covers around her, already missing the fine Egyptian cotton. She thought about how Ted had tried to shape Essie to fit his ideal version of a wife and a writer, and how Sven had wanted her to keep producing the same work over and over. She understood the author a little more with each day that passed, and wanted to keep peeling back the layers of her life.

Jake’s hand crept to her shoulder, making a small circle with his finger. Liv froze before shrugging it away. “I’m really tired.”

His hand thumped onto the mattress. “Okay. Night.”

As Liv settled down to sleep, she could still feel the glare of the sun on her neck and hear Euro disco thrumming in her ears. And she thought how much she preferred living Essie’s life to her own.

21

PAPER PLANES