The Accidental Family by Coleman Rowan

Author:Coleman, Rowan [Coleman, Rowan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2009-09-23T04:00:00+00:00

Twelve

Hi, Wend.” Sophie heard Louis greet his ex, all too aware that he was dressed in only his jeans, and was pulling his T-shirt on over his head as he headed down the stairs. “Hey, Bellarina, why don’t you and Izzy watch your programs on the kitchen TV for a bit?”

“I don’t want to,” Bella replied. “I want to stay here and listen to you and find out about this strange woman.”

“Well, this isn’t a conversation for little girls, so go and watch TV please.”

“Yes, but you see …” Sophie could hear from the tone in Bella’s voice that she was in full negotiation mode. Normally Louis loved to engage her in her lengthy sometimes logically skewed but always entertaining debates about why she should be able to do whatever it was that he didn’t want her to do. About 50 percent of the time she’d win him over. But Louis was not in the mood today and his tone was stern.

“Bella, do as I ask. Now.”

There was a pause and then Sophie heard Bella in the kitchen saying very loudly to Izzy, “We’re going to watch cartoons even though they rot our brains.”

Like Bella, Sophie was unable to resist the temptation to find out what was going on. But even though she didn’t think Louis could send her away to watch cartoons, she was also fairly sure he’d want to talk with Wendy on his own. Quietly she crept out of bed, dragging the heavy duvet around her body and creeping to the edge of the stairs where she could just see the tops of Wendy’s and Louis’s heads without giving away her own position.

“So how is he?” Louis asked her, a reluctance in his voice, as if he didn’t want to know the answer.

“I don’t know, that’s the problem.” Wendy sounded upset, her voice shaky and strained. Sophie hazarded leaning over the banister, hoping to catch a glimpse of the other woman’s face and try to discern if her expression matched her tone. But Wendy’s head was bowed, her hair screening her features. Sophie could see Louis’s hand on Wendy’s shoulder. Only moments ago his long fingers had been caressing her thigh.

Sophie dropped the duvet at the top of the stairs and darted back into the bedroom, plucking her clothes off the floor where she had discarded them what now seemed like a lifetime ago. Hurriedly she slipped on her underwear, straining to hear the continuing conversation below, hurrying back to the banister in bare feet, the rest of her clothes tucked under her arm in a bid not to miss anything crucial.

“I haven’t heard from him since he stormed off last night,” Wendy was saying. “He’s not answering his cell phone. None of his friends seems to know where he is. I thought he might have gone back to Falmouth, but no one there has heard from him. He gets …very emotional when he’s upset.” Sophie pulled on her jeans certain that the rasp of denim over her thighs could be heard in Penzance, never mind at the bottom of the stairs.

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