AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘You?’ Dad says to Rocco. ‘You and her? She’s my daughter. She’s your sister.’
‘Oh, my God, can everyone please stop saying that we’re siblings when we absolutely are not,’ I insist. ‘You’re barely my dad, anyway. I never hear from you, never see you until you want something.’
‘I can’t believe you’re sleeping with my son,’ Gail says as she puts her head in her hands.
‘Slept,’ I correct her. ‘Singular.’
Unless you count the morning after the night before as a separate time, but it hardly seems worth making that distinction to my nearest and dearest over the remains of Christmas dinner.
‘It’s not serious then?’ my mum asks.
‘Absolutely not,’ I insist. ‘It was a mistake. Right?’
I look at Rocco. He hesitates for a moment.
‘I think we both very much had a different idea about what was going on,’ he eventually replies.
‘Have you been messing my daughter around?’ Dad asks Rocco.
‘It sounds more like your daughter has been leading my son astray,’ Gail insists. ‘He’s a good boy.’
‘Okay, enough,’ my mum snaps. She never snaps. ‘I think we all just need to cool off for a moment. There’s a lot going on here that we need to sort out.’
‘Don’t think I’ve forgotten what your other child said about you and Rowan,’ Gail adds. ‘We’ll circle back to that when we’ve sorted out these two. Cheating is never acceptable, what were you thinking?’
Rocco and I stare at each other, waiting to see if anyone is going to say anything, but neither of us do.
‘I need some space,’ I say, pushing my chair back. By the time I reach the living room in this stupid open-plan house, it occurs to me that Jess will be in my bedroom so, without really thinking about it, I grab my keys and march out the front door. I’m at my car by the time I realise I’ve grabbed the wrong set of keys.
I lean back against my car and slide down it until I’m sitting on the floor. It feels so cold, through my dress, there’s no way I can sit here for more than a few seconds.
I flinch as I hear the front door open and close.
‘Oh, it’s you,’ I say. ‘Congratulations, you are not the last person I want to see today.’
‘Is there a trophy?’ Kenny replies through a smile. ‘I heard everything you just said. If you want some space, do you want to come over to mine for bit?’
I cock my head at him. Is he being nice? What’s his angle? But, also, what choice do I have?
‘Thanks,’ I reply. ‘That would be great.’
Kenny offers me a hand, to pull me to my feet.
‘Seeing as though it’s Christmas, and you’re clearly having a bad day, I’ll keep my smart comments to a minimum, how about that?’
‘That would be very much appreciated today,’ I reply as I follow him around to his side of the fence.
‘I will be lining up ammunition for tomorrow, though,’ he adds.
I expect no less.
33
I’ve only been inside Kenny’s house a handful of times, and that was back when Beth was still on the scene, just before they broke up. It hasn’t changed at all apart from one thing: it feels emptier. I don’t know if Beth kept things in the divorce, and took them to her new home, or if it’s just the lack of… not necessarily a woman, but another person. Another’s life, things, tastes. A counterpart. With Kenny having all of these things to start with, their absence is felt. I’m lucky, with Declan leaving before the work on the house got started, it’s all been me, since day one, from top to bottom.
But as we head into the living room, there is one obvious difference, one part of the house that feels like a home, as opposed to a bachelor pad: the Christmas tree.
‘What do you think?’ he asks me. ‘It looks great, right? Jess did it for me. She turned her nose up at my crappy old artificial one, and seeing as Beth took most of our good decorations, she picked up a bunch of new ones. It was surprisingly really nice, decorating it together. I never thought I’d do that with anyone again.’
