‘Never mind the pub.’ Seb squared his shoulders. ‘I can see to this place. It’s that young lass who needs you now. Go and see what’s up with her, cos something is and it’s hard to listen to all that crying, I’ll tell you that for nowt.’
Sam was dazed at his father’s offer to help in the bar, but his priority right then was Jenna and finding out what had happened to her.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Might go some way to getting into their good books,’ Seb said with a shrug, nodding towards the kitchen. ‘They’re not best pleased with me since I told them about the pub going up for sale.’
And who, thought Sam,could blame them?Although he still felt as if it were his fault.
‘Thanks, Dad,’ he said.
His father nodded and turned to one of the customers. ‘Right then. What can I get you?’
Sam barely had time to register with satisfaction how at home and completely normal his dad had just sounded. Running up the stairs, he found Jenna at the kitchen table, head in her hands, crying as if the end of the world had just been announced.
‘What is it?’ he asked, dropping into the chair next to hers. ‘Has something happened?’
Without even thinking about it, he put his arms around her, and she allowed him to hold her as she rested her head against his chest, sobbing even harder, if that were possible.
It was difficult for him to understand what she was saying, and he kept having to ask her to repeat things.
He got her some fresh tissues, dabbed at her cheeks and pulled strands of tear-soaked hair away from her face as she babbled about Joel being in love with this Annette woman, and about some city centre burger bar, and how Hallie and Ada had been so brave, and about Joel expecting her to leave and being quite put out that she was staying and how stupid and unwanted she’d felt when she’d realised that, and what was she supposed to do when the father of her own children didn’t want to see her after nearly four weeks of living apart?
There was something about green dungarees in there, too, but like a lot of what she was saying, he wasn’t quite certain what she was talking about.
What hewasquite clear about, though, was that Joel had told the girls that their parents were separated, without discussing the matter with Jenna or giving her any warning.
He’d also told Jenna he didn’t love her any more. And – God, what a kick in the guts for her – he’d told her he hadn’t loved her since the twins were born.
Sam thought grimly that he would love nothing more than to punch Joel Trent hard inhisguts and see how he liked it.
When Jenna finally stopped crying, she looked completely exhausted and highly embarrassed.
‘This is terrible,’ she told him, gazing in dismay at the soaking wet tissues dotted around her mug of cold tea. ‘I’ve held it together so well for ages, and now I’ve shown myself up twice in one day.’
‘You haven’t shown yourself up,’ he assured her.
‘Oh, I have.’ She shook her head. ‘You should have heard me crying to my mum earlier, and now this. I’m so embarrassed.’
‘You shouldn’t be. You have no need to be. You’ve had a shock. What he did’ – he couldn’t bring himself to say Joel’s name – ‘was appalling. He had no right to just announce your separation to the twins without discussing it with you first. I mean, why am I even surprised? He didn’t even have the decency to discuss the end of your marriage with you first.’
Jenna tilted her head. ‘He didn’t, did he?’
‘No! The only reason you realised he’d left you was because he didn’t come home from work, and then he didn’t even have the courage to collect his things but sent his friend round to get them for him. And you had to find out about this other woman from the same friend. He’s totally gutless, if you ask me.’
Maybe he shouldn’t have said that, but he couldn’t help it. This Joel creature wasn’t even a man, in his opinion. What sort of man treated his family in that way?
‘I think you’re right,’ she said sadly. ‘It doesn’t say much for him, does it?’
‘I think it says a lotabouthim, though. So you have no reason to feel ashamed. He’s the one who should be feeling ashamed. I don’t know how he can look at himself in the mirror every day.’
‘Oh,’ she said with a short laugh, ‘he has no trouble with that, believe me.’
‘I do.’ That ‘man’ clearly loved himself more than he loved anyone else.
‘I just don’t understand this Annette person,’ Jenna said, sounding puzzled. ‘It makes no sense, does it?’
‘What doesn’t?’ he asked, glad that she’d at least stopped crying now and was speaking more rationally.
