“Can you watch Harry for me this afternoon?”
“There it is.”
“I’m going on a date. I was going to send him to the childminders, but he wanted to stay with his cool aunt.” She gives me a smile, and of course, I agree. Being a single mum with no sign of the dad must be tough, so I give her a break, especially since it was me who told her to get out more.
Footsteps echo down the hall.
Fern’s eyes widen. “Is someone here?”
“Yes, but don’t freak out.”
“Don’t tell me he’s here?” She digs her fists into her wide hips.
The pulse in my neck races. I know it’s awkward, but I’ve done nothing wrong. She can’t be mad at me for letting him fix my bed.
She whisper-yells. “I heard he was out of jail. How many times are you going to help him?”
I relax, realising she’s talking about our brother.
“I don’t want him anywhere near Harry. He called me asking for money, and I told him to get a job like the rest of us.” She’s still whisper-yelling when the front door clicks.
I peer down the hall from the kitchen doorway as Shane walks out to his car. Fern absentmindedly places her mug on the worktop and steps towards the opening. “Is that?—”
“Didn’t you notice his red car out front?” At least she’s stopped going on about our brother, Ash. She doesn’t need to know I’ve been helping him. I knew she wouldn’t approve. She washed her hands of him years ago and with Mum in a care home, I’m all he has, and probably the reason he's in such a mess. I swallow the guilt threatening to rise like it does every time I think of Ash and his situation.
“I…” She freezes in the hallway as Shane returns with two pieces of wood and a saw under his arms.
He nods in our direction. “Hey Fern, how’s it going?”
“Good,” she squeaks.
Shane walks up the stairs all nonchalant.
“Okay, this gets weirder.” Fern turns back to me with pinched brows. “Why is my ex-husband in your house and walking upstairs?”
“He’s fixing my bed.”
Her eyebrow rises, practically lifting off her head. “Who broke the bed?”
“Not him, if that’s what you think.” I open the cupboard, making myself look busy.
“He looks well. The police force must suit him.” She sighs as she lifts her mug again.
I slam the cupboard shut, then thank Kane for making me get those soft close doors, dampening the aggression I feel as I inhale and exhale. She had her chance with him. He might be off-limits to me, but it’d be torture to see the man I want with my sister again.
Her fingernails tap against the ceramic mug. “Why isn’t your boyfriend fixing your bed?”
“Er. Maybe because I don’t have one.”
Her brow wrinkles. “What happened with Kane?”
“Argh. Why does everyone keep talking as though we were married off? He was never my boyfriend. We were…” I glancearound the room, looking for little ears. When Harry is out of earshot, I whisper, “We were fuck buddies at best. Nothing more.”
“Kane hasn’t been the same since that night.” Fern sips her drink again, her eyes staring off into the distance as if thinking back to twenty years ago. I was just a child, but I remember hearing about what happened. The whole town talked about it for months.
“Lilly, do you have a pencil? I just need to mark up the wood.” Shane stands in the doorway of my hall and kitchen with his hands in his combat trouser pockets, not daring to get any closer to my sister.
Harry whizzes into the space with his little car in hand, but comes to an abrupt halt under Shane’s shadow. Tilting his head back, he gazes up at the man towering above him. “Are you Aunty Lilly’s boyfriend?”
