‘I can come with you if it helps.’
‘No. Better if I go alone.’ But then she was struck by an idea. ‘Maybe if you could take Ella out of the way it would help.’
‘Me? Take his daughter out?’
‘There’s no need to take a dislike to her just because she’s his. It’s hardly her fault her dad is a rat.’
‘I suppose she does seem sweet.’
‘And Molly really likes her. How much help that’s going to be when they discover they’re sisters is another matter entirely.’
‘Half-sisters,’ Sue reminded her stiffly.
‘Still – it changes everything.’
‘Where am I supposed to take her? What makes you think she’ll be happy to wander off with me and that he’d be happy to let her?’
‘Maybe get Maurice and Bastien to go with you.’
‘What about Molly?’
‘I’m not sure it’s a good idea to throw them together again knowing what we know and what they don’t know. It might make things worse when the truth comes out.’
‘Won’t Molly think it’s odd that we’re taking them and not her? They were like the Three Musketeers yesterday. If anything she’ll be downright annoyed at being left out and she’ll smell a rat anyway.’
‘Probably,’ Ashley said, staring into the depths of her teacup. ‘I suppose you’ll have to take them all out then.’
‘I still don’t think he’s going to let us just turn up and take his daughter out.’
‘OK. But that’s where I come in. Somehow I’m going to have to explain to him, discreetly, that I need to talk to him in private.’
Sue rolled her eyes. ‘Good luck with that.’
‘Thanks.’
‘But you are going to tell him? Because if you don’t—’
‘Yes. Please don’t get involved. Not yet anyway. Let me see how the land lies. If I need someone to punch his lights out after the big reveal then you’ll be my first port of call.’
‘And you can get an explanation from him. How he thought it was OK to take advantage of a vulnerable young girl and then disappear into the night.’
‘I was eighteen and I think the taking advantage might have been mutual.’
‘You were left holding the baby.’
‘True, but he didn’t know there was a baby. We have to assume that he would have done the moral thing and stuck around if he had.’
Sue let out a strange growling tut that said she didn’t agree with Ashley on that point. She’d probably read too many issues of Prima to think anything other than all men under the age of forty were absolute cads. Part of Ashley wondered whether she was right. She wasn’t at all sure that Haydon would be putting out the bunting when he heard the news. He might well just hop into his car and head back to Britain quicker than you could say child-support payment. He might even be angry. He might accuse her of lying about Molly’s paternity, and when she thought about it he’d only have her word for it. There was a lot to talk about, if he wanted to talk, and if he didn’t… Well, Ashley didn’t know what she’d do then. If she hadn’t told her mum she could have skulked away and tried to forget about it, gone back to how their life was before, only this time there’d be no wondering about Haydon’s absence from their lives, because she’d know for certain that he wanted the absence. But now Sue knew the truth it wouldn’t be that simple.
She chewed the inside of her cheek as she watched her mum stir milk into her tea. Perhaps her haste to offload had been seriously misjudged after all. Sue wouldn’t let this drop – not a chance. The way Ashley protected Molly like a mother tiger with her cub – that was just how Sue was with Ashley, even now at thirty-four. That would never change, and no amount of begging her to leave things alone would persuade Sue to keep her mouth shut on this.
‘I’ll have to tell Maurice,’ Sue said.
‘You can’t. Not yet.’
‘We can’t tell the rest of the family, of course. I don’t know that Violette could take the scandal – she might not see a hundred and one with the shock of it.’
‘It’s not her scandal – it’s mine. And it’s not even a scandal. It’s not 1930, you know. There are single mothers everywhere – even in France.’
‘But nobody in her family is in your… situation.’
‘My situation is just bad luck. You make it sound like I’m some sort of brothel worker or something. I slipped up. Once.’
‘You know I didn’t mean that.’ Sue reached across and squeezed Ashley’s hand. ‘I don’t think that at all. I just wish…’
‘That I’d shown a little self-control that night? That I’d stayed sober? That I’d never gone to Ibiza in the first place? I used to think that but now… I have Molly. How could you wish I’d done all those things when it would mean a world without Molly in it? Without making all those mistakes I wouldn’t have her. If I could go back and do it again I wouldn’t change a thing because she’s amazing and my life would have been so much emptier, so much greyer and sadder without her. It’s never been easy, but she’s my daughter and, whatever Haydon says or does now, I’ll always have her to make it OK.’
‘I know all that too. Of course I don’t wish her gone but it causes me such pain to see how you’ve struggled and missed out on all the things your friends had.’
‘I was never in any pain, and I’m sorry if you are. I struggled, but it was a good struggle. I chose to miss out because I had a baby that I loved and wanted more than any stupid career opportunity. I don’t care about any of that now because my daughter is amazing and worth more to me than all of those things my friends had. I was happy with my life and I still am, no matter how hard it sometimes gets.’
‘You’re right, of course. But I wonder if Molly will be quite so philosophical about it all when she finds out…’
‘Can I see Molly and Bastien again today?’
‘But you spent all day yesterday with them.’ Haydon poured milk over a bowl of cornflakes and handed it to her before turning to his croissant. ‘And don’t forget that we’re meeting Audrey for dinner later.’
Haydon winced inwardly as he recalled how he’d chased Audrey and how excited he’d been to meet up with her, his dreams of some kind of romance developing, because now he didn’t know if having dinner with her was the right thing to do. There had been no explicit mention of romance but the hints had been there. She was beautiful and sweet but seeing Ashley yesterday… well, it had muddied the waters, and that was only the beginning of it.
Seeing Ashley had been like a punch to the gut. He didn’t know how to feel about it, he only knew that where Audrey had filled his thoughts with soft-focus dreams of elegant romantic dinners, now his thoughts were filled with Ashley, but these were intense, messy, filled with the kind of longing that sucked the breath clean from your lungs. He’d always imagined he’d got over Ashley years before, but one afternoon in her company had shown that he’d never really gotten over her at all. Then again, despite this longing, perhaps getting involved with her wasn’t the best idea. If she’d disappeared once from his life, who was to say she wouldn’t do it again?
What to do about Audrey, however, he didn’t know. He liked her, and he still wanted to meet up with her later, and perhaps that was the best plan after all – stick with his date and try to forget any kind of romantic involvement with Ashley.
‘But that’s later,’ Ella said, breaking into his thoughts. ‘She’s got the market stall to look after all day.’
‘I thought we might do something today while we wait for her. Something exciting.’
‘What like?’
‘Like windsurfing. Or kayaking. I’ve seen them both advertised on the beach.’
‘Molly and Bastien could come with us. I bet they’d love it. I bet Bastien is brilliant at windsurfing and kayaking. I bet he can do everything. He looks like he’d be good at that sort of thing.’
Haydon tried not to think about how he wouldn’t love humiliating himself in front of two teenagers who di
dn’t belong to him as they watched him flail about in the sea and pretend it was water sports. The idea that one of those teenagers was the daughter of a woman who’d already confirmed once that she thought he was a big useless loser didn’t make him any happier either. But there was no getting around the fact that Ella had had a brilliant time and she was quite besotted with both her teenage companions from the day before. She’d talked about little else when they’d got back to the villa that evening. But what if they brought Ashley along? Chances were they would.
‘What if they’re busy? Aren’t they supposed to be in Saint-Raphaël for a big birthday party?’
Ella nodded. ‘Oh yes. But Bastien says Madame Dupont’s asleep half the day and cooking for the other half and wouldn’t even notice if he was there or not. And Molly hardly knows her. She’s only there because Violette is Maurice’s aunt and Maurice wanted her and her mum to go to the party too.’
‘And Maurice is Molly’s granddad if I remember correctly,’ Haydon said, vaguely surprised at the amount of information Ella had gleaned from her new friends. He had imagined that they might be swapping opinions on the latest social-media craze or comparing schools or something, not giving each other in-depth information on their family ties. He had to wonder just what Ella had told them about her own circumstances, but he didn’t think he dared to ask. The last thing he needed was for Ashley to have it confirmed that he really was a major loser who couldn’t keep a relationship going, even when he’d once persuaded the woman in question to actually marry him.
‘Not really. He’s just married to her grandma.’
‘Right.’
‘He’s really nice. Molly doesn’t mind that he’s not really her granddad because he acts just like he is. Molly has two granddads and they both buy her presents.’
‘You’ve got two granddads.’
‘Oh well, then Molly must have three. But she doesn’t know who her dad is so she can’t count that granddad.’
Haydon spluttered, sending a spray of coffee across the table. ‘She doesn’t?’
‘No.’
‘So her mum isn’t with her dad?’
‘No. Molly doesn’t care. She says he’s probably a douche anyway.’
‘Ella!’
‘What? It’s not a swear word – Kevin says it all the time. Anyway, Molly’s mum isn’t with anyone and Molly says she always says she likes it that way. Molly doesn’t believe her, though. She says she went on a date with a man once but he smelt of onions so she never bothered again.’
Haydon fell silent for a moment as the new information sank in. Ella continued to chat between crunching on large mouthfuls of cornflakes, white noise in the background as he processed what he’d learned. But somehow it wouldn’t compute, apart from one fact that kept swirling round and round in his consciousness. Ashley was single. It didn’t mean that she would even look twice at him, of course, and perhaps going there again would only get his fingers burnt once more. And if it did it was probably no less than he deserved. Besides, these weren’t thoughts he ought to be having when he’d got dinner with Audrey lined up. But he couldn’t get the idea out of his head.
Something else nagged at him too, something half-formed and vague and potentially troubling but there all the same. How old was Molly again? Sixteen? And how many years was it since he’d last seen Ashley? A little more than that, but it was hard to pinpoint exactly how that fitted. Could Molly be…?
He shook his head. How stupid. Surely Ashley would have phoned him to tell him something that massive even if she hadn’t phoned him to see him again. She’d have contacted him to discuss the formalities. He’d left his number for her before leaving Ibiza…
But what if she’d lost it? What if she’d thrown it away, not realising she might need it somewhere down the line?
But surely she’d have said something now – wouldn’t she? They’d spent the day together and there had been opportunities for a quiet word.
‘Dad!’ Ella pouted. ‘Are you even listening?’
‘Sorry… what was that?’
‘I said I’m going to get Molly’s number today and am I allowed to text her because Mum said it costs more abroad and not to come back with a huge bill because Kevin won’t be happy.’
‘Well, if Kevin kicks up a stink then I’ll pay your bill so you text who you want.’
Good old Kevin. Guaranteed to bring Haydon back to earth with a bump at the mere mention of his name.
‘Thanks, Dad,’ Ella grinned.
‘You should probably phone your mum this morning anyway – she won’t be happy if she doesn’t get a phone call.’
‘I’ve been busy.’
‘Too busy for your mum? Shame on you!’ Haydon threw her a conspiratorial smile. ‘I don’t want to get into trouble for not reminding you either.’
‘That’s the real reason you want me to phone her.’
‘Got it in one. So when you’ve finished here you can call, nice and early so you wake her up.’
Ella shoved another spoonful of cornflakes into her mouth and chewed with a grin. ‘After that I’m going to see if Molly and Bastien are up. Molly says I can go and stay with them in York when we go home, you know.’
‘York? That’s where they live?’
‘Yeah. Have you been?’
‘No. I’ve heard it’s nice.’
‘So we can ask them to go out with us today?’
Haydon paused. This really wasn’t what he wanted. Things had been awkward on the beach with Ashley and her family and the thoughts he’d been having about her weren’t exactly helping. There was a distinct danger he might do or say something mortifying.
‘Please, Dad. I promise we’ll spend the next day together but just today can we ask them to come?’
‘You really want to?’
Ella nodded.
‘Well, we can ask, but if they’re busy we’re not pushing it. Remember they’re supposed to be having a family get-together and we’re not family, so we can’t keep butting in.’
‘We won’t. Anyway Molly says she can’t understand half of what’s going on when they’re all there because most of them are speaking French.’
‘I suppose you can’t blame them for that, seeing as they are French.’
‘Yes, but it’s no fun listening to a conversation if you can’t understand it.’
‘Some of my most enjoyable conversations have been ones I couldn’t understand, and there have been a great many that I wished I couldn’t understand when I could.’
‘I’m going to get ready.’ Ella let her spoon drop with a clatter into her bowl and pushed her chair away from the table.
‘Phone your mother first – or she’ll string me up!’
‘But what if Molly and Bastien go out before I’ve had a chance to go there?’
‘They won’t – don’t panic. And even if they do I’m sure we’ll run into them somewhere in town.’
‘But what if they go out of town?’
‘Then you’ll just have to catch them another time.’ He pretended to give her a stern frown. ‘Phone. Your. Mother.’
Ella rolled her eyes. ‘Alright.’
Haydon watched her leave the kitchen and turned back to squidging a blob of jam into the middle of his croissant. Bloody pink house across the fields – he was beginning to wish he’d steered well clear of it.
* * *
Haydon and Ella followed the path that skirted the fields between their villa and Villa Marguerite. He’d argued, vainly, to cut across them, but Ella wasn’t taking any chances on the fact that if they did they might run into Frank the lizard or some of his less cuddly friends. The sun was high already, even though it had just gone ten. A small plane droned overhead and Haydon squinted up to see the vapour trail it left across the cornflower sky.
‘What if they’re not in?’ Ella asked.
‘Then there’s not a lot we can do about it.’
‘I should have asked Molly for her number yesterday.’
‘I don’t suppose you thought about it yesterday – too busy splashing each other.’
‘That was Bastien. Molly lost it with him; he soaked everyone.’
‘You were in the sea – wasn’t that kind of the point?’
‘But he kicked a load in her hair. She went mad.’
‘I think maybe that’s called flirting.’
‘She said she was going to push him in if he did it again but Bastien just laughed at her.’
‘Molly sounds a bit feisty.’
‘She plays the violin.’
‘She mentioned that.’
‘She wants to be in an orchestra someday.’
‘She mentioned that too.’ Haydon looked across at Ella with a wry smile. ‘Have we developed a bit of a girl-crush?’
‘Shut up, Dad!’ Ella squeaked, her cheeks flaming.
‘I’m only teasing. She’s cool and I’m glad you’ve found a friend.’
‘Really? You don’t mind calling for them? I thought…’
‘I was tired this morning – of course I don’t mind. Just as long as you don’t forget to give your old dad a bit of attention from time to time. Half an hour here or there ought to do it, just so I don’t forget who you are.’
‘I could never do that.’
‘Good. You might wish you could forget me when I embarrass you in the sea later.’
‘You could never embarrass me.’
‘I’ll remind you of that when I fall off the surfboard for the fiftieth time.’
‘I can’t wait to go windsurfing. Do you think I’ll be able to do it?’
‘I think you can do anything you put your mind to.’
‘Kevin says I’ve got no coordination.’
‘Has he watched you play piano? When he can play better than you then he’s allowed to say you’ve got no coordination.’
They arrived at the gates of Villa Marguerite to find an elderly lady in the garden trimming a shrub.
‘Bonjour!’ Haydon greeted. Was this the centenarian aunt? He could have hazarded a guess, but if he was wrong and whoever it was turned out to be much younger than a hundred they might have been very offended indeed. ‘Ca va, Madame?’
The Summer Getaway_A feel-good romance novel perfect for holiday reading Page 11
