Page 36 of Love Me Till Wednesday

‘That’s Ed, our guitarist, and that’s Tez, our drummer, and this one is Jonny. He played bass guitar.’

‘Like Daddy does?’

‘Yes,’ Jim said. ‘Jonny taught me.’

Poor Jonny. Lisa quickly turned the page.

The next few pages were filled with casual snaps of them all hanging around their battered old van, some from a rehearsal, and behind-the-scenes photos from their first gig in Paris, accompanied by a newspaper clipping of a five-star review of the same gig. Sophie wasn’t as interested in those. This felt so weird. It was like she was looking at someone else’s life.

Lisa turned to the next page and stopped.

‘He looks like Daddy!’ Sophie said, pointing to a portrait of a young man with blond hair, cheekily smiling out at them. Lisa remembered taking the photo and what they ended up doing afterwards. Nick was dressed in his usual outfit of jeans, a battered old t-shirt and a black leather jacket.

Lisa looked up at Jim. He was transfixed by the image.

‘Do you want to look through this on your own later?’ she asked.

‘Yeah. That might be better.’ Jim leaned over and quickly shut the album.

‘But I want to see more!’ Sophie protested.

‘You can, darling, but not now. We need to get home to Mummy and Grace,’ Jim said, lifting his daughter off the stool. ‘We can look at it after Sunday dinner.’

Lisa nodded. ‘Whenever suits you,’ she said as he headed out of the kitchen.

22

Lisa was staring at yet another spreadsheet in her study when a text from Mel appeared on her phone.

I’m at the airport

Odd. Mel was supposed to be abroad with Will for the rest of the school holidays.

Which airport?

Three dots appeared, then another text.

Gatwick. I’m waiting for a coach back home.

It sounded like something serious had happened. Talking to Mel directly might be simpler than texting. Lisa phoned her. ‘I thought you and Will were in Italy this week?’

‘He still is.’ Mel sounded furious.

‘So why aren’t you?’

‘The small matter of him excessively flirtingwith another hotel guest.’

Lisa resisted the urge to say I told you so. ‘How old was she?’

‘Older than us!’

Now Lisa felt guilty for assuming he’d run off with someone younger. ‘He does have a taste for older women then.’

‘The older, the better it would seem. She looked at last 65. I’ve left him there and cancelled the hotels and flights.’

‘I thought he booked all those.’

‘Not in the end. His credit card got stolen, so I had to do it.’

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