Free Sweet Peas in April by Clare Revell

her feel like the small child who’d been told, wait until your father gets home . “It’s dinner, nothing more. I thought I raised you to have better manners than this.” He paused. “I am not replacing your mother with LaVera. No one could replace your mother. LaVera wants to meet you, she insisted on coming tonight. Just try to be nice to her for an hour. You can do that, can’t you?”
    She glanced over at Adam, and the woman with him who looked devastated. Her beleaguered conscience thwapped her hard and her stomach twisted making her feel horrid. Her cheeks burned. She’d accused Adam of jealousy and was letting the same horrid emotion get the better of her. As a Christian she should know better. She sucked in a deep breath, prayed for forgiveness then nodded. “I’m sorry, Dad. OK, we’ll give this neutral ground thing a go.”
    “Thank you.” Dad led her back across. “We’re going to try this one again. LaVera, I’d like you to meet my daughter, Sam.”
    Sam looked properly at the old lady in front of her. Her once dark hair was greying and she wore glasses. LaVera wasn’t slim built, or fat, but she was what Sam’s mother would have described as cuddly. She looked like someone’s grandmother, which she was. And her father wouldn’t even contemplate marriage if she wasn’t likeable.
    Taking a deep breath, Sam held out a hand. “Hello.”
    LaVera smiled, her eyes glistening. Was she crying? Had she upset her that much? “Hello.” She shook Sam’s hand then slid her hand into Dad’s.
    Adam looked at her. “The table’s ready. Shall we?”
    Sam took his arm and leaned into him as they walked. “Thanks for this,” she whispered. “It’s the last thing I needed tonight. You could have warned me.”
    “Would you have come?”
    “No,” she said, a forced smile on her face.
    “Then that’s why I didn’t tell you. Besides it was a last minute thing. I rang your dad just before I left the office tonight, while you sat in the hallway and waited for me. And if you must know, he wasn’t too keen on the idea either. From what I overheard, it sounds as if LaVera persuaded him to come. You and he are too much alike at times. Both as stubborn as mules.”
    Sam walked with him to the table. She sat with Adam on one side and her father on the other. She buried her gaze in the menu. Glancing over the top of it, she saw LaVera rub a hand over her eyes. She had upset her. Her stomach pitted and she lost what little appetite she had left.
    Adam looked up. “Going to go for the steak, I think.”
    “Not breakfast?” Sam asked quietly.
    “I fancied a change.” He winked. “Plus which, breakfast isn’t on the menu. What are you having?”
    “I don’t know.” She looked down at the menu, trying to decide what she wanted. Other than nothing, which wasn’t going to be an option, but she wasn’t hungry. She just wanted to leave before she upset anyone else.
    The waiter came over. “Are you ready to order?”
    “I think so,” Adam said. “I’ll have the steak, medium rare, with chips, please.”
    Her dad and LaVera ordered steak as well, and Sam realized they were waiting for her. “Umm, salad, please.”
    Adam looked at her. “Are you all right?”
    She nodded slightly. “Yeah.”
    “You can’t just have salad.” Her father looked at the waiter. “She’ll have the chicken breast and jacket potato with that, and four orange and lemonades, please. Thank you.”
    Sam folded her hands on her lap under the table, picking at her fingernail.
    “What do you do, Adam?” LaVera asked.
    “I’m a lawyer.”
    “A good job to have.”
    “Sometimes. Not always. What about you?”
    “I’m a retired nurse. Right now I’m mum to four, grandma to seven, and great-grandma to five.”
    “What happened to your husband?” Sam asked.
    “Sam!” Her father tapped her arm.
    “No, it’s OK, Vinnie.” LaVera looked at Sam. “Stan died a long time ago. Eleven years next week. He was a good man, and