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‘Old stuff?’
‘Don’t ask – he’s weird like that.’
Thea had it on the tip of her tongue to tell her not to call her brother weird, but she let it go this time, interested to hear what Katie had to say about her brother in this instance. ‘How so?’
Katie put her phone down. ‘He’s just into old stuff. When Mum takes us into Aldeburgh to meet our friends at the weekend, I meet up with my friend, but he doesn’t. We followed him once to Cobblers Yard. I guess that’s where he’s been hanging out.’
‘Cobblers Yard?’
‘Yeah – it’s a little shopping street, well, not a street – more like a … yard. There’s not much there.’
Thea remembered Cobblers Yard. She hadn’t been there for years. That’s where her father’s old bookshop had been – she was sure of it. Katie hadn’t mentioned that her grandfather used to run a bookshop there, so Thea imagined her sister probably hadn’t mentioned that fact. There would be little point. There was no way the bookshop would still there after all these years, so it wasn’t as though they could visit the shop and reminisce. ‘What does Toby do in Cobblers Yard?’ Thea asked, interested to know.
‘How do I know? It’s so small that if we actually followed him, he’d see us. I think he goes to the old antique shop. That would be right up his street.’
‘Why do you think that?’
‘Doh! Because it sells old stuff.’
It hadn’t taken long for the sarcasm to resurface, Thea noticed.
‘I told you he’s weird. I wish he wasn’t my brother.’
What Thea was gleaning was that she was embarrassed. ‘But not everyone can be little Miss Popular.’
‘Well, I amnotlittle Miss Popular since I started high school.’
Shit, Thea silently swore. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
Katie frowned at her. ‘I never wanted to move out of London. I hate it here.’
Thea thought of Mark returning to London; perhaps the fact that Katie’s father had returned to London had something to do with Katie’s unhappiness, finding it hard to settle down in her new circumstances in Suffolk. Thea had hardly been here, but she was already gleaning that perhaps her sister’s life here wasn’t all roses around the door as she’d made out.
‘But I thought you were on your phone to your school friends?’
‘Doh! No. I do have a friend from school, but she’s not my best friend. I just hang out with her because there’s no one else.’ Katie made it sound as though she was doing this girl a favour.
Katie suddenly smiled the sweetest smile, taking Thea aback. She was a very pretty young lady when she wasn’t pouting. ‘Auntie Thea …’
Thea looked at her, disconcerted by the sudden smile, not to mention her niece calling her Auntie Thea – something she had not done since she was little.
‘Yes …?’
‘Can I come and live with you in London?’
‘What?’
‘Then I can go to school with all my real friends. I won’t be a bother, I promise. You’ll hardly know I’m there.’
Thea stared at her, thinking,You can’t be serious. She wouldn’t even consider it. She had enough going on in her life without a teenager living with her. Even so, she said, ‘What about your mum and dad?’
‘What about them?’
‘You’d miss them.’
‘Would I? They argueallthe time.’
‘Really?’
