‘Make sure it’s sensible,’ I called from the hallway as I slipped my shoes on. ‘And cheap!’
‘One sensible, cheap treat coming right up,’ he called back, laughing.
‘You do have to complete your list of things on the chart first,’ Isla shouted as I grabbed my keys and opened the front door.
I didn’t stop to reply, because I was about to complete an important item from another list – attempt to make a new friend.
22
THEN
I was torn between feeling besotted and envious. Jonah’s younger brother and sister had come over and it was revealing a whole different side to the vampire.
After playfighting with four-year-old Billy for a while, he was now sitting at the coffee table with Ellis, helping her make a bracelet. Mum was reading Billy a story, although she kept stopping and glancing over at Jonah and Ellis as though seeing them together was mashing her heart into a squidgy mess. I knew how she felt. Ellis was chattering to her big brother the whole time she was picking out each bead and threading it onto elastic. He was watching and listening with the tender focus of someone trying to absorb every millisecond, knowing that all too soon he’d have to revert to relying on memories.
After a few minutes, Ellis rested her head against Jonah’s shoulder, and he instinctively wrapped his arm around her, moving across to tuck her against his chest as she carried on building the bracelet.
‘Did you miss me?’ she asked, scanning the beads.
I was pretending to read, curled up in a chair in the corner of the room, but it was impossible not to listen in.
‘Every second.’
‘As much as last time?’
He squeezed his eyes closed. ‘More.’
‘I wish I could come and live here with you.’
‘Here?’ Jonah asked gently. ‘Not back home with Mum?’
Ellis froze. ‘I don’t know,’ she said, hesitantly.
Her brother gently took the bead gripped between her fingers and slipped it onto the bracelet. ‘That’s okay. It’s a big decision.’
‘Do you think Mummy misses us?’
He took a deep breath. ‘Yes. But that doesn’t mean we should go back.’
‘Clare said she’s poorly and that’s why she didn’t take care of us very well.’
‘That’s one way of putting it,’ Jonah muttered, before picking up a flower bead. ‘Here. How about this one?’
‘I think Mummy will like that one. Do you think she will? I’m giving her the bracelet when it’s all finished so she can wear it and won’t miss me so much. Clare said we’re going to see her after playing here. Are you coming? Billy is, but he isn’t making her a bracelet because he’s not big enough.’
Jonah’s features had set like stone. ‘No. I’m not coming.’
He turned to my mum, eyes like lasers. ‘They’re going to see her?’
Mum screwed up her face in sympathy. ‘Clare didn’t tell you?’
Clare was the children’s social worker. She’d spoken to Jonah in his bedroom while Mum and I played with the younger kids.
‘No. She asked if I wanted any contact, and I said no. Obviously. How can they let the kids see her?’
The doorbell rang.
‘Libby, that’ll be Clare. Can you answer it, please?’
