Free Divided Loyalties by Patricia Scanlan

She’s so pushy and sly. There was no way Shauna could say no to her. Greg can be very casual the way he treats her sometimes.’
Carrie was upset for her sister.
    ‘Whatever you want to do, Carrie, is fine with me. I don’t mind,’ Dan said easily. ‘We can have Christmas here and I’ll cook.’
    ‘She said she wanted us to come. That she didn’t want to be left alone with them,’ Carrie said doubtfully.
    ‘She has a point,’ her husband observed as he took a long, satisfying draught of his beer.
    ‘It’s a bummer. They really are the meanest people I’ve ever met. They take advantage of Greg and Shauna like nobody’s business. I bet they’ll be hotfooting it out
to the Gulf before they even have time to settle in.’
    ‘You can take that as a given.’ He smiled down at her.
    ‘You know what I suggested?’ Carrie grinned.
    ‘What?’
    ‘I suggested she put Della sitting beside Dad for dinner.’
    ‘And put Bobby sitting beside Eddie,’ Dan said mischievously.
    Carrie burst out laughing. Eddie was always wary of Bobby, much to her brother’s amusement.
    ‘Do they not have gays in his part of the country? Is he afraid I’ll jump on him? He’d be
so
lucky,’ Bobby had whispered to Carrie at one of Shauna’s
parties, making her snort with laughter. Sometimes she wondered how her brother could stay so unruffled by the continual underlying homophobia displayed by the likes of Eddie and their father that
was part and parcel of his life. She really admired his guts and courage in staying true to himself. She was longing to see him for Christmas.
    ‘We should go. We’ll get Shauna pissed and she’ll be fine,’ Dan murmured, interrupting her musings and leaning down to kiss her. Carrie forgot the Keegans, Bobby,
Christmas, and everything else, as she wrapped her arms round Dan and kissed him back.

8
    Shauna stretched and glanced at the clock and couldn’t believe that it was eight fifteen and Chloe was
still
asleep. This was as close to a miracle as she could
get. Beside her, Greg was totally conked out.
    Surprisingly, she felt refreshed. She couldn’t remember going asleep. She remembered lying, tense and resentful, hearing Greg, Eddie and Della clattering dishes around the kitchen without
making any effort to keep the noise down. If they woke Chloe up they could look after her, she’d thought, feeling the anger surge through her with every rattle of cup and plate and saucer.
She could hear Della giggling and Eddie’s and Greg’s deeper voices bantering back and forth.
    She must have drifted off to sleep, for she hadn’t heard Greg coming to bed, and as the sunlight slanted in through a gap in the curtains she felt a lot less pressurized. A decent
night’s sleep was a lifesaver. The conversation with Carrie had helped enormously. She promised herself that she wasn’t going to get stressed out for Christmas. There was no point. Even
before Della had invited herself and her family, Shauna had been fretting about having her father and Bobby together. She was afraid she’d let fly if Noel started getting at her brother. Now
she had Della to get on her nerves as well. They’d all better pray that she didn’t have PMT. That would be nicely explosive. She grinned and stretched. Carrie and Dan and Bobby would be
there. They’d get her through it, and she wanted her sister especially to have a decent Christmas. She deserved it.
    Greg stirred beside her. ‘Morning,’ she said brightly, determined to hang on to her good mood.
    ‘What’s good about it?’ he groaned.
    ‘Sun’s shining, weather’s cleared up. Chloe’s still asleep and I don’t have a hangover and you’re cooking brekkie,’ she said smugly.
    ‘Not before I do this.’ Greg pressed himself against her and cupped her breasts in his hands.
    ‘What about Della and Eddie?’ she murmured, enjoying the dart of desire that shot through her as she felt him getting aroused against her.
    ‘What about them?’ Greg