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‘You know.’ Cassie shrugged. ‘Like with the fight and stuff. She never gives up on me, even when I’m naughty.’
‘I’m glad you feel like she’s there for you,’ Liam said, putting the handbrake on.
He got out and walked around to help Cassie out of the vehicle. She reached for his hand and jumped down onto the muddy ground.
‘You know I’m here for you too, right?’ he said, bending down to hug her.
Cassie nodded. ‘I know,’ she said, before wiggling out of his grip and trudging over to the front door. Liam reached over her head to unlock the door, and they both went into the hallway and removed their shoes.
‘Spag bol for dinner, sweetheart?’ he asked.
‘Yum,’ Cassie said, smiling at last. Liam smiled back at her.
‘Why don’t you do your homework and I’ll call you when it’s ready? I’m sure Miss Lawson has set you something to get on with.’
‘I have to practise the twelve times table for a test and there’s some art stuff,’ Cassie said, passing Liam her coat to hang up and bounding off up the stairs to get on with her homework.
Liam went into the kitchen and dropped his stuff onto the kitchen table. He began gathering the ingredients for dinner from the fridge and the cupboard while Sophie occupied his thoughts.
Sophie Lawson was burrowing her way firmly into every aspect of their lives. In the past, Liam would have been wary of such things, but there was something about Sophie that meant he didn’t really mind. She had been nothing but kind to Cassie. While he knew Cassie wasn’t wholly happy at the moment, whatever Sophie was doing, it was helping his daughter get through it. The fact they’d almost had a full conversation on the way home that evening was proof of it – and he was thankful. Sophie Lawson was in their lives and here to stay. Surprising himself, Liam was all right with that.
Chapter Fifteen
Sophie woke up feeling wretched. Her argument with Kate had brought things to the surface she’d not had to confront for a long while and once home, she’d had a good cry and an early night.
She rolled over to check the time on her phone. One missed call from her mother and four texts from Kate. But more worryingly, she was running late. Throwing her phone face down on the bed, she jumped out and went to have a quick shower. She’d have to make do with third-day-unwashed hair.
She raced down the stairs, and into the underground car park, where she had her allocated parking space. Sophie threw her bag onto the passenger seat, quickly followed by her lunchbox, which had stubbornly refused to fit into the bag. On impact, the lid sprang off and salad and dressing flew everywhere. Sophie swore under her breath and then jumped into the car and sat, trying to calm down for a couple of moments. It’s just a salad, she told herself, and put the key in the ignition.
When she turned the engine on, it grumbled for a few seconds before it popped and a plume of smoke, or steam, or something, drifted up from the bonnet. She turned the key again, but it just chugged and then cut out. Sophie swore again – at the car this time – and thumped the steering wheel before plonking her head down on it in exasperation. The horn beeped, and she jumped back up, the noise echoing around the underground car park.
Sadly, there was no one to call who could get there in time to help, so there was nothing for it. She would have to walk. She pulled on her bobble hat and did her coat up to the very top before calling school and leaving a quick message to explain the situation. Hopefully, someone would pick it up before her class came in and ran riot without her.
Sophie quickly learnt that the only thing more frustrating than your car breaking down, or blowing up, on a frosty December morning was being put on hold when you try to phone the garage. She had hoped to get through to them so she could arrange for them to meet her later when she got home. Having to listen to the deceptively calming music for the entire time it took her to get to school was intensely frustrating.
To make matters worse, it was cold and grey, and rain or sleet were likely on the cards. The thought of the forty-five-minute walk to school didn’t appeal at the best of times, but when the first drops of sleet began to mottle Sophie’s woolly scarf, she gritted her teeth even harder, her jaw aching from the tension and the cold.
By the time she reached school, she was seething, and an ever so slight headache had kicked in.
‘Good morning, Miss Lawson,’ the headteacher said as Sophie raced into her classroom. Her voice was laced with faint contempt.
She couldn’t believe that the only person available to cover the first few minutes of the day was the headteacher. Sophie’s cheeks flushed.
‘Thank you for looking after my class, Miss Davies,’ she said, taking off her coat and hat and hanging them in the craft cupboard. ‘I can take it from here.’
Miss Davies nodded and Sophie made a mental note to try and do something to impress her later this week, when she wasn’t feeling quite so hideous.
Sophie studied her class, their expectant faces looking up at her brightly. She had no idea where Miss Davies had got with them and realised that she would be winging literacy that morning.
With Cranswell Primary being such a small school, Sophie only just managed to avoid Kate all day. She didn’t know if she still felt angry with some of the things Kate had said, or whether she felt embarrassed at her reaction and just wasn’t ready to talk to her yet. Either way, she’d decided that avoidance and the silent treatment were the way to go, however petulant. She couldn’t help the way she felt.
Avoiding Kate at rehearsal that evening was going to be trickier. At least she was singing alto now, so she had a legitimate reason to sit away from her.
At the end of the day, Sophie wrapped herself up warmly in her coat and bobble hat for the walk to the town hall from school. Rehearsal would begin shortly. When she arrived, she shrugged off her layers and laid them out on her chair to make it comfier.
‘You look cold,’ Greg said, pointing out her nose, which had grown so red in the freezing evening air that Sophie could see it shining if she looked down and went slightly cross-eyed.
‘I had to walk from school. My car broke down.’
