‘Well, I must say that is lovely to hear, and I look forward to working with you once my knee is tickety-boo again,’ he told her, with a hint of pride in his expression. ‘So tell me about your family. I picked up from our correspondence that your father works at the White House.’
Ken reached for another shashlik and held the plate so that Phoebe could take one as well.
‘Yes, he’s an advisor to the President. He’s been in the world of politics for over nineteen years. He was in international banking before that.’
‘And you weren’t tempted to follow him into the political arena?’ Heath cut in.
‘Not at all. You see, you’re right—it’s an arena, and that’s why I wouldn’t do it. Sometimes it’s great, but at other times it seems like a fight to the death. I’d rather be repairing bodies than ripping apart political opponents and their policies.’
‘Touché,’ Ken replied with a huge smile.
‘Still, it must be an interesting lifestyle,’ Tilly commented. ‘Do you visit the White House often?’
‘Now and then. But my place is the other side of town, nearer to the hospital. I just hear about it when I visit or call my parents.’
‘I suppose it would be a little like the emergency department of a hospital—with everyone rushing frantically and everything code blue,’ Tilly replied.
Phoebe smiled at her. ‘You’re not too far wrong with that analogy. It’s like everything needs to be delivered or decided yesterday. I would most certainly go mad. My father, however, loves a challenge—he sees the big picture and the changes that need to be made for the disadvantaged and most particularly those with intergenerational problems.’
‘And your mother? What does she do?’ Ken asked between bites.
‘Anything and everything social. Fundraising committees, women’s political auxiliaries—pretty much anything that she believes helps with my father’s career. Along with her bridge club.’
‘So why did you choose medicine?’ Ken asked. ‘With a father in politics and, for want of a better word, a socialite mother, why did you choose to specialise in podiatric surgery?’
‘My best friend Susy’s mother had an accident driving us to school when I was fourteen …’ Phoebe began.
Feeling a little parched from answering all the questions, took a sip of her cold drink before she continued.
‘Anyway, she broke her heel and I was there when the paramedics took her by ambulance to the hospital. Susy and I had both been strapped in the back of the car and didn’t suffer even a scratch. I visited her mother in hospital a few times with Susy, and I became curious and started asking the nurses questions. Then one day her podiatric surgeon came in. I asked him all about the operation and he went into great detail with me and that was it. I knew what I wanted to do with my life.’
‘I’m impressed that you knew at such a young age—’
‘I think that we should let poor Phoebe eat,’ Tilly cut in. ‘She’s been grilled and she’s passed with flying colours, Dad, so now she gets fed and watered.’
They all smiled, and then chatted about themselves so Phoebe could enjoy the delicious dinner Tilly had prepared and also get to know the family.
Everyone but Heath told her something about themselves and their lives. Heath stayed quiet, and Phoebe noticed his jaw clench more than a few times as they talked about Oscar as a baby. It was obvious to Phoebe that it had been a difficult time for him. But why exactly she wasn’t sure, and they all clearly avoided the topic of Oscar’s mother.
‘Do you want to look at the stars?’ Oscar suddenly asked Phoebe as she sat waiting for Heath to bring a drink out to the patio, where everyone had moved after dinner to enjoy the balmy evening.
‘Do you have a telescope?’
‘No, but we can lie on the grass and look up and see them. That’s one of my favourite things to do at night. Grandpa knows lots about stars.’
Phoebe thought it was a lovely idea, and very sweet of Oscar to extend the invitation for her to join him. She stepped out of her shoes and followed him to a patch of lawn just near the patio, where they both lay down on the grass and looked up at the stars twinkling in the ebony sky. The cool ground beneath her bare skin felt wonderful.
‘That’s the saucepan. Can you see it? You have to draw a line between the big star—up there—and the others—just there—and it looks like a saucepan,’ he said, pointing his tiny finger straight up in the air. ‘And it has a handle too.’
‘I can see it,’ she responded as she looked to where he pointed.
They both lay staring at the perfect night sky and Oscar talked with lightning speed about everything his grandfather had told him. Phoebe was impressed with all he had retained, and his interest in astronomy.
‘Perhaps you might grow up and study the stars,’ she said. ‘That would make you an astronomer.’
‘I think I might visit them instead.’
‘So you want to be an astronaut?’
‘Yes. That would be more fun than just looking at them.’ Heath stood in the doorway to the patio and looked out at the two of them, lying in the dark on the lawn, talking. He had no idea what they were saying but he could hear their animated chatter. He felt a tug at his heart, thinking that his wife had missed out on doing just that. And that Oscar had missed out on those important long talks with his mother.
They had both been cheated. And even though his pain lessened with every passing year he wondered if Oscar’s would grow as he realised what he had lost.
“You know, Phoebe’s nothing like I imagined,’ Ken said softly when he saw Heath in the doorway with Phoebe’s drink.
Heath agreed with his father’s sentiments but he would not let him know. He wouldn’t let any family member know, for fear of them trying to make a spark ignite between them. He had found her to be sweet when they’d first met, sexy at the pool, and looking at her now, lying beside his son, he was discovering she was apparently maternal—but that wasn’t a combination he wanted. He preferred sexy with no strings attached, for one-night stands that could never break his heart. Or impact on his son.
‘I think we should probably get going,’ he said to his father. ‘I need to get Oscar to bed—and you as well, Dad.’
‘Don’t fuss about getting me to bed, son,’ Ken told him as he watched Oscar and Phoebe. ‘I’m quite enjoying the company and I’m not that old yet. But, having said that, I imagine young Oscar might be getting tired after a day out.’
‘Let him spend the night with us,’ Tilly offered as she stepped outside and was pleasantly surprised to see her nephew relaxing on the lawn with Phoebe. ‘Then we can get up early and have a swim before it gets hot. I think he’s a little lonely over at Dad’s. I can do some things with him that you—’
‘That I can’t do because they are things only a mother can do?’
‘No,
