Read Online Humber Boy B by Ruth Dugdall - Free Book Online Page A

wrong to think she could just walk away. Jess needed an older man like him, she was frustrated with Dave, and she had so much still to learn. He enjoyed taking her to films at the art house cinema, recommending books she should read. And now she was being silly, saying she was going to stay with Dave. As if a man like that could give her what she needed. Just like Rachel, these women never knew what was good for them. And Cheryl looked in danger of going the same way, if he didn’t start to take action.
    Cheryl ran back out, dressed more suitably in denim shorts, though they were too skimpy for his liking, and there was a smattering of sequins on her vest top. She was also clutching her swimsuit and a towel. “Let’s go, Dad,” she said, as though it was she who had been waiting.
    Roger drove carefully, pausing at junctions, getting petrol even though the tank was half-full, and finally stopping at Mrs Patel’s shop for drinks and sandwiches.
    “Wait here,” he told his daughter. “I won’t be a minute.”
    Alone in the car, Cheryl reached to the driver’s side and tugged the indicator switch, then fiddled with the headlight lever, but nothing happened as the ignition was dead. She pulled down the mirror and studied her face, touched the sticky lip gloss, peeled a flake of blue mascara from her eyelash and regretted picking the spot on her chin which was now a red sore. She put her feet on the dashboard and tried to touch her toes but it made her stomach ache. Now she thought about it, her stomach had ached since she woke up. She looked out of the window and saw three boys from the rough part of the estate. Adam was in her school year, and she’d known him for years, and she also recognised his kid brother. But it was the younger boy who took her attention, Jessica’s son, Noah. Little wanker , she thought, though it was hardly his fault that his mum was a bitch.
    Her dad was stupid if he thought Cheryl hadn’t noticed what was going on, she’d known he hadn’t been to the snooker club when he came back smelling of perfume, she’d seen the way he suddenly wore trendier clothes to work. She wasn’t an idiot, and she liked Jess. Liked that her dad wasn’t on her case so much, that he had someone else to think about. This was the main reason Cheryl more than liked her, she needed her. But Jess had gone, just like her mum. Jess was a bitch.
    Noah was pushing a silver scooter, but the other boys were walking. Adam had his hands in his pockets, kicking the grass as he tagged along behind.
    She opened the car door and stood behind it, one foot stretched out like a ballerina, using the car door as a barre.
    “And where are you going?” she demanded, with the tone of a child who had been raised by a teacher.
    Adam looked up, startled, then seemed to realise she was speaking to him. He was a bit of a nothing, a gap in her knowledge, since he never went for school plays, didn’t play in the orchestra and only did the egg and spoon race on Sport’s Day. He was barely at school come to think of it. She’d heard her dad talking about his family to other teachers and knew social workers had been involved, but there her knowledge stopped. Today was the first time she’d ever spoken to him directly.
    “Answer me, then. What you lot up to?”
    “We’re having us a little holiday.” Though he was fighting it, Adam looked bored, or sad, she didn’t know him well enough to know which. “You?”
    “Nowt.” Cheryl gave up on the ballet and kicked the tyre of her dad’s car. “Fishing. Boooring.”
    Noah, who had been standing with Adam’s kid brother, both of them listening, suddenly perked up. “I love to fish. Where you going to do it?”
    The last thing Cheryl wanted was her dad’s ex-girlfriend’s son joining them so she ignored his question and said to Adam, “I’d rather go to town but he won’t let us.”
    “We can do what us likes,” said Adam. “No-one cares.”
    She was interested in this, and