THIRTY-ONE
The girls ran up to the front door, a gaggle of barely constrained excitement, and Bea pounded on the woodwork as Amy skipped from one foot to the next, fists bunched into her tiny mouth. And when the door opened, they plunged inside, wrapping their arms around Samantha, yelping, “Mummy!”
She held onto them both and beamed towards Steve as he came up the path with the overnight bags. “Everything all right?”
He nodded once and she disappeared inside with the girls screaming and laughing with glee.
Steve paused at the threshold and looked up the hill towards the house. Lights burned on the ground floor windows and he wondered if he should go there straight away, to tell the old bastard, but then Bea’s voice came roaring from within, “Come on, Daddy, Mummy’s made a cake!”
For
