Some Kind of Wonderful (Puffin Island 2)

She watched as the family disappeared down a side street and then looked away, impatient with herself.

She was too old for Christmas fantasies, and with Richard arriving and her exhibition she had plenty to celebrate.

Her phone rang and she tugged it out of her bag, expecting Richard again.

It was her mother, and surprise mingled with warmth.

She’d remembered.

‘Mom? I’m so happy you called.’

‘I shouldn’t have to call.’ Her mother’s crisp, cultured tones came down the phone. ‘But your father and I need to know when you’ll be home.’

Bridging the gap between hope and reality almost gave her whiplash. ‘You’re calling about my schedule?’

‘Stephanie sent you an email. You didn’t respond.’ Stephanie was her mother’s assistant, and Sky knew the email was probably sitting in her inbox—along with all the others she’d ignored while burning the midnight oil to get ready for this week.

‘I’ve been busy, Mom. It’s my private viewing tonight, and—’

‘We’re all busy, Skylar, and I’d appreciate not having to chase my own daughter for a response. Particularly when you’re the only one without a job.’

Sky thought of the commissions she had lined up. She had enough work to keep her busy through most of next year. ‘I have a job.’

‘I mean a proper job. I’m doing the seating plan for Christmas Eve. We’ll be eighty for lunch. Dinner is more intimate—forty. What time will you be arriving?’

Sky leaned her head back against the seat, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Forty? Intimate?

So much for a cosy family Christmas.

‘I haven’t decided.’

‘Then decide.’ Her mother was businesslike, and Skylar imagined her sitting at her elegant Queen Anne desk, ticking off the items on her ‘To Do’ list: Phone dreamy, wayward daughter.

‘Christmas Eve.’ At the last possible moment. ‘I’ll be home Christmas Eve. But I’ll make my own arrangements so you can cross me off your list. I’ll talk with Richard and see what works for him.’

‘Richard has already sent through his plans.’

Without sharing them with her?

‘He emailed you? I was of kind of assuming we’d travel together.’

‘You need to stop assuming and take action, Skylar. Richard’s career is on the rise, but he still found time to respond to my email personally. Your father is impressed—and we all know he’s not easy to impress.’

Sky’s fingers tightened on the phone.

She knew. She’d been trying to impress her father for years … so far with no success.

Something tugged deep inside her.

In third grade she’d painted him a picture. It had taken days of hard, painstaking effort to produce something she thought he’d like. She’d been excited by the result.

‘Look at this, Daddy. I painted it for your office.’

He’d barely glanced at it, and the next day she’d noticed it in the trash, buried beneath empty cans and juice cartons.

She’d never drawn anything for him again.