please, don’t go. Talk to me… Guy…’
The call ended and she put her hand to her chest, taking a much-needed breath. What had happened?
Chapter Thirty-Four
August 2005
‘Whose is the baby? Is it yours?’
Melody cackled at Tasha’s wisecrack and both of them moved their jaws up and down, crushing the chewing gum against their teeth.
‘Crying a lot isn’t it? Is it sick?’ Tasha continued.
Guy’s mother was again drunk and incapable of looking after her infant son and Guy had to work teaching football skills at the campsite. Emma had offered to have Luc for a couple of hours. Apart from the screaming she quite liked having something to do. She could snatch half an hour to read and revise while he napped and it meant she had an excuse not to join in with the lame campsite games. This afternoon her dad was going to be competing in a raft race in the lagoon pool so this morning he had gone off to practise.
She ignored Tasha’s comment and parked the pram next to a picnic bench, across from where Guy was teaching football. She put Luc’s bag on the table and took her books out of it.
‘What you reading?’ Tasha asked, picking up The Canterbury Tales.
‘Give it back,’ Emma ordered. Tasha began to leaf through the pages.
‘Looks crap to me. It’s not even English,’ she said, making exaggerated facials at Melody.
‘Not the type of English you speak, no,’ Emma responded.
‘What’s that supposed to mean? D’you think you’re better than us just because you’ve got some posh accent going on?’ Tasha questioned, pushing her face into Emma’s personal space.
‘You said it, not me.’ She stood her ground.
‘You cow!’ Tasha exclaimed, raising her hand.
‘Tasha! What d’you think you’re doing?’
A loud male voice cracked through the situation.
Tasha dropped her hand down as quickly as she’d raised it.
A plump man with spiky blond hair and dark sunglasses, dressed in white trousers and a red and white striped short-sleeved shirt arrived on the scene.
‘What you doing? It didn’t look like you were making friends and influencing people, Natasha,’ he said, glaring at Tasha.
The girl didn’t speak and Emma used this as her opportunity to grab her book back.
‘Apologise, Natasha,’ the man ordered.
‘I didn’t do anything, Dad,’ she insisted, scowling.
‘Apologise,’ he repeated.
Tasha looked at Emma; her eyes narrowed, her shoulders back, looking defiant.
‘Sorry,’ she said almost inaudibly.
‘Good. Now I want you to go and help your mother get the picnic organised. We’re going out on the boat in an hour,’ the man told her.
‘D’you want to come, Melody? Melody can come, can’t she, Dad?’
‘You’ll have to ask your parents.’
‘Come on, let’s go,’ Tasha said, pulling Melody by the arm.
Luc’s cries seemed to intensify as Tasha and Melody left and Emma reached into the pram to lift him out. She hugged him to her chest and whispered in his ear like she’d seen Guy do. Sweet, tiny little thing.
‘Now, he’s a handsome chap, isn’t he?’
The man admired Luc and put his pinky finger into the baby’s hand. Luc clung on tight and stilled slightly.
‘He’s almost due a bottle,’ Emma informed.
‘Keith Crone,’ he introduced himself, holding his free hand out to her.
‘Emma, Emma Barron.’
‘I’m Natasha’s dad and I have to apologise for her. She’s been spoilt – totally my fault –but I did bring her up to have some manners. Any more trouble from her or her sidekick and you let me know,’ he said.
‘They weren’t really trouble just…’ Emma began.
‘I’ll leave you to this little one. Handsome boy,’ Keith said. He let go of Luc and waved a hand at Emma before strolling off with a confident gait.
She’d barely had time to look in Luc’s bag for his bottle before Guy was at her side.
‘Que voulait-il?’
‘What?’ Emma asked.
‘The man… what did he want?’ Guy wanted to know.
‘Oh, he’s Tarty Tasha’s dad. Can you believe she took a swing at me? I actually had the Oxford English Dictionary in my bag. If she’d slapped me she wouldn’t have liked a wallop with that,’ Emma said, smiling.
Guy winced and held his left side.
‘Are you OK? Is it still your ribs?’
‘I’m OK,’ he insisted.
‘I still think you should go to the hospital.’
‘I am fine.’
‘This can’t go on and as much as I like Luc, I can’t look after him all the time because your mother’s too drunk to. What happens when I have to go home?’ she asked.
She looked at Guy, watched his expression dull, the light in his eyes dim. They hadn’t talked about what would happen to them when she