Love, Lust & Friendship by Elizabeth Stevens

Author:Elizabeth Stevens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Friendship, Contemporary, Romantic Comedy, Young Adult, Humour
ISBN: 9780648264897
Publisher: Sleeping Dragon Books
Published: 2018-09-06T14:30:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

The next night, I wriggled in my seat and my father huffed a small laugh which was only acceptable because my mother wasn’t there.

“So… I hear you tore your mother a new one last weekend?” he started and I looked up at him across the table.

I’d put on the slightly more acceptable navy-blue sweater, the nicest pair of jeans I owned and a pair of dark brown knee-high boots I’d had shoved in the back of Ander’s wardrobe since the last time Dad and I had met for dinner. It was probably still a little warm for the combination, but I didn’t really know how to do fancy. And honestly, I didn’t really mind trying to do fancy for my dad. It might have helped that he didn’t care when I thought I’d failed.

“Uh… That I did. Yeah,” I answered, feeling totally stupid. Of course she’d have gone whinging to him.

But, he just laughed and I frowned at him.

“You could at least pretend to be on your wife’s side,” I muttered, pushing my pasta around.

“Addy, if I was on her side, I wouldn’t be on yours…”

“Stupid logic,” I grumbled.

He laughed and my heart twinged. I liked that sound.

But, it was only a sound I heard when it was the two of us. It’s no secret he and my mother didn’t get on, but it had always been a surprise to me that Dad had never really been close with my brothers. As I’d got older, I wondered if that was because the boys used to have a tighter bond with our mum and that came between their bond with Dad – whereas I don’t think I could remember a time when that woman ever liked me. I’d never bothered talking to the boys about it; once they’d been old enough to avoid my parents, I’d sort of dropped off their radar. But, that’s what growing up to you does, I suppose. I loved my brothers, we just weren’t close.

“Sweetheart, I know it’s rough – your mother and me – but I have tried to work it out. I’ve tried to leave her.”

I nodded, guessing where he was going with this. “But, she’d rather have the façade.”

“She would. I’m sorry it’s not been easy on anyone, especially you. But, you’ve got Miss Henderson and the boys.”

I looked at him carefully. “Have you talked to Aunt Jelly about any of this?”

A flicker of foreign uncertainty crossed Dad’s face for a second. “I might have a little.”

“So, she didn’t just take me in out of the goodness of her heart?”

Dad smiled. “Oh, no. She did. But, I talked with her to thank her once, a couple of years back when you were in the hospital…again.” Here he gave me a warning look and I knew what I’d done. “She didn’t want anything from me at first. But, I convinced her that if she was going to be looking after my daughter, she shouldn’t have to do it alone.”

“You pay her?”

Dad looked at me like that was beneath the both of us, but he admitted, “Not as much as I’d like.

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