Page 66 of The Bad Girl and the Baby

“I’m sorry about your sister.”

Perhaps she should say sorry about Steven, but she couldn’t get the words out, so she just nodded and turned to the man who’d risen to his feet and swung Lulu onto his shoulders.

“This is Matt’s dad, Gareth.” Jolene had come up beside them. “And no, you can’t have a tattoo,” she said to Hannah.

“But—”

“But nothing. We’ll talk about it when you’re eighteen.”

Darcy shook hands with Matt’s dad as the man himself came into the room. “You want a drink?” Matt asked. He brandished the red wine. “A glass of wine?”

“Please.” Did she sound desperate?

“Did you drive here?” Gareth asked.

She shook her head. She had a car that she’d inherited from her mother. It was a red open-topped sports car that her mom had loved, and Darcy kept it for sentimental reasons but rarely drove. She didn’t see the point in the city. “I took the bus.”

Matt handed her a glass, and she took a sip, not knowing quite what to do with herself.

“Why don’t you come and chat with me in the kitchen,” Jolene said. “The food is nearly ready.”

She followed Matt’s mother out into the hall and through to the big kitchen.

“Oh, shit,” Jolene said, hurrying across and pulling a pan from the oven and dropping it into the sink where it hissed and sputtered. “Oh well, luckily Gareth likes his food well done.” She grinned. “Or half raw. I never really got the hang of cooking. I should have let Matt do it, as he suggested.”

“So Matt didn’t get his cooking skills from you?”

Jolene picked up a half-empty glass of wine from the counter and took a sip. “In a way, he did. I wasn’t much of a mother. He learned early that if he wanted to eat, learning to cook was a good idea.”

“I’m sure you were a wonderful mom.”

“I was crap, but I was only seventeen when I had Matt. So was Gareth. We were school sweethearts and weren’t ready to settle down.”

“Matt seems to have turned out all right. And Hannah is lovely.” As soon as the words were out, she wished she could take them back. Because there was one member of the family who hadn’t turned out fine and who wasn’t lovely. Not in any way.

Jolene pursed her lips, a shadow crossing her face. She took another drink, as if getting her courage up. “I’m so sorry for what Steven did to your family.”

Part of her wished they could have ignored the issue, but most of her knew that it had to be put out into the open if they were to have any sort of honest relationship.

“We really believed Emma had changed him. But we should have made sure of that. We knew he had a temper. Just not that bad. I suppose a mother always tries to see the best in her children.”

Darcy had no clue what to say. Partly because what Jolene said was true. They should have checked up on Steven. Maybe Emma would be alive today if they had. And maybe she’d be alive if Darcy had behaved differently. She was in no position to cast blame.

She took a deep breath. “Look, it’s over. Steven and Emma are dead. I think we all made mistakes, but nothing we do now will change that.”

“You spent nearly three years in prison because of Steven.”

“As I said—it’s done. Over. I have to learn to move on, and so do you.”

“You’re a good person.” She wiped her hands and turned to face Darcy. “Are you and Matt…seeing each other?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Well, he was kissing you in the hallway, and you weren’t fighting him off.”

She shrugged. “It’s nothing serious. We’re just friends.”

“No chance you could be anything more?”

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