‘No,’ Joel said firmly. ‘But that doesn’t mean I’m not still your daddy. You’ll still see me. Nothing much will change.’
‘No,’ Hallie said innocently. ‘I don’t suppose it will.’
‘So you’re all right with this?’
Ada bit her lip but nodded. ‘Will we see you on our birthday?’ she asked sadly.
Joel exchanged glances with Jenna, who waited for his reply. ‘We’ll have to see,’ he said at last. ‘It’s tricky, what with work…’
‘It’s a Saturday,’ Jenna reminded him. He wasn’t going to get away with making that excuse.
Hallie shrugged. ‘It’s okay. We don’t see you much on our birthdays anyway, do we?’
Joel stared at her through narrowed eyes, as if trying to work out if she was deliberately trying to annoy him or was just speaking her mind as usual. He evidently decided not to take offence, as he smiled and said, ‘I’d love to be with you on your birthday, sweetheart, but you’re at Kelsea Sands, aren’t you?’
‘You can come to Kelsea Sands,’ Ada told him earnestly. ‘It’s not that far away, is it, Mummy?’
It’s another bloody world.
‘I’m not sure Grandma would want me to visit,’ he said smoothly.
The twins looked puzzled and Jenna wasn’t having that. No way was he going to blame her mum because he couldn’t be bothered to drive out to the coast to see his own children on their birthday.
‘My mum would be happy to see you. We’re going to have a little birthday party for them and of course you’re invited. It starts at one.’
Joel managed to keep his face expressionless as he stared at her. ‘Well, that’s good then,’ he said at last. ‘Now girls, who’s for ice cream?’
As Jenna fastened the twins into their car seats a little later, she ruffled their hair and dropped kisses on the tops of their heads.
‘I love you,’ she told them fiercely, and they smiled back at her. Little angels who didn’t deserve the deal they’d been given.
She closed the car door and stepped back to where Joel was standing, ready to head back to work.
Turning her back to the car so the twins couldn’t see her face, she snapped at him, ‘How could you? We should have discussed this! You had no right to tell them we’d separated without talking it over with me first.’
‘They’re my kids, too!’
‘They’reourkids, Joel. Something as big as this – we should have decided between us how and when to tell them. The way you just dropped it on them, at a burger bar of all places!’
‘They had a right to know,’ he said sullenly.
‘Don’t you think it’s a bit too soon?’ she said. ‘You’ve only been gone a couple of weeks. You don’t know how things will pan out. Withher.’
He gave her a sharp look. ‘With who?’
‘Oh come off it, Joel. Do you think I don’t know aboutNettie?’
It gave her some small satisfaction to see a flicker of guilt cross his face, but that quickly vanished to be replaced by anger.
‘Bloody Louis, I suppose. I should have known.’
‘Don’t blame Louis! You should have told me about her. Why, Joel? What’s so special about her that you’d throw away your whole family for her? How long’s it been going on? How did it start?’
Now that the subject was out in the open, she wanted to know everything about the affair, despite knowing how much it would hurt her. Maybebecauseshe knew how much it would hurt her.
Joel wasn’t interested in giving her answers, though.
‘Do you honestly think I’m going to stand here talking about this now?’
