Chapter 2

2

Katie Parker watched from the top step of the stairs as her mother arrived home from work just after six. Lottie banged the door, shuffled out of her black puffa jacket, balled it up, feathers flying like dust motes in the air, and stuffed it on the floor beneath the overflowing coat rack. She took off her boots, with one foot on the heel of the other so she didn't have to bend down and tug them off. Then she ran her hands through her damp straggly hair, took a few deep breaths and made her way to the kitchen. Another door banged.

‘Bad day again, Mam?' Katie said to the air.

She grabbed the banister, stood and made her way into her bedroom she shared with her three-year-old son, Louis. She'd been nineteen when her boyfriend, Jason, was murdered, without knowing she was pregnant. She hadn't even known herself. Louis was adorable. Jason's father, Tom Rickard, loved his grandson, and lodged a regular stipend in Katie's account for him, but she couldn't bring herself to touch it.

The few jobs she'd had hadn't worked out. Childcare was expensive and she regularly found herself unemployed and unemployable. The days seemed as endless as the impossibility of holding down a job.

She flung herself on the bed. Burying her head in her pillow, she yelled into the synthetic foam. It did nothing to relieve her anxiety, but at least she was doing something.

Turning over, she stared at the yellowing ceiling. The roof of the old house had sprung a leak the week after Christmas and her mother couldn't afford to get it fixed. Lottie's guy, Boyd, and their colleague, Kirby, had ventured into the attic and nailed a few boards where the slates had disintegrated. But rain still dripped into her room. Now Louis had a cough and she feared his asthma would spiral. Maybe she should put some of Tom's money towards a deposit for an apartment. No, she needed a proper job. She needed to feel like the real Katie Parker again. She needed a life. And then she realised what was at the centre of her anguish. She missed her dad.

A knock on the door and her mother stood there, holding Louis' hand.

‘I can mind this imp tonight. Why don't you go out? Meet some of your friends.'

‘What friends? They got on with their lives while mine stagnated.' She hadn't meant to sound irritable, but that was exactly how she sounded. She had pushed her girlfriends away. Dropping out of college hadn't helped. The few dates she'd had turned tail the second she mentioned her son.

‘What about that guy you dated for a while last year? I thought it was serious. What happened there?'

Katie's stomach clenched. She sat up and put her hands beneath her to hide the shaking. That had been a disaster. Another reason why she was Katie-no-boyfriends. She forced a smile. ‘I'll ring around a few of the girls. And thanks, Mam.'

‘You need to cut yourself a break. Life's too short. Getting a job is just one part of life; it shouldn't consume you. It will happen. In the meantime, have some fun.'

‘Yeah, but I need to work to earn money.'

‘Don't you have money from Tom Rickard?'

‘That's for Louis, not for me. What I need is a sugar daddy,' Katie said wryly.

‘ What? '

She laughed at the expression of horror on her mother's face. ‘Joking, Mam.'

‘Please don't joke about things like that.'

Louis broke free from his grandmother and jumped onto the bed. ‘I want a sugar daddy. Please can I have one, because I don't have a daddy.'

Katie needed her daddy too. She caught sight of her mother's unreadable expression.

‘It's okay, Louis. Will you help me get ready? I'm going out and Nana Lottie will be minding you.'

‘Yeah!'

The little boy leaped off the bed, ran to the dressing table and began waving a foundation brush in the air. ‘Magic brush for Mam.'

‘I wish,' Katie said as the door shut softly and her mother left her alone.