‘Mum does. She’s always telling me to hold my stomach in, not to slouch, that sugar’s bad for me. She never allows me syrup in my coffee when we go out. She only lets me have coffee if I insist.’
‘Your mother is very elegant.’
‘She used to do a bit of modelling, but she wasn’t good enough to make the big time.’
‘Is that where she goes,’ Jules asked, ‘when she goes to the mainland, to do some modelling?’
Tasha laughed out loud. It was short and sharp.
‘Oh no! She goes to see an old boyfriend. They’re just friends now – or so she says.’
‘Well, perhaps they are. It is possible to be friends with old boyfriends.’
Tasha raised an eyebrow and immediately Jules thought of Gavin. She could never be friends with him.
‘Mum prefers male friends to female ones.’
Tasha said ‘friends’ in a specific way.
‘Some women do.’
‘She wanted to be friends with Guy, but until Carrie came, he wasn’t interested in anyone, least of all Mum. She’s not his type. So she turned her attention to Lance. Even did a course at the pottery.’
Jules took a biscuit. They were very moreish.
‘But she was too impatient.’
‘It can take time to get the hang of it,’ Jules said.
Tasha threw her a withering look.
‘Not with the pots, with Lance.’
‘Oh!’
‘You know his wife died?’
‘Yes.’
‘He puts Erin and Fitz first, above everything. Did your dad do that, put you first?’
Jules thought for a moment.
‘He tried to, but my mother was,isquite needy.’
Tasha nodded.
‘I get that. Dad’s always trying to keep the peace. He thinks I wind Mum up on purpose.’
‘Do you?’
Tasha stared at her and clasped her cup so tightly her knuckles turned white.
‘Mum only has to look at me to get wound up. She says I have a surly face.’ Tasha lifted her chin and tilted her head to one side. ‘Do you think I have a surly face?’
‘No, I don’t.’
She smiled and reached for a biscuit, taking a mouse bite from the edge.
