4

      ‘I can’t believe Mummy fell for that. Bad back, my arse.’ Connie was in the blue bedroom, unpacking the first of their four bags while Greg lay on the bed fiddling with his laptop.

      He was exchanging very personal emails with Janie. Her descriptions of what she was wearing and what she was doing to herself at that moment were turning him on. He rolled on to his stomach to conceal his excitement.

      Connie was moving about the room with hangers and holiday clothes. ‘Do you want me to unpack your case for you, Greg? Might as well, while I’m doing mine.’

      He was typing something and had a little smile on his lips. He didn’t answer his wife.

      ‘Greg?’

      ‘Hmm?’

      She walked to the bed and bent over him to see the screen, which instantly went dark as he pressed the sleep button.

      ‘What are you up to that’s making you smile?’

      ‘Oh, one of the guys at the gym. Just been to Berlin on a stag weekend. You wouldn’t want to know what he’s been up to.’

      ‘Were you invited?’ she asked airily, picking up a couple of T-shirts and placing them in an open drawer.

      He closed the lid of the laptop and turned to face her. ‘Yep. But why would I go out for hamburger when I have steak at home?’ Eyeing up his wife’s shapely, hourglass figure, he made a grab for her as she passed the bed on the way to putting an emptied case away.

      ‘You have a much nicer arse than your sister … or your mother, for that matter.’

      ‘Do I?’ Connie giggled and wriggled out of his grasp to check herself in the cheval mirror.

      ‘Yes, you do.’ He grabbed his wife’s waist again as she walked past the bed.

      ‘Greg, I’m not sure there’s time for that!’

      He pulled her down beside him, and lifting her hair from her neck began nibbling the way she liked best.

      ‘Greg, I have to make supper for the kids. Pru won’t, and I don’t want any of that wholefood budgie stuff Francis dishes up.’

      Her husband persisted with the nibbling and then allowed his hand to drift to her breast. He felt her nipple stiffen under her T-shirt.

      ‘Come on, darling. Just a quickie. It’ll release all the tension in you.’

      Ten minutes later she did feel a lot better. She looked at Greg’s handsome face as he slept and marvelled at how lucky she was to have a husband like him. He wasn’t a tall man, but his dark grey eyes and tanned face made her heart flip still. He was a great dad to Abi, who adored him, and he had never strayed in the twenty years they’d been married. Of course, it wasn’t all sweetness and light, she reflected. There were weeks on end when she didn’t see Greg. He worked too hard and was always away on business, selling Carew games to the rest of the world. She knew she should be grateful; Abi went to a brilliant school and they had never wanted for anything, but there were times when she resented having to hold the fort. All those nights out without her husband, feeling like a spare part. Parents’ evenings alone, school plays alone …

      She pushed these thoughts from her mind. Connie pitied the wives of the men who’d been on the Berlin weekend. Life was good – wasn’t it?

      *

      Next door in the master bedroom, a fully dressed Francis was astride a shirtless Pru.

      ‘Gently, Francis. Careful.’ Pru’s voice was muffled in her pillow as Francis massaged her back.

      ‘Sorry, Pru. I had no idea your back was so bad. Why didn’t you tell me? I shouldn’t have let you drive.’

      ‘We’d never have got here.’

      ‘I know, but I like to look after you and Jeremy, you know that. That was the deal we made when your career took off and we decided that I should stay at home.’

      ‘Yes, darling. And very good you are too. So good, I think my back feels a lot better.’

      Francis got the message and climbed off her.

      Pru stood up and did a few stretches. ‘Yes, I think you’ve worked a miracle. Get me a nice G and T, and then you can make a start on supper. We don’t want Connie’s fish finger feast on the first night.’

      *

      ‘I hope your mum makes supper tonight.’ Jeremy was lying across Abi’s bed. ‘I’m really hungry. I only had, like, freakin’ sushi in the car.’

      Abi laughed and threw a pillow at her cousin’s head. ‘We had Marks and Sparks sandwiches and crisps.’ She stood sideways to the dressing-table mirror and sucked her tummy in. ‘Jem, d’you think I’m getting fat?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘You didn’t even look.’

      ‘I don’t need to. You look the same as usual.’

      ‘Maybe I should go on a diet.’

      ‘I don’t like skinny women.’

      ‘So I’m not skinny?’

      Jeremy picked up the pillow and threw it back at Abi.

      ‘Shut your face. Don’t get so paranoid.’

      ‘Gran said I had puppy fat.’

      ‘She doesn’t know what she’s talking about, man. At Christmas my mate Sean thought you were hot.’

      ‘The one with the teeth?’

      ‘There’s nothin’ wrong with his teeth. Anyway, his mum’s got him braces now.’

      Abi mimed putting two fingers down her throat and made a retching noise. ‘Lovely.’

      ‘That’s harsh.’ Jem laughed. ‘He’s a good mate.’

      Francis’s voice trilled up the stairs: ‘Dinner, all. Come and get it.’

      ‘Shit,’ said Jeremy. ‘Dad’s got to the kitchen first. Bloody buckwheat and quorn again.’

      *

      Dorothy and Henry had come over from their bungalow next door to join the two families for supper. Dorothy was rummaging in the fridge, looking for the magnum of champagne that she’d won in the Lifeboat raffle.

      ‘Henry!’