Page 102 of Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon
There are some days she wishes her mum were still around to be the adult, but then Evie remembers that she doesn’t get to be the kid any more. That stopped the day she had Billy.
Who is still pushing his food around his plate.
‘Bill, kiddo, not a good idea, mate.’ Stevo smiles at his son, who listens this time – of course. Billy won’t respect her but he will respect his father.
Maybe this is how it’s going to be from now on. Or maybe she’s just on edge. She wants to ask Stevo something because he’s the only man shecanask, but she feels weird about it. Ideally she’s not going to ask him in front of Billy, which is why she’d really like her son to eat his dinner instead of play with it.
‘How’s your mum?’ she asks Stevo as Billy restarts his chewing.
Stevo moves his head from side to side. ‘Um … yeah, not great.’
‘Oh?’
‘Could be cancer.’ He chews his steak as if he hasn’t just announced something quite serious.
‘Oh! Has she been unwell for a while?’
‘A few months.’
‘Months!’ Evie wants to say all the typical things:Why didn’t she go to the doctor earlier? Why doesn’t she care more about her health? This is Billy’s only grandmother!She doesn’t, though, because that would not only be unhelpful but could be downright aggravating.
‘Yeah.’ More chewing. ‘She thought it was nothing.’ He shrugs. ‘Turns out it might be something.’
‘Finished!’ Billy looks from his mother to his father as if he wants a prize for eating his dinner.
Maybe she should give him one, Evie thinks, then he wouldn’t play with his food again. Or maybe he would, since she’d be rewarding him for playing with itthenfinishing. Again, being a parent is tricky. There’s a lot to consider. Including dealing with your child’s grandmother’s serious illness that your child’s father doesn’t seem to be taking seriously.
‘So when will she know?’ Evie asks. ‘If it’s cancer?’
‘Dunno. Wanna take your plate to the sink, Bill?’
Stevo has taken to calling their son Bill, and while initially Evie was irritated – they’d agreed he was always to be Billy – the boy himself doesn’t object, so she can’t.
That same boy obediently picks up his plate and deposits it in the sink. Evie knows she should start getting him to do chores but she hasn’t yet, so she’ll wash it later.
‘You can go and read, sweetie,’ she says.
Billy looks surprised. That’s because when it’s just the two of them, normally she doesn’t send him away after dinner. She keeps him close, because he’s company.
‘I’ll be in soon,’ Stevo calls after him. Then he turns to her with an enquiring look in his eyes. ‘So,’ he says.
She raises her eyebrows, feigning ignorance and feeling silly for doing it.
He grins. ‘C’mon. You want to say something.’
‘I didn’t know you knew me that well.’
He winks. ‘Better than you think.’
It makes her feel more than a little transparent, hearing him say that, but they are family, she guesses. They didn’t mean to be, but they are. With family comes familiarity, embedded right there in the root of the word.
‘There’s been …’ She stops. How can she phrase this? She should have practised it.
‘I was in love with someone,’ she says. The word she was going to use was ‘crush’ but that didn’t quite capture the impact of what she felt for Sam. May still feel. It’s hard to switch it off.
‘Oh yeah?’ He takes a sip of his lemonade. Stevo likes soft drinks. Always has.
‘Sam at work,’ she says quickly.
