Adam smiled awkwardly. ‘No problem,’ he said, and then, ‘Shit,’he muttered, his gaze shooting towards the door
Cassie coughed pointedly. ‘Your son was crying,’ she said, as Adam stepped smartly back and Kim turned apprehensively to face her. ‘I thought you might have heard him.’ Her gaze ice cool, she looked between the two of them. ‘But you were obviously otherwise occupied.’
Twenty-Eight
Cassandra
‘You’ve booked it? Without asking me?’ Cassie stared at Adam in astonishment. She couldn’t believe that he’d gone ahead and made arrangements without discussing it with her first.
‘I thought you’d be pleased.’ Adam’s look was somewhere between crestfallen and frustrated. ‘You need a break, Cas. It’s a spa weekend. It will do you good. Do us both—’
‘But there’s no way I can go away for a whole weekend and leave Kim on her own,’ Cassie pointed out, feeling confused and panicky as she went to turn off the oven timer, which was pinging manically and driving her to distraction.
‘Why?’ Adam asked shortly.
‘Because…’ Cassie wasn’t sure why. Why the hard knot of fear that was constantly lodged in her chest kept tightening. She felt as if she were waiting for a guillotine to drop, that she needed to be constantly on alert. ‘I know she’s doing her best,’ she went on, sounding as flustered as she felt, ‘but you must see she’s not that competent yet. She left him crying, for goodness’ sake.’
‘Babies cry, Cassie,’ Adam said tiredly.
Cassie’s heart sank. He obviously thought she was overreacting, that she was being overbearing and overemotional. Kim clearly did too, since they’d apparently organised this together, thinking she was in need of a break after the shoplifting incident – which in their minds she was guilty of. ‘He was due his feed,’ she said, sure that she wasn’t being any of those things. Her only concern was for Samuel. ‘He needed changing. I can’t go, Adam. I’m sorry, I just wouldn’t rest.’
Adam plunged his hands in his pockets and eyed the ceiling. ‘It’s in Malvern, Cassie. It’s half an hour’s drive away. It was supposed to be a surprise for your birthday.’
‘And what if something happens while I’m lounging around in a bathrobe?’ she asked him. ‘If there’s some kind of emergency?’
‘You get dressed?’ Adam suggested, with a half-hearted smile.
Cassie’s heart sank another inch. She was disappointing him again. She wanted to go to the spa. There was nothing more she wanted than to be able to just sit back and relax, but with everything that had happened lately… ‘What if there’s an accident?’ she asked him. ‘Or Samuel gets sick and she can’t get hold of us?’
‘We’ll have our mobiles,’ Adam reminded her, his frustration growing, as indicated by the hand going through his hair. ‘We can always call her, and we can leave a message with reception if it’s a low signal area.’
‘A low signal area?’ Cassie felt the blood drain from her body. She’d been desperately trying to get hold of Jemma, who hadn’t returned her calls. She was already worried to death about the ominous text messages and the catastrophic consequences there might be, without having to worry about Kim having some kind of crisis.
‘Which is highly unlikely,’ Adam added, sounding now utterly exasperated.
‘I can’t go, Adam.’ Cassie turned to the oven to retrieve the chicken Kiev before it was burned.
‘Right.’ Adam sighed again, heavily. ‘Well that was a waste of time, wasn’t it?’
Lowering the oven pan onto the cooker hob, making herself ignore the spitting fat, Cassie turned around to find Adam looking extremely dejected, and felt awful. He’d done this for her, and she was acting like an ungrateful cow. She couldn’t go, though. It was more than concern for Samuel. She didn’t know what, but she just couldn’t escape the cold feeling in the pit of her stomach that some disaster was looming.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, wishing she had a way to explain that wouldn’t make her sound as emotionally unstable as he plainly thought she was. ‘It was a sweet gesture, Adam, and I really appreciate it, but I would only worry.’
Adam nodded slowly. ‘Cassie, I understand why you would, really I do,’ he said kindly, ‘but nothing’s going to happen. And if it does, Kim’s a grown woman. She’s already told me she’s going away herself this week. She’s promised to call us, so there really is no reason you can’t spend a little time looking after yourself.’
Going away?Taken aback, Cassie stared at him. Kim had mentioned this to Adam and not her? The hairs rose over her skin. Try as she might to dismiss it, the intimate exchange between them in the bedroom came jarringly back to mind. They’d been having an in-depth discussion about her, she realised, an excruciating stab of jealousy piercing her heart. ‘Going away where?’ she asked, breathing deeply, trying to stop the tears from spilling over. ‘Kim didn’t say anything to me. Neither of you did.’
Adam scanned her eyes, his own wary. ‘To her sister’s. In Wales.’
‘Hersister’s?’ But Kim had never said she had a sister. ‘She can’t go,’ she said emphatically. ‘All the way to Wales on her own? On public transport? It’s too risky.’
‘All the way…?’ Adam looked at her askance. ‘Cassie, you’re—’
‘I need to speak to her.’ Cassie fetched her car keys from their hook on the utility room door and flew past him to the hall.
Adam followed her. ‘Cassie, stop,’ he said quietly as she reached for her coat.
She couldn’t stop. She had to see her. She had no idea what was going on here, but one thing she did know was that however hard she tried, for some reason it appeared she was in the wrong.
