Where Memories Are Made Read Free Page A

helping me to pick up my life again so I agreed to go out for a pint. But I couldn’t face the memories the local held of my wife and the many good times I’d had with her there, so instead I opted to go to another pub nearby. Had I known what that decision would cost me, I would never have gone.’ He added ruefully, ‘I met Mavis there that night.’
    Drina smiled affectionately at him. Artie was well padded and ordinary-looking, but to her he was the most handsome man she had ever seen. She leaned forward and tenderly stroked his hand. ‘Yes, well, my dear, there is another way of looking at it. If you hadn’t met Mavis that night then you wouldn’t have arrived here in search of Rhonnie after Mavis had driven her out of her own home – and then you and I would never have met and been living happily together now. So, for you, Mavis was in fact a blessing in disguise! I know
I’ve
a lot to thank her for. I never thought I would know what it feels like to be loved and cherished, but since you’ve been in my life every moment is a joy to me. When Joe was alive things were very different.’
    Artie looked at her in surprise. ‘I’ve never looked at it like that. I really do have a lot to thank Mavis for, don’t I? So what’s the plan for getting Rhonnie away from here? Only God knows how we do, considering that we’ve already tried everything we can think of to get her up and dressed, let alone out of the house.’
    Drina gave a secretive smile as she pushed back her chair and got up, saying, ‘I’ll make us a cup of tea and then I’ll tell you what we’ll do.’
    The small kitchen in the two-bedroomed white-washed cottage Drina now lived in with Artie was a far cry from the four-bedroomed, lavishly furnished Victorian villa in its acre of grounds that she had lived in with Joe. This was definitely not the sort of dwelling where people would expect the owner of a thriving business to live, but Drina didn’t care what others thought – she wouldn’t swap her little cottage for the world. Unlike her last husband, Artie adored Drina for herself … not her money.
    She had met him when he’d arrived at the camp in a terrible state, in search of his daughter Rhonnie. Mavis, the woman who had taken the place of his dead wife Hilda, had totally fooled Artie, playing the part of the loving, dutiful wife while he slaved away as a long-distance lorry driver in order to keep a roof over her and his step-daughter’s head. Rhonnie had known what Mavis was doing but had been unable to break her father’s heart by telling him so had left home in disgust. Then Artie had discovered that Mavis was deceiving him with other men while he was away working, and had arrived at the camp in search of his daughter, a broken man. Dan had given him a temporary job on his maintenance team while he recovered from his ordeal, which was made permanent when he decided to stay on.
    What had started out as a friendship between Drina and Artie had developed into deep love, which would have remained unrequited on both sides had Joe not died. After her husband’s death, though, having been deprived of love for so long, Drina hadn’t wanted to risk losing this chance of happiness. Not caring what others thought of her, she did nothing to hide how much Artie meant to her, and he’d been only too happy to go along with her wishes, barely able to believe that after his recent disappointment with Mavis, this wonderful woman was his.
    Drina was astute enough to know that once Artie was legally free from his marriage to Mavis, he would not necessarily ask Drina herself to marry him. He would consider it a comedown for the widow of a successful businessman to attach herself to an odd job man. But Artie’s love for her had boosted Drina’s low self-esteem, and her newfound self-confidence gave her the courage to tackle him about the situation.