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Julie ruffles his hair. “I’ll get some bed sheets.”
She disappears into the room at the opposite end of the corridor while Trevor points at the other doors – Julie’s room, the bathroom, his room, the guest room – where I’ll be sleeping. And his parents’ room, that his sister just slipped into.
“Julie wants me to move into their room, it has a private bathroom.” He hesitates, wanting to say more.
“But you feel bad doing it,” I complete for him.
“Yeah.”
By the time I’ve got Adam into dry sleep clothes, his teeth brushed and a last trip to the toilet, Julie has made the bed and found Wallie the teddy for Adam. Moo is drying in the bathroom. Seeing Adam safe in a normal bed is such a relief.
“Do you want me to read you a story?” Julie asks, and I’m surprised when he agrees. He’s really taken to both Julie and Trevor.
I kiss him goodnight and walk down to the living room where I find the older sibling.
“Thank you so much for this, I’m sorry for putting you out.”
“Don’t worry about it.” The side of Trevor’s mouth lifts and there’s heat in his eyes that I can’t explain. It’s not sexual. “Would you like a something strong to warm you up?”
“You’ve got some?”
“Can’t live on this part of the coast and not have a bottle of Bush stashed in the cupboard.”
Trevor fills whiskey into three glasses that he places on the coffee table, and I sink into one of the two sofas surrounding it. It’s the most comfortable seat I’ve sat in for days. He sits across from me, legs spread wide, in a large, worn, high-back leather chair. It’s old, could probably feature in one of those hidden treasure TV shows.
“What made you go camping?” Trevor asks, his head tilted to the side as he assesses me, the amber liquid twirling in his glass. He looks older than his twenty-eight years, definitively wiser.
I laugh mirthlessly and run my fingers through my hair. He’s seen me at my worst, so I decide to be honest.
“Money. Separating from my wife has not been good financially. She’s got the house as I didn’t want to uproot Adam, and paying for both the house and my apartment… well, bedsit is a better description… I’m not on a bad salary as an IT consultant, but it’s been tough. I thought a week or two camping would be a great idea to get us out of the city without the expense.”
“You don’t have family you could visit or stay with?”
“My parents and my three younger siblings live in Australia.”
“Really?” His eyebrows rise and I nod.
“Yep, my parents decided to follow their dream.”
“And you didn’t you go with them?”
“I was eighteen at the time, had just started university and had a serious girlfriend.” The corners of Trevor’s mouth twitch. “It was hard for my parents to leave me behind, but I insisted they couldn’t abandon their dream because of me.”
“It must have been difficult for you too.”
I laugh quietly, trying to repress the memory of the ache in my heart when they left, but I know Trevor’s perceptive eyes see through me. “I’ve often wondered if it was the right thing to do – it was horrible seeing them leave – but I was young and thought it was true love.”
“She was… your ex-wife?”
“Hell, no. There were many more girlfriends between her and Alison.”
“Girlfriends…”
Trevor’s gaze is intense as he takes a slow sip from the glass and I’m brutally reminded of what happened between us. I shift in my seat, watching how the pink tip of his tongue comes out to lick his bottom lip.
“The divorce must have been hard without them around.”
I blink a few times and clear my throat. “Yeah. They’ve asked if I want to move, but I could never leave Adam.”
