Read Online Other People's Children by Joanna Trollope - Free Book Online

upon what she was carrying – and up the stairs, lined with old prints of Bath and Bristol (there was a penalty if she knocked one off), to Lucas’s front door where he’d be standing, counting.
    â€˜Eleven,’ he said.
    â€˜It never was!’
    â€˜Nearly twelve.’
    â€˜Liar,’ Dale said.
    He kissed her. He was wearing a black shirt and black trousers and an open, faintly ethnic-looking waistcoat, roughly striped in grey and black. Dale indicated it.
    â€˜Cool.’
    He winked.
    â€˜Present from a fan.’
    â€˜Hey. Does Amy know?’
    â€˜Yes, I do,’ Amy said. She appeared behind Lucas, her blond hair in the curly froth round her face which Dale sometimes privately wondered how Lucas could bear to touch. It had a faintly woolly look to it, like a poodle.
    Lucas winked at Amy.
    â€˜It’s better than knickers. Or condoms.’
    Amy pulled a face.
    â€˜Shut up.’
    â€˜I’ve brought these,’ Dale said to Lucas, holding out the book and the bottle. He took them, peering at the book’s title.
    â€˜Wow. Great.’
    â€˜It’s brilliant,’ Dale said. ‘You think you never want to read another word about Vietnam, but this is different.’
    â€˜Thanks,’ Lucas said, still looking at the book. ‘Thanks.’
    Amy took the wine bottle out of his hand.
    â€˜I’ll chill this.’
    She was wearing leggings and ankle boots and a big T-shirt.
    â€˜He’s an amazing guy,’ Dale said to Lucas of the author of the book. ‘He had an awful childhood with almost no education but he’s just a brilliant natural writer.’
    Lucas smiled at her.
    â€˜I’ll look forward to it.’
    From the kitchen off the sitting-room, Amy called, ‘Want a coffee?’
    â€˜I’d rather have a drink,’ Dale said. She moved into the centre of the sitting-room, between the twin sofas covered in rough pale linen. ‘A drink drink. I’ve been down to Plymouth today. The traffic was vile.’
    Lucas picked a vodka bottle off the tray inserted into a bookcase and held it up, enquiringly.
    â€˜Lovely,’ Dale said. ‘The very thing.’
    â€˜Why,’ Lucas said, pouring vodka, ‘don’t you get another job? Why don’t you do something that doesn’t mean all this travelling? If you want to stay in publishing, why don’t you go on to the editorial side or something?’
    â€˜It would mean going to London,’ Dale said. ‘I don’t want to go to London.’
    Amy came out of the kitchen holding a mug.
    â€˜I thought you liked London.’
    â€˜I do. To visit. Not to live there.’
    â€˜It’s funny,’ Amy said, ‘the way you two always want to stick around your dad.’
    Lucas handed Dale a tumbler of vodka and tonic and ice.
    â€˜We don’t,’ he said, ‘not deliberately. It’s just happened, because of the areas we got jobs in.’
    â€˜I couldn’t wait to get away from Hartlepool,’ Amy said. She sat down on the nearest sofa, holding her mug and looking at Dale, taking in her trouser suit and her small jewellery and her smooth hair, tied back behind her head with a black velvet knot. ‘Or my father. Nothing on earth would make me live within miles of my father.’
    â€˜We’re not going to,’ Lucas said. He looked at his sister. ‘You’re too skinny.’
    Dale made a face. She sat down on the sofa opposite Amy and took a big gulp of her drink.
    â€˜Things haven’t been brilliant lately. First Neil walking out—’ She paused, took another gulp of her drink and then said, ‘And now Dad.’
    Lucas sat down next to Amy, leaning back with his arm across the sofa behind her.
    â€˜What about Dad?’
    â€˜He’s got a woman,’ Dale said.
    Amy looked amazed.
    â€˜He hasn’t!’
    â€˜He hasn’t,’ Lucas said. ‘I’ve seen him often