A Thousand Salt Kisses (Book 1 of Salt Kiss series)

><> Chapter Forty-Eight <><

I stayed at Rosie's the whole of the next day. In the end we had borrowed Sex and The City box sets from Rosie's older sister and we had been unable to able to stop watching them.

Of course we had likened every plot to our current situations with Will and Llyr and we had also decided that Rosie was the character Charlotte and I was Carrie. Jemima could be Miranda, I had offered generously, but we were yet to find a hilarious Samantha.

I now walked home at around five and I was feeling pretty square-eyed. As I crossed the island, I looked out through the trees and saw the sun was low in the sky. 

The days were getting shorter.

When I got home I found Dad in the living room watching the football with Maurice. Maurice had been allowed on the sofa next to Dad, a very rare treat.

"Oh Maurice!" I squealed from the entrance. "What's all this?"

Maurice was looking at me and his tail was moving, although with much more restrained wags than usual. I got the feeling he didn't want me to draw too much attention to the situation, in case Dad changed his mind.

I grabbed Dad a beer and myself an orange juice, and I settled down next to them stroking Maurice's back. He gave a big blissful sigh and me and Dad laughed.

"He's with his pack," laughed Dad fondly, petting his head.

"Not his whole pack," came a familiar voice from behind us.

Dad and I jumped and Maurice let out a loud bark. What the Hell?

We leaped up and spun around.

My mother was standing in the entrance of the living room. For a moment she looked like that small sad woman I saw on the mainland the other day, looking over at us meekly.

"Sheila!" exclaimed Dad.

"Mum!" I squawked, at exactly the same time as Dad.

There was a pause as we all looked at each other.

"I see," she said suddenly, raising her eyebrows as though she were unimpressed by our reaction. It appeared that the steely exterior was back and Dad and I watched on as she sauntered over to the armchair, next to the sofa. She sat down, crossing one leg over the other.

Only Mum would have the nerve to try to swagger back into a broken home like the Queen of Sheba.

Dad and I remained standing for a while, still in shock.

Everything was a bit of a daze, but I noticed she had a big white package in her hand. 

"You're both making me feel very on edge standing there like that," she said all matter-or-fact, like a headmistress. "Can you please just calm down and sit down."

We looked at each other and then descended onto the sofa the same time.

"What is that dog doing there, anyway?" my mother said, as her eyes travelled downwards. Maurice closed his eyes. I could see the poor hound was trying to pretend to be asleep.

"What are you doing here?" Dad retorted.

"I need to talk with you both," she said firmly, gripping the package in her hand.  It was an A4 envelope I realised.

"Okay..." said Dad unsurely. "But I wish you would have given us a little notice, you scared us."

"Oh, don't be such a drip, Keith," spat Mother, swiping the air with her hand.

"A drip?" cried Dad. "I climbed up a two hundred foot building last month."

"Please don't remind me," said my Mum putting her head in her hands.

"I am not sitting here if you're both going to argue," I said, placing my hands on the sofa to stand up.

"I don't want to argue," said Mum, putting up a hand.

"Could have fooled me," mumbled Dad, looking down at his hands.

"Okay, believe it or not, I'm here to make things right," said my Mum.

"Oh, are you now?" said my dad. "How are you going to do that?"

I watched my mum's face carefully. It softened slightly as Dad said these words, it looked longingly at him for a split second. Does she still love him?

"With this," she said firmly, placing the mystery envelope down in front of him.

Dad picked it up, and opened it up. He looked up at her suspiciously.

What the hell is in that envelope? Divorce papers, or something? Great.

"You wanted insider information," said Mum. "Well, I said I'd give you it, didn't I? I have some right here. The documents that are in that envelope will bring down SKANX once and for all."