The Riviera by Karen Aldous Page B

Boston, Lizzie was beamingly chuffed with herself for her forward planning. Thierry was a little treasure; colouring, doing miniature puzzles and playing games on his Leapfrog tablet. She did have to rein him in a bit when he began taking photographs of other passengers though. One lady sleeping with her mouth wide open would not have appreciated it! Once he’d tired himself out, Thierry slept. She had to wake him but that was easy. All she did was tell him that Cal would be meeting them.
    After the long wait at security and two full packs of sweets consumed, they finally reached the arrivals lounge. Thierry was sat on the loaded luggage trolley as Lizzie wheeled it out when suddenly, Cal jumped out from the crowd.
    ‘Whoa!!’ Her heart leaped! ‘Cal.’
    ‘Cal,’ Thierry echoed instinctively, his arms reaching up to him. ‘It’s Cal, Mummy.’
    Cal reached out for Thierry and swept him up, simultaneously grabbing Lizzie to his chest, sending her legs clinging to his knees.
    ‘Yes it’s Cal. I’ve missed you two, so much.’ He squeezed them both while kisses fired between them like bullets.
    ‘Oh, you won’t believe how much we’ve both been pining for you.’ As soon as she said it, she winced inside. Did she sound too needy? It was probably just a bit too much information.
    ‘Oh that’s music to my ears. It’s great to feel loved. Am I brave enough to confess my pining too? Why not? I can’t pretend otherwise.’ Cal kissed her on the nose and whispered. ‘I’ll put that right later.’
    Lizzie, at once felt a surge of anticipation rush through her. Her cheeks blushed as he placed her back on terra firma, her knees buckling. ‘Ha, ha. Anyway. So happy to see you. And glad to be getting out of here.’
    Swopping Thierry into the other arm and squeezing him, he said, ‘And, little man, you look great, buddy! Let’s go and find our next plane. You will love it!’
    ‘I can swim, Cal.’
    ‘You can?’
    ‘I swimmed in the pool wiv Mummy a long long way!’
    ‘That’s great news, T, well done. We’ll stick to the aeroplane for this crossing though.’
    ‘Not another aeroplane!’ Thierry sighed, dragging his feet.
    Cal glanced at Lizzie and they mirrored each other with an empathetic smile.
    ‘Last one, buddy. You want to come and stay with me don’t you?’ Cal asked. ‘We have been very lucky. Jack’s mom and Pops have very kindly let us stay at their beach house. What do you think about that?’
    ‘Is it on the beach?’ Thierry asked as they reached the departure gate.
    ‘It certainly is. We can go every morning to the beach and we can paddle or ride bikes, and guess who is staying with us?’
    Thierry looked up to him with searching eyes and a hesitant smile. ‘Mummy.’
    ‘Yes, of course, Mummy. Who else?’
    ‘Who else?’ Thierry repeated. ‘Is Jack going to stay with us?’
    ‘Yes! That’s right.’
    Thierry began bouncing again at the news and then as they boarded the lighter aircraft fired more questions. It was another twenty minutes and they were in the air again before he settled with his tablet and Lizzie could finally get a word in.
    ‘So, how are things with Jack?’
    Cal grimaced and lifted his eyebrows. ‘Well – and this is in confidence – Mum was right. There was some grief with a girl and it has seriously knocked him back. He has spoken to me about it, but he’s not ready to face school or any social normality. Rightly or wrongly, I’m trying to persuade him to go back to school and just complete his SATs but…’ He shook his head. ‘He doesn’t agree.’
    He continued telling Lizzie the story so far. Giving her an account of the last six days since he’d arrived. It was hard to believe that since the first day, little progress had been made with Jack psychologically. His son was still adamant he couldn’t face going to school. Cal had visited the school Principal and between them they discussed some possible solutions, The short-term being a homebound