‘I understand you want to be with him, princess. I know love isn’t choosy,’ he’d said, oozing understanding while backhandedly insulting him. ‘I won’t try to influence your decision, sweetheart, I wouldn’t dream of it,’ he’d continued, doing just that, ‘but you can postpone motherhood for a while, surely? You’re young. You have plenty of time to have children. Finish your degree before tying yourself down, hey? It’s what you’ve always wanted. Meanwhile, you’ll be giving Jason time to prove himself. He’s hardly in a position to support—’
‘He doesn’t need to prove himself!’ Karla had jumped aggressively to his defence. ‘I love him, Dad. I’d marry him if he were penniless.’
‘But love doesn’t pay the bills, Karla.’ Robert had sighed expansively. ‘Does it?’
‘We’ll work it out! Jason has plans,’ Karla had countered.
‘To do what, exactly?’ Robert’s tone had been scornful, even then.
‘Ecommerce,’ Karla had announced, which had been news to Jason. His degree had been in computer science, and he had been toying with the idea of designing packages and websites for sports equipment manufacturers. Even then, though, he hadn’t relished the idea of being stuck behind a desk. Being inclined to extreme sports, enjoying everything from scuba diving to paragliding, he had wondered whether there might be an opportunity in corporate events – preferably hands on, leading team-building exercises.
‘I see. He’d have to be very savvy to make his mark in that industry.’ Sounding unconvinced, Fenton had offered his invaluable opinion, he himself being an entrepreneurial genius who had grown his hugely successful plumbing and bespoke bathroom business from the basement of a dry cleaner’s. After hitting £1m revenue six years after start-up, Robert Fenton, self-made man, was now worth an estimated £50m. Clearly, he thought his fortune afforded him dubious privileges – Jason still couldn’t believe the man would make overtly sexual advances to a young woman at his own wife’s birthday party.
‘You’re very quiet,’ Karla observed, after several miles spent driving in silence.
‘Yeah, sorry.’ Jason ran a hand over the back of his neck. ‘Just thinking.’ He hadn’t meant to give her the silent treatment, but the truth was, he was tired. Tired of her father preaching at him. Tired of Karla not seeming to want to listen whenever he tried to talk to her about how it made him feel: Useless, basically. Tired full stop.
‘So what were you and Dad talking about?’ Karla enquired, as they neared the house.
‘Nothing much.’ Jason tugged in a terse breath. ‘He told me there was no shame in failure.’ Turning into the drive, Jason killed the engine. ‘I cut the conversation short at that point, for obvious reasons.’ He’d been sorely tempted to tell the guy, once and for all, what he thought of him, and then suggest he piss off out of their lives.
‘Oh God.’ Karla winced. ‘Did you argue with him again?’
Jason didn’t much like the implication of that, as if he were somehow partly to blame for the fact that he and her father didn’t get on. As far as Jason was concerned, he deserved a medal for being remotely civil to someone like Robert Fenton. ‘Nope. I held my temper, you’ll be pleased to know, excused myself to reclaim my wife from the arms of another man and then suggested we leave, which my wife was severely pissed off about. All in all, not a great night.’
Karla spilled out the passenger side as he shoved his door open and climbed out. ‘Is that what that was all about?’
‘What what was all about?’ Jason headed for the front door.
‘Your moodiness.’ Karla followed him. ‘You barely spoke to me on the dance floor, and you’ve hardly spoken a word since.’
‘I couldn’t hear myself speaking on the dance floor,’ Jason pointed out, going in first and heading towards the lounge, where the TV was on way too loud. ‘And I’m not “moody”. I just have a lot on my mind.’
Correction:now he was feeling a definite mood coming on. ‘Holly?’ He swung his gaze in his daughter’s direction. ‘What are you doing up? It’s way past your bedtime. And what inGod’sname are you watching?’ He turned his attention to the TV, which the babysitter had paused, unfortunately freezing an opaque-eyed corpse rising from a post-mortem table.
Jesus.It would give Holly nightmares for weeks. Storming in, Jason shot the babysitter an unimpressed look as he relieved her of the TV remote.
‘Dad!’ Her expression indignant, Holly unfurled herself from the armchair as he hit the off button. ‘I was watching that.’
‘Bed,’ Jason said, pointing the way.
Holly splayed her hands. ‘But you and Mum let me watch Netflix.’
‘Age-appropriate stuff, Holly. Which this isnot.’ Jason folded his arms and waited.
Clearly seeing there was no wiggle room, Holly folded her arms in turn and then, her face set in a petulant scowl, she flounced past him to the hall. ‘This is so unfair,’ she muttered, as she went. ‘You’re treating me like a child.’
Watching her disappear, wearing a fluffy leopard skin onesie and her feet adorned with furry white unicorn slippers, Jason shook his head in bemusement, and then turned angrily to their babysitter, who was looking sheepish. And so she should be.
‘What the hell were you thinking, Megan?’ he asked her, trying very hard not to lose his temper.
‘She couldn’t sleep,’ Megan offered by way of explanation, as she scrambled up to stuff her feet into the pumps she’d kicked off and retrieve her phone from the coffee table.
Jason laughed, disbelieving. ‘Excuse me?’
‘It was justThe Haunting of Hill House,’ Megan said, with a discernible sigh, as if he was making a fuss about nothing. ‘My little brother watches it.’
‘I don’t care what it was!’ Jason lost it. ‘She’llbe haunted. She probably won’t sleep for weeks. There isno wayyou should have…’ He stopped and took a breath. ‘Look, forget it, Megan. It’s probably best if you just go.’
