Chapter 24
Breakfast in the Ashcombe household was never a great time to hold a discussion, as Thea spent most of it chivvying Dylan out of bed and encouraging Cora to eat something before they both left the house to catch the bus that stopped at the entrance to the estate.
So, swallowing her disquiet about the Snapchat notification as well as a few mouthfuls of porridge, Thea tried to put it out of her mind until she’d have more time at the end of the day.
‘Don’t forget to switch everything off and lock the door!
’ she called up the stairs as she prepared to get to school.
She’d initially been concerned about leaving Cora and Dylan to secure the house, but they’d proven to be reliable and responsible, and now she didn’t think anything of leaving them to it in the morning.
There had been the odd mishap where the ‘Grandparent Taxi’ had been called upon, after one or other of them had missed the bus, but Lorelai never minded, and these were few and far between.
At school, everyone was gearing up for the nativity plays, which were happening the next day.
Thea was swept up in last minute coaching of lines, encouragement of the less confident members of her class and at least one reminder to go for a wee before the play started, to avoid accidents onstage.
All in all, though, it was a hectic but rewarding day, and just what she needed to take her mind off the potential issues with Cora.
Driving home after a long afternoon, eyes nearly crossing from an abundance of end-of-term marking, she at last had time to think about what she was going to say to her daughter.
It wasn’t as if she’d been snooping on her phone, after all – the notification had appeared just as she’d been going to bed, and she hadn’t opened the message.
But the name on the notification had sent a shock through her she kept reliving, and every time she did, the what ifs and why-on-earths kept stacking up like the world’s most sinister house of cards.
She thought about popping into the farm shop on the way home to get some biscuits to soften the impact of the conversation, but she stopped herself.
She still didn’t quite know what to say to Nick after the nearly-kiss on the doorstep yesterday, and she didn’t feel as though she had the bandwidth to think more deeply about that while the potential issue with Cora was still playing on her mind. Her daughter had to come first.
Pulling into the driveway, she was relieved to hear the familiar thump-thump-thump of her daughter’s current favourite song emanating from the slightly open window. Hopefully, they could sit and chat before dinner.
‘Cora,’ she called up the stairs as she closed the front door. ‘Can you come down here a minute?’
Cora didn’t respond verbally, but the music stopped and a few seconds later there were socked feet on the stairs. Thea nervously filled the kettle and set it to boil.
‘Good day?’ she asked as Cora sat herself at the kitchen table.
‘All right,’ Cora replied. ‘You?’
‘Not bad.’
Once the teas were in front of them, Thea knew she couldn’t delay things any longer.
‘So,’ she began. ‘You know you were on your phone during the film yesterday?’
Cora looked instantly defensive. ‘It’s not like we haven’t seen it, like, a million times, Mum.’
‘I know, I know,’ Thea said hurriedly. ‘And it’s not really about that.
’ She fiddled with the handle of her tea mug, trying to find the right words to proceed.
Cora had long gotten over that instantly defensive streak she’d developed at around aged eleven, but Thea also knew she had to tread carefully.
‘Was there, um, anything you wanted to talk to me about?’ Thea said gently. ‘I mean, we’ve not had much of a chance to just sit down and chat lately, what with one thing and another.’
Cora shook her head. ‘Nope. It’s all good.’ She paused, a glint in her eye. ‘Unless you want to write me a note to get me out of PE tomorrow. The 3G pitch is well bad to play hockey on in the cold.’
Thea smiled slightly. ‘It’s character building, or so they say.’ She tried again. ‘You know you can talk to me about anything, right?’
Cora’s pull the other one expression was neither a shock nor particularly upsetting. Thea well remembered her grandmother broaching this kind of conversation several times during her own adolescence, and her response being distinctly similar to Cora’s own.
‘Nothing to talk about,’ Cora replied. ‘Unless you want to talk to me about your massive crush on Nick Saint!’
Thea choked on her mouthful of tea. ‘What?’
The knowing look on her daughter’s face knocked Thea for six. ‘I don’t, I mean I haven’t, I mean, even if I had…’
‘Relax, Mum.’ Cora grinned. ‘It’s fine. He’s nice. Dylan and I really like him and it’s obvious Nick likes you. Go for it.’
Thea sat up straighter in her chair. Her daughter, much like Ed, had the gift of the gab, and an instinctive ability to divert attention away from the focus of a discussion onto an area she wanted to talk about. It would serve her well in the future, but right now it was an irritating tactic.
Assuming her best schoolteacher’s voice, Thea replied, ‘I’m not talking about Nick with you, young lady. That’s between him and me for now.’
‘Oh, so there’s is a “him and you”, is there?’
‘Enough.’ Thea’s patience, worn thin by the repetitive nature of the dress rehearsal for the nativity play, was almost at its limit. ‘I need to talk to you about the message you got from that boy last night.’
Cora’s face registered shock and then anger. ‘You’ve been sneaking on my phone?’
Thea shook her head. ‘No. But even if I had, that’s my right as your mother. That was the deal, remember? I saw the Snapchat message flashing up just before I went to bed last night.’
Cora seemed to shrink in on herself. She suddenly looked much more like the little girl she used to be than the self-confident teenager she’d become over the past year.
She dropped her gaze to her mug and, in a voice barely louder than a whisper, replied, ‘I didn’t want to tell you.
I thought you’d be upset, or tell me not to speak to him… ’
‘How long have you been in contact with him?’ Thea asked.
‘Only since my birthday.’
Thea let out a long sigh. ‘He must be younger than your brother, isn’t he? That’s much too young to have a Snapchat account.’
Cora’s look of disbelief made Thea give a brief smile. ‘OK, so I know that’s not the main issue here, but even so, it’s a fair point. I told you that you couldn’t get one until you were thirteen. It would seem he’s not been given the same, er, boundaries.’
‘He’s called Ben and he’s a year younger than Dylan,’ Cora replied. ‘And before you say it, he’s definitely who he says he is.’
‘How can you be sure, darling? You’ve only been in touch with him for a week.’
‘He sent me some pictures of himself,’ Cora replied.
‘That doesn’t prove anything.’ Thea could feel her frustrations rising. ‘He could have generated them from anywhere.’
Cora shook her head. ‘No. He’s legit.’
‘Can I see them?’
Cora’s face showed she was weighing up the options. ‘All right.’ She reached for her phone and scrolled through her photo gallery. ‘Look. See.’
Thea took the phone from her daughter, and as she saw the image Cora had selected, she experienced such a flood of different emotions, she wasn’t quite sure where to start.
There was a picture of the boy, and standing next to him was someone else.
Someone who Thea realised had moved on with his life, if this picture was anything to go by.
‘All right,’ she said softly. ‘I believe you. The question is, what happens next?’
‘I was hoping you could tell me, Mum,’ Cora said, and then, much to Thea’s shock and heartbreak, her daughter started to cry.