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“Bye dad,” Alice said, already on her way to see her grandmother.
“I’ll text you about the cinema,” Noah said to Hope, taking Amelia’s arm and steering her away from the doorstep.
“Yes,” said Hope. “You do that.”
She stood and watched as Noah opened the car door for Amelia and wondered if he’d ever done that for her. She watched until they drove away. Then she leaned against the doorframe and watched the empty street.
They made an attractive couple, Noah and Amelia. She wondered if people had ever thought that about her and Noah. Then she wondered how Noah could have moved on so fast. How he could have healed so quickly that he was ready to start seeing someone new. Except maybe he hadn’t had to heal. Maybe Amelia wasn’t all that new.
Hope wasn’t an idiot. She knew she’d been left for someone. Whether or not Amelia was that someone, she wasn’t sure. And she didn’t know if she wanted to know.
In the end, did it matter?
“Mum, mum, gran says you’re making biscuits, can I decorate them?”
With a sigh, Hope turned away from the street and closed the front door. “Of course you can, why do you think I made them?”
“Brilliant,” Alice said, and she smiled Noah’s smile and Hope’s heart crumbled just a little more.
Chapter Five
“No, it’s sweet,” Ava said.
“It sounds terrifically boring,” said Quinn. Her face on the tablet screen screwed up in thought. “Unless there are murders, like on PBS. Are there murders?”
“I hope not,” Ava laughed. “And it’s a lovely little town. You should see the school, it looks like something out of Charles Dickens.”
“Yeah, not a great comparison,” said Quinn, laughing now too. “But I’m glad you like it.” She paused and clicked her tongue against her teeth. “So, uh, met anyone yet?”
“Jesus, give me a chance, Q. I’ve literally just got here.”
“You’ve been there almost two weeks and school is about to start soon. I’d have thought that you were making the most of your free time and settling in.” Quinn leaned forward so that her face zoomed large on the screen. “Are they not friendly, these English people?”
“I’m sure they’re lovely,” Ava said, shaking off the last dish that she’d been washing. The tablet was propped up on the kitchen windowsill. “I’ve met a shopkeeper and an odd bookstore lady. People say hello to me all the time, it’s just…”
“It’s just that you don’t respond. You need to join in, Av. You need to, I don’t know, join a club or something. Meet some new people.”
“Aren’t you the one that wants me back in the States?” Ava asked, putting her dishcloth down. “And now you’re encouraging me to build a new life here?”
“I want you to be happy.”
“Fine. I am.” Okay, a little lie never hurt anyone, right? But she felt immediately guilty. “Or I will be. Wait until school starts, I’ll meet tons of people then.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw a blur of fur. “Oh no, you don’t.”
“Oh, no I don’t what?” asked Quinn.
“Not you, got to go, talk to you later,” Ava said, flipping the tablet shut and opening the back door at the same time.
She ran out into the garden just in time to see the cat finish up its business and jump back onto the fence, disappearing over to the other side. Standing on tip-toes, Ava leaned over and saw a tail snaking through a cat-flap. She pursed her lips. “Got you.”
???
Alice stood over the little easel, her tongue poking out of one corner of her mouth in concentration as she dabbed paint onto the paper. The second Hope saw her, she couldn’t help but laugh.
“Did you get any paint on the paper?” she asked.
“Of course,” said Alice. Her hair was wrapped up in a shower cap, her face, hands, and an old shirt of Hope’s were all plastered with paint. “I’m making a unicorn.”
“On yourself?” Hope asked.
