The Stepmother by Carrie Adams

Author:Carrie Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780061842177
Publisher: HarperCollins

THUMPING MUSIC GREETED US, BUT I was determined to keep it friendly. I had been warned. I walked up the stairs and knocked on Amber’s door. I got no answer, so I opened it.

“We’re home—Oh! Sorry! I didn’t know you had company.”

The boy was on his feet. Which I liked. He looked terrified, too, which I didn’t completely dislike.

“Hello? I’m Amber’s mother.”

He lurched forward and stuck out his hand. “Caspar,” he said, then went to the stereo and pressed a button. Much better.

“You should have told me you had someone coming over,” I said, trying to hold on to those feelings of peace and love.

“You should have knocked.”

“I did.”

“How do you do?” said Caspar. “It’s very nice to meet you.”

“And you. Amber, we need to talk.”

“Nothing to talk about.”

“But last night—”

“I didn’t want to stay at Dad’s.” She couldn’t quite look me in the eye, so I assumed she was lying, but then I wasn’t so sure. “You were asleep on the sofa. I didn’t want to wake you.”

Caspar looked anywhere but at me. I felt the ground shift beneath my feet.

“No one was here when I woke up. I figured you’d gone to pick up Maddy and Lulu.”

I had thought about putting the clean clothes away in the girls’ rooms this morning but, to be honest, I’d been feeling too ropy and had drowned myself in tea instead. I’d gone to Faith’s early to escape the temptation of toast. I had no idea whether Amber was telling the truth or not.

“Are you staying for lunch, Caspar?”

Amber glanced at her watch and pushed herself out of the beanbag she’d been partially filling. “We’re going to the park to play football with some friends.”

Since when had my fourteen-year-old started telling me what she was doing and not asking? Since she’d started putting me to bed. “Let me at least make you a sandwich.”

Caspar looked keen. Oh, the bottomless appetite of the teenager.

Five minutes later, I called up to them. I heard the floorboards shift and knew I’d been heard. Amber and Caspar came thundering down the stairs. An oval plate stacked high with sandwiches sat in the middle of the table. Caspar placed a guitar case up against the wall and sat down. I called the girls in. “So, you play the guitar?” I asked.

“He’s brilliant, and he’s only been playing a year,” said Amber, momentarily forgetting she was ignoring me. Caspar blushed.

“You must be the person helping Amber with her best-man song, then.”

“She doesn’t need any help.”

She giggled and prodded him playfully. “Yes, I do.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.”

“By the sound of it, she’d like your help.”

“Doesn’t matter anyway,” said Amber. “It’s not going to happen.”

“Of course it is, darling,” I said. “Tessa and Daddy are going to be fine. Nothing happened last night that can’t be resolved. You know what Friday nights are like, everyone tired and crotchety. You will be the very best man ever, and I think singing the speech is a brilliant idea.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

Amber looked a bit unsure.

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