Page 49 of Samuel

“He showed me that he really isn’t the sort of man I want around my son.”

Mum opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly snapped it shut, obviously deciding against the ‘I told you so’, that she was evidently going to blurt out.

“Did he do something specific?” Colour rose in my dad’s face and I knew that he had an idea at what Josh might have done.

I told them everything about his behaviour that night and about him coming back and trying to get into the house, but I didn’t mention Sam.

“Why the hell didn’t you call me,” Dad cried, leaning forward and clasping his hands together in front of him. “I would have come around and got rid of him. Neither of you should have been scared like that.”

“It was fine, Dad.”

I blew out a breath and straightened my shoulders. This was the time to tell them everything. To explain how Frankie was being coached by his father and how the man that they probably hated for abandoning us had come to our rescue, and how he’d started to spend time with Frankie.

“How can it be fine?” Mum cried. “The man scared you. He threatened to hit my grandson. You could have both been in real danger with a man like that. I knew he’d changed, but to turn violent, what if he had hurt you?”

“Well he didn’t and we weren’t in any danger because once I threw him out, Sam arrived.”

They looked at me blankly and then at each other, their brows furrowed in confusion.

“Sam?” Dad asked.

“Who’s Sam, lo-?”

My mum clamped her mouth shut abruptly, realisation hitting her right between the eyes.

“So Frankie’s father is called Sam.” Dad looked at me expectantly. “And Frankie knows?”

I shook my head. “No. He just thinks Sam is his swimming coach.”

“What? I thought he was called Danny. Your mum told me he was a young lad called Danny.”

“He was.”

I went on to explain how Sam had become Frankie’s coach and all about the first time that I’d seen him in years. I told them about Elijah seeing Josh smash my car and how Sam had turned up and why I’d called him the next night when Josh came back to the house.

“So what, you’re a couple now?” Mum asked incredulously.

“God no,” I cried. “He’s just spent some time with us, making sure we were safe. I think he feels bad about the years he ignored the fact he had a son and now he knows Frankie, well he’s enjoying his company.”

“Well how very big of him,” Mum snapped, flouncing back against the sofa. “And you’ve just let him waltz into Frankie’s life as though he’d only missed a couple of weeks of it.”

“No, I haven’t. It just happened. I had no idea he was Frankie’s swimming coach, I even told him he had to quit.”

“Yet he’s ended up spending time with you both as soon as you’ve ended your relationship.”

“Yes, Mum, but only because of the way my relationship ended. It was his brother who called him, not me.”

“So his family know about Frankie?” Dad asked, placing a palm on my mum’s vigorously bobbing knee.

Shit, how did I tell them that they were the last to know about it all? I decided that a little white lie wouldn’t’ hurt.

“Only his brother knows, but now Sam’s going to tell his parents too.”

“So it’s serious then?”

“What?” I asked my mum. “What’s serious, him wanting to spend time with Frankie?”

“You and him.”