Happy Families Read online

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  HAPPY FAMILIES

  Adele Parks was born in the North-East of England. She read English Language and Literature at Leicester University. All seven of her novels have been bestsellers. Adele lives in Guildford with her husband and son.

  Also by Adele Parks

  Playing Away

  Game Over

  Larger Than Life

  The Other Woman’s Shoes

  Husbands

  Still Thinking Of You

  Young Wives’ Tales

  and

  Tell Me Something

  available in May 2008

  Happy Families

  Adele Parks

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario,

  Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia

  (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre,

  Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand

  (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,

  Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  www.penguin.com

  First published 2008

  1

  Copyright © Adele Parks, 2008

  All rights reserved

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  978-0-14-192863-0

  1

  3 September

  Lisa liked to be in control. She could control most things. Like her ironing basket – she found it easy to stay on top of that, and most other women found it hard, which just goes to show what a great control freak she was. She controlled her soap-watching. Well, really, she just gave in to that. She never missed an episode of East Enders or Coronation Street. And she had a good idea about the main plots in Emmerdale and Holby City too. She could control what went into her kid’s lunchboxes – not too much junk, brown bread sandwiches, yogurt and carrot sticks – although she could not control what they really ate. For all she knew, they chucked away the fruit and spent their pocket money on crisps.

  Controlling her family was the hard bit. The important bit and the hard bit. She liked to think she was in control of Kerry (aged fifteen), Paula (aged twelve) and Jack (aged eleven). They were good kids, largely, but you could never be sure.

  Lisa lived in fear of a teenage pregnancy, a drug or drink problem or a not very happy copper standing at the door.

  She hadn’t always been like this. Lisa used to be very positive, about her now and her future. But two years ago, just before her fortieth birthday, her husband of fifteen years had said goodbye.

  Something like that shakes you up. It takes your trust away, your trust in the world. It seemed a serious thing to do just to get out of buying a birthday present. She’d have been happy enough with bubble bath or a box of chocolates.

  While Lisa had been divorced for two years now, it still surprised her. She’d thought she would always be married to Keith. How was it possible that after fifteen years of being married you could stop being married suddenly? That was a silly question. Of course Lisa knew how it was possible. Your husband runs off with a woman with big breasts. Too big. Silly big. Papers are signed. You’re divorced. It’s as simple as that. But it’s not simple at all, not really – not in Lisa’s heart.

  Lisa didn’t fall apart. She didn’t have time, with three kids to care for. Falling apart over a broken relationship is something you can only do when you are still a kid yourself. Or if you are a star, and Heat magazine will put your photo on their cover. If not, you just have to get on with it.

  Her family was there for her. At least, they all acted just as she expected. That was a comfort of sorts, after Keith had acted so oddly.

  Her mother and father went into shock. They’d been married for forty-five years. There had never been a divorce in the family. Well, except for Granny Hills and Uncle Terry and cousin Clare (she’d been divorced twice). They meant there had never been a divorce in the close family. They didn’t mean her to but Lisa got the feeling she’d let them down. It was a bit like receiving her O level results when she was sixteen. Everyone said she’d tried her best. No one looked that pleased with the results.

  Her father’s hair turned white almost overnight. Her mother said it was the shock. Lisa believed it was because he’d stopped using that stupid dye her mum bought from Boots.

  Her sister, Carol, was the posh one in the family. She’d married a teacher. He was now a headmaster, and somehow this had changed things. Carol had lunch and dinner now. The rest of the family were still happy with dinner and tea, with sometimes the odd bit of supper too. Carol no longer liked a bargain, she liked value for money. Carol used napkins at every meal. The rest of the family used kitchen roll, but only on special occasions.

  Carol had not been happy when Keith left Lisa. She took it as a personal slight. In fact, as she took it so badly, Lisa felt she had to play down the whole thing. Lisa had to pretend it didn’t matter much. She pretended that selling her house, going out to work and being alone was all OK. She didn’t want to upset Carol any more. She was sick of Carol ranting.

  But it did matter.

  John, Lisa’s little brother, had the best reaction. He didn’t seem to have noticed Lisa was divorced at all. The divorce didn’t have anything to do with booze or women, which were his hobbies. John was thirty-eight and only ever thought about himself. He was still single and dead happy to be so. His longest ever relationship had lasted two months and he was proud of that. Lisa would be dying of shame. She told him this.

  ‘That’s the difference between men and women,’ he said. ‘If I play around, I’m a stud. If you do, you are a slapper.’

  Lisa told her brother he was a sexist pig. He grinned, thinking she was being nice.

  ‘That’s not fair,’ said Lisa. But then she remembered it’s also not fair that Angelina Jolie gets to have babies with Brad Pitt. Life is many things. It can be funny, interesting, hard and sad, but it’s never fair.

  Then there were the children. They seemed OK. But everyone said Lisa seemed OK. Was OK good enough? They seemed to understand it when their dad said he needed to be with the Big Breasted Woman from the accounts team at his work. More than he needed to be with them or his wife of fifteen years. He actually said he needed to be with Helen, but Lisa couldn’t bring herself to use the woman’s name. It made her seem… well, human. Lisa called her the Big Breasted Woman Who Replaced Me, or just the Big Breasted Woman for short.

  The kids hadn’t turned to crime, and that was odd, because all the newspapers said kids from broken homes were trouble. Lisa’s kids were fine, which goes to show you can’t believe everything you read. The promise of two sets of birt
hday and Christmas presents really helped.

  Lisa had had a very controlled morning. She had sorted the wash into light clothes and dark. She’d put on the darks. There were always more darks, the kids all lived in jeans. She’d cleaned the kitchen, made beds, run round with the hoover and the duster. She’d even washed the floor in the porch. She had everything under control. So why had it seemed such a terrible morning?

  Lisa knew why. There’d been no noise. She was used to noise. She didn’t like noise but she expected it, lots of it. Today the only noise had been her voice.

  ‘Now then, Lisa, I think it’s time to clean out your sock drawer,’ she’d said. And then she’d said back to herself, ‘Good idea.’

  But it was not a good idea. Manic cleaning and talking to yourself are signs of madness. Think of the Big Brother House. When a contestant starts to overdo the polishing, scrubbing, tidying, you know they are losing it, and it’s the same thing with talking to yourself.

  It was the first day of the new school term. The kids were all back at school and Lisa felt very alone. It was odd that she missed them. Lisa had spent the last six weeks begging for hush. But now that the new school term had started Lisa was not so sure. The silence of an empty house was about as welcome as heavy rain on sports day.

  Lisa grumbled that the kids were always demanding things from her.

  ‘Mum, I’m hungry. When’s tea?’

  ‘Mum, will you iron my top?’

  ‘Mum, can you drive me to my friend’s house?’

  But in truth Lisa liked being needed. She had always been needed. Keith, her husband, had needed her first. But then he stopped needing her and became her ex-husband. Lisa felt the kids didn’t need her like they used to. She knew the kids couldn’t divorce her, as such. But they could leave. They should leave – that was natural. But what then, for Lisa? She had a new man in her life, Mark, but he was the independent sort. He didn’t need her. She wasn’t sure how long he’d want her for. Nothing was certain.

  This year was the last school year for Kerry, unless Lisa could talk her into doing A levels. She might leave home in the next year or two. Lisa hated the idea. Paula was almost thirteen (going on thirty). Paula was more worldly than her mum. Lisa couldn’t remember the last time Paula had needed her for anything other than money! And now Jack was at secondary school too.

  This morning Lisa had wanted to walk him to school. Jack went mad. He said his friends would laugh. The school was only up the road – not even as far as the chip shop. Lisa often sent him to buy chips. He was not a baby. He didn’t need Lisa. But Lisa needed him. Lisa needed to be needed.

  She felt useless.

  2

  3 September

  Lisa called Carol, her big sister. Lisa always called Carol if she was feeling a bit down. Lisa thought Carol would cheer her up, but that was a mistake. Carol never made Lisa feel better, but Lisa never learned! The good news was that sometimes Carol could boss Lisa out of a bad mood.

  ‘It’s a good thing that the kids can be on their own more/ said Carol. Carol sounded so sure of herself. Lisa was never sure of herself.

  ‘Is it?’ asks Lisa.

  ‘Yes. You’ll have more time to yourself.’

  ‘But I don’t want more time to myself,’ said Lisa. ‘I have too much time to myself as it is.’ Lisa liked using her time to look after her family.

  ‘You can do more hours at work. The extra cash will come in handy,’ said Carol.

  This was true but not a comfort. No one liked to be reminded that they needed more cash, and no one liked to think that they had to work harder. Lisa worked hard enough as it was. She was a single mum. Carol didn’t understand how much work that was. Carol was a rare thing. Carol was happily married.

  But Lisa did enjoy her job. She worked in a small café just up the road. It was not a posh café, more of a grotty caff. It was not the sort of place that sold millions of different types of coffee. The coffee came out of a jar and you just had to add boiling water. There were no posh sandwiches with tiny tomatoes and smelly cheeses. It was the sort of place that sold everything fried and with chips: fried egg and chips, fried bacon and chips, fried Mars bar and chips. The place was even called ‘N Chips’.

  Lisa had worked at ‘N Chips’ since her divorce. Before that she’d been a stay-at-home mum. Keith did not like her going out to work. He said he was the money-maker, but that changed when he left with the Big Breasted Woman. Then he wanted Lisa to make her own money.

  It was not a bad little job. The boss, Dave, was good about Lisa changing hours if she ever needed to pop into the school or take one of the kids to the dentist. Dave understood about bringing up kids alone. His mother had done it and his sister was doing it. Who’d have thought Lisa would ever be so fashionable?

  Dave and his wife didn’t have kids. They were getting on a bit now. They were Lisa’s age and too old to bother. Lisa had never asked Dave if they’d ever wanted kids. It was not the sort of thing she would ask. Paula would, given the chance. Paula was at an age where nothing was private.

  For example, the other day Paula had asked Lisa if Lisa had ‘sexual relations’ with her boyfriend, Mark. Lisa was very embarrassed, even though Mark had been part of their lives for a few months now. Wasn’t that the wrong way round? Paula had had ‘the talk’ at school. She’d had a good idea about the birds and the bees before she’d had the proper lesson at school. But now she’d had the lesson she felt totally grown-up. Paula saw a chance to embarrass and confuse her mum. Every kid loves to do that! After asking about her mum’s personal life she quickly asked, ‘Can I have my belly-button pierced?’

  Lisa was so hot and bothered by the ‘sexual relations’ question that she said she’d think about the piercing. For ages she’d said, ‘No. No. No,’ but anything to change the subject. Later, when Lisa had time to think about it, she realized she’d been tricked.

  For the record, Mark and Lisa were having sex. Thank you for your interest! Lisa was forty-two, with three kids and a divorce under her belt. She was officially not-so-young, not-so-free and not-so-single. She was also not-so-comfortable talking about her sex life with her young daughter – or her mother, come to that. She wasn’t modern enough to deal with it.

  Lisa was never very modern. Even when she was young, she was old-fashioned. She was a nice girl who just wanted to settle down and have a family. She didn’t regret it. She loved her family more than anything in the world.

  She’d never thought about A levels like Kerry might. She’d never wanted her tummy-button pierced like Paula did. She’d never had an ambition to play football for Manchester United like Jack did. Maybe that’s not surprising!

  Her ambition had been to marry, then to live Happily Ever After, the way they do in fairy tales. Her problem was what was after ‘After’.

  Lisa thought that by the time she reached the age of forty-two, her only problem would be whether to use sew-on or iron-on labels to name her kids’ school uniforms. Instead, she had to struggle with what she should call the man in her life.

  ‘Husband’ was so simple. But Mark was not her husband. Mark was a man who had come round to give her an estimate for converting the loft. And slowly but surely turned into… Well. What?

  The term boyfriend seemed so young. Lisa thought she was too old for a boyfriend. Her daughters talked about boyfriends. She wished they didn’t! She wasn’t ready for them to grow up!

  Lisa’s mother called Mark a toy-boy. Every time she said it, she nudged Lisa and winked. At moments like those Lisa had sympathy for her kids. Parents never stop showing you up! True, technically, Mark was a toy-boy, as he was five years younger than Lisa. But didn’t toy-boys date older women for their money? Mark couldn’t be in it for the money. Lisa had none. Her idea of a good investment was buying two lottery tickets.

  Carol thought Lisa should call Mark her partner.

  ‘As often as possible,’ she said, ‘to make it clear to everyone that he’s yours. It’s a competitive world and
he’s a catch.’

  It sounded a bit desperate to Lisa. But even the kids agreed with Carol. Single, Lisa was a drag. They didn’t want to have to look after her in her old age. Jack had said so. The boy wasn’t known for his tact! But ‘partner’ put Lisa in mind of cowboys – ‘Howdy partner’ – or people who liked people in their own hockey team.

  Lisa’s brother, John, said Lisa should call Mark her ‘dude’. This was proof that he lived on a different planet from anyone else Lisa knew.

  Lisa wondered how come everyone else seemed to know how to label her relationship. Where did her voice go?

  Only Mark didn’t seem to care what Lisa called him, as long as she did keep calling him, which was sweet. Men are sweet at the beginning, aren’t they, thought Lisa. But, like cream cakes in a shop window, they go off.

  3

  10 September

  Keith, Lisa’s ex, visited her when the kids were at school, which was a surprise.

  ‘What do you want?’ she asked. He always wanted something.

  He asked for a cup of tea, but she knew that there was something bigger. Lisa gave him a chipped mug. It wasn’t as big a crime as him running off with the Big Breasted Woman, but it was something. She hoped he noticed. He dipped his biscuit and drank his tea. Then he gave her a booklet.

  Right away Lisa was worried. The last papers he’d given her were divorce papers.

  ‘What is it?’ Lisa asked, sulkily.

  ‘Some information about local night classes. There are lots to choose from: computer studies, sewing, cake-decorating, foreign languages. I thought you might be interested. You could do with a new challenge,’ said Keith.

  ‘Don’t you think bringing up three kids on my own is challenge enough?’ Lisa asked, crossly.