Page 8 of Toy Boy

“Did you know, Mum?” He follows me inside, closing the door behind him.

“Yes, Josh, I know Scott’s back.” I throw my bag down onto the hall floor and head into the living room. “And there’s nothing we can do about it. Last time I checked this was still a free country, and Beachcastle Bay is his home. We can’t dictate who can and can’t live here.”

“You know he’s the new consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at the hospital, right?”

“Yes, I know that, too. Look, Josh, what do you want me to say here? Do you want me to get angry?”

“No…”

“What then?”

“I don’t know.” He sits down on the arm of the chair in the bay window. “I just hate what he did to you.”

“That’s all in the past now. Okay? I’ve moved on, hopefully he has, too, so him coming back to Beachcastle Bay, it isn’t going to change anything.”

Isn’t it?

He sighs, stands up, and follows me into the kitchen. “How did you find out he was back?”

“Tim was in the café this morning. He told me.”

“And you’re really okay with this?”

“Even if I wasn’t, Josh, I don’t really have a lot of choice.” I grab a couple of mugs from the cupboard and set them down on the counter. “He’s bought Neville’s old place on Marina Drive, apparently.”

“It’s a nice house.”

“Not sure why he needs so much space, now there’s just him.”

Josh looks at me, an eyebrow cocked, I knew he’d be pleased at that piece of news.

“Lucie’s left him, too, huh?”

“Apparently so.”

He slides his hands back into his pockets as he turns his head to look out of the French doors that face out from the back of the kitchen onto my pretty little back yard. It’s nothing more than a paved terrace full of colourful pot plants and a small table and chairs, but I don’t need anything else. It does me fine.

“Not a total surprise that he can’t keep a woman.” Josh looks back at me. “Was it his fault? That she left him?”

I shrug and pour the coffee. “I have no idea. Tim didn’t elaborate, he just said Scott was alone, so I assumed that meant him and Lucie were over.” I hand him a mug. “What are you doing here, anyway? Shouldn’t you be at work?”

He takes a sip of his coffee. “I’m just on my way back over there. Got a few things to tie up then I’m taking Natalie out for dinner, seeing as we’ve both got the night off.”

“Anywhere nice?”

“The Smoke House. Nat likes the salmon burgers.”

I look at him, my beautiful, talented boy. With his dark hair and brown eyes he’s actually nothing like me. I’m blonde with blue-grey eyes, but his father – the man I spent one night with all those years ago – he was tall and dark and strikingly handsome. He just didn’t want to know, once the sex was over. It really was that brutal. And, yeah, I really was that stupid. I’d fallen for his charm, got sucked in by his handsome face, I’d been a fool. Turned out he’d even given me a false name and number, so I had no way of contacting him once I’d realised I was pregnant. It was like he’d just disappeared from the face of the earth, and Josh has dealt with that so well, finding out that he may never know who his father really was. I’m not sure he cares. To me he was nothing more than a sperm donor, that’s how I think of him now, the selfish, arrogant prick. He doesn’t deserve a son as incredible as Josh. And we didn’t need him. We got on just fine without him.

“You two have a good time, you hear me? Make the most of these rare nights together.”

He smiles at me. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I could’ve sworn I told you to stop worrying about me.”

“You did. But I’m not sure I can do that.”

“Try.”

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