The Girls by Lisa Jewell Page A

sort of let her hang about with me. She was cute.’
    Adele’s heart hammered in her chest. She’d been expecting Leo to say that Rhea was mistaken: that there’d been nothing going on between him and Cecelia all those years ago. She already knew about his fling with Phoebe that summer, she knew that his younger brother had been going out with her and that at some point, after a row with Patrick, Phoebe had made a beeline for Leo. She knew they’d done some clandestine things in the dark of night. She knew that Leo and Patrick had fallen out about it for a long time after, especially in the wake of Phoebe’s death. She’d always found the whole scenario quite bizarre, something far from her own youthful experiences. But Phoebe had been fifteen. Only a few months short of the age of consent. She’d already slept with Patrick, and she hadn’t, apparently, been a virgin when she slept with him. It was wrong, certainly, for an eighteen-year-old to sleep with his little brother’s girlfriend, but it wasn’t weird .
    ‘We didn’t do anything. We just cuddled and stuff.’
    ‘ Cuddled? ’
    ‘Yes. And kissed.’
    ‘You kissed a thirteen-year-old?’
    ‘Once or twice.’
    ‘But that would be like an eighteen-year-old kissing Fern. Do you not see how weird that is?’
    Leo shrugged and pulled on a T-shirt. ‘Never really thought about it. It was summer. I was young. She was pretty.’
    ‘Did anyone know?’ she asked. ‘Did anyone know about the two of you?’
    ‘There was no two of us. It was a week, maybe less, a bit of hand-holding, a snog or two. There was no “us”.’
    ‘She was wearing your chain!’
    ‘Oh, my God.’ He groaned. ‘She asked. I think she’d watched too many American high-school movies. So I said yes.’
    ‘Who else knew about this? Apart from Rhea?’
    Leo pulled back the duvet on his side of the futon and lay down. ‘My brothers. Obviously. Phoebe. That’s about it. It really wasn’t that interesting.’
    ‘Did your parents know?’
    ‘I doubt it.’
    ‘Her parents?’
    ‘Jeez, Del! Can we drop this now?’
    But Adele was suddenly filled with adrenaline. ‘What did she do when you broke it off?’
    ‘Cece?’
    ‘Yes! Cece! Was she upset?’
    ‘I guess. For about five minutes. And then her sister died, so, you know …’
    Adele had met Leo when he was twenty-two. Hard to believe that a mere four years earlier he had been snogging a thirteen-year-old girl. She rolled on to her side, so she wouldn’t have to look at him. ‘It’s made me feel all discombobulated,’ she said.
    Leo groaned. ‘Oh, come on. You’re not going to sulk about something that happened over twenty years ago, are you?’
    Adele breathed out. She put the manuscript on the floor by the bed. She couldn’t process any of this right now. For a few moments she and Leo lay silently side by side. She listened to the sound of blood pulsing through her eardrums. She felt the warmth of Leo’s skin. She heard cars slowing at the speed bump outside the flat, then quickening again. She heard the dishwasher in the kitchen click and rumble as it neared the end of its cycle. She saw her husband kissing Cecelia.
    ‘You OK?’ said Leo, reaching to touch her arm.
    ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’m fine.’
    ‘Good.’
    He reached behind him to turn on the bedside lights and turn off the overhead light. Then he picked up his Kindle and began to read.
    Adele lay wakefully, watching shadows move across the walls.
    Clare lay wakefully, watching shadows move across the walls. Leo had brought Grace home half an hour ago. The girls had all had a wonderful time, he’d said. Fern had taught Grace some basic chords. Willow had made some fudge. They’d had quite a bit. He hoped she didn’t mind. A little bit of sugar’s fine from time to time, isn’t it?
    He’d stood at her back door in the glare of a security light, his face soft and animated, his body relaxed and springy. He was a ball of energy. Like a teenager. She