Free E for England by Elisabeth Rose

school.’ No way was she running about being sweaty and inept while Hugh displayed his well-honed body in shorts and pretended he didn’t mind playing with an uncoordinated, unfit neighbour.
    â€˜Get back into it. This weather is perfect for tennis. Does Leonie play?’
    â€˜No idea. I’ve never seen her do anything sporty.’ Her body was naturally slim and shapely.
    â€˜I was just thinking if she did we could get her and James to make up a four.’
    Of course he’d want to include Leonie. ‘Ask her.’
    He nodded, pleased with his idea. ‘I will. Or you could.’
    â€˜Mmm.’ Or not.
    Mattie and Floss came towards them, eyeing Hugh with the blatantly disapproving, suspicious and resentful faces small children are so good at not hiding.
    â€˜Can we go now?’ asked Mattie. He ignored Hugh completely.
    â€˜We want to have our iceblocks,’ said Floss. She gave Hugh a tiny glance but no smile. Mattie must have told her he was persona non grata because normally she was quite sociable, if shy at first.
    Annie stood up. ‘All right.’ She shoved her book into the carry bag.
    â€˜Are you heading home now?’ asked Hugh.
    â€˜Yes, via the shop over there.’ Annie pointed to the far side of the park.
    â€˜Mind if I join you?’
    â€˜Fine.’
    Mattie gave an ostentatious sigh and began walking away, kicking his feet on tufts of grass, football tucked under his arm.
    â€˜Hugh used to play football,’ Annie called. ‘He might like to play with you sometime.’
    She sent Hugh a hopeful look and he said, ‘Sure.’
    â€˜I’m tired,’ Mattie said. ‘I want to go home.’
    â€˜Sorry,’ Annie murmured. She picked up the carry bag and slung it over her shoulder.
    â€˜Let him take his time. He’ll soon see we’re just friends.’
    Floss grasped Annie’s hand in her hot grimy one. ‘I want a pink iceblock. Strawberry.’
    â€˜We’ll see what they have. I’m having an orange and mango one.’
    â€˜Mummy likes orange.’ She peeked up at Hugh. ‘Are you having an iceblock too?’
    â€˜I might. I like plain vanilla ice-cream best. Maybe with chocolate on it.’
    â€˜Me too. I like chocolate bits in it.’ Floss skipped a couple of steps and let Annie’s fingers go. She ran to catch up with Mattie who was halfway across the open grass area.
    â€˜Mattie misses their father,’ Annie said.
    â€˜Has he contacted them at all?’
    â€˜He sent postcards to our old address. The last one was a Bali beach scene about a twomonths ago.’
    â€˜Does he know you moved?’
    â€˜His phone never answered. I left messages and I wrote to him at the one address I had but he’d already skipped the country, I think. We haven’t seen him for about nine months.’ Try as she might she couldn’t keep the bitterness from her voice. ‘Money just stopped going into our joint account. He never took money out of it after a couple of months right at the start, but he’d know I couldn’t afford to stay on in the house on my pay alone. I never want to see him again unless it’s to sign divorce papers.’
    Hugh paced beside her in silence. It felt like a non-judgmental silence rather than an embarrassed ‘Oh my goodness, I wish she’d shut up’ silence. Or she was imagining his was a sympathetic, kindly ear? Either way her mouth was now closed. The last thing she wanted to talk about was her deadbeat soon to be ex.
    â€˜We’re managing pretty well now.’
    â€˜You are.’
    She smiled. ‘Apart from the oleander incident.’
    He laughed.
    â€˜Mattie,’ she called. ‘Don’t go out of the park. Wait for us.’
    Ten minutes later, armed with iceblocks they headed for home. No matter which route they took, the path led to a steep flight of steps leading from water level up on to the spine of