Free When Summer Fades by Danielle Shaw Page B

Irish brogue, silenced by a huge roast potato.’
    ‘Callie!’ her mother scolded. ‘Will you not eat so quickly!'
    ‘Sorry! Occupational hazard I’m afraid. Always having to eat in a rush.’
    ‘Pray tell me then, why does Sophie – who shares the same occupation as yourself – eat like a sparrow?’
    ‘‘Cos she doesn’t want to spoil her appetite for tonight. Isn’t that right Sophie?’
    Sophie winced. She had no desire to be reminded of this evening’s proposed dinner engagement. ‘I’m sure they don’t really want me there. They’re simply being polite. It’s Carlos’s last night – he’s flying back to Portugal tomorrow evening.’
    ‘Who’s Carlos?’ Declan Callaghan enquired, helping himself to more vegetables.
    ‘Rosa’s sugar daddy,’ Callie broke in.
    ‘I beg your pardon! You don’t mean that young girl staying with Sophie—’
    ‘No, she doesn’t,’ Sophie protested. ‘Carlos is not Rosa’s sugar daddy.’
    ‘You said he was old!’
    ‘Correction, Callie. I’d been led to believe he was old. OK, so he is quite a bit older than Rosa, but he’s certainly not the Old Father Time I was expecting.’
    ‘You never told me this yesterday, when I came to collect your summer clothes.’
    ‘You never asked me. Besides, I was busy packing.’
    ‘And singing Indigo Moods . By the way I hope you’ve changed your tune.’
    ‘For your information it was Mood Indigo . And yes, I have stopped humming it.’ Sophie flashed a delightful smile. ‘Now it’s something else. I suppose that means a double dose of bad luck. Which brings me back to the beginning of our conversation. How do I get out of tonight?’
    Nagged on all sides by assorted members of the Callaghan family, as to why she should go Sophie conceded defeat with the words, ‘ Get a free meal out of him Sophie and get your own back on that rude bastard ’ ringing in her ears.
    An hour later, Mary Callaghan placed a comforting arm on Sophie’s shoulder.
    ‘Ignore my uncouth family, Sophie my dear. To be sure, all they think about is their stomachs. My advice, for what it’s worth, is go. Didn’t you say this – er – Carlos wanted to discuss something important? Perhaps he intends to apologize. Callie tells me he was very rude about your dear little flat.’
    ‘Which isn’t surprising. Rosa says the garage at their villa is bigger than my flat.’
    ‘Jesus, Sophie!’ Colleen’s boyfriend whistled. ‘Why don’t you see if this Carlos has any brothers?’
    ‘He has. His name’s Cristovao, but he’s a lot younger than Carlos. Rosa says she’s forever falling out with Cristovao because he’s always making fun of her.’
    ‘Hmph!’ Callie snorted. ‘Knowing Rosa I’d interpret that as meaning Cristovao doesn’t spoil her rotten as Carlos does.’
    ‘Perhaps,’ Sophie said, reaching for her jacket. ‘Anyway as I can’t have Sean for my toyboy, I’m afraid no one else will do.’
    Sean grinned a lopsided smile, and tugged at his carrot-coloured hair, he knew Sophie was only teasing but he often found himself making comparisons between the chubby, down to earth Colleen (with her blue, Irish eyes and mass of jet black curls) and the strangely enigmatic Sophie. Sophie, whose amber eyes and tawny coloured hair reminded him of a Pre-Raphaelite painting he’d once admired in a London gallery.

 
    Chapter 5
     
    ‘She’s very beautiful,’ Sophie remarked to Carlos, watching Rosa walk away to the ladies’ powder room.
    ‘Yes,’ he acknowledged. ‘She’s also terribly spoilt. I expect you know her mother died when she was only a baby? Then my aunt married her father and became her stepmother.’
    ‘Rosa tells me she always thinks of your aunt as her mother.’
    ‘Aunt Elisabete is a very caring person. She said she’d like to meet you. Rosa has said many flattering things about you.’
    Flustered and unable to meet Carlos’s gaze, Sophie fiddled with Gavin’s ring. She’d worn it tonight, simply