‘Stepfather. And no, I don’t.’ A shadow crossed Laura’s face. ‘He’s loaded, old money, you know, inherited from his parents; imagines himself entitled because of it. He didn’t want to marry my mother, but she managed to manipulate him into it.’ She paused, drawing in a long breath. ‘You can see why I ran scared of marriage, can’t you?’ She sighed amusedly.
‘You’ve never been married then?’ Sarah enquired, casually she hoped.
Laura shook her head. ‘My job always took up too much of my time. I just never met the right person. I lived with my last boyfriend for a while, but it didn’t last.’
‘Do you mind if I ask why?’ Sarah didn’t want to appear to be grilling her. She hoped Laura would understand that she just wanted to know her better.
Laura hesitated. ‘He was impossibly controlling,’ she said quietly, ‘so …’ Stopping, she shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal.
Sarah noted the hurriedly downcast gaze again and guessed it was a big deal. It certainly would be to her. She could understand Laura’s discomfort. No doubt she would be thinking that people might judge her. Sarah’s mum had been in a controlling relationship with her father, who’d constantly undermined her until she’d lost faith in herself, as she’d confided once Sarah was old enough to understand. She’d felt worthless, she told her. Eventually, with the help of a friend, she’d found an exit strategy. It hadn’t been easy to explain to a child, she’d said sadly.
Sarah understood now what the attraction to Steve would be. Perhaps that was why she’d felt safe with him herself. He was anything but controlling. He just didn’t see that in allowing her to make all the decisions in their relationship – about where they lived, household maintenance, arrangements for Ollie – he was also leaving her with all the responsibility. Steve hadn’t been her Mr Right. He might be Laura’s, though. The woman had her own house, so she was obviously a doer. They could actually be good for each other, in an opposites-attract sort of way. She might even shake him out of his commitment-phobic tendencies. And if there had to be someone involved in the joint parenting of Ollie, Laura seemed capable, sensible. Nice, she thought, albeit a bit reluctantly.
‘But that’s all history now,’ Laura went on, smiling brightly – for her sake, Sarah guessed. ‘I’d much rather talk about little Oliver and … um …’ There was a flicker of doubt in her eyes. ‘If that’s all right with you, that is?’
‘Ollie.’ Sarah smiled. ‘And yes, it is.’ She’d come here to find out more about Laura. To fish around for any deep, dark secrets she might have. Once she’d started talking more fluently, though, Laura had seemed fine sharing information with her. Sarah had come expecting not to like her, but she found she actually did, perhaps because of her vulnerability. She was nothing like she’d expected her to be. She had a naturalness about her, an openness, which was surprising, considering she too might have had her guard up. It could all be a ploy to win Sarah over, of course, but she felt it was genuine.
‘He’s three, isn’t he?’ Laura asked. ‘Up to all sorts of mischief, I bet.’
‘Almost four, and definitely.’ Sarah rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t get me wrong, he’s not a naughty child, but I won’t pretend he’s not full-on.’
‘He’s obviously an intelligent little boy.’ Laura smiled reassuringly.
‘Oh, he’s definitely that. He’s usually one step ahead of me.’ Sarah smiled tolerantly. ‘I struggle to keep him entertained sometimes. He gets bored with his toys so easily, apart from his Lego, which keeps him occupied for hours. Mind you, I think I’ve found the perfect thing for his birthday. It’s part of the Geometric Magicube range, which are fun, hands-on toys designed to help develop motor skills and, hopefully, stretch the imagination. I thought the dinosaur set would be perfect, as he’s big into them.’
‘Sounds brilliant,’ Laura enthused. ‘He obviously needs a mental challenge. I can’t wait to meet him. Does he look like his mummy or his daddy?’
It was an innocent question, a perfectly understandable question – Steve was blonde, Sarah was dark – but even so … ‘Has Steve not shown you a photograph of him?’
‘He only has baby photographs. He said you were the photographer,’ Laura said with an amused smile. ‘He was going to ask you to send him some, but he’s been really busy with work …’
He’d obviously forgotten. That was typical Steve. Clearly Laura knew what he was like, always working late, determined to make his building business successful – in his dad’s memory. He was so tired sometimes, though, he said himself he would forget his head if it was loose.
‘I think Ollie takes after Steve more than me.’ Sarah reached into her bag for her phone. ‘He has blonde hair – which Steve says was the bane of his life when he was little, because people kept mistaking him for a girl – and huge, beguiling baby-blue eyes, though don’t let those fool you. Here you go.’ She flicked to one of the photos she’d taken in the pub garden and passed the phone over.
‘Oh my gosh.’ Laura swallowed as she studied it. ‘He’s just perfect,’ she whispered, her eyes glassy again, but this time with wonderment.
Six
Due to pick Ollie up for his first weekend visit at Laura’s, Steve rang to say he was a few minutes away, throwing Sarah, who was still in her pyjamas, into a complete flap as she tried to get their son dressed and ready to go. He was early and she was nowhere near ready.
‘Is Daddy coming soon?’ Ollie asked, his eyes wide with excitement as his head popped through the neck hole of his jumper.
‘Very soon.’ Sarah gave him a bright smile, whilst inwardly cursing herself for getting up so late. She’d intended to be up and organised, even though it was her Saturday off. She’d wanted Ollie to wear his new tiger hoodie and jogger set but found it wasn’t in his wardrobe when she looked for it. Finally remembering it was in the wash, she’d ended up grabbing the first things that came to hand, his Spider-Man T-shirt and monster jeans, both of which she realised, too late, had grass stains on them she hadn’t been able to shift. It was no big deal, children got dirty, but despite telling herself she was being silly, she’d wanted to make a good impression. She would hate Laura to think she wasn’t meticulous about cleanliness.
She doubted Steve would be very impressed when he spotted Joe’s car on the drive. Sure Joe would understand why, she’d been going to ask him to leave before Steve arrived, but then events had overtaken her. She hadn’t wanted to shove him out of the door and now she felt immensely guilty that he was obviously here, with no idea why she should. There was no reason she should be defensive about him staying over – Steve hadn’t wasted much time before embarking on another relationship, after all. Wasn’t it hypocritical of her, though, not to have mentioned Joe, given her reaction to Steve’s news about Laura? She really should have said something.
Tugging Ollie’s jeans on as the doorbell rang, she hoisted him up, grabbed the bag she’d packed with any essentials he might need and headed for the landing. As he seemed to be growing heavier by the day and insisted he was a big boy now, she didn’t generally carry him down the stairs, but even with her holding onto him, she doubted he would negotiate them carefully with his daddy at the front door.