“I’ve never owned a car,” Lucy said, “but if I did, it would be a complete mess, I know. It would be like having another closet.”
He laughed, and Lucy saw Bella shoot him a sharp look before turning to stare determinedly out the window. Okay, so it was becoming clear that his daughter did not approve of her friendship with Alex. She wasn’t going to bend over backwards to make Bella change her mind.
They drove along the coast road towards Egremont, the sea sparkling on one side and sheep pasture on the other. Lucy saw a sign for Buttermere and said, “Do you know I haven’t actually been to a lake since I’ve been here? I saw Bassenthwaite on the drive down, through the fog and rain. But considering this is the Lake District, I feel gypped.”
“This is theWesternLake District,” Alex said. “We’re nine miles from the most westerly lake, Ennerdale.”
“Sometimes we walk Charlie there,” Poppy piped up. “He likes to swim in the water.”
“I’ll have to check it out.”
“You could go with us,” Poppy suggested blithely. “Couldn’t she, Daddy?”
Alex stared straight ahead, flexing his hands on the steering wheel. “I suppose she could.”
Which wasn’t the most promising invitation, and so Lucy kept silent.
The fair was in full swing by the time they arrived, after having spent a taxing twenty minutes trying to find a parking space while Poppy clamored to be let out and Bella kept sighing loudly.
“You’re going to wish you hadn’t come,” Alex told Lucy, when they finally made it down the hill to the town’s market square, where the fair’s main activities were being held.
“It takes a little more than that to put me off,” Lucy answered, and then wondered if he would read more into that statement than she’d meant—although she wasn’t even sure what she meant.
What was she doing, tangling herself up with this widower and his lonely kids?
Poppy ran back to tug on Alex’s sleeve. “Daddy, the parade is starting!” she cried, and they both turned to see a crowd of people coming down the high street, led by the year’s crowned Crab Fair Queen, a teenage girl in a ball gown and a tiara.
They watched the procession of classic cars, dancers, a brass band, several floats for various causes and charities, and finally the apple cart, which was the highlight of the parade. Following the ancient tradition, apples were tossed to the children lining the street, and they ran around, laughing and shouting, as they gathered them up. Even Bella got into it, although she tried to be cool, and Alex turned to Lucy.
“Why don’t you think you’re good with children?” he asked, and she blinked, disconcerted by the sudden, unexpected question.
“What—”
“You said you weren’t good with them before. Why?”
She shrugged, her eyes on the children scurrying for apples as she wondered how much she should say. Then she decided, for once, to tell the truth. “I suppose because the two I tried with the hardest were pretty unimpressed.”
Alex was silent for a moment, seeming to sift through her words before he asked lightly, “So who were these brats?”
“Their names were Will and Garrett. I don’t think they were actually all that terrible, but they certainly didn’t like me.” Shepaused, and then continued, “They were the sons of a man I dated for a couple of years. Thomas.”
Another silence, and Lucy kept her gaze on the hunt for apples. “And then what happened?” he finally asked.
“I suppose it’s really a question of what didn’t happen.” She tried to keep her voice both light and matter-of-fact, the only way she knew of lowering the intensity of the conversation. “They never accepted me, even though I tried so hard. MaybebecauseI tried so hard.” She sighed, her gaze still on the children, and decided to go for broke. “I wanted to be part of their family. Thomas was divorced, and their mother married someone else and had a baby, and so Will and Garrett were kind of left out in the cold. At least I thought they were. But maybe that was wishful thinking. I wanted to fill a space in their lives that wasn’t really there.”
“Maybe they were confused about their mother’s new relationship,” Alex suggested. “And they took it out on you, because that was easiest.”
“Maybe,” Lucy agreed. This was definitely starting to feel like a very charged conversation, although she couldn’t discern its actual currents. “But it certainly made me miserable, and I ended it, accidentally, I suppose, after everything blew up with my mother and the art showing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Thomas suggested I not come around for a while, because of all the media attention. He felt it would be bad for the boys.”
“Pillock,” Alex muttered, and Lucy shook her head although she was smiling.
“You really need a naughty jar.”
“So did you stay away?”
