After the Party by Lisa Jewell Read Free Book Online Page B

what she’d become.
    The gap between the two sets of people was growing smaller and Jem needed to decide how to approach the oncoming moment. Should she acknowledge their close encounter of last week by being extra fulsome with her greeting, or just revert to her old-style nod and 50 percent smile? She stole a look at him and then made a show of rearranging Blake’s hat. Joel really was a most unspectacular-looking man, almost bland, but clearly, if the rapid pulse of her heart beneath Blake’s warm body was anything to go by, he had a certain something.
    Joel and Jessica closed upon them. There was, in Jem’s opinion, too much space between father and child, especially as the pavement had a slight downward camber to it. She would not feel comfortable if that was her small child looping side to side across the paving stones, inches from the curb on occasion.
    She could see concern start to etch itself onto Joel’s face and for a moment felt a flicker of relief: there would be no encounter, he would pass them by, distracted by his daughter’s reckless scootering, and Jem would be able to breathe properly again. But instead Jessica, looking up and seeing her small friendScarlett, broke out an enormous smile, cried out, “Scarlett! Scar lett!” and lost all concentration and came off the pavement between two parked cars.
    â€œOh, Jesus!” Joel abandoned his usual soft-shoe shuffle and broke into a long-legged gallop. “Oh my God!” Jem ran forward, forgetting that she had fifteen pounds of baby on her chest. An oncoming car swerved gently to avoid the pink scooter, which had rolled into its path. Jessica wailed.
    Joel scooped her up from the gutter with one strong arm, picked up the errant scooter with the other. He held her on his lap and pulled her fine blond hair from her cheeks. “Jessie, Jessie, Jessie, what were you thinking? What were you doing ?”
    He glanced up at Jem, his expression a mix of relief and embarrassment.
    â€œIs she all right?” asked Jem.
    He pulled back her bangs and looked into her eyes. “Are you okay, pops?”
    She wrinkled her nose and sniffed. “My knee hurts,” she cried.
    Jem breathed a sigh of relief. A hurt knee, considering the alternatives, was a glorious thing indeed.
    Joel was flustered, making too much of the hurt knee, avoiding Jem’s gaze. She could tell he was mortified, not just by what had happened, but by the fact that Jem had witnessed it; all dads knew that their parenting skills were being judged constantly, not only by their own wives but by every mother they passed on the street, in this case quite literally. Men spent much less time imagining their children dying than women, which was, Jem felt, both a good thing and a bad thing, but on this occasion, clearly, he could have done better.
    He looked up at her and smiled. “Oops,” he said.
    Jem smiled back. “I have to say, I was half expecting that to happen.” She smiled again, not wanting to come across as hectoring.
    â€œYup, well . . .” he tailed off, gently bringing Jessica to her feet.
    â€œLet’s have a look at that knee, shall we?” said Jem.
    Jessica rolled up the leg of her jeans and Jem and Joel peered at it. It was scraped and raw and showed the beginnings of a bruise, but was not bleeding.
    â€œThat’s not a very big ow,” Scarlett interjected haughtily from her stroller.
    Jessica looked at her crossly, her cheeks streaked with tears. “But it hurts !” she wailed, throwing herself against her father’s legs and howling into them. Jem and Joel threw each other a look of amusement.
    â€œOkay, pops,” he soothed, stroking her hair, “let’s get you home. Let’s go home and make you a nice big cup of hot chocolate, eh? Would you like that?”
    Jessica nodded her head up and down against his legs and Joel smiled at Jem again.
    There was a moment’s silence.