Chapter 42

“I was just sticking up for myself. Isn’t that what you always said to do?”

The doorbell’s ring surprised Will the next morning. He’d already been awake for half an hour and was enjoying lying on his back with his arm around Amy while she slept on with her head by his shoulder and her hand on his chest. She snapped awake when the doorbell rang a second time.

“What...? Who...?”

“I’ll go and see.” He grabbed his shorts, put them on and then pulled a T-shirt over his head as he went downstairs. The doorbell rang a third time.

“Hang on,” he called. “I coming, just hang on.”

He looked out of the spy hole in the thick wooden door and stepped back in shock. “Sophie?” He quickly unlocked the door and flung it open.

“Sophie? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Well, like, that’s a nice welcome, Dad. I thought you’d, like, be pleased to see me. I haven’t seen you for, like, three weeks or something.”

“I know. I mean, I am, but I wasn’t expecting to see you until Saturday morning. And I was supposed to meet you at the station.”

Sophie shrugged. “I, like, got a taxi, didn’t I?”

“A taxi? Sophie, you’re thirteen years old! You shouldn’t be getting in taxis on your own at your age.”

“Chill, dad,” she said with a smile as she stepped into the hallway.

“William? Who is it?” Amy appeared at the top of the stairs wearing the white shirt she seemed to have made her own. She had, at least, seen fit to button it up this time.

Sophie looked up the stairs and her face fell. “Oh. Right. Okay. I’ll ... like, I’ll go then.” She turned and walked back out the door and away from the house.

“What? Sophie? Where are you...? Get back here young lady!” Will stepped outside but jumped back in to find his slippers before rushing after his daughter. She was halfway to the gate when he caught up and stood in front of her. She tried to step around him but he blocked her off.

“Just where do you think you’re going, my girl?”

She shrugged. “You, like, don’t want me here. You’re busy. I’ll, like, go to Uncle Jack’s or something. He’d never turn me away.”

“Sophie!” Will was exasperated. He loved his daughter but sometimes she reminded him too much of her mother. “I am not turning you away.”

She huffed. “Yeah, right. Cause you’re, like, so pleased to see me.”

“Look at me,” he said. “I’m standing outside in my pyjamas. Would I be doing that if I wasn’t pleased to see you?”

She shook her head.

“I’m just still a little shocked, that’s all. And besides, how are you planning to get to Jack’s, huh?”

She shrugged. “Dunno.”

“Let’s see. Taxi back to the station? But you don’t have the number of a local taxi firm.”

“Dur! One-one-eight-one-one-eight!”

“Okay. So you wait, what, half an hour for the taxi to show. Then maybe another half hour at the station for a train into Waterloo. Tube across London to Euston to get a train up to Milton Keynes. Another taxi ride to his house then you should only have to wait a few hours before he gets back from work.”

Sophie looked defiant.

“Or you could just come inside. Have a drink and I’ll make you some breakfast.”

“What about your girlfriend?”

“She can make her own breakfast.”

Sophie’s face split into a wide grin and she nodded vigorously. Will took her bag and carried it into the house. He was surprised by how heavy it was.

Amy was waiting in the hallway for them. “William? What’s going on?”

Will sighed. “This isn’t exactly how I’d planned to do this, but ... Amy, this is my daughter, Sophie. Soph, this is my friend, Amy. She’s staying with me for a time being because ... Well, she just is. We went to school together.”

“School?” said Sophie. “God, so you’ve, like, known her a looonngg time.”

Will gave her a stern look. “Any more of that cheek, young lady, and I might put you in a taxi to Uncle Jack’s myself.”

Sophie stuck her tongue out at her father and he couldn’t help but laugh at her.

“She’s wearing your shirt, dad.”

He looked at Amy adoringly. “Yeah, I know. Looks good on her, doesn’t it?”

Amy blushed.

“Yuk,” said Sophie. “I think I’m, like, going to be sick.” She pushed past the adults into the kitchen then stopped and looked back at them. “Well, come on. You, like, promised me breakfast, remember?”

Will looked at Amy and shrugged, then went into the kitchen. Amy went back upstairs and when she came down fifteen minutes later her hair was still damp from the shower and she was dressed in a pair of old jeans and a T-shirt. Will had put a plate of scrambled eggs on toast in front of Sophie who was sitting at the breakfast counter. Amy went to stand next to him as he watched his daughter tuck into the meal as if it was her first in months.

“Where’s mine?” she asked.

Will did his best to look stern but couldn’t. He nodded towards the fridge. “Go and get four more eggs and put some bread in the toaster. I’ll make us both some.”

Amy smiled and skipped across the room. Ten minutes later she and Will were eating while Sophie sipped a large glass of orange juice.

“So why are you here, Soph?” Will asked between mouthfuls.

“I told you. I, like, haven’t seen you for, like, ages. I missed you.”

“I missed you too, but it’s a Thursday. You’re supposed to be in school.”