Now and Then Friends by Kate Hewitt Page A

coloring?”
    â€œHe could use some Calpol before bed,” Meghan said as she grabbed her jacket, a red scrap of cotton that looked as skimpy as her top. “He’s still teething.”
    â€œI believe you,” Rachel said, and started for the hallway.
    â€œRachel?” Meghan called, and for once her voice sounded uncertain. “Thank you.”
    â€œYou’re welcome.” Rachel set Nathan up with a coloring book and crayons while she tidied the kitchen; the sitting room might have been decent, but the kitchen was not. Then she put some sausages in the oven for dinner and went back upstairs to confront Lily. Meghan had already left, banging the front door behind her.
    â€œLily?” Rachel poked her head into her sister’s bedroom. Lily was lying on her stomach on her bed, music blaring, a sketch pad in front of her.
    She looked up warily. “Yeah?”
    Rachel leaned against the doorframe, trying to summon the energy for what had the potential to be another difficult conversation. “Hey, your parent-teacher conference was yesterday. Why didn’t you remind me?”
    Guilt flashed across her sister’s face. “You seemed tired.”
    â€œI still wanted to go,” Rachel said. She studied Lily’s face; her sister looked as if she was hiding something. Rachel recognized the downcast gaze, the bit lip, from when Lily had been small. But this wasn’t acase of sneaking a sweet. “Did you tell me about the conference in the first place?” she asked carefully.
    â€œNo,” Lily said after a second’s pause. “I didn’t want to.”
    â€œLily.” Rachel tried to keep the hurt from her voice. “Why not?”
    â€œBecause I knew what the teachers were going to say. You didn’t need to hear it.”
    â€œMaybe I should be the one to make that decision. And I am going to hear it, because your biology teacher called me this afternoon. I want to be involved, Lily.”
    Lily’s face took on a closed, pinched look. “What did she say?”
    â€œJust that I missed the conference. I’m seeing her tomorrow afternoon. And I’ll see the others too, if you give me their details.” Besides biology, Lily took further maths and business studies. She’d dropped Design and Technology after she’d completed her AS level.
    Wordlessly, Lily wrote some names down on her sketch pad, tore off the strip of paper, and handed it to Rachel. “Their e-mail addresses are on the school Web site.”
    â€œThank you,” Rachel said, wishing this wasn’t such a battle. Didn’t Lily realize how lucky she was? How much opportunity she had? She knew Lily wouldn’t appreciate her reminders, and so she said nothing.
    The smell of burning sausages brought her back downstairs. She had just taken them out of the oven—blackened on one side, raw on the other—when the front doorbell rang.
    With a groan Rachel dumped the tray of sausages onto the stove top and went to the door.
    Her mouth opened in shock and no words came out when she saw Andrew West standing there, his expression as serious as ever.
    â€œHello, Rachel,” he said. “Can we talk?”

8

Claire
    After throwing on her clothes and grabbing a banana, Claire bolted out of the house and sprinted down the lane towards the village shop. She was going to be at least twenty minutes late for her first day of work. She’d probably be fired.
    She weaved between the trickle of late commuters heading for the station and squeezed past a farmer coming out of the shop with a loaf of bread under one arm and then stood in front of the till, panting, disheveled, and twenty-five minutes late.
    â€œSorry.”
    Dan Trenton didn’t even look up from the till. “You’re late.”
    â€œI know. I overslept. I didn’t hear the alarm.” She’d slept on her good ear, which she hardly ever did, but the persistent pattering