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‘She did,’ Hope replied, with a grin so wide her cheeks must surely be hurting. ‘But actually, she’s not my sister, she’s my mum.’
I had to admit I rather enjoyed the look of amazement on the assistant’s face.
‘Lunch,’ I declared when we were out in the main shopping concourse once again.
‘Great, I’m starving,’ said Hope, studying a huge map that listed a tempting choice of eateries. ‘Then afterwards we can move on to shoe shopping.’ She linked her arm with mine once more. ‘It’s funny how that shop assistant thought we were sisters, wasn’t it?’
‘It’s probably because we have the same colour hair and skin,’ I said, peering a little closer at the floor plan to read the names of the food outlets. My face might say I looked young, but my eyesight was definitely on its way to becoming middle-aged.
‘Well, it never happens when I’m out with Mum,’ Hope said.
‘Hmm… perhaps don’t mention it to her, eh?’ I suggested, knowing instinctively that Chloe would feel hurt by the comparison.
‘Sure,’ Hope said, with an easy shrug. ‘It’ll be our little secret.’ Somehow that made me feel even more guilty.
I picked a vibrant and busy Italian restaurant, with an outdoor seating area that gave it a faux piazza look. There was a free table by a small fountain that we snagged as the previous occupants got to their feet.
‘Are you having a fun day?’ asked Hope, surveying the collection of glossy carrier bags nestled at our feet.
‘I am,’ I said with a happy smile, although in truth I would have enjoyed spending precious time alone with Hope whatever we had done together.
We ordered our lunch and then sat back to people watch as we waited for our pasta to arrive. Hope was talking about a school trip she had been on to Italy and, as ever, I listened raptly, storing up every piece of information about her life that I’d missed out on. She was laughing as she told a story about midnight feasts and smuggled chocolates, and absently flicked her long dark hair to one side, exposing the pale white skin beneath her ear. Except it wasn’tallpale, for there was a large circular area with a fading purple smudge.
Hope saw my gaze fall on her neck and quickly flicked her hair forward to cover it up. Our eyes met, and locked. My eyebrows rose; hers drew together in a frown.
‘Oh, don’t you start on me too, Maddie. I had enough of that from Dad.’
‘I wonder why,’ I said, my voice deliberately innocent.
Hope glared at the cutlery on the table as though it had personally offended her. ‘He’s forgotten what it’s like when you’re young,’ she mumbled into her serviette.
I reached across the table and took her hand in mine. ‘I think it’s more likely that he remembersonly too wellwhat it’s like when you’re young. Do he and Chloe know the person who… who gave you that?’ I asked, my fingers reaching out and grazing her hair. She flinched even though I hadn’t touched her skin and pure instinct made me ask my next question.
‘Did you know it would mark your skin like that?’
Hope shook her head. ‘I thought he was just kissing my neck. I mean, it kind of hurt a bit, but I didn’t know it was going to look so, so… ugly.’
I rapidly rewound the years to a very similar conversation I had had with my own mother when I must have been a year or so younger than Hope was now. If my mum had come up with some invaluable words of wisdom to impart, I could no longer remember them. Ididremember storming off and there being a fair bit of door slamming involved. I was fairly confident that in the middle of a shopping centre Hope had nowhere to storm off to, and luckily there weren’t too many doors around either. Even so, I trod carefully.
‘I’m going to take a guess that this boy is a bit older than you, right?’
For the first time Hope lifted her head. There was a look of awe on her face as though I had just revealed hidden psychic powers. ‘And you didn’t say ‘no’ to him because you wanted to look cool about it.’
‘Something like that,’ Hope mumbled.
‘So what did Ryan – I mean Dad – say?’
‘That I’m grounded until I’m twenty-one.’
Despite the serious direction our talk had taken, I couldn’t help laughing at that one. ‘Mum tried to calm him down a bit, but he was just so… so….’
‘Angry?’ I suggested. Hope nodded.
‘Scared of you getting hurt? Terrified you’re growing up too fast? Frightened of losing you?’ Hope shook her head at each of my other suggestions, but there was a look on her face that hadn’t been there before. Somehow, while struggling blindly in the dark for what to say, I’d managed to turn on a light bulb.
The waitress was weaving through the tables towards us with two steaming plates of pasta and I think we were both glad that the conversation was coming to an end. I had just one last thing to add.
‘After lunch we’ll pop into one of the department stores. There’s a really good concealer that’s the perfect colour for our skin tone.’
