by Sarah Hope
‘Of course, it does.’ Turning the corner, Molly slammed her brakes on as two horses came into view. Great, now they really would be late. Tapping the steering wheel, Molly inched past them, the riders raising their hands in thanks.
Leaving enough distance between the horses and the car, Molly accelerated again. It wasn’t as though they’d popped out for her, they’d gone for Ellis, his son. And they’d only had to go out because Trevor was insisting the kids had their swim stuff with them. If he had planned an activity like going in the hot tub, it should really be his responsibility to make sure his children had the proper equipment.
Picking up speed, Molly wriggled her fingers on the steering wheel and loosened her grip. Even just thinking about him and how he acted annoyed her. She should really have learnt by now to accept the way he acted and live with the consequences. Her life would be a lot easier if she didn’t let his actions bother her so much.
‘Mum!’
Shaking her head, she focused on Ellis’ voice from the backseat. ‘Has she messaged again?’
‘No, but there’s a police car behind us.’
‘Drat.’ Looking in the rearview mirror, Molly checked her speedometer before hitting the brakes and slowing down to a more reasonable and legal speed limit. Checking the rear mirror again, Molly held her breath.
‘Mum, they’ve put their blue lights on now.’
Biting down on her bottom lip, Molly slowed down again and indicated, pulling to the side. Please go past. Please go past.
‘Does that mean we’re in trouble?’
‘Hopefully it just means they need to get past, that’s all. They’ve probably got an emergency to go to or something.’
‘Oh okay. Why aren’t they overtaking us then?’
Slowing to a stop, Molly closed her eyes. This was all she needed. To be pulled over for speeding.
‘Mum?’
‘It’s all right, sweetheart. Everything will be fine.’ Rubbing her eyes, she watched as a policeman sauntered towards them. What would happen if she just bolted? She could write an email and apologise. Waiting for the inevitable tap-tap on the window, she turned and wound it down.
‘Madam, I’m Officer Duffey.’ Bending down, Officer Duffey flashed his ID. ‘Could you please step out of the car?’
It wasn’t really a question; she knew that. She also knew that any thoughts of driving off and taking a plane out of the country would have to remain unspoken. ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t realise I was speeding, not until I saw you behind us. It won’t happen again.’
‘Please step out of the vehicle.’ Placing his hand over the radio strapped to his jacket, he flared his nostrils.
‘Yes, of course. Sorry.’ Twisting around in her seat, Molly reached behind and tapped Ellis on the knee. ‘Don’t worry. It will all be fine. You stay here.’
‘Please, madam.’
Yes, okay, okay. Couldn’t he see that she was comforting her child? Not that Ellis looked anything but excited at the prospect of her getting into trouble with the law. Opening the door, she slipped out. ‘I’m so so sorry. We’re just in a bit of a hurry and the road was clear, and I just got distracted. You know thinking about the time and that we had to hurry, and I forgot to look at my speedometer. I don’t usually speed and it honestly wasn’t intentional.’
Tapping his pen against the small notepad in his hand, he looked at her, his clear blue eyes peeking from underneath his sandy coloured hair. ‘You are admitting you were travelling above the speed limit then?’
‘Yes, no, I don’t know. I wasn’t really concentrating on my speed.’ Biting her lip, she shook her head. Why had she said that? ‘I don’t mean I wasn’t concentrating on driving, because I was. I could see the road was clear and so I guess I was just concentrating on that. I didn’t realise I was speeding.’
‘So you weren’t checking your speedometer?’
‘No, I mean I was, but just not right then.’ Tucking her hair behind her ears, Molly turned to look at Ellis whose attention had returned to her mobile before turning back to the policeman in front of her. ‘I was just looking at the road. I didn’t realise I had been speeding.’
‘Do you know how much over the speed limit you were going?’
Blinking, Molly shook her head. She’d already told him she hadn’t looked at the speedometer. He knew she didn’t know.
‘You were going seven miles per hour above the limit. Do you realise how much of a difference that could make in an impact with another car? Or a pedestrian for that matter?’
Frowning, Molly automatically glanced up and down the desolate country lane.
Shaking his head, Officer Duffey tapped his notepad again. ‘I know it’s a quiet road but if you had met another car or been on a busier road, I might actually be assisting you after an accident right now.’
He wasn’t going to let her off, was he? ‘I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.’
‘I should hope not. Do you have your driving licence on you?’
‘Yes, I do. Oh, umm, we’ve only just moved yesterday, so it doesn’t have my new address on.’ Was that a crime too? No, surely they couldn’t expect you to update the details on moving day, could they? Turning around, Molly reached inside the car and pulled out her handbag. ‘Here it is.’
Nodding, Officer Duffey took the license. Narrowing his eyes, he stared at it.
‘As I said, we only moved yesterday so I haven’t got round to changing my address, but we’re in Payton-on-the-Water at...’
‘That won’t be necessary, I know where you’ve moved into.’ Holding up his hand, palm facing outwards, he turned her licence over in his other hand.
Frowning, Molly laced her fingers together in front of her. How did he know where they lived?
Glancing up, Officer Duffey looked across at her and shook his head. ‘I’m the local police officer around here, I keep an eye on things.’
‘Right. Of course.’ Looking down at the ground in front of her, she looked back up. Maybe he’d let her off? He must know how stressful moving was and he could clearly see she had Ellis in the back. He must know that she wouldn’t do anything to intentionally put him at risk. It wasn’t as though she’d sped deliberately.
Looking down, he scribbled in his notepad. ‘I’m afraid at the speed you were going and having a child in the car, I have no choice but to issue you with a ticket.’
‘Really? I...’ Blinking her eyes, she tried to keep the tears stinging the back of her eyes from spilling over. She’d never had a ticket before. Her insurance premiums would skyrocket now, wouldn’t they? That was all she needed – not only to have to conjure up the fine money from thin air but also to have to find extra money each month to pay a higher insurance premium. And it was due to renew next month. What with the mortgage and bills on Bramble Patch and the extra fuel needed to travel that bit further to everywhere they needed to go, money was going to be tight already. Until she could start making a decent profit from the business, anyway.
Passing her licence back to her, Officer Duffey crossed his arms.
Biting her bottom lip, Molly nodded before turning around and opening her car door. With her hands shaking, she dropped her keys. ‘Drat.’
‘Here, let me.’ Bending down, Officer Duffey fished her keys from the puddle at their feet.
‘Thank you.’ Taking them from him, Molly glanced at his face. His features had softened a little. In fact, if he hadn’t just given her a ticket, she would have said his eyes looked kind.
‘I don’t like giving tickets, you know.’ A small sympathetic smile flashed across his face before he again wiped it of all emotion.
Nodding, Molly slipped into the driver’s seat and shook her head. Sure, he didn’t like giving out tickets, that’s why she’d now been fined for barely crossing the speed limit.
‘Mum, are you going to jail?’ Ellis’ voice, quiet and small floated through from the back seat.
Turning around, Molly reached backwards and clasped his hand. ‘No,
of course not. I’ve just got to pay a bit of money to say sorry for speeding, that’s all. I’m not going anywhere.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, really, really. Now, have you still got my phone?’
‘Yes, do you need it?’
‘No, you keep hold of it. We’d better get a wriggle on or Lauren and your dad will wonder where we are.’ Turning back around, Molly clipped her seatbelt in, wiped the few tears that had managed to escape and turned the ignition.
Chapter Three
Running ahead of her, Ellis threw the shop door open. ‘Daddy!’
‘Hey, buddy!’ Looking from Ellis to Molly, Trevor pointedly fiddled with the ridiculously large and expensive watch strapped to his wrist.
‘Sorry, we’re late. We had to pop out to get Ellis some swimming trunks. He said he needed to take some to yours and you wouldn’t have time to get him a pair.’ Of course, if you’d given me a little bit of notice I wouldn’t have had to have made a quick dash to the shops at the last minute. There was no point saying anything, she knew that. The number of times he’d changed his mind over pick-up and drop-off times or expected them to suddenly have this, that or the other to take with them to his, it wasn’t worth telling him they wouldn’t have had to go out if it hadn’t been for him.
‘Yes! And then Mum got pulled over for speeding!’ With his eyes wide open and an enormous grin spreading across his face, Ellis looked from his dad to his sister to make sure they were suitably thrilled. ‘The police car had its lights on and everything!’
Frowning, Trevor looked across to Molly. ‘Is this true?’
‘Well, yes, I was pulled over, but I wasn’t really speeding.’
‘With Ellis in the car?’
Pursing her lips, Molly stared back at him. He’d always thought himself better than her. She knew he sped with the kids in the car, and not by accident either. Many a time, Ellis had come back from his relaying some story or other where Trevor had ‘made the car go really really fast’ to show off to them. She didn’t need his looks of disgust, not when she hadn’t realised she’d been speeding and she’d only been hurrying because he had been getting Lauren to text to rush them home. ‘I did not mean to speed and, if I had been at all, I would only have been going a few miles above the speed limit. Besides, we were only in a hurry because we’d had to go out at the last minute to get the trunks Ellis needed.’
‘Are you seriously blaming me for you breaking the law?’ Folding his arms, Trevor cocked his head to the side.
‘Don’t look at me like that, Trevor. It’s my first driving offence ever. How many points do you currently hold on your license for speeding?’
Shaking his head, Trevor flared his nostrils. ‘Don’t turn it around on me. It was you who did it.’
‘Yes, it was and I’m not turning it around on you, I’m just saying don’t get on your high horse and moan at me for something you’ve done numerous times in the past. Yes, I sped but, no, I didn’t mean to and I certainly wouldn’t have intentionally with Ellis in the car. You know that.’ Trying to calm her breathing, Molly took a deep breath. ‘Besides, if you had actually given me notice about the kids needing to take their swimming things today then I wouldn’t have been rushing back from town in the first place.’
Shaking his head, Trevor glanced at the children. ‘Right, kids, are you all packed and ready to go? Go and jump in the car and I’ll be out in a moment. I just need a quiet word with your mum, okay?’
‘Okay.’ Pushing her leg back, Lauren pushed herself away from the shelf she’d been leaning on and stood next to Molly.
‘It’s all right, sweetheart. You can go out, but first, come here.’ Holding her arms out, Molly waited until Lauren’s head was resting against her shoulder before wrapping her arms around her and kissing the top of her head. ‘Love you. Have a lovely time at your dad’s.’
‘Love you too, Mum.’ Pulling herself away, Lauren picked up her rucksack.
‘You too, kid.’ Pulling Ellis towards her, she buried her nose in his shock of blonde hair and inhaled the scent of the men’s shower gel he insisted on washing with mixed with the flowery perfume from the fabric conditioner his pillow case had been washed with. ‘Love you, kid. Have fun at Daddy’s.’
‘Will do.’
‘Pardon?’ Gripping him tighter and tickling him under the arms, Ellis squealed with laughter.
‘Love you too, Mum.’
‘That’s better. Right, I’ll see you in a couple of days, okay?’
‘Go on then. Jessica’s in the car with Ruby.’
Damn, she hadn’t even spotted his car. She must have walked right past Trevor’s new wife and their four-year-old, Ruby. Loosening her hair from its messy bun, Molly shook it out before tying it back up. Tearing her eyes away from the door as it swung shut behind Lauren and Ellis, she looked across at Trevor. ‘If you want to have another go at me about speeding, then please don’t bother. Don’t you think I regret it enough?’
‘No, it’s not that. Before you came back I was speaking to Lauren, and she was telling me how you were hoping to open this place on Monday?’
‘That’s right.’ What did it have to do with him? Yes, opening two days after moving in might seem crazy but she needed to start making some money, more so now than ever.
‘It’s just that with it being the half term holidays and you clearly have an awful lot of work to do to prepare this place for opening, I thought I’d take the kids off your hands for a few extra days. To give you a bit of a break and time to get opened without them under your feet.’
Opening her mouth, Molly closed it again. From anyone else, she’d think it was a nice gesture, but from the way he was speaking to her and looking pointedly at the empty shelves and mop bucket which she realised had been knocked again, dirty water puddling beside it and mucky footprints trailing out of the door, she couldn’t help but feel he was being condescending. ‘I can cope, you know. I wouldn’t have brought this place if I didn’t think I could cope.’
‘I didn’t mean that, I just thought it would help you out not having the kids under your feet while you were trying to sort it all out. Plus, Jessica’s parents have invited us to stay for the week rather than just the weekend now.’
‘Right.’ Molly nodded. That was why then. He wanted to take the kids with him to Jessica’s parents’. It had absolutely nothing to do with helping her out.
‘Well? It just makes more sense than us having to cut our visit short or me having to drive all the way down here and then back up to theirs again.’
‘I don’t know. I thought you were just having them for the weekend as usual. They haven’t packed enough things.’ She had wanted them back for the opening of the shop. It was their new adventure – not just hers. She wanted the children to be involved too. ‘Do you mind if we just leave it? It’s the opening day on Monday and I wanted the children here.’
‘Really? They’d just get in the way.’ Chuckling to himself, Trevor shook his head, dismissing her idea as if it was ridiculous.
Straightening her back, Molly narrowed her eyes. He always made her feel a lesser person than him, as though her ideas were just silly and whimsical. ‘I’m trying to make a home for them here, and, yes, I’d like them to be here for the opening of the shop.’
‘Dad, are you coming?’ Bounding in through the door, Ellis stopped in his tracks and looked from his mum to his dad. ‘I thought we were in a hurry?’
‘One moment, buddy. I was just asking your mum if I could have you a bit longer so we could spend some more time up at Grandma and Grandpa Hills’ house.’
‘Really? Do you mean we’ll be able to go in the hot tub every day? And could we go to that theme park? You promised us we could when we went up again, remember?’
Keeping his eyes fixed on Molly, Trevor nodded. ‘Maybe. I’m just waiting to see what your mum says.’
‘Mum? Can we? Can we go?’
‘I...’
‘It’s okay if we can’t though. I do
n’t mind.’
Looking at Ellis, Molly sighed. He did mind, really. He wanted to go to the theme park and spend more time in the hot tub. Now that Trevor had suggested they could stay longer in front of him, she couldn’t very well say no, could she?
Shaking her head, she looked at Trevor and narrowed her eyes. He always did this, always put her in impossible positions. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t damn fair to play with his kids as he did. Not that they realised what he was doing. Lauren had mentioned a couple of things, such as asking why her dad moved his days around with them or had to cancel seeing them at all at short notice. It wouldn’t be long until they both cottoned on to what he was like, to his games, but until then she couldn’t win. She either said no and was made out to be the bad person or she did what Trevor had set the trap for her to do and gave in.
‘It’s completely up to your mum.’
Of course, it was. Of course. Closing her eyes momentarily, Molly nodded. ‘Okay.’
‘Really? Thanks, Mum. I’m going to go and tell Lauren we’re going to the theme park!’ Running outside, the door slammed behind him.
‘Please don’t ever put me in a position like that again.’
‘I don’t know what you mean. I gave you the choice. It was entirely your decision.’
Molly shook her head. He’d never change. ‘You know exactly what you did. Now, what are you going to do about the fact they haven’t packed enough clothes?’
‘Jessica’s parents have a washing machine and if they need anything else, I’m sure we can find a shop nearby.’
Right, a shop. So now he was getting his way, he could manage to pop to a shop to pick extra bits up for the children, but barely an hour earlier, he had made it clear to Ellis that he wouldn’t have time to pop out to buy him some new trunks.
‘Thanks for this. I’ll drop them back on Thursday or Friday.’
Molly watched as he slipped out of the door, letting it slam behind him. She’d have to get a doorstop to put there. It wouldn’t take much force for one of the small panes of glass to pop out or crack. Walking towards the window, she stood slightly to the side. She didn’t like to wave and blow kisses when she knew Jessica was in the car. It felt too weird. Even though she’d been in their lives for almost six years, Molly still felt like an intruder when she was about. Shaking her head, she tried to push the feeling aside. After all, it was she, Molly, who was Lauren and Ellis’ mum. She shouldn’t be made to feel as though it was her who didn’t belong.