Page 69 of Riding the Waves

“Are you going out?” Amy asked Damian.

“Just meeting Hugh and Leo for a couple of drinks.” He stood abruptly. “I might jump in the shower and get going.” He thanked his mum for dinner and made for the stairs.

“You should go with him,” Martin said to Amy. “We’re very happy to babysit.”

“That’s okay, thanks.” She managed a weak smile. Drinks in the pub actually sounded great, but there was the minor point that she hadn’t been invited. Maybe she should invite herself when Damian came back down. They could walk into Hope Cove and use the time to talk.

Except when Damian came down after his shower he rushed out of the door in such a hurry that she didn’t even get time to hint that she’d like to go with him. Instead, she stuck to her original plan of snuggling down with the boys when she put them to bed and not making it out of the room again.

Sitting around with Martin and Wendy probably wouldn’t be too bad, but she didn’t want to risk having to listen to them trying to convince her of how great their son was, as though she didn’t already know.

Lying squashed beside Marty, she listened to his rhythmic breathing, hoping it might soothe her to sleep too. Her brain wouldn’t switch off though. It wasn’t long before she heard Wendy and Martin going up to bed, and an hour after that the sound of the front door opening and then closing again.

Sure she wouldn’t get much sleep if she didn’t speak to Damian, she waited a few minutes before creeping down the stairs.

Damian was already settled on the couch, a blanket draped loosely over him, leaving part of his chest and one leg visible in the dim light cast by the streetlight outside. His face was serene, eyes closed and his chest rising and falling as though he might already be asleep.

“Hey,” she whispered.

His eyes snapped open and a rush of relief washed through Amy when he immediately reached for her hand. At least until he seemed to realise what he’d done and discreetly released it as he shifted to prop himself on his arm.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Sorry for disappearing this evening. Leo was stressed and—”

She cut him off. “And you wanted to get away from me?”

“What?” He tilted his head. “No. Leo is having a rough time with Alice not sleeping well and not having time for his girlfriend. I promise you I didn’t go out for the evening to get away from you.” He looked at her seriously. “I even told Leo I’d have Alice tomorrow evening to give him a break.”

“Okay,” Amy said. “Maybe tonight you genuinely had stuff going on, but you’ve been avoiding me all week.”

“Hardly. I invited you for dinner on Wednesday, then I invited you to stay at my house. If I wanted to avoid you, that would be a pretty ineffective way to go about it.”

“You’re not talking to me and you’re stressed and weird around me.”

“If I’m stressed it’s because I’m on day five of having my parents staying with me.”

“Are we ever going to speak about what happened last weekend?” She perched on the edge of the couch. “If it was just sex, you can say so.” Except given the tightness in her chest, she was sure she’d turn into a blubbering mess if he said that.

“It wasn’t just sex.” He sat up, his legs stretched out on the couch beside her.

“I don’t know if I believe you,” she said. “I think there’s something going on that you’re not telling me. Like you’re seeing someone, or sleeping with someone ...”

“I’m not.”

She looked at him sadly. “Something feels off. You having a bed made up in the van – that’s weird. And the time you went out that evening and you were cagey about who you were meeting. I know it’s none of my business, but I really need to know if what happened last weekend was a one-off or if it’s something more.”

His features screwed up in confusion. “When was I cagey about who I was meeting?”

“You’d made dinner for me and the boys, then you went out. When you came back it was in different clothes and with your hair sticking up as though someone had been dragging their hands through it.”

“Oh.” His lips twitched into a small smile. “That was Alice.”

“Who’s Alice?” she asked, hating the tremor in her voice.

“Leo’s Alice. You know, the five-month-old? She was pulling my hair and puked on my T-shirt. I was at Leo’s place all evening.”

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