The Stepmothers’ Support Group. Sam Baker

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СКАЧАТЬ and Lily had been so engrossed they hadn’t noticed Clare was gone until she’d returned with the second round of coffees.

      Lily nodded thoughtfully. ‘So, he’s a proper dad,’ she said. ‘Unlike Liam.’ She smiled indulgently. ‘He’s an every third weekender. And then only when he remembers.’

      ‘Liam forgets?’

      ‘Oh yeah,’ Clare said. ‘He’d forget his head if it wasn’t screwed on.’

      ‘My turn,’ Eve said, reaching for her purse.

      ‘OK,’ said Lily. ‘But I’ll get the next round.’

      Clare raised her eyebrows.

      ‘If there is one, obviously,’ Lily added hastily.

      ‘It wasn’t that much,’ Clare said, looking at the ten pound note Eve was holding out to her. When Eve rolled her eyes, Clare took it anyway. It would pay her Tube fare home.

      ‘Back to Liam,’ she said. ‘And his convenient bouts of amnesia.’

      ‘Don’t start,’ said Lily, but her tone was light and the smile reached her eyes as she pulled a picture from her wallet. It showed a slightly thickset man, with dark curly hair and crinkly brown eyes. He was good-looking, if you liked the type, and he knew it.

      ‘Looks like Jimmy Nesbitt with longer hair,’ Eve said.

      ‘God, don’t tell him that,’ said Lily. ‘He’s vain enough as he is.’

      ‘I’m not sure Eve meant that as a compliment.’

      Lily caught Eve’s eye and both women grinned. ‘Thing is,’ she said, ‘I know Clare doesn’t appreciate his finer qualities…’

      She ignored her sister choking pointedly on her coffee.

      ‘But I love him. I’ve never met anyone like him. He’s funny and clever and…’

      ‘The sex is great,’ said Clare.

      ‘Clare!’

      ‘You’re telling me it isn’t?’

      ‘OK, the sex is great,’ Lily grinned. ‘You’re just jealous.

      ‘Seriously, though,’ she returned her attention to Eve. ‘If you’d told me a year ago I’d be taking on a guy twelve years older than me with a three-year-old kid I’d have told you to dream on, so I guess that makes it a bit more than great sex.’

      Lily smiled again. ‘But, yes, he forgets, a lot…’

      ‘And you can’t do that with a kid,’ Clare completed for her.

      ‘Never make a promise you can’t keep.’ Eve put in. She had heard it from Ian, about a zillion times. Never fight a battle you can’t win. Let the small stuff go. Concentrate on the things that matter.

      ‘Well,’ Lily said. ‘Let’s just say, reliability isn’t Liam’s strongest point. Not even where Rosie’s concerned.’

      ‘Understatement,’ Clare snorted. ‘Tell her about the FA Cup quarter-final.’

      ‘Not his finest moment. Rosie comes every third weekend. Liam picks her up Saturday, takes her back Sunday. He fixes his shifts around it. We both do, if we can.’

      ‘Which paper’s he on?’

      Lily named a tabloid.

      ‘Anyway, that’s how our free Saturdays are spent, babysitting.’ She glanced at her sister, and Eve was impressed to see Clare remain silent.

      All of Clare’s were spent babysitting.

      ‘So, he got a call late Friday night saying they needed him to cover the quarter-final. To be fair, he did try to get out of it. I heard him. But his editor wasn’t having it. And, ultimately, work’s work. The paper comes first, everything else is second. That’s what he’s like. What he’s always been like.’

      Now that Eve understood.

      Taking a gulp of coffee, Lily said, ‘He couldn’t face calling Siobhan—his ex—at midnight. I didn’t blame him. It’s not exactly amicable at the best of times and this was going to cause a huge row.’

      Clare nodded. She’d obviously heard it before.

      ‘When he left next morning, I just assumed he’d call her on his way to work. I was on the verge of phoning the Comedy Club to see if they needed any shifts covering, when his doorbell rings. So I picked up the videophone assuming it’s the post or something. There’s Siobhan, with Rosie, Angelina Ballerina rucksack and all.’

      ‘God!’ said Eve, horrified. ‘What did you do?’

      ‘What could I do?’ Lily shrugged. ‘I let her in. Siobhan was furious. Man, did she give me a piece of her mind. It’s funny how she’s changed the goalposts to suit her. She refused to let me anywhere near Rosie in the beginning. But then Liam told her that if she wanted every third weekend off, Rosie would be spending it with us or she’d be making other arrangements. So she backed off.’

      ‘New boyfriend,’ Clare said. ‘Wants some time for herself.’

      For a split-second Eve’s eyes met Lily’s.

      ‘So there I was—and there Liam wasn’t,’ Lily continued. ‘I was at least as furious with Liam as Siobhan was. Being lumbered with his kid without anyone even having the decency to ask, but there was no way I was going to let Siobhan see that.’

      ‘What about Rosie?’ Eve asked. ‘Did her mum take her away again?’

      ‘Fat chance!’ Lily was emphatic. ‘She dumped her on the settee, turned on CBeebies and shut the flat door so she could spit venom in the privacy of a communal stairwell. She said I could tell Liam she expected him to deliver Rosie back at the usual time and she’d be having words with him. Then she buggered off. Can’t say I blame her. But talk about kicking the cat.’

      Eve was blown away by the young woman’s calmness. She wasn’t sure she would know how to cope with this now, let alone when she’d been Lily’s age.

      Maybe she could learn something after all…

       FOUR

      His dark head was burrowed into the pillow, and his flat silent but for the sound of his breathing when Lily finally pushed open the door to the bedroom she shared with Liam. As she stood in a strip of light from the hall, she couldn’t help feeling a pang. A bit of her wanted to reach out and stroke his hair. Another bit wanted a quiet life and some sleep. She couldn’t risk waking him, and didn’t want another scrap, because scrap was all they had done since Rosie’s last visit.

      If they were speaking at all.

      Surely this wasn’t СКАЧАТЬ