Page 32 of Be My Traitor

“You know that Daddy is very good at dealing with spiders,” I said, my heart sinking at the thought of having to hide my arachnophobia for long enough to rescue Amber from an eight-legged beast. All those years as a single parent meant that I’d learned to suck up my fear so Amber wouldn’t see how much I hated spiders in the hope that she wouldn’t be as scared of them as I was, but she’d still developed a phobia about them but didn’t realise that it was just as hard for me to deal with them.

“But Daddy isn’t the one who puts spiders outside.Youare.”

“Come on, then.” I sighed. “Show me where this spider is and I’ll tell it to stay out of your room.”

I took her hand and she pulled me into her room. “It’s over there.” She pointed at the wall by her bed. I took a deep breath and went closer to see if I could spot it.

“Sorry, darling. There’s nothing there,” I said at last. “I think you must have scared it away with all your screaming.”

“Is everything all right?” Lucas came into the room.

“There was a spider, Daddy,” Amber told him. “It was going to eat me up!”

“Really? It must have been a big spider.”

“It washuge!”

“Let’s go get some breakfast and you can tell me all about it.”

Amber and Lucas went downstairs. As I went to follow them, a huge, hairy creature skittered across the floor. I bit back a scream and fled. We were in Lucas’s house. It was his problem to deal with it.

“I didn’t know what you liked for breakfast, so I got a whole heap of things for you to choose from.”

I walked into the kitchen to find Lucas opening up cupboards to show Amber a dizzying array of cereals, including her favourite – chocolate Cheerios. Soon she was happily munching on a large bowl piled high with chocolate cereal. I dreaded to think about what she was going to be like when the sugar rush kicked in.

“What would you like to eat?” Lucas asked me.

“Just coffee for me, thanks. I can’t face food this early in the morning.”

Lucas went to his coffeemaker and switched it on.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said. “I’d like to take Amber out today, maybe over to King’s Castle.”

“King’s Castle?” Amber gasped when she heard the name of a local farm zoo. As well as a number of animals you could pet, there were fairground rides suitable for small children and a boating lake you could ride paddle boats on. “Yay!” She started jogging up and down in her seat.

Yep. The sugar was kicking in. King’s Castle was probably a good move. It was about the only she was going to be able to work it all off.

“You’d be very welcome to join us, but I was wondering how you’d feel about me taking her by myself?”

Lucas’s suggestion threw me. After our night together, I’d thought he’d want to spend more time with me. I know he’d said he was inviting me as well, but he didn’t seem like he wanted me there.

Fine. If he wanted to play games, he’d could play them all on his lonesome.

“Sure. You and Amber need some quality time together and it would be nice to have a bit of a break.”

“That’s what I thought,” Lucas said. “I mean, you work hard all week. You deserve the chance to put your feet up and not have to worry about Amber for a few hours.”

“Sounds great.” I faked a happiness I didn’t feel, but Lucas didn’t seem to notice.

“Excellent! I’ll drop you off at yours on the way to Kings Castle.”

“Actually, could you take me to Ivy’s?”

Lucas frowned a little, but quickly recovered. If he didn’t think I was going to want to talk to my best friend after last night, he was an idiot.

“No problem.”

We spent the next hour or so playing happy families. Anyone watching us would have thought we were a perfectly normal family. At least Amber certainly thought her parents were getting on like a house on fire, which was a testament to my acting abilities.

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