Page 63 of The Bordeaux Book Club

‘Um…’ said Nathan, looking across at Leah, his eyes betraying that he’d come to the same realisation. Or at least, that something wasn’t quite right.

‘Um,’ Leah echoed. Scarlett gave a customary eyeroll but for once, Leah didn’t blame her. ‘Me and your dad were just talking,’she said, at last, ‘and we realised that, um, we perhaps don’t talk enough, as a family.’

Scarlett folded her arms and perched on the edge of a bar stool, ready, it seemed to escape at a moment’s notice. ‘So?’ she said.

Nathan, seizing on the change of subject said, ‘Yes, so we wanted to ask, is everything OK with you? School OK? Friends?’

Leah thought that anyone who has raised or even met a teenager must know the exact nature of the look this incited in Scarlett. It was chilling. ‘Yeah?’ she said. ‘Is that it?’

But they ought to say something reassuring about Nathan, Leah thought, just in case Scarlett was secretly worried.

Scarlett’s stool scraped back. ‘Oh!’ Leah continued, as if the thought had just struck her. ‘Also, you know that woman we saw Dad with the other day? Turns out he’s getting life coaching!’ she said, trying to keep her voice bright. ‘He’s trying to… well, work out what he wants to do if the gardening thing doesn’t work out.’

Scarlett looked at her. ‘You seriously called me down,’ she said, ‘to tell me Dad’s seeing a shrink?’

‘No,’ Leah said, trying to keep the impatience from her voice. ‘We called you down to say that we need to try to reconnect as a family. Dad and I had a chat and we’d had some misunderstandings recently, and we realised that maybe we haven’t been… open enough with each other. And – we don’t always feel as if we get to talk to you much either!’

Something crossed Scarlett’s features. It was fleeting and Leah struggled to capture it exactly. ‘Oh, I get it,’ she said. ‘You asked Dad about that woman we saw him with? And she’s his therapist, right? Not his new girlfriend?’

‘Life coach.’ Leah said, firmly.

Nathan’s face was maroon. ‘Scarlett,’ he said. ‘That’s completely inappropriate.’

‘So is having life lessons from some blonde woman in the street,’ she said, giving him a look that would have made many weaker men crumble.

‘Well, I think it’s great,’ Leah said, ‘it’s not easy, you know. Being in your forties…’

‘Yeah, being old,’ finished Scarlett.

This wasn’t going the way either of them had planned.

‘Scarlett…’ Nathan said, a warning tone in his voice.

‘What?’

Nathan clearly hadn’t thought it out. ‘Just… stop it.’

‘Stop what?’

‘Oh just, go to your room,’ Leah said, exasperated.

Scarlett, evidently getting what she’d wanted in the first place, said, ‘Fine, I’d rather be there than talking to you two weirdos anyway.’

As she walked loudly and purposefully back upstairs, Leah’s eyes met Nathan’s. ‘Well, that went well,’ she said.

And they smiled at each other, in the midst of their shared parental frustration. It was interesting, Leah thought, how Scarlett could somehow bind them together, even when her behaviour was rude and erratic.

Leah sat down again, let Nathan’s hand cover hers, and allowed herself to smile.

‘I love you, you know,’ he said.

‘You too,’ she replied.

And, at that moment, it was enough.

25

JUNE

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