Megan 3 Read Online Free Page B

hotel you stayed in? Or getting in touch with the holiday company or something?’
    She shook her head. ‘I thought of all that. I don’t even know if his name’s right, though. And what would be the point?’
    ‘You might get some money from him.’
    ‘Do you get money from your ex-boyfriend?’
    I shook my head. ‘He’s at university.’
    ‘Is he any support at all?’
    ‘Yeah. He sends Jack horrible green troll things on his birthday.’
    She laughed. ‘There you are, then.’
    At least, though, I knew who he was and if I wasever really desperate he’d probably help me. And of course I still had the security of being at home with Mum, even if she did drive me round the bend most of the time.
    Maria – one of the tutors – came in. She said hello to everyone and went round admiring the babies, then she asked everyone who was doing Geography to go with her. Three of us settled our babies – I tried to ignore Jack’s woeful look at me as I said goodbye – and followed her into one of the study rooms. As I closed the door I heard the first wail of protest from Jack, then for the next half an hour I tried to get into the session and ignore Jack’s plaintive cries coming through the thin walls. Just as I thought I couldn’t stand it any longer and would have to go to him, one of the nursery nurses came in to get me.
    ‘He’s going through a clingy phase, isn’t he? He just wants you, I’m afraid.’ She smiled apologetically. ‘D’you think you can come and see to him?’
    For the rest of the day, then, I did little bits of Geography interspersed with sitting in the nursery with Jack – and hoped that the clingy phase didn’t go on for too long…

Chapter Four
    My taxi usually came to collect me at four o’clock in the afternoon, but as it hadn’t arrived by four-fifteen I took Jack and all my bags and baggages to the gate to wait. In the front of Poppies was a small garden with a couple of plastic toddler toys, and I sat Jack on the grass next to them and went outside to lean on the fence. I was looking down the road and so I didn’t see or hear the boy until he was almost up to me.
    ‘Hi!’ he said, making me jump.
    I turned. He was about eighteen, good-looking, with a shaved head and dark eyes. ‘Have you just come outside for some air?’ he asked, grinning.
    I nodded. ‘I’m waiting for my taxi.’
    ‘You go here, then, do you?’ he gestured towards Poppies.
    ‘Yeah. I’m doing A Levels.’ I put this in so he’d know I wasn’t a bimbo. ‘Are you at Oaklands?’
    ‘In the Sixth,’ he said. He looked over at Jack, whowas trying to pull himself on to a green plastic wheelbarrow. ‘Is he yours?’
    I smiled across at Jack. ‘Yes, he is.’ After the mess I’d got into when I’d first met Mark – trying to pretend that I didn’t have a baby – I’d made up my mind that no matter who asked, shop assistants, people in the street, potential boyfriends, I’d tell the truth. Besides, I was standing outside an educational unit for single mothers so it was a bit obvious. ‘His name’s Jack.’ I looked at him again and laughed because he’d just pulled the little wheelbarrow on top of himself and had such a baffled, surprised look on his face.
    ‘Cute!’ the boy said. ‘My name’s Jon. J-O-N,’ he spelled out. ‘How old is he, then?’
    ‘Just over a year.’
    ‘Has he got any brothers and sisters?’
    ‘No, he hasn’t!’
    ‘Just checking,’ the boy said. ‘You on your own, then?’
    I looked at him indignantly. ‘Bit nosy, aren’t you? What’s with all the questions?’
    ‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘but you don’t often get good-looking girls waiting around outside here. And I like to get my facts right before I start.’ He looked at me with raised eyebrows, smiling slightly. His eyes were verydeep brown and considering it was years since anyone had flirted with me, I couldn’t help but smile back. Start
what
? I wanted to ask.
    ‘I’ve been coming here for