She laughed, glad of the change of conversation.
‘You’re absolutely right.’
‘What do you think Dad is?’ Erin asked, pushing the remaining two tubs into the middle of the table.
Jules felt flustered. It’s just an ice cream flavour, she said to herself. It really doesn’t matter one way or the other if you get it right.
‘This is my inscrutable face,’ Lance said, leaning back in his chair.
‘And it is impressively inscrutable,’ she said. ‘You don’t look like you at all.’
And she blushed because it made it sound as if she’d been studying his every feature and really, she barely knew him. so how did she know what he looked like when he was in his own private space, when he was able to be his real self?
‘I think you like both of them,’ she said.
‘That’s opting out,’ Erin said. ‘You’re not allowed to do that.’
‘And you are right,’ Lance said, teasingly. ‘I do like both of them, but I like one slightly more than the other.’
‘Come on, Dad, more than slightly. You’re addicted to one of them.’
Jules thought back and tried to remember which cake he had eaten at teatime that day when she and Carrie had come on the course. It was only a few days ago, but it seemed much longer.
‘You’re overthinking this,’ he said softly.
‘I know.’
She felt like bursting into tears.
‘Trust your instinct.’
But I don’t trust my instinct anymore, she thought, and she looked up at him, her eyes pooling, aware of tears beading on her lashes.
‘Erin, sweetheart, can you go and get some spoons?’ he said, and she scraped her chair back and headed for the dresser. ‘And while you’re there, can you put a bit more food down for Morwenna?’
‘Sorry,’ he whispered to Jules, placing his hand over hers. ‘It really doesn’t matter. It’s just a silly game we play with visitors.’
She felt the warmth of his skin against hers, looked at his nails and a small scab on one of his knuckles where he’d cut himself. She closed her eyes and suddenly felt safe.
‘Chocolate and orange,’ she said, flicking her eyelids open to find him still looking at her intently.
‘Right first time,’ he said.
‘You’d have said that anyway,’ she said, ‘even if honeycomb was really your favourite.’
He shook his head.
‘I wouldn’t,’ he said, ‘because that would be deceitful and I would never want to deceive you, Jules.’
He was a good man, she thought. Christabel was right about one thing, after all. Sarah had been a very lucky woman.
‘You can’t walk now,’ Lance said, ‘it’s getting dark. I’ve only had one small glass of wine so I’ll run you back.’
Erin hugged her as she left.
‘Thank you for staying.’
Jules dropped her head so that her lips brushed Erin’s hair.
