Read Online Summer Season by Julia Williams - Free Book Online

Joel’s relief, but he felt gloomyas he left the room. In the main, people were supportive of his domestic situation. Most of them had families too, but everyone else worked hard and late in the office; Joel didn’t like them to think he was being a slacker, but he knew he was already late for Lauren.
    Finally – too late – he understood Claire’s point of view. She’d frequently complained about the stress of leaving work early to get home for Lauren on the couple of days a week she’d worked (thank God they’d employed Lauren while Claire was still alive. It had ensured at least some stability for Sam). Joel hadn’t understood. Like so much else. Too late. He’d always been too late.
    He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.
    ‘Can we review the situation in a month, Joel?’ Dan said, calling Joel back in. ‘Any chance you can get those figures I need by tomorrow?’
    Joel surreptitiously looked at his text message. Lauren . Of course. Where r u? The message glowed at him, bristling with resentment. It was amazing how guilty Lauren could make him feel. But then he often felt racked with guilt these days.
    ‘Sure thing,’ said Joel, looking forward to another late night date with his laptop.
    ‘Brilliant,’ said Dan. ‘On my desk, first thing?’
    Joel had never been late yet delivering figures, but Dan always made him feel as if somehow he were likely to be.
    ‘First thing,’ he promised, and tried not to leg it out of the meeting room and to his office.
    He rang Lauren as soon as he was back at his desk, rooting around for the information he needed to take home with him that night.
    ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry,’ he said. ‘I’ll be with you as quick as I can.’
    Thank God he’d got a job not too far outside Chiverton.Switching jobs when they moved to Heartsease had felt risky at the time, but turned out to be a godsend. There was no way he could manage a job that involved a big commute now.
    Ten minutes later he came flying up Lauren’s path, his heart pounding, sweating like a pig, and feeling like he might be about to have a coronary any minute. Lauren already had the door open, Sam in her arms, bag ready, disapproval rippling from her every pore. He couldn’t blame her. If life was tough for him, he knew it was equally hard for her. Lauren had told him snippets, and Claire had told him more, about Troy, the feckless father who’d left her in the labour ward, and on several occasions she’d confided in him how tough she found it being a single parent.
    ‘I’m so sorry, Lauren,’ said Joel. ‘I was stuck in the meeting from hell.’
    ‘It’s not me you’ll have to answer to, it’s my mum,’ said Lauren, her voice tight with evident frustration. ‘I’ve just had to put up with twenty minutes of nagging about why I let you get away with it. Mum did offer to stay with Sam, but I don’t like to leave him with anyone else.’
    ‘I’m really sorry,’ said Joel, again, feeling terrible. It was unusual for Lauren to actually say what she thought. ‘I promise I’ll do better next time.’
    ‘You always say that,’ said Lauren, but her tone was softening.
    He took Sam from her. ‘Thanks, Lauren,’ he said. ‘Look. I don’t say it very often, and I should.’
    ‘Should say what?’ He could still feel some hostility.
    ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Since – since Claire died, I don’t know what we’d have done without you, Sam and I. You’re always there for us, and I take you for granted.’
    There was a silence and Joel felt more awkward than ever.
    ‘And I am sorry,’ he added.
    ‘Oh stop,’ he detected a wobble in Lauren’s voice. ‘You know I’d do anything for the pair of you. It’s the least I can do for – for Claire.’
    She turned away from him for a moment, and he thought maybe she’d wiped a tear away from her eye, but she looked back and added casually, ‘Oh, by the way I had coffee with your guerrilla gardener. Her name’s Kezzie and she thinks you should