“Just in case you were wondering.”
“How long have you been there?” she burst out, irritated—guilty—although Cherry could hardly read her mind.
“Not long.” Cherry smiled and walked over and took the painting from her. Met her eye. “Anything else you want to check out?”
Laura was puzzled. What did she mean? She was only looking at it, for heaven’s sake! She was about to retort when a cold, dousing memory returned to her. The day she’d gone into their room. Cherry’s things, her flight details. Did she know they’d been looked at, read?
Daniel appeared and put his arm around Cherry. “Still fancy the beach?”
She smiled. “Sure. I’ll just get my stuff,” and she went back upstairs.
“How about you, Mum? Last day of hitting the rays?”
“No, thank you.”
“What’s up?”
She hadn’t intended to sound so curt, but she’d just about reached her limit. “Cherry had a nice holiday?”
He frowned. “Yeah. Really good. Is something wrong?”
“Oh, come on, you really don’t know? She’s been here quite a long time.”
“I thought you said it was okay?”
Laura sighed. “I did. But let’s face it, I didn’t expect it to be quite so long.”
“I’m sorry, I would’ve got us a hotel, I did offer—”
“It’s fine,” said Laura tightly. “I would like to know, though, why it’s such a big secret, the day she’s leaving.”
“It’s not a secret.”
“But when I asked, she wouldn’t say. And she hasn’t volunteered any information since.” Laura felt the tension of the last few days rise up in her. “How long is she intending to stay, anyway? Weeks, months, the entire summer?”
“She’s leaving on Saturday.”
She was brought up short. “Saturday? What, the day after tomorrow?”
“Yes, she’s got to go back to work.”
“Right. So, why hasn’t she said?”
“She has. I’ve known for ages.”
“But she didn’t think of telling me?”
“She . . . I . . . probably forgot. Sorry, I should’ve thought. If I’d known we were invading your space, we would’ve moved out. Honestly.”
Laura swallowed her dismay.“We.”He kept saying“we.”She had missed her son the last couple of weeks. “You know that’s not what I wanted.”
They fell silent. Both had more to say, but neither wanted to go on.
“We’d really like it if you came to the beach, Mum. I’d really like it. Just for a couple of hours?”
She almost did.Almost.“Sorry, Daniel. I’ve promised I’d meet up with Izzy.”
It was obvious she’d made it up, and she felt bad for it, but how could she explain there was something about Cherry that didn’t add up? And she was sure she wasn’t imagining the awkwardness between them. It was clear from the hurt look on his face that he thought she didn’t like his girlfriend.
