A Proper Family Holiday Read Online Free Page B

had twenty-four hours before the next one with nothing to occupy her but her sister’s increasingly accusatory texts.
    Mum is so disappointed you’re going to be late.
    Dad wants to know how you managed to sleep through your alarm clock.
    And best of all …
    How did you miss that flight? Why weren’t you USING YOUR BRAIN?
    Needless to say, Ronnie’s texts didn’t make Chelsea any more excited at the prospect of spending the best part of a week in her company. Though Ronnie had made that olive-branch phone call, it was clear that she was still holding a grudge about the row Chelsea only vaguely remembered. What was all this stuff about ‘using your brain’? Annoyingly, Chelsea couldn’t even share the real reason why she wasn’t going to be in Lanzarote on time. Up until three writing up a half-witted film star’s philosophy on life? Once upon a time, Ronnie would have leapt on the possibility of celebrity gossip, but these days she would just think Chelsea was showing off. Sitting in Starbucks on the wrong side of security, Chelsea deleted Ronnie’s hectoring messages. Then she laid her bone-tired head on her arms and had a small cry at the thought of the money she’d had to spend on another flight, another early start and seven nights in a hotel where you couldn’t even flush the loo paper.

Chapter Four
    Ronnie
    Despite Ronnie having made sure everyone was at the airport a full two hours before the scheduled departure time, things were not going smoothly in Birmingham either: the flight was delayed.
    When she heard the news, Ronnie bundled her family into Costa and sent Mark to the counter to get two cappuccinos and two cartons of juice. She had brought sandwiches in her bag, both to save money and because Sophie had lately become incredibly fussy. As it was, Sophie turned up her nose at the thought of her mother’s lovingly made breakfast picnic. She wanted to go off and explore the shops instead. Ronnie told her she couldn’t.
    ‘The last thing we need is to be unable to find you when the flight is called.’
    ‘Mum,’ said Sophie, ‘when they call the flight, you’ve still got ages. Everybody knows that.’
    ‘We don’t know that,’ said Ronnie. ‘We don’t even know which gate we’re supposed to go to yet. It might take a while for us to get there.’
    ‘You’re being so lame,’ said Sophie. ‘Lame’ was Sophie’s new favourite word.
    Ronnie was ready to give her daughter a piece of her mind, but right then Mark signalled that he needed help at the counter.
    ‘Go and give your dad a hand,’ she said instead.
    Sophie got to her feet in a cloud of disdain, banging her chair against the table in protest as she did so. Ronnie closed her eyes for just a second to let the urge to yell again pass. When she opened them, she saw that her daughter had rearranged her mutinous expression into something altogether sweeter for her father – as usual – and by the time the two of them got back to the table, Sophie had somehow persuaded her dad not that she should be allowed to go shopping but that he should give her some spending money with which to do it. Tenner in hand, Sophie skipped off in the direction of Accessorize.
    ‘Ten pounds?’
    ‘I got a tip from that job on Monday,’ Mark explained.
    ‘Still, I told her she couldn’t go. We don’t know when our flight will be called.’
    ‘The girl at the check-in desk said at least an hour. Do you want her sitting there with a face like thunder for the next sixty minutes? She’s got her phone,’ Mark continued. ‘And we’re going on holiday. Let’s start having a good time right here. Eh, Jack?’
    Jack was busy playing a game on his DS. He looked up.
    ‘Shall we go and get a Simpsons comic for the flight?’ Mark suggested.
    ‘Yeah!’
    Jack handed the DS to Ronnie for safe keeping and, like Sophie, skipped off in the direction of retail heaven without so much as a backward glance. Mark was right behind him.
    Alone at the table,