Summer Daydreams Read Online Free PDF Page B

up your job?’
    ‘I might still be able to do some shifts. I’m sure Phil would help me out as much as he could. After all it was him that put this idea in my head.’ Or, more accurately, gave it a voice.
    ‘Wow,’ Olly says again and runs his hands through his hair.
    ‘You have been giving this a lot of thought.’
    ‘Yes,’ I admit. ‘I have.’
    He puts his arm round me and pulls me close. ‘Perhaps next year,’ he says. ‘We can save up. I can do some extra work.’
    I gaze up at him. ‘You mean it?’
    ‘If it’s what you want to do. There’s no way we can possibly raise the cash in the next few weeks, but we should be able to do it in a year.’
    I ignore the nagging little voice in my head that says ‘how?’ We’ve never had enough spare money to be able to save any. What’s going to be different from now on? Instead of questioning it further, I kiss him soundly. He likes the idea of me doing this course and that’s enough for now. ‘I love you.’
    ‘Mmm,’ he murmurs and leans over me. ‘Just how much do you love me?’
    ‘Very, very much,’ I say in my best seductive voice as I ease myself beneath him.
    My lover plants soft kisses along my throat.
    Then our bedroom door bangs open. ‘I can’t sleep,’ Petal announces.
    ‘Not now, Petalmeister!’ Olly cries.
    Unperturbed about interrupting her parents’ futile attempts at romance, our child stomps in.
    ‘There’s a monster in my wardrobe and he’s eating crisps. Loudly.’
    Olly sighs, rolls off me and flops back on the bed while I stifle a giggle. Any passion that had been rising ebbs away.
    ‘I need to get in bed with you. Now.’ Petal bounces onto the bed and pushes her way between us. When she’s barged us both out of the way, she settles down in the middle. For a small person, she takes up an awful lot of room.
    The dog, clearly feeling left out, has broken free from the bounds of the kitchen and pelts up the stairs and leaps onto the bed too.
    ‘Oh, Dude!’
    Petal is never likely to have a baby brother or sister if things carry on this way.
    In a weary tone, Olly asks, ‘Think you could cope with studying and a job and this ?’
    As I try to ease Petal’s elbow out of my ribs and move my leg so the dog doesn’t give it pins and needles, I think I could. If I wanted it enough.

Chapter 9
     

     
    I work solidly for four hours in Live and Let Fry. The queue is never less than ten deep. I am a lean, mean, chip-dishing-out machine.
    Frankly, I’m lucky my eyes have stayed open. Petal has to be the wriggliest child in Christendom. I don’t think either Olly or I got more than a couple of hours of kip. She’s got sharp elbows and sharp knees and uses them to good effect to get more room. Oh, the joys of parenthood. The only good thing is that she doesn’t fart quite so much as the dog.
    At the chippy, we close the doors at four – our new regime until Phil can find an extra member of staff to take us right through until six when the evening shift normally starts.
    Sitting at one of the newly painted tables, I have a much needed cup of tea and a small helping of chips. Phil comes and sits opposite me with the same.
    ‘I still can’t believe how fantastic it looks in here,’ he says.
    ‘Thanks, Nell.’
    ‘Don’t start that again,’ I tease. ‘You’ll be making me so big-headed I won’t want to work here.’
    He stirs a couple of spoonfuls of sugar into his tea, despite the fact that Constance is always nagging him to cut down.
    ‘Did you think about what I said?’ he asks with an overcasual air. ‘About art college or something?’
    ‘I did.’ That makes him sit up in surprise. ‘I took myself down to the college and got a brochure on their art courses.’
    ‘Yeah?’ Phil now looks quite pleased with himself. ‘Anything interesting?’
    I take the brochure out of my pocket, open it at the wellthumbed page and push it towards him.
    ‘I’d like to do an art and design foundation course,’ I confide.