‘Then maybe he will. Either way, Chantal and Dad will have to keep a careful eye on him because they won’t want the police there again.’
‘Maybe you’re right.’
He went to sit at the table, and Zoe joined him, placing a hand over his. ‘I know you want to do the right thing, but I think this is the right thing. It makes the most sense to me. In the meantime, if someone really does have to do some confronting, I could go and have a quiet word with Dad.’
‘I thought you said he’d side with Chantal.’
‘I did, and he probably would, but I suppose I could try. You’d think being his only daughter I must have some influence…’
‘If you really think this will be sorted without our interference?—’
‘I do.’
‘Then I trust you.’
Zoe gave his hand a squeeze. She’d been desperate to avoid police involvement, but she realised now that if it kept Alex out of the drama, then it was the only way they could let things play out. The problem was, she didn’t know for sure that Heath would go to the police. Ottilie had told her they’d discussed it, and that Flo was pushing for it, but they hadn’t decided one way or the other. If Lennon was walking around with a black eye, Heath must have landed a punch or two, so there was a risk he’d end up getting into trouble with the police along with Lennon. Perhaps they would decide to forget the incident and get on with their lives rather than invite trouble.
‘Thank you. I promise if anything else happens, we’ll go straight to Dad and sort it out.’
Alex frowned. ‘Let’s hope it doesn’t. If he does something else, I’m going to struggle with the knowledge that we could have prevented it…’
‘It’ll blow over. I’m sure Chantal will speak to him, if she hasn’t already. She doesn’t want him to leave, but she doesn’t want to keep defending him either, right?’
‘Seems like everything’s going a bit sideways, doesn’t it?’
Zoe smiled. ‘You can say that again. Sometimes it seems that way, but then things settle and you can’t imagine what you were so stressed about.’
Alex looked unconvinced, and Zoe didn’t blame him.
26
Zoe opened the curtains to see it was raining. As if she hadn’t done enough yesterday evening to scupper the chances of Billie joining her for a walk with Georgia and William today, the weather was now doing its best to wreck her plans.
She could only hope that Billie wouldn’t let her down. Then again, she’d let Maisie down, and she’d been far closer to Maisie in the lead-up to Louisa’s birth. With a sigh, Zoe resolved to forge ahead with the plan and hope for the best.
It wasn’t only Billie who was in danger of letting someone down. As she hadn’t been able to speak to Fern the day before, and because she knew that Fern had made the decision to leave the commune, that was also on Zoe’s mind. She’d wondered whether to phone, but she was cautious that she might draw attention to Fern’s plans if someone else answered, which they seemed to do regularly. All in all, Zoe felt she ought to be doing something more about that, but she didn’t have a clue what, and with everything else going on, she’d been forced to put it to the back of her mind and hope Fern was dealing with it, and that if she wasn’t able to deal with it, she’d contact Zoe to say so.
Alex stirred in the bed as she pulled her dressing gown on.
‘I’m making a pot of coffee if you want one,’ she said.
He nodded as he stretched and sat up. ‘Sounds good. Are you still going for that walk?’
‘That’s the plan, though it’s raining right now. If we can’t do that, I suppose we could just do something here. It’ll be a shame, though – the whole point was to get Billie out.’
‘Can’t be helped,’ Alex said. ‘By the way, I love you.’
Zoe gave a bemused smile. ‘I mean, not to complain, and I love you too, but where did that come from?’
‘I love that you always try your best. I’m sure your life would be a hundred times easier if you let us get on with things. You could have a lie-in now, on your day off, take it easy and do whatever you fancied, but you never would, not while someone needs your help.’
‘That’s because sticking my nose in where it’s not necessarily wanted is a hobby of mine. Who’s to say it’s not my idea of a good day out?’
He was still chuckling softly as she closed the door to the bedroom and went downstairs to boil the kettle.
Billie was already in the kitchen with Louisa when Zoe walked in.
‘Morning,’ Zoe said, going to tickle Louisa under the chin. The little girl stared up at her. ‘She’s more alert every day, isn’t she? Really taking everything in now. She’s going to be a little livewire, I can tell.’
