‘You’re notlettingme do anything. I refuse to drop you off to get on a bus, soaking wet.’
‘But I – ’
‘Now, what I want to know is exactly what that bi … ’ Jamie broke off and glanced in his mirror at Rosie sitting in the booster seat he had bought for her. (He’d told Libby he’d borrowed it from his sister. She didn’t have to know that he ran out to buy one after that first day when he’d seen Libby struggle up the flight of stairs with hers). ‘ … whatMilliesaid to you.’
‘It was nothing,’ Libby said in a tight voice. ‘Long day, that’s all. Mummy was just being a wally, wasn’t she, Little Louse? Nothing to worry about.’
‘Well, youarea wally, Mummy,’ Rosie agreed happily.
‘Any more run-ins with her, you phone me,’ Jamie said. Nuclear Winter a.k.a. Camilla Morrison was not going to intimidate Libby. She could find somebody else to sharpen her claws on.
‘It’s fine,’ Libby told him in a tight little voice. ‘I can fight my own battles, thank you.’ An extremely uncomfortable silence followed for the next ten minutes, broken only by Rosie’s out-of-tune singing to bloody Justin Bieber, who was playing on the radio purely to torment Jamie.
‘Hey!’ Rosie shouted as they were finally nearing their address. ‘Stop at the chippy!’ Rosie’s voice was so commanding and so full of urgency that Jamie automatically slowed and then pulled into a free space in front of the Golden Fish Bar.
‘Rosie, no,’ Libby said. ‘We’ll get something at home before we leave.’
‘But it’s Friday,’ Rosie whined. ‘I get to have fish and chips on Friday and no stupid broccoli. It’s the law.’
‘Okay then, we can get something on the way to Granny and Bumpa’s, broccoli-free, I promise.’
‘I’m calling the police,’ Rosie said, a telling little wobble to her voice that Jamie was a complete sucker for.
‘I don’t mind – ’ he started, but Rosie had already opened the passenger door. Libby sighed.
‘This is why I always use child locks,’ she told him as Rosie scrambled over his lap, undid his seatbelt and started tugging his arm.
‘Rosie! Stop,’ Libby snapped, following her out. Mother and daughter went into stare-down, during which Rosie crossed her little arms across her chest and stamped her foot.
‘Honestly, it’s fine. I’m not in any rush,’ Jamie told them both, happy to have the strained silence at an end and smiling at the two soaking, furious, stubborn females. For some reason appropriateness and what was or wasn’t his business was long forgotten. He held his hand out to Rosie and she gave her mother a smug smile before skipping over to him.
*****
Libby pushed the rest of her chips away with a sigh of regret. She was lucky her metabolism allowed her to eat relatively well and still earn the same money, but even she couldn’t gorge on heavy takeaway food on a night she was working – nothing hid that kind of bloating, and the last thing she needed was to get a cramp.
‘He deserved it,’ Rosie muttered darkly around a mouthful of battered cod.
Libby shuddered. ‘Nobody deserves to have woodlice put in their pencil case Rosie.’
The three of them were sitting around the coffee table, Libby and Jamie squeezed onto Libby’s ancient sofa and Rosie sitting facing them on a cushion on the floor. After Jamie had insisted on buying them all fish and chips Rosie had practically dragged him upstairs to their flat to eat with them. It was becoming clear to Libby that Jamie was a sucker for a four-year-old girl with a serious amount of attitude.
‘You arewaytoo big,’ Rosie had told him accusingly once he’d squeezed onto the sofa.
‘Sorry,’ Dr Grantham …Jamie, said through a chuckle. ‘I’ll work on that, okay?’
Rosie was right really: Jamie did make their tiny flat seem even smaller; and his bulky frame on their small sofa looked ridiculous. Libby cursed the fact there was still low-level chaos reigning in her living area. The contrast between that and Jamie’s appearance, with his tailored suit and perfect … everything, was stark. He looked completely out of place in their tiny home.
‘Do you like minibeasts?’ Rosie asked him; then before waiting for a response she shot to her feet and ran out of the room. Jamie looked at Libby and she just sighed, shaking her head. A moment later Rosie dashed back in and dumped her plastic toy medical case on the middle of the table. That would have been fine if the case only contained the fake stethoscope and other toys it was meant to, but through the clear plastic lid you could clearly see soil, leaves and about ten of Rosie’s ‘friends’.
‘See,’ Rosie said, beaming up at Jamie. ‘Aren’t they cute?’
He peered in through the lid, blinked, then surreptitiously moved his food away from the case. ‘Uh …’
‘You can take one of them home if you like,’ Rosie offered.
Libby glanced over to see his eyes dance as he pressed his lips together. ‘I’ve never had a pet woodlouse,’ he told her, his voice shaking with suppressed amusement. ‘And although they are … cute … I better not – it might upset my dog.’
Rosie’s mouth fell open and her eyes went wide with wonder.
