AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 4
‘Daddy, I’m busy. I don’t want to go now.’
Nate and Lili turned to look at William, who was listening in on his dad’s conversations. Lili eyed Maisie. She was the same; always attuned to what was going on with the adults in her life. There was a reason for that. Lili understood. She knew that when a childhood wasn’t straightforward, when a child suffered a loss, like William, or grew up feeling responsible for their parent, acting more like an adult than the adults in their life – as in Maisie’s case – then they would always have one eye on what was going on. Lili sighed. They were children. They should be living in the moment, not worrying about what was going to happen next.
Nate looked over at his son. ‘I was thinking of just Lili and I popping out. Would that be okay with you?’
William shrugged his shoulders. ‘I want to stay here and finish my necklace.’
Nate smiled.
‘What about Maisie?’ Lili whispered. She couldn’t impose on—
‘Mum, do you mind …?’ Nate asked Sarah.
Sarah looked at her watch. ‘When I’m finished here, I’ve got a date.’
‘Oh.’
Ray swivelled on his stool to face her. ‘What did you just say?’
Marjorie and Mabel exchanged a glance, stopped what they were doing and stared at Sarah.
‘I said, I’ve got a date.’
‘What do you mean – you’ve got a date? With whom?’
Sarah raised her eyebrows at him and motioned at the children, not wanting to start an argument in front of them. ‘That’s none of your beeswax.’
William looked at his grandad. ‘It’s none of your beeswax, Grandpa.’
Maisie giggled. ‘What’s beeswax?’
William shrugged and continued threading his necklace with beads.
Nate glanced at his dad. ‘Dad, have you got anything planned later this afternoon?’
‘No, I’m free.’ He looked at Maisie and William. ‘How would you like to see my houseboat?’
‘Yippee!’ William turned to Maisie. ‘I can show you Grandpa’s houseboat. It issocool.’
Lili couldn’t help smiling. Wasn’t that Maisie’s catchphrase? Everything was so cool since she’d arrived on holiday. It had clearly rubbed off on William.
Sarah rolled her eyes. ‘No war movies, Ray.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
Sarah eyed him for a moment until he turned away. He knew very well what she meant. She remembered the episode when she had been in The Potting Shed and had caught William going off with his grandpa for the afternoon. He had looked so happy. She’d wondered what Ray was intending to do that had got his grandson so excited. During the holidays, she’d spent a lot of time planning days out so that her grandson would have some cultural experiences at the theatre and museum visits, as well as activities like swimming and exercise out in the fresh air in the park or at the beach.
She had not been amused to discover that William had spent his time with his grandpa sitting around an enormous flat screen TV on Ray’s houseboat, scoffing popcorn and watching old black and white Second World War B-movies. Worse still was that William had enjoyed it as much as his lazy grandpa had.
‘That’s settled, then,’ said Nate, smiling.
‘So, when are you picking me up?’
He checked his watch. ‘Er, now.’
‘Now?’ Lili had assumed he was intending to take her out for a meal that evening. ‘As in – right now?’
