‘What was that?’ Lewis asked.
Zack put his phone down. ‘The pain zone. It moves around Miranda’s body on a daily basis. You never know where it’s going to be from day to day, although her head is the most common spot, especially at bedtime.’
‘My husband,’ Miranda said. ‘So caring.’
‘She sees her many doctors more than she sees me.’
‘Whose fault is that, darling? You’re always at work. You definitely spend more time with my dad than with me.’
Zack got up and poured himself a glass of wine. ‘I told you. We’re at a very important stage right now.’
‘Oh yes?’ Lewis said. ‘Working on something new, are you? Something exciting you’d like to tell everyone about?’
‘Extremely exciting. It’s going to transform all our fortunes.’
He didn’t say what it was, though, and the two men locked eyes for a moment. Yet another interaction charged with some history I didn’t quite understand, though I presumed it was related to Lewis’s unhappy spell at Gravitas.
‘My shoulders ache, too,’ Miranda said. ‘It’s the tension. I’m all knots. And you can’t even get a massage in this godforsaken place.’
‘May I remind you that it’s you who insists we come here every year.’ That was Holly, who had joined us in the kitchen.
‘I made a promise to Mum, remember? To keep this family together.’
‘We both did.’
Miranda ignored that. ‘And now…’ She pinched the bridge of her nose. It looked like the ‘pain zone’ had spread to her head. ‘An interloper is coming in.’
For a moment, I thought she meant me. Lewis noticed my flicker of consternation and nudged me. ‘Not you, Pat.You’re just Holly’s new plaything. She’s talking about our new stepmummy.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘A younger stepmother. It’s given a whole new dimension to my internet searches.’
‘You’re so disgusting,’ Miranda said, while Lewis guffawed. Zack had gone back to his phone, but he was smirking.
‘Shall we finish what we started earlier?’ Holly said when we were alone in the bedroom.
A couple of hours had passed since the conversation in the kitchen. We’d all gone to the living room– except Zack, who said he had work to do– and I had tried not to doze off in front of the fire while the siblings caught up. The living room contained a single bookcase, a couple of huge sofas and, on a table in the corner, an iMac that looked at least a decade old. The siblings started speculating about Jasmine until Lewis asked if they could change the subject and they gossiped about some family friends instead. Holly made me feel included, sitting close to me and involving me in the conversation, explaining about her Uncle Martin and Aunt Janet’s open marriage and how Avo-Carlo had got his nickname: he was an old schoolfriend of Lewis’s who had encountered his first avocado at their house and hadn’t realized you weren’t supposed to eat the skin.
‘He sat there pretending it was delicious,’ Holly explained, almost weeping with laughter at the memory.
Watching them interact, I had wondered how they would act around Charles when he arrived the next day. Would their roles shift when their dad was around?
I stopped thinking about the Grants as Holly, hair damp from the shower, let her robe fall to the carpet. I caught my breath, watching her approach the bed, the lamplight glinting off her belly button piercing. She tasted of toothpaste andher breathing quickened as she kissed me and tugged at the T-shirt I was wearing.
I pulled it over my head and kissed her again, and she reached down for me.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked, finding that I wasn’t ready.
I whispered my reply. ‘Your sister and Zack are in the next room.’
‘Don’t think about that.’
We kissed some more. Her skin was soft and her hands were warm, but I couldn’t get it out of my head: Miranda and Zack could be listening to us. Holly kissed my chest and moved to slip beneath the covers, trailing kisses downwards, but I stopped her and said, ‘Let me.’
I ducked beneath the duvet. Over the last nine months I had learned what she liked. How she liked it. She’d told me. Light circles at first, then a little faster, using my fingers, too, my other hand snaking up to her breasts, her fluttering stomach.
‘Oh God!’ A pause. ‘Don’t stop.’
‘That was really loud,’ I said.
‘It wasn’t. Please, keep going.’
