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“Not quite. It’s taken quite a bit of wrangling over the last few days, but we’re there now. He backed down in the end because Kim has the better legal team.”
“Was he a swine?” Her face wrinkled in disgust.
“Yes, he was.” Charlie held onto the worktop, not wanting to revisit any of the horrors. “They were very frightened.”
“And what about you? Are you recovering? We were very worried about you taking the brunt of it all like that.”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“Well, I’m sorry you’ve been embroiled in all this. But at least it’s sorted. You must’ve been such a help for Kim, sweetheart. The children clearly trust you.”
“Don’t,” Charlie said. “I’m trying not to get too attached, Mum, because they’ll be going back home soon, and then I can get on with my own life.” Her chin dropped, and she looked away. “They’ve been a bit of a distraction really.”
“From Elda?”
Charlie couldn’t answer.
“Where is she now?”
“She’s at home sorting stuff out. I asked her to come back to mine, but she needed space, apparently.”
They danced around in silence for a while, clearing up and drying the crockery stacked on the draining board.
“How’s she doing with it all? Must’ve been so hard for her to have to care for someone in their final days,” her mum said.
Charlie leaned against the countertop. “I think she’s lost more than just her grandmother this month.”
“Why don’t you go and stay with her?”
“How can I? With all this going on?” She gestured towards the hubbub of the living room, her dad’s voice ringing through to the hallway. “To be honest, I’m no good at grief. I clam up when I’m there.”
“You’re not seventeen anymore, Charlotte. You’ve a lot more to give than you think.” She rubbed Charlie’s back and kissed the top of her shoulder. “Don’t keep Elda at arm’s length, she needs you.”
Charlie pushed away the guilt. It would overcome her if she let it.
“Sherbert,” her dad shouted. “Get your kickers on. We’re off to the beach.”
“It’s kicks, Dad.” She smiled faintly at her mum.
A cackle of laughter escaped from the living room and a half-dressed Jacob burst into the kitchen with a spade. “We can dig!”
Fifteen minutes later, Jacob was hopping at the bubbling shoreline. He took her mum’s hand without looking and dragged her further into the water. They both shrieked with joy.
Chloe sat at Charlie’s side, poking at the sand.
“Have you been to the beach before, Chloe?” Charlie tilted her head and blocked the sun with her hand.
“Yeah, when we were little. Before Jacob.” She appeared hypnotised by her own finger, spelling her name in an invisible ink as the sand disappeared into itself.
Jacob ran towards them, and Charlie scooped him up and flipped him onto her back. The warm air caressed her shoulders. “More sun cream for you.” He wriggled from her arms and jogged around the moat that Charlie had built. “Hat on too.”
“The beach isn’t as relaxing when you have a moving object to keep an eye on.” Charlie stood with her back to the sun, observing her little warrior as her dad watched on from his worn-out deck chair.
“No, darling, it’s relentless.” His belly laugh caught on the breeze, and he lifted a flask of tea from a picnic basket.
Charlie knelt on a blanket next to Jacob and kept her hands busy.
“How are you feeling, Dad?”
