‘Oh yeah.’ Matt grinned. ‘In fact, it’s very quiet around here. Is she not in?’
‘She’s taken bath duty. She’s bathing my daughter right now.’ Both Matt and Rosy looked startled at his words. ‘Whoa, don’t look like that! Chase assures me she isn’t going to drown her.’
‘Chase hasn’t known her that long,’ Matt replied without missing a beat, as Rosy punched him on the arm.
‘Hey, you have to admit Chase has brought out a new side to your sister. You were saying you couldn’t believe how good he was for her, only yesterday.’
‘Yeah, tell all my secrets! I’ve told you before, you would make the rubbishest spy.’
‘Nah, I’d be awesome. I can high-kick and everything. I was going to practise crawling across the roof later tonight.’
‘And Chase has ninja skills with a fish knife – you two would make a crack team.’ Alex joined in their teasing as Chase quirked an eyebrow comically and started peeling potatoes.
‘Can I help at all?’ Rosy queried.
‘Nah, Ange should be here in a minute and if I need help I know that Alex is a bit of a whizz in the kitchen, for all his teasing. Why don’t you four park yourselves at the table and you can tell him why Penmenna School is the best school in the world. Like, actually the best!’
‘Oh, we can do that.’ Rosy smiled and pulled out a chair. ‘And I can assure you that I will be completely objective, Alex. Bias free. It’s just fact, Penmenna Schoolisthe best in the world and the head teacher, well, she’s a wonder. The head of the PTA, however – bit of a dragon, I’d avoid her at all costs.’
All of them laughed, the blonde woman a bit too loudly, which Alex interpreted to mean that she was probably the monster referred to.
‘Hello, Matt, Marion… hmm.’ Angelina bounded into the room and it was impossible not to notice the disparaging look she shot at Rosy. Interesting. Rosy, however, didn’t appear to pay any attention to the blatant rudeness in Angelina’s greeting and smiled a welcome at her anyway. ‘Well, this is no fun. Let’s get this party started, huh?’ and she swung open the big fridge door, grabbed two bottles of fizz and whirled back around, holding them aloft as she did so.
‘Not really a party, Ange…’ her brother responded, pointedly adding, ‘…and you forgot to say hello to Rosy.’
‘Matt, it’s fine,’ his girlfriend protested, placing her hand on his arm.
‘No. No, it’s not.’
‘Hello, Rosy.’ Angelina flashed her a fake smile, usually only found on catty teenage girls. ‘And it’s a dinner party, Matt, duh. Dinnerparty!’
‘Where’s Ellie?’ Alex noticed that Angelina’s top had been changed and, more importantly, that his daughter was nowhere to be seen.
‘Oh, she’s in bed. I told her she didn’t need to come and say goodnight, she’s all clean and in her pyjamas and I’ve logged her into Netflix.’
Wow! Why had he trusted her? Alex jumped from his chair, raced down the hallway and up the stairs to Ellie’s bedroom. By now she’d probably be halfway through some documentaryabout girls in prison, or a serial-killer movie. He threw open the door and saw his daughter tucked up in bed, head laying in a little nest of pillows and staring at the screen.
‘Daddy, look.Peppa Pig! Angileeena set up an account and everything for me. And she says after this I can watchPAW Patrol. Well, she pointed at it and said that thing there with those dumb animals, what she meant wasPAW Patrol. How cool is this?’
‘Yeah, that’s pretty cool. Did you have a nice bath?’
‘Angileeena squirted me with the ducks!’
‘Great. Can I just have a quick look and then you can have it back?’
Alex had no intention of turning the TV off tonight, although he normally had very strict screen-time rules, but he just wanted to double-check. Sure enough, Angelina had set parental controls so there was no danger of Ellie watching anything she shouldn’t.
‘Now, just tonight, and tomorrow we’ll go back to a story before bed, huh?’
‘OK, Daddy. Oh, and Daddy, this is the best day. I love the beach and I love Sam, and I lovvve Angileeena. Night, night. Oh, I love you too!’
‘Love you too, Ells.’
Alex wandered back down to the kitchen, mulling over what Chase had said and the group he had invited tonight. Maybe this was an idea worth considering. Maybe living by the beach with an inbuilt support network of friends, even if just for a short while, was exactly what he needed, and very probably exactly what Ellie needed. She certainly seemed happy here – there had been fewer tantrums and more sleeping over the last couple of nights.
If he was careful with his money he could afford to turn down the anchor job, let his flat out and rent somewhere down herefor a bit, see how things panned out. Solutions started pulling together in his mind – this could work.
Heading back into the kitchen he could hear the fast-paced chatter between the group of friends, the laughter and Angelina’s squeals. Maybe he should consider this after all.
