‘We would always support you – you know that.’
‘Even if I went weird?’
‘You’d never go weird. There’s nothing weird about needing extra help sometimes, especially in your situation. What you’ve been through, I mean. You see it as a sign of weakness, but nobody else does.’
Zoe had more to say, but before she could, the back door flew open and Grizzle bounded in, his tail whirring like a dynamo. Alex stepped over the threshold next, followed by their neighbour and owner of Daffodil Farm, Victor. Billie’s face lit up. She’d grown fond of Victor and his wife Corrine, and Zoe suspected she viewed them as surrogate grandparents when her own couldn’t be close by.
‘Hello, love!’ His voice boomed through the kitchen. He walked straight past Zoe and over to Billie and Louisa, smilingbroadly as he viewed her from a respectful distance. ‘Growing up lovely, isn’t she? And so fast!’
Billie’s glow brightened. ‘I don’t suppose I notice it because I see her every day.’
‘Oh yes,’ Victor said, hooking his thumbs into his braces. ‘Growing up pretty as a picture!’
‘We think so too,’ Alex said, going to kiss Zoe and Billie in turn. ‘Though we’re biased.’
It was then Victor seemed to notice Zoe, and he flushed. ‘I’m so sorry, my love, didn’t see you there. How are you faring?’
‘Good,’ Zoe said. ‘I don’t blame you for not noticing when Louisa is in the room. She steals the scene of every room she’s in.’
‘She’ll be charming the birds from the trees in a few years, no mistake.’
‘Sit down,’ Alex told Victor, who went to kick his boots off at the door before accepting the offer, despite the fact he’d already walked a trail of mud through in his excitement to look at Louisa. ‘Tea?’
‘I never say no to tea.’ Victor pulled off his woolly hat and sat it on the table, ruffling his thick white hair to unflatten it.
‘I suppose Alex has told you our news?’ Zoe asked wryly.
‘He’s toldeveryone,’ Billie said.
‘Not quite,’ Zoe shot back. ‘There’s that man in Ambleside who still doesn’t know.’
‘Haha, very funny.’ Alex grinned as he went to fill the kettle. ‘I was going to make you both tea as well, but you can fend for yourselves now.’
‘And we’re very capable of doing that,’ Zoe said sweetly. ‘So it’s not quite the retaliation you think it is.’
‘Don’t take away the only bargaining tool I’ve got.’
‘It’s the same at our place,’ Victor said with a sage shake of his head. ‘Corrine’s got the upper hand in everything.’
‘That’s only because you love her cake so much you’ll do anything for it,’ Zoe said.
‘Aye, that’s true enough.’
‘I can’t do home-made cake for you, but I’ve got biscuits…’ Alex went to the cupboard, but Billie got up with Louisa and went to the bread crock.
‘I made scones…in here.’
‘You did?’ Victor sat to attention, peering at the crock as if he could see through it. ‘Corrine’s recipe?’
‘Yes, the ones with the buttermilk. I thought I’d try them out.’
‘When did you get time to do that?’ Alex asked. ‘I never noticed.’
‘You were busy in your office, and Louisa was having a nap, so…’ She shrugged. ‘Her sleeps are a bit longer these days, and there’s only so many times you can look at your phone and not get jealous of what everyone else is doing.’
Zoe gave a pained smile. She wondered if that was how Billie really felt about her situation. Did she feel as if she was missing out? She’d never seemed that interested in the things many other young women her age were into, but perhaps she’d only said so because she hadn’t wanted to acknowledge that she yearned for what she couldn’t have. Had she been into what everyone else her age was into before her boyfriend had been killed and left her a single mother? Zoe hadn’t known her back then, so it was hard to say, and when she’d once asked Alex, he’d replied with all the certainty of a father who had decided it would be wise to keep out of that particular part of his daughter’s life.
‘They look good.’ Alex lifted out the greaseproof paper and unwrapped it to reveal fluffy, golden-topped scones.
