BooksBarbecue
Back One Year Later
Chapters (49)
  1. PROLOGUE
  2. PART I
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. PART II
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
  16. 13
  17. 14
  18. 15
  19. 16
  20. 17
  21. 18
  22. 19
  23. 20
  24. 21
  25. 22
  26. 23
  27. 24
  28. 25
  29. 26
  30. 27
  31. 28
  32. 29
  33. 30
  34. 31
  35. 32
  36. 33
  37. 34
  38. PART III
  39. 35
  40. 36
  41. 37
  42. 38
  43. 39
  44. PART IV
  45. 40
  46. 41
  47. EPILOGUEAMY
  48. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  49. BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS

I shrugged and he did a kind of slow double-take, as if he was a deep-sea diver.

‘Eleanor!’ he called. ‘Eleanor?’

I don’t remember what happened after that. I know there was some shouting when he phoned her mobile – I’m not sure he even spoke to her that night; he may just have left several ranting messages. But he was in a grim fury when he bundled me off to my room, without checking that I’d wiped the chocolate off my face or brushed my teeth, and I lay rigid in bed, staring up at the shadowpattern of leaves on the ceiling, with this cold, tight pain in my chest. Somehow I knew that she wasn’t coming back. I wasn’t angry with my mother, not then; I was furious with my sister, because Bethany, the month before, when she’d turned sixteen, had left home and left me behind, as if I was just another one of her possessions that she could carelessly shrug off. And now, without my mother or my sisters, I would be alone with my father.

16

AMY

It’s late afternoon. They’re all outside on the terrace. Lotte, thanks to Luca’s patience, has got in the pool. She’s wearing armbands and will only go in the water if she can sit on the blow-up unicorn, but it’s progress. Luca has a textbook on child psychology next to him, but he’s reading a well-worn copy of The Divine Comedy; and Matt dozes with his fishing magazine on his stomach. Amy lies opposite Bethany and Chloe, but she can’t stay still.

Her stepdaughter and her sister are leaning conspiratorially over Chloe’s neon-pink iPad, whispering and giggling. She wishes Chloe would play with her younger half-siblings, instead of spending all her time looking at Instagram and trying on Bethany’s make-up. As for her sister, why can’t she act like an adult and help out, instead of pretending to be Chloe’s friend? She suspects it’s about Bethany’s ego: she loves Chloe looking up to her. She sighs. Is she overreacting? She’s probably jealous: envious of their smooth, honey-brown skin, their thick, gleaming hair, their obvious closeness. Bethany, only two years younger than her, is in a white halterneck bikini and a filmy kaftan; her breasts are firm, her stomach flat and taut. She can see the sinewy movement of Bethany’s biceps, the way her thigh muscles glide beneath her oiled and bronzed skin.