3 Chapter 3

“Ready to go, Kevin?”

“Yeah, I s’pose,” he muttered sullenly, a teenager in training. Then he brightened. “Are you going to walk with us back to the High Street, Edward? So I can say goodbye to Tess?”

“I’m sorry, Kevin—my house is over in the other direction. But maybe you’ll see her another weekend, if your uncle brings you to the park.”

“Cool! Next Saturday, then? That’d be all right, wouldn’t it, Uncle Peter?”

“We’ll see,” I told him firmly, and with a last apologetic look at Edward, I managed to drag Kevin off and back to his mum’s.

* * * *

I waited until I was home again before ringing Edward’s number. I mean, ringing him from my car outside Carol’s house the minute I’d dropped Kevin off would just have been embarrassing. Particularly if Kevin came out to see why I was still hanging around.

Edward answered on the second ring. “Peter?”