“Lots of things—trips to the park, holidays we’d have.” Rosa was speaking softly, her own memory taking her on a trip backwards in time. “I think she wanted to do everything with you.”
“I feel sorry for her that she missed out on so much of that.” Imogen frowned. “Maybe that’s why she spoils me now.”
“Oh, you do know you’re spoiled?” Rosa quipped.
“Course I do.” Imogen chuckled. “I try not to take advantagetoomuch.”
“Uh huh.” Rosa pointed to the new trainers. “I think maybe she feels a little guilty for not being there and she overcompensates at times.”
“Sometimes I feel…” Imogen stopped and looked away.
“What is it?” Rosa asked gently. “You can tell me anything, you know that.”
Imogen turned back to face Rosa. “I do, but sometimes I worry that if I say it, it will hurt you.”
Rosa inched along the couch until she could reach out and take Imogen’s hand. “That’s okay. Just say it.”
Imogen took a deep breath, looked down and then bit her bottom lip as she thought about it. When she looked up again, her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
“I just…sometimes I feel angry with you both for not working it out and staying together.”
“That’s understandable.” Rosa squeezed Imogen’s fingers. “I get angry about that too. It wasn’t the outcome either of us wanted—for us, or for you.”
“I know.” Imogen smiled sadly. “And I’m not really angry, or ungrateful. I know you did the best you could, and I’ve never gone without or felt unloved, and yet…there is a part of me that missed out. Sometimes Robbie talks about her mum and dad, and even though they’ve gone now, she has all these memories of them from when she was little, and I try not to be jealous because I’ve still got both of you, but there’s this little part of me that just wishes I had…” She glanced away again.
Rosa waited, her body tensing a little.
“What do you wish you had?”
“A proper family,” Imogen finally said. “You, me, Billy. I know it’s silly to be sixteen and—”
“It’s not silly, Imogen.” Rosa stroked her cheek and wiped away the single tear slowly sliding down. “I’m sorry we couldn’t make it work and give you that.”
Chapter forty-seven
Rosa tossed and turned all night. The conversation with Imogen earlier had unsettled her more than she’d thought it would.
At six, she’d given up trying to sleep and got up. She prepared breakfast and organised the day ahead, then sent Billy a text, asking if they could meet at lunchtime.
Billy’s response had been far too flirty for that early in the morning, especially after an emotional teenage rollercoaster and a sleepless night.
She managed the morning with Roger, setting down the file he’d requested onto his desk, barely receiving a grunt in recognition.
By the time she slid into the booth at Banjo and looked up at the grinning face of her ex-wife, she was about ready to explode.
“Hey,” Billy said, noting the tension in Rosa’s demeanour. “Everything alright?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. We need to talk.”
“Yep, I worked that out from the‘we need to talk’text I got in reply to my ‘last night was amazing’text.” She sat back. “Are you dumping me?”
“What? No…I mean, I don’t know, but no, that wasn’t my intention—though it might need to be,” Rosa blurted.
“Take a breath, Rosa.” Billy reached out across the table, but Rosa pulled her hand back. “Tell me what’s happened?”
Before Rosa could speak, a waiter appeared, smiling down at them.
“Are we ready to order?”
