Heather’s eyes narrowed. “Hazel posted a photo of her and Olivia at the Eiffel Tower together. I should be in that photo.”
“And how were you planning to pay for that trip?” I pulled out onto the A road that either took you farther into Glenvulin or back toward Leth Sholas. I was heading to just outside Leth Sholas.
“I have money saved.”
“From the money your mum and stepdad give you and you will need for uni.” It was the only point of contention between me and Kiera on raising the kids. I’d wanted Heather to get a job at sixteen, so she’d learn the value of earning her own money. Kiera wanted her to concentrate on school. I argued she could do both. Kiera told me I didn’t understand the pressures of higher education because I’d gone straight into a trade apprenticeship at sixteen. However, I remembered Taran studying for her exams, getting into a good university, all while working as a sales assistant at the fishmonger on the weekends.
It could be done.
“Ugh, here we go again.” Heather shook her head. “Is it your job to make me feel bad all the time, Dad?”
Guilt pricked at me. “No. Of course not. You know I’m proud of you for getting into Glasgow.”
“And Aberdeen, St. Andrews, and Edinburgh.”
“Aye. It’s really great. But I think you’re going to have a shock when you get to Glasgow and you have to live on a student budget.”
“I qualified for a loan to pay for accommodation and my books.”
“How are you planning to pay for food, for clothes, for socializing?” I asked, not for the first time.
Heather let out a grunt of disbelief. “You and Mum, of course.”
“Is that what you think?” Christ. These kids. “Heather, you’re eighteen in six weeks. You need to start thinking about how you’re going to pay for yourself as an adult.”
“So what? I turn an arbitrary bloody age and suddenly you’re booting me out on my own. Aye, that makes sense. Nice parenting skills, Dad.”
“I never said you’re on your own. You know your mum and I will never let anything happen to you. But I want you to at least be thinking about covering your own responsibilities.”
“Heather thinks money grows on trees,” Angus piped up from the back.
“I’m not the one asking Mum for a new pair of trainers every two weeks,” she sniped back.
“No, you’re just spending the money Mum gives you on weed and drink.”
Heather lunged toward the back of the car. “You wee lying shite!”
They slapped and kicked at each other feebly, confined by their seat belts and positions, so I let it happen, trying not to seethe over Angus’s insinuations. My truck bumped along the narrow track road toward the cove of a lesser-known tiny beach. As I parked the car, Angus was pretending to cry and Heather was filming him, mocking his fake tears.
I closed my eyes, leaning my head against the headrest.
“Weed?” I barked.
Silence fell and I opened my eyes. My daughter lowered her phone and turned to glower out the windscreen. “He’s lying.”
“I want you to look at me and promise you’re not smoking weed.”
She rolled her eyes first and then swung her head around. Her face was slathered with so much makeup, I barely recognized her. “I do not smoke weed. Though, according to you,I’m an adult in six weeks, so if I wanted to smoke weed, I could smoke weed, right?”
“No, because it’s illegal.”
Heather scowled. “Whatever. Maybe instead of coming down on me for something I didn’t even do, you should talk to Angus about his lying phase. Did Mum tell you he got in trouble for lying to everyone at school because he thought it made him look cool? He told everyone that Mum lets him drink alcohol and Mum got dragged down to the headteacher’s office.”
“Heather!” Angus shrieked in outrage and then promptly burst into real tears.
Twenty minutes later after I’d had a quiet talk with Angus about the dangers and moral wrongness of lying, I somehow managed to wrangle my son and daughter onto the beach. Kiera hadn’t told me about the school situation with our son, and I was pissed off about that too. It wasn’t a small thing that she’d been questioned by the school about her parenting. If they still lived on the island, I would already know about it. I made a mental note to call her later.
I’d been so caught up in the kids’ constant bickering while trying to carry the picnic stuff down the steep inclineandmaking sure the kids made it down, I didn’t notice the beach was occupied.
