Two Days in Biarritz (37 page)

She followed the mud trail that led to Sam’s bedroom where he was now lying down. His shoes stuck over the end of the bed. As she entered the room he turned over on his side and vomited. Annabel grabbed a T-shirt off the floor and put it under his head.

“I was okay. I just wanted to be on my own.”

Annabel felt as though someone had stabbed her through the heart. Her actions had resulted in her son getting drunk on his own in a dangerous place.

“I want you to promise me that you won’t drink ever again until you are much older and allowed to go into a pub. Young people have died drinking too much alcohol, and vodka is a very strong drink.”

Sam nodded his head but his face showed no sign of remorse as she kissed him on the for
ehead.

“Try to sleep,” she whispered as she shut the door. She had to do something proactive to ensure something like this never happened again.

* * *

Kate put the last of her paints into the large wooden boxes.

“Won’t you leave some here for when you return on holidays?” Fabian asked.

“I may have to rent the house to keep it from getting damp.” Kate leaned back on the palms of her hands and massaged her aching back. “I will probably need the cash too – no exhibition for me this year!”

“
Chérie
, what am I going to do without you?”

Kate smiled. “Fabian, you are going to fall in love and settle down, then you won’t realise I am gone.”

Fabian took a stack of canvases and placed them neatly in a pile for the removal van. He brushed the dust from his hands and walked over to his friend.

“Kate, remember I am always here for you and…” he paused. “I might even come and visit you in
Dublin!”

Kate gasped! “Really? Would you?”

“I have looked up the
Irish Ferries
on the internet and I might take the boat.”

Kate threw her arms around him and gave a tight squeeze. “Please come and sooner rather than later!”

Fabian gently leaned his head on her shoulder. He needed to reassure himself that he would be seeing her again soon.

“And who will you have for a best-friend in
Dublin?” Fabian asked, pulling away gently.

Kate shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with Annabel. Our lives have taken huge turns in different directions and I’m not sure if we’ll ever get back on talking terms. Did I tell you that Colin answered the phone when I rang her house?”

Fabian’s eyebrows arched.

“So I don’t know where she’s at – sometimes I don’t know where I’m at myself.”

Fabian nodded. “
Chérie
, don’t forget me.”

Kate looked at her friend’s puppy-dog eyes and felt tears start to fill her own. “Fabian, how could you say such a thing.”

* * *

Annabel waited with baited breath for
Gary to arrive. She had been preoccupied with Sam since their last date and was grateful now for some time with him to help take her mind off things. The market had been good fun earlier. He was constantly waving over to her and bringing her samples of different juices.

So far there had been a pattern to their dates. He brought her for a walk on Portmarnock Strand – then they ate chips from newspaper and watched the sun set. The next night he brought her to Dollymount strand. It felt very different to the old days with Kate and their pals. The evening ended with chips yet again. She liked the simple unpretentiousness of their time together and he was a very sexy guy. She felt like she had shed twenty years the first time they made love. Her whole world had changed dramatically. But tonight she wanted to do something different. She felt like she needed to be spoiled after her time in the market.

She hadn’t been in touch with Damien since their evening together in Aqua. She was beginning to wonder if she was biting off more than she could chew. The stall was going well but Gary had convinced her that it was a huge step moving from a stall to a bona fide business. She might not be able for it. Gary took life easy and didn’t believe in taxing himself or being around people who did. Maybe that was why he had so little to show for his forty-one years. She berated herself for thinking this way about him. She had been with a career oriented man for long enough and that didn’t make her happy.

Gary
arrived while she was in mid-thought.

“Hey, gorgeous,” he said cheekily and leaned forward on the harbour wall where she sat.

Annabel shivered as his lips touched her cheeks.

“Hey
Gary.” He was ten minutes late but she didn’t comment. “Where are you taking me tonight?”

“Somewhere special. I thought we could go to the park.”

“It’s eight o’clock in the evening!”

“But it’s a lovely evening.”

“I’m not sixteen Gary, can we please go somewhere nice?”

Gary
shuffled around in his scruffy jacket. “We could go to the pictures if you really want. There’s a new action thriller I wouldn’t mind seeing.”

The movies weren’t exactly what she had in mind and she liked romantic comedies when she did go but something told her this was as good as it was going to get.

“Okay,” she said, trying to smile.

“How’s Sam getting on?” he asked.

Annabel shook her head. “I’m so worried about him, Gary. He’s still so quiet. I can’t seem to get through to him. I’m paranoid about his every move since he got drunk.”

“Who’s minding him tonight?”

“Colin…” Annabel hesitated for a moment when she saw the concern in Gary’s eyes. “He’s not trying to get back with me I just feel better that he’s being minded by a man.”

Gary
put his arm protectively around her shoulder and gave her a squeeze. “He’ll be all right, babe.”

Annabel thanked her lucky stars that she had
Gary to lean on. He was the most positive person in her life at the moment.

* * *

Damien was getting tired of trying to reach Annabel. He could only presume that she didn’t want to take on the business anymore. She hadn’t returned his calls for the last two weeks. There was no point in leaving a message. She knew where he was. The building was going to be finished sooner than he thought and there were plenty of people who would jump at the chance of a prime retail unit. But he still held out hope. He desperately wanted to have a common interest with her. Even though his thoughts had been with his daughter for the last few weeks he had dreamed of Annabel on several occasions. He could try to stop her creeping into his daily thoughts but he could do nothing about his subconscious. There was unfinished business with Annabel and maybe that’s the way it would always be.

* * *

Annabel braced herself before entering the house and facing Colin. It had been a lovely evening and Gary had been such a pillar of strength – she didn’t want the feeling of warmth and security to end. Everything was quiet.

“Hi, Colin.”

Colin looked up from his book he was spread out on the couch and looked very much at home. “You’re back early.”

Annabel looked at her watch. She didn’t think
twelve o’clock was early but was pleased to see Colin so amiable. “I didn’t want to hold you up,” she said hesitantly.

Colin smirked. “No problem – I’ve taken an apartment down the road to be closer to the kids.”

Annabel wasn’t particularly thrilled with the news but the way Sam was behaving maybe it was just as well.

“I see.” She nodded. “How was Sam this evening?”

“Stroppy, to say the least. I don’t know what’s got into that young fellow. I think you are much too easy on him.”

Annabel felt a pang of sympathy for her son. What hope had he with such an insensitive father? “He’s really missing you,” she explained.

“Well, it certainly didn’t seem that way this evening.”

“I’m going upstairs to check on him.” she said.

Colin was in no hurry to leave and he stuck his head back into his book.

Quiet snorting noises floated from Rebecca and Taylor’s room. Annabel slowly and carefully opened the door of Sam’s room, trying not to wake her son. A gust of wind blew in from the open window. The bed was empty with his pyjamas thrown across it and his clothes were no longer where he usually left them on the floor after changing. She was too shocked to panic. The horror of telling
Colin that Sam was missing far outweighed by the terrible thoughts of the trouble her young son could be in. She ran down the stairs to where Colin was fixed like a wax statue.

“Sam’s not in his room,” she panted. “It looks like he climbed out the bedroom window.”

“What?” Colin frowned – she could have been speaking a foreign language.

“Sam’s gone – his clothes are gone – he’s run off somewhere!”

Colin jumped to his feet. “Don’t be ridiculous, woman! I’ve been here all night. I’d have heard something.”

“Go upstairs and see for yourself.” The urgency in her voice made it perfectly clear that she was serious.

When Colin looked into Sam’s room and saw the pyjamas strewn across the unmade bed he realised that he hadn’t done a very good job of minding his care. He went over to the open window and stretched his head out until he could clearly see the ground. It was an easy jump from the balcony down to the top of the side wall. Sam could have climbed down onto the bins from there.

“We have to call the police,” he said, bringing his head in.

“Colin, he ran away before…well, went missing one afternoon a couple of weeks ago.”

Colin lunged forward – he was so close to Annabel that she could smell traces of garlic on his breath. “What? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I handled the situation – I spoke to him about it but there was something else…he was drunk.”

Colin’s eyes almost popped out from their sockets. “That’s it I’m calling the police.”

He stomped out the door and into her bedroom to the phone. Annabel was left shaking on the landing. Her world was falling in around her. How could her perfectly manicured life have come to this?

“They’ll be here in a minute.” Colin said gruffly. “We need to talk now, downstairs.”

Annabel shivered at the tone of his voice. Silently she followed him down the stairs until they were sitting face to face over the kitchen table.

“Now, what else have you forgotten to tell me?”

Annabel shook her head. “Nothing.”

“You are an unfit mother. I can’t trust you with them.” Colin snapped.

Even though her stomach was aching she had to try stand up to Colin. This was what her solicitor had warned her about.

“I’m doing my best.”

“Well your best is not good enough, Annabel.”

“Let me finish,” she said more sternly. “If you had spent some time with your son before we split up he might not be so insecure now.”

“If anything happens to Sam tonight, just remember one thing – it’s your fault.”

Annabel felt as though her stomach had been speared. This was no time for blame but it came as no surprise that Colin would react in this way.

Suddenly the phone rang. Annabel rushed over to the phone hoping that the caller would be her son. It was Lily.

“Annabel, have you any idea where your son is?”

This was her worst nightmare – first Colin and now her mother. But how did her mother know that Sam was missing.

“We’ve rung the police – but how did you know…”

“He’s here with me.” Lily interrupted. “He says that he wants to come and live with me and I can’t say I blame him the way you have been behaving these past few months.”

Annabel let her mother’s words roll off her. She could only feel relief that he
r son was safe.

“I’m coming around to get him now.”

“No you are not. He would only let me call if I promised to let him stay here. He’s tucked up in bed with a cup of hot chocolate. You can see him in the morning.”

Annabel knew there was no point in arguing. “Okay. Thanks, Mum.”

“You can tell Colin that it’s time he started to take his responsibilities more seriously too.”

It was the first time she had heard her mother condemning Colin and it came as quiet consolation.

Colin stood over her as she put the phone down.

“He’s in Mums.”

“I gathered that.” Colin didn’t move but his glare intensified. “So what are you going to do about this?”

Annabel frowned “What am I going to do?” she asked in disbelief. “Don’t try to fob this off as my problem. We need to do something dramatic or the next time it could be fatal.”

Chapter 21

The large removal truck backed up Greenfield Close and stopped halfway up the drive. Kate waddled up to the front door. She had regained all the lost weight since her haemorrhage and was looking her full seven months gestation. The transition from France to Ireland had so far been flawless and providing all her painting equipment and piano remained in tact in the back of the truck, she could say that the move had been easy.