bud.” He gave Ellie a teasingly solemn look. “Sorry, can’t talk. We’re watching the football.”
“Better watch you don’t get a football rammed up your arse,” Ellie muttered under her breath, but both Adam and I heard her. He laughed, shaking his head as he turned back to the screen.
“What’s funny?” Elodie smiled sweetly, completely unaware of the tension between her daughter and Adam as she handed everyone a glass of Coke.
“Ellie said a bad word,” Declan replied.
Okay, so Adam, me and Declan were the only ones to hear.
“Ellie, he hears everything,” Elodie complained.
Ellie scowled, throwing herself onto an armchair. I thought it was best to give her some support since Adam being here had clearly thrown her for a loop, so I perched beside her on the arm of the chair. Ellie sighed. “I’m sure he’s heard worse at school.”
Declan grinned at his mom. “I have.”
Clark sniggered into his paper.
Elodie shot her a husband a suspicious look before turning back to Ellie. “That’s no excuse to speak that way in front of him.”
“I just said ‘arse’.”
Declan snorted.
“Ellie!”
She rolled her eyes. “Mum, it’s not a big deal.”
“It really isn’t,” Declan agreed. “I’ve heard way worse.”
“Why did you say arse?” Hannah asked serenely from the other couch.
Clark choked on a laugh as he turned a page of the paper, still refusing to look up.
“Hannah!” Elodie spun around to glare down at her. “Young ladies don’t use bad language.”
Hannah shrugged. “It’s just arse, mum.”
“I was calling Adam an arse,” Ellie explained to her little sister. “Because he is an arse.”
Elodie looked like she was about to explode. “Would everyone stop saying arse!”
“I know,” I blew out an exaggerated breath of exasperation. “It’s called an ass, people. Ass.”
Clark and Adam burst out laughing and I shrugged apologetically to Elodie, smiling sweetly at her. She rolled her eyes and threw up her hands. “I’m going to check the dinner.”
“Do you need help?” I asked politely.
“No, no. My ass can handle itself in the kitchen, thank you very much.”
Chuckling, I watched her leave and then looked down at Ellie with a wide grin. “Now I understand why you don’t curse a lot.”
“So why is Adam an arse?” Hannah persisted.
Ellie stood up, shooting the man in question a dirty look. “I think the question is: when isn’t he an arse?” And then she stormed off after her mother.
Adam’s gaze followed her out the room, his eyes no longer laughing. He turned back to me. “I messed up.”
Understatement of the year. “I guess you did.”
I could feel Clark’s eyes on us as Adam sighed, and when I looked over at Ellie’s stepdad I could see he wasn’t amused anymore. His gaze was burning into Adam with a million questions, and I got the impression he was putting two and two together.
Time to divert his attention. “So Hannah, did you read the books I recommended?”
Her eyes lit up as she nodded. “They were amazing. I’ve been looking up more dystopian books since.”
“You’ve got Hannah reading dystopian novels?” Adam asked with surprise, smiling at me.
“Yes.”
“She’s fourteen.”
“Well, these are written for fourteen year olds. Anyway, I was taught 1984 when I was fourteen.”
“George Orwell,” Clark muttered.
I grinned. “Not a fan?”
“Hannah’s reading Animal Farm for English,” he said, as if that explained it.
Hannah was smiling, a little twinkle of devilment in her eyes that reminded me of Ellie. “I’m reading it out loud to mum and dad so they can help me.”
In other words, she was torturing her mum and dad for fun. She and Ellie really were full of surprises. Angels with dirty faces, as they saying goes.
A few minutes later we were sitting around the table, Ellie and Elodie bickering unintelligibly.
“I just said you looked pale.” Elodie eventually sighed as she took her seat with the rest of us.
“Which translates into ‘you look like crap’.”
“I never said that. I asked why you’re pale?”
“I have a headache.” She shrugged, her shoulders tense, her lips and brow pinched.
“Another one?” Adam asked, his eyes narrowed on her.
What did he mean another one? “You’ve had more than one?”
Adam looked angry now, his concern for Ellie bordering on majorly pissed off. “She’s had a few. I’ve told her to get it checked.”
Ellie glowered back at him. “I was at the doctors on Friday. The doctor thinks I need glasses.”
“You should have made an appointment weeks ago.”
“Well, I made it this week!”
“You don’t take care of yourself. You’re running yourself ragged at the university.”
“I do take care of myself. In fact, I was taking care of