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‘So you live here all alone? Just you?’
‘My other sister Sasha and my brother Rafi used to live here before they each got married, which was nice...’ Tak shrugged, but his voice held that soft note she’d heard once before at the ball. ‘But now it’s mainly just me and Hetti.’
And then the moment was gone and Tak was smiling down at Nell.
‘Anyway, what do you want to see next?’ Tak grinned down at Nell. ‘The cinema room, the pool, or the games den?’
There was no mistaking Nell’s expression of awe, even if it was smothered in as neutral an expression as a thirteen-year-old girl could muster.
‘What’s in the games den?’ Nell demanded with a grin of her own.
‘Pool table, football table, two-lane bowling alley, some arcade machines.’
Nell’s attempt at teenage blasé acceptance crumbled in an instant.
‘Of course there is! You could fit our flat into this place ten times over. At least. You’re so lucky, having a games room that you don’t have to share with anyone else. You must be, like, a gazillionaire!’
‘Nell!’
Instantly her daughter mumbled an apology, but Tak merely laughed.
‘It isn’t about that. My life is being a doctor—a surgeon. I don’t always get enough time off and when I do it might not be the most sociable hours. Sometimes it’s nice to have a place to come and wind down, even if it’s four in the morning.’
‘Chillax.’ Nell nodded sagely. ‘Mum could do with more of that.’
‘Mum doesn’t always have time for that,’ Effie interjected pointedly, wishing they would stop talking about her as though she wasn’t even there.
Not that it made much difference as she traipsed politely down a sweeping metal staircase and into a basement area. Tak swung open the door and both Nell and Effie were helpless to contain their shock.
It was like something out of those ‘millionaires’ cribs’ shows her daughter was addicted to watching. All coloured LED strip-lighting, white stone floors and lots and lots of man-toys.
Table games dominated one zone: a pool table and table football, air hockey and table tennis. Arcade machines dominated another, with racing motorbikes and basketball hoops. A two-lane bowling alley ran the length of one side, and a full-size snooker table stood proudly in a section of its own.
Nell turned abruptly to eye Effie. ‘I guess this is what you could have had if you’d just concentrated on your career and hadn’t had to raise a baby all by yourself.’
‘Not at all,’ Effie choked, emotions rushing at her so violently that it was all she could do not to take a step back, as though that might somehow ward them off.
‘The way she talks about you I can’t imagine that your mother would trade you for any of...this.’ Tak waved his hand around dismissively. ‘You’re the most important thing in her life—anyone can see that. And you must know that the only reason she’s come here is because she’s thinking about what’s best for you. She would have suffered that igloo you call home indefinitely if it had just been her!’
There was a beat, then Nell scuffed her canvas shoe against the pristine stone floor. But all Effie could do was stare at the back of the head of this man—this relative stranger—who she was pretty sure she’d just heard defending her.
She told herself it meant nothing.
Inside her chest a heavy drum tattoo suggested otherwise.
‘I know,’ Nell muttered eventually. ‘She’s always put me first.’
Tak’s smile was surprisingly soft. ‘She’s also your fiercest advocate.’
‘Yeah, I know that too. Even if she can be a bit of a walk-over in other areas.’
‘I am not a walk-over,’ Effie spluttered.
The pair ignored her, as though they were banding together to disprove her point without either of them saying a word.
It was the oddest sensation in the word. Nell and Tak, clicking together as if they’d known each other for years, not merely met on two brief occasions. Something swept through Effie and it took her a moment to realise it was regret tinged with perhaps a hint of guilt.
In trying to protect the two of them all these years—trying to do her best for her daughter—was it possible she had been wrong to deprive Nell of any male presence in her life? A role model if not a father figure?
