clears her throat. ‘Freddie, could you please go upstairs and tell Mia that Daddy’s ready to leave now?’
Mercifully, he scatters a handful of Lego on the floor and charges upstairs as requested while Rob straightens up, somewhat creakily, Kerry is pleased to note. However, if he’s distraught by the possibility of her entertaining copious gentleman callers, he certainly isn’t showing it.
Perhaps to distance himself from Buddy, who has rolled onto his back anticipating a belly tickle, Rob has now pos-itioned himself at the kitchen window. He looks, Kerry decides, like someone who’s just arrived at a rented holiday cottage and is assessing the view. She feels idiotic now for trying to make him jealous. After all, the prospect of going to bed with anyone ever again is highly unlikely. Sex has become like golf to her, or fly fishing – something other people do, and she can’t for the life of her see what’s so enticing about it. Last time she slept with a man who wasn’t Rob, mobile phones weighed roughly the same as a bag of sugar and she could have redecorated the house in the time it took to log on to the internet. What would happen now, if she were to find herself in bed with someone? Would candid shots of her naked body be broadcast across the globe?
Even thinking about sex with Rob in the vicinity feels wrong. Pointedly refusing to break the awkward silence, Kerry busies herself by pretending to sort through an enormous stack of paperwork from the top of the fridge.
‘We were at the hospital on Thursday night,’ Rob murmurs, still facing the window.
‘Oh. What was wrong?’ She keeps her voice flat, emotionless.
Rob exhales forcefully. ‘Er … Nadine had some pains. Thought she was going to miscarry …’
Why the hell is he telling her this, and how does he expect her to respond?
‘So what happened?’ Kerry asks flatly, aware of the children chattering upstairs – no, arguing, actually. Mia has apparently ‘stolen’ Freddie’s wellies.
‘She was scanned, everything was fine – seems like it was just a warning. Doctor says she’s got to take it easy, she’s probably just been doing too much …’
‘Mmmm.’ Kerry flicks through a wodge of paper – a reminder to have Mia’s eyes tested, something from the bank, a new contract from Cuckoo Clock, a questionnaire asking her how she plans to boost Shorling’s chances of winning Britain’s Prettiest Seaside Town … If there are windowboxes at your property, are they: well-tended/requiring attention/empty at present (please tick box) …
‘She’s … er … coming to Mum and Dad’s this weekend,’ Rob adds. ‘I hope that’s okay with you.’
Kerry blinks at the piece of paper in her hand. If you are able to get involved during the week prior to judging, what kind of help can you offer? Litter picking/exterior painting/tending communal gardens … please tick box.
‘It’s none of my business really,’ she replies, so relieved when Mia runs into the kitchen that she could hug her.
It’s Rob who’s bestowed with cuddles, though. Kerry watches, feeling momentarily redundant as Mia exclaims, ‘I didn’t know you were here, Daddy! Freddie didn’t tell me …’
‘Me and Mummy were just having a chat,’ he says. ‘I love your hair in those little plaits, by the way. Very pretty. So what have you been up to this week?’
Her face crumples. ‘Audrey-Jane was mean to me at school.’
‘Aw, what did she do, sweetheart?’
‘She said I could play, and we were playing, then Tabitha came over and they ran off and told me to go away …’
‘Oh.’ Rob, who finds the intricacies of girls’ friendships baffling, clearly doesn’t know how to respond.
‘They said we’re poor,’ she adds.
‘Silly girls,’ he blusters. ‘What a load of nonsense. They’re just spoiled rotten, okay? Anyway, I heard you’ve been doing really well in class …’
‘Yeah. Got to read my story out.’
‘That’s fantastic, darling. Well, the others are probably just jealous.’ Freddie has reappeared now, and Kerry quickly checks their overnight bags to ensure that essentials haven’t been discarded in favour of yet more cuddly toys.
‘All set then?’ She glances at Rob. ‘It’s just, I have a pupil due in ten minutes.’
‘But I wanna finish my wall.’ Freddie glares down at his Lego construction.
‘Sorry, we need to go now,’ Rob says gently, taking his hand. ‘Come on, Nanny and Nonno are so looking forward to seeing you.’
Thank God for Rob’s parents, Kerry thinks, not for the first time since the break-up. Rob is using their place as a base for when he has the children, which means they’re still getting Daddy-time – she isn’t so peevish as to deny them that – without having to stay in the London house, where they don’t even have beds anymore. Or, worse still, her flat where, presumably, Rob will soon be living full-time. Despite her determination to be fair and reasonable, Kerry isn’t sure she can handle the idea of them staying there. At least, not yet.
‘Can we take the wall,’ Freddie asks hopefully, ‘and finish it at Nanny and Nonno’s?’
‘Of course not, stupid,’ Mia crows. ‘It’ll break.’
‘No it won’t.’ He blows a farty noise in her face.
‘I’ll keep it safe for you,’ Kerry says quickly, ‘and you can finish it when you get back, okay?’
‘Don’t smash it up.’ He fixes her with a fierce stare.
‘Of course I won’t, darling.’ Although, if you were to construct a Lego model of your father’s face …
They’re leaving now, and at the sight of Kerry hugging the children, Buddy leaps for the door as if trying to block their exit.
‘He gets a bit stressed when people leave,’ Kerry says over his fretful barks.
‘A dog with a separation anxiety?’ Rob pulls a wry smile.
‘Yes, well, he has abandonment issues.’ Restraining Buddy by his collar, she steps outside with Rob and the children, shutting the door firmly behind her.
A car has pulled up, and Harvey climbs out, looking mildly taken aback by the small group who are clambering into Rob’s car, and the urgent barking from inside the house.
‘Hi, Harvey,’ Kerry says with a smile, glancing back to see Buddy who’s on the back of the sofa now, steaming the glass with his breath. ‘Just saying goodbye,’ she adds. ‘Won’t be a minute.’
‘Yeah, sure.’ No need to introduce him to Rob, she decides as he buckles the children’s seatbelts and climbs into the front. For all he knows, this handsome young man has come round to whisk her off to that glass cube seafood restaurant, followed by an afternoon in bed. She tries to transmit the message: I am fully intending to have hot sex with this man.
