is?’
‘Scruffy. Beard. Eyebrow piercing. Lip ring. I know that doesn’t narrow it down a lot, but he looked too old to be one of the kids from The Forum.’
‘You think he works there?’
‘Like I said, I don’t know. Sod’s law that Poppy should bump into someone like that.’ He cast a glance at his daughter sitting beside him, staring out of the window, her back half-turned on him.
‘We’ll have to speak to her again about going off in a strop,’ said Neve.
‘Definitely,’ said Kit. ‘We’ll do it tonight. I’m going to drop Poppy off at school now and head straight to the office.’ He paused, before speaking, this time ensuring his voice was softer. ‘Look, about earlier. I’m sorry we argued. Do you want to call into the marina later and we can grab a coffee?’
‘Erm … when were you thinking?’
He didn’t miss the hesitation in her voice. ‘I don’t know. In about an hour?’
‘Let’s say eleven. I’ve got a few things to do first.’
Kit wanted to ask what was so important, but he let it go for now to avoid another argument and attempted to ignore the suggestions at the back of his mind as to what Neve was doing. ‘That will be great. See you then.’ He quit the call and started the engine. ‘Right, better get you to school,’ he said, with a sigh. It was barely nine o’clock and it had already proved a stressful day. He could really have done without Poppy doing a disappearing act. He felt frustrated with her for going off like that, but more so because she didn’t, or rather couldn’t, grasp the dangers and the repercussions. He let out another sigh as he reminded himself that it wasn’t Poppy’s fault and he wasn’t frustrated at her – just at the limitations of her cognitive development.
‘Neve is wearing her blue dress today,’ said Poppy, shifting her position in the seat, so she was looking straight ahead.
Kit was used to his daughter’s sudden change in both mood and conversation. ‘It’s a nice dress,’ he answered.
‘Neve always wears her blue dress when she wants to look pretty.’
‘And pretty she looks,’ said Kit. As he spoke, he thought back to Neve that morning. She did indeed look pretty.
‘Callum is sharing his cucumber sandwiches with me.’
‘That’s nice,’ replied Kit, attempting to keep up with the conversation. He tried to concentrate on Poppy’s detailed and elaborate explanation of the seating arrangement in the school canteen, but his mind kept flitting back to Neve in her blue dress. Although his daughter’s observations often appeared random, they were nevertheless spot on. Why was Neve wearing the blue dress? What was she doing this morning that had meant putting off coming to see him? Did it involve Jake?
An unexpected image of Neve rolling around on white linen bed sheets with Jake in a bohemian studio loft room, surrounded by various pieces of art, took Kit by surprise. He gave a shake of his head to rid the thought from his mind. Surely, Neve wouldn’t be involved with a penniless art teacher. What did he have to offer?
Another black thought broke free. Perhaps it wasn’t the material things that interested Neve. Perhaps she was looking for something else. Excitement? Attention? Love?
No. His imagination was getting the better of him, he argued. Neve wouldn’t do that to him. No, Kit was just over-reacting after a bad morning.
Despite this reasoning, the thought of Neve meeting Jake wouldn’t leave him, and Kit found himself becoming more agitated with every thought.
Neve held her phone to her chest after she had finished the call with Kit and contemplated their conversation. She was relieved Poppy had been found, a little annoyed that her daughter had gone off again and caused all this fuss, and was grateful that the police didn’t have to be involved, but the overriding emotion was concern as to who Poppy had been with.
Kit had mentioned The Forum, maybe she had been with one of the kids from there? Although, technically, she shouldn’t really describe them as kids, they were young adults, ranging from eighteen to twenty-four. Kit was very disparaging of The Forum and its residents, which niggled Neve. She had met some of the youngsters at Jake’s art studio and, on the whole, she had felt a certain amount of empathy with them. Most of them, once you got to know them, were trying to get their lives on track having come through the care system, their backgrounds having little or no positive role models and often horrendous family lives. Neve knew only too well how bad family life could be when you were a young adult.
She wondered who Poppy had met and, as Kit had thought, if they could possibly be from The Forum. She tried to recall the ones she had seen at Jake’s studio but no one in particular sprang to mind matching the description that Kit gave.
There was, of course, one person she could ask – Jake. Neve was aware of the little flutter her stomach gave as she thought of contacting Jake and further acknowledged that it only served to back up Kit’s observations earlier about how she was making more of an effort with her appearance. It was a good job Kit wasn’t aware of her anticipation, it would only upgrade his observation to suspicion, when in actual fact, there wasn’t anything to be suspicious about.
She took out her phone and tapped out a message.
Hi, just wondered if you had five minutes to spare this morning?
She received a reply almost straight away.
For you, of course! I have a break between classes in 20 mins.
Great. See you then.
Neve pushed her phone into her pocket and couldn’t help smiling to herself at Jake’s immediate response and willingness to help. It was flattering and something which Kit hadn’t done in a long time.
Rather than take the car, Neve decided to kill two birds with one stone and take Willow for a walk at the same time. Jake’s art studio was on the outskirts of the village but less than a ten-minute walk away.
It was the beginning of July and despite promises of better weather, today was definitely not keeping schedule with the forecast. As Neve took her raincoat from the peg, she found herself checking her reflection in the mirror and wondering if her lipstick needed touching up.
She sighed and tutted at herself, Kit’s observation had been right, but it irritated her all the same. ‘A girl’s allowed to wear lipstick,’ she said out loud defiantly as she stood up straighter and pushed a stray strand of hair off her face. With that, she shrugged on her jacket and with Willow hooked onto the lead, she set off for the art studio.
As Neve crossed the bridge and turned into Copperthorne Lane, the earlier stomach-fluttering excitement made a return. This was so silly. She was a grown woman. A married woman. Jake Rees was her art tutor. She couldn’t let the current harmless mutual attraction develop into anything else. It was one thing thinking these things and having secret fantasies but playing them out in real life was something else.
Jake had converted an old farm building into a working studio about three years ago and lived above the premises. An artist himself, he supplemented his income with
