Page 35 of Love Me Till Wednesday

‘Yeah, sure.’

‘Can I come?’ Sophie asked.

‘No, darling. It’s too dangerous. You might fall down the ladder. You stay with Nanny.’

Sophie turned to Lisa and gave her her most appealing look. ‘Can we make biscuits? Pleeease.’

Lisa smiled. How could she refuse? ‘I guess so.’ She scooped up the pile of Sam’s clothes from the work surface and shoved them back in a bin liner. So much for getting started on the decluttering while Pete was out visiting a friend. At this rate, she’d need to hire the Albert Hall to hold it all.

‘Those biscuits smell good,’ Jim said when he returned to the kitchen half an hour later.

‘They’re not ready yet, Daddy,’ Sophie said.

‘They still smell good.’

The timer started to ring. Lisa turned it off.

‘Can Daddy have some?’ Sophie asked as Lisa removed the tray of dinosaur shaped biscuits from the oven.

Lisa put on her serious face. ‘You know the rules here. You have to be good before you can have a biscuit.’

Jim laughed. ‘I think I’ve been very good, mother dearest. There are three big boxes in the hall that I can take off your hands. And there’s some more I can pick up later when Soph’s not in the car.’ His expression became serious. ‘And Ifound this behind one of them.’ He handed her a dusty old photo album.

Lisa took it from him and brushed the dust off with her hand. It had her handwriting on the cover. “Sapphire Stars 1991 first successful year”. It implied a certain optimism that there might be more successful years to follow.Got that wrong, didn’t you? ‘I haven’t seen this for years. I’d forgotten all about it.’

Jim tapped his fingers on the work surface. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before.’

‘Have you looked inside?’ Lisa asked him.

He shook his head. ‘I didn’t think it was my place to.’ He’d probably guessed whose photo might be in there.

Sophie hadn’t picked up on the atmosphere. ‘Let’s see,’ she said, climbing on the stool next to Lisa. ‘What is it?’

‘A book of old photos of me and my friends when I was a lot younger, before your daddy was born.’

‘Is Nandad in there too?’ Sophie asked.

It still felt odd hearing Sophie use her babyish version of “granddad” to refer to Greg now he’d walked out. As far as she was aware, Sophie hadn’t seen Greg for months. ‘No. I met Nandad after Daddy was born.’

Sophie looked puzzled. ‘So who is Daddy’s daddy then?’

‘Someone I used to know a long time ago.’ Lisa said. She looked at Jim. ‘Are you sure you want to look at this now?’

‘Yeah. Why not,’ he said, but he sounded apprehensive. She’d told him all about Nick as soon as he was old enough to understand. But he’d never seen a photo of him before. If he’d asked, she would have dug one out or Googled him, but Jim had always seemed completely uninterested whenever she’d mentioned him, wanting to change the subject or making an excuse to leave the room. She figured that was normal when he was in primary school but it had carried on into his teenage years and adulthood too. Perhaps she shouldhave insisted on talking about Nick, but the time had never seemed right. Not that now felt right either with Sophie around. She put the album on the work surface and gently opened the cover.

The first page was easy. It was devoted to one picture: the Sapphire Stars promo shot for their first album. Sophie peered closely at the photo.

‘That’s me,’ Lisa said, pointing to the young woman with bright red hair in the centre of the group.

‘I love your hair. It’s like Ariel’s. Can we watch The Little Mermaid when we get home, Daddy?’

‘We’ll see,’ Jim said.

‘And who’s that?’ Sophie asked, pointing to the tall, thin, dark-haired man on the left of Lisa.

‘That’s Pete, who used to play the keyboards.’

‘And the man with curly hair?’

---