Page 141 of The Sunrise Sisterhood

Clare

Clare and Mike ran to his Range Rover and climbed in. He started the engine and pulled away before she’d even managed to do up her seat belt. This felt so exciting. She grinned at her dad, who grinned back.

‘Thanks, Dad.’

‘I feel like I’m in a car-chase scene in a film. Where one half of a couple is about to fly off and the other person has minutes to get to the airport or lose them forever.’

‘You old romantic.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Beneath this steely exterior lies a big softie. Postcode?’

She gave him Angel’s address and he tapped it into the satnav. They were fifteen minutes away.

Every nerve ending thrummed with possibility. Adam might not even be there, but at least they were taking action. It felt good to be doing something positive rather than constantly straining to listen for the doorbell on the off chance that he turned up.

‘Dad?’ she said suddenly. ‘Is this a good idea?’

‘It’s my idea, so yes, of course it is, why? Are you having second thoughts?’ He looked sideways at her, gently teasing, but concerned too.

She puffed her cheeks out. ‘Just worried I might look a bit desperate. It’s Ivy’s first birthday and he’s a no-show to her party. This is his way of turning us down.’ She swallowed the pang of hurt on her daughter’s behalf.

‘Possibly,’ he said, frowning. ‘Or he didn’t get the invite. Or he did get the invite, but he needs more time to figure out how he feels. Or, perhaps, he wants to talk to you but not in front of a crowd. Maybe he was on his way but got a puncture. Or—’

‘OK, OK, I get the message,’ she replied, mollified. ‘You’ve convinced me. Carry on, Driver.’

‘Right you are, madam.’ He switched on the music. Smokey Robinson’s voice filled the car.

She shot him a look. ‘Mum’s favourite. Or are you going to pretend you’d forgotten, again?’

‘How could I forget,’ he said wistfully. ‘I remember everything about her. I was thinking about her on the way to Liz’s, about how she’d have been a fantastic grandparent and would have been furious with me for being useless.’

Clare stared at him. ‘You still loved her.’

‘I loved her more than anyone else in the world,’ he said softly. ‘I messed it up with her. And I’ve never forgiven myself.’

‘Oh Dad.’ She reached across the console separating them and touched his arm. He smiled at her sadly and her heart ached for him. Beneath all his bravado and bluster, he was as vulnerable to heartache as everyone else.

‘Remember this one?’ He skipped through the tracks until he found the song he was looking for.

‘Yes!’ Clare’s eyes danced, picturing the three of them in the car together. ‘Happy times.’

Mike nodded. ‘The best.’

And for the first time in almost thirty years, father and daughter sang along at the tops of their voices to ‘I Second That Emotion’.

As they left Salcombe behind, the roads narrowed, the hedges grew higher and the traffic slowed down to a crawl. It was even worse in the opposite direction heading towards Salcombe and, a couple of times, Clare caught a glimpse of bickering couples and crying children who looked as if they’d encountered one too many snarl-ups today.

‘This is why I could never live here,’ Mike growled as he pulled into a tight passing place, the twigs of the hawthorn hedge squeaking against the paintwork of his car like nails down a blackboard.

‘Unless you swapped your posh car for something smaller,’ said Clare, winding the windows up to stop the hedge snagging her hair.

‘Or a tractor. Finally,’ he grumbled as the last in a long line of cars inched past them.

‘So what happened with you and Harriet then?’ Clare asked as they picked up their speed to a heady old twenty miles per hour.

Mike ran a hand over his chin. ‘I was flattered by her. It was a ridiculous situation, as you pointed out. I’ve extricated us both admirably, and there are no hard feelings. I pulled some strings and got her another job with more pay. At Good Vibrations, incidentally. So, all’s well that ends well.’

‘I can’t say I’m not relieved,’ she replied. ‘I’m not sure I could have stomached a twenty-five-year-old stepmother.’