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“Thank you.” After a few steps I add, “It’s a hard job facing customers.”
“I guess.” She swallows and nods, and all I want to do is wrap her up in my arms. I was always a carer, and this young woman walking next to me up the field seems to need someone looking after her.
“You have to brush the woman’s comment off and raise your chin.”
“Dad, can I go on the swing?” Adam interrupts, having had enough of our slow walk. He wiggles free, causing more items to drop from my arms. Julie helps me pick the stuff up from the grass, before we continue up the path to the tent, my eyes drifting to Adam every few steps.
“Truth is, I don’t even know if the shower mats have been ordered. There’s just so much to do and there’s only Trevor and me.”
“Just the two of you?”
“Yeah… Both Mum and Dad, um…” She clears her throat. “Mum died of lung cancer a few years ago and Dad died spring of last year.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” The need to hold her is increasing, and not in a sexual way.
“So… um… Adam’s mama?”
I suck in a breath. It hasn’t got any easier to say, but I force the words past my lips. “I’m divorced.”
It’s a lie. We’re only separated. The divorce process is long and it’s only been five months since I moved out. But to both me and Alison, it’s final, so why use a temporary word when there’s no going back?
“Okay.” Julie’s shoulders straighten and she glances up at me. “Does Adam live with you or…?”
“He lives with Alison. I get him every second weekend. And on holidays.” Pain sears through me, and I instinctively search for his tiny body swishing through the air on the swing. I hate being away from my son. The weeks I don’t see him are torturous and lonely.
“You’re a good bit younger than your brother, aren’t you?” I say, desperate to change the topic.
“Oh, um yes, there’s ten years between us. I’m eighteen.”
“Eighteen?” She proves that she is just that with the giggle that flows in the air. That makes Trevor twenty-eight – two years younger than me. I force away the thought of her hulk of a brother. “Do you have a boyfriend, Julie?”
She looks down and tucks a dark lock of her hair behind her ear. “No,” she huffs.
“Why not? Pretty girl like you?” I nudge her with my elbow and a sweet blush covers her cheeks while she rolls her eyes.
“Boys my age are immature jerks.”
I bark out a laugh. That they are. “Are you still in school?”
“I’m starting at Queen’s in the autumn, media and marketing studies.” She beams.
“Really!”
“Yes, I feel bad about it though, leaving Trevor for Belfast.” The smile falls from her face. “But he insists that I go, follow my dream and not be bogged down with the farm. That’s why we opened the campsite, hoping it would generate enough money for him to hire someone part-time.”
“I see.” I wonder how that is working out for them. At twenty pounds a night for the sites with electric hook-up, you’d need a lot of tents to generate enough money to hire someone. I don’t say that, of course. “So you’ll be down in Belfast. On your own?”
“Julie!”
Julie sucks in a breath of air and takes a step away from me.
“Trevor, you shouldn’t sneak up on people like this,” she barks at her brother.
Where the hell did he appear from? And someone should tell him to increase his t-shirt size. XL is clearly too small.
“If you paid attention, you’d know there’s a car outside the reception.”
“Oh, shoot…” My gaze flicks from Trevor’s bulging muscles as Julie dumps my stuff in my arms. “I’ll see you later, Jamie.”
