Maddie swallowed her pizza and turned to me. ‘How was opening day?’
I didn’t appreciate the fake sweet smile of the sing-song voice but I kept my tone light and steady as I answered. ‘Not many visitors but we expected that. Those who came loved what we’ve done to the place and they’ll be frequent returners so that’s good news.’
I swear she wasn’t even listening.
‘Where’ve you been today?’ I asked.
‘Out.’
‘I guessed that much. I’m interested in where and who with.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I’m interested in your day and I hoped you’d be interested in ours.’
Maddie continued to eat so I continued to talk.
‘Your Auntie Hope stopped by – she was actually our first paying customer. Our next customers made a great suggestion to install some benches so Nanna’s arranged for Des and Hunter to come back and do that.’
I couldn’t imagine she’d been with Hunter as he’d have been working but figured, if she had been, she’d have reacted to his name. There was nothing.
‘There was a lovely elderly couple who told us this story about him getting on a heavy horse when he was about five and?—’
Maddie dropped her pizza on her plate and glared at me. ‘Are you trying to do three things?’
‘No. I just thought you might want to hear about our first day.’
She pushed her chair back and I thought she was going to adopt her default mode of walking out, but she went to the fridge to retrieve a soft drink and sat down with it.
‘So what about your day?’ I asked. ‘Cycle far?’
‘I’ve already said I’m not telling you.’
‘Why won’t you tell me where you’ve been and who with? And I don’t just mean today because I know you weren’t at Willow’s house for tea on Saturday or with her at any point since.’
‘You’ve been checking up on me?’ she asked, her expression disgusted.
‘I happened to ask Willow if she’d enjoyed her time off and she told me how she’d spent it – clearly not with you – and she volunteered that she hadn’t seen you since the horse ride.’
‘I was there,’ Jude said. ‘All that came from Willow.’
‘Were you with Hunter? I saw you swapping numbers so I thought maybe?—’
‘Checking up on meandspying? Do you want to put a tracker on me? And, by the way, we were following each other on Instagram. Keep up.’
She picked up her drink and left the kitchen. I closed my eyes and counted to ten but I couldn’t let this go. Muttering my apologies to Mam and Jude, I ran upstairs after Maddie.
‘What has got into you?’ I snapped, striding into her room without knocking. ‘After everything we discussed last week – everything I did to support you – why are we back to square one? Why are you sneaking around and lying to me?’
‘You really want to know?’ Her angry tone matched mine.
‘Yes! Because I don’t understand any of this.’
She snatched up her phone and started scrolling through it, shaking her head, her lips pursed.
‘What are you looking for?’
‘You’ll find out soon. God, I can’t believe how hypocritical you are.’
