Ripples Read Online Free

didn’t have them over and keep in touch he wouldn’t bother. It’s too much effort. He’s a strange chap.”
    â€œI wonder does our friendship mean anything to him? Or is it just habit?” Kathy asked.
    â€œYou never know with Barry. You never know what’s really in his mind. Barry is very calculating. He always was. He says nothing much, but takes itall in. At the end of the day he always puts himself first.”
    â€œHe’s very good-natured though. He’d never see you stuck. Maybe it’s just a bad patch. Maybe they’ll work things out.” Kathy sighed.
    â€œI hope so, because if they don’t, I don’t really want to go away for a long weekend with them. I don’t want to have to sit listening to rows for three days.”
    â€œMe neither,” Kathy agreed glumly. “But I’ve always looked forward to that weekend away without the kids. It wouldn’t be the same going on our own. Remember the time we went to West Cork? We found out that the hotel was an out-and-out kip. Then Barry told the mad one behind the desk that he was from Bord Failte. There was no way that he and his party were going to spend one minute there. Let alone anight. And he waved his union card under her nose and she believed him and gave him back the deposit. God, we legged it out of there so fast.
    â€œRemember the time we were camping and Alison set the tent on fire?” Kathy laughed.
    â€œYes, and remember the time we went on the Shannon cruiser and Barry caught a pike and chased you along the quay wall and you tripped over a rope?”
    â€œI nearly broke my neck.” Kathy grinned in the dark at the memory. “We had fun though, didn’t we?”
    â€œAh maybe they’ll get over it. Maybe a weekend away would do them all the good in the world,” Mike, declared sleepily. He always looked on the bright side.
    â€œMaybe,” Kathy agreed. But she wondered if they’d ever have such goodtimes together again. The way things were going, it didn’t look like it.
    Alison had told her in the kitchen that she’d got off with a fella she’d met at a dance. She’d enjoyed a mighty good snog with him too. If she met someone else, she was off. Barry could like it or lump it.
    That didn’t sound like someone who was prepared to try and make a go of things. Poor little Ciara. Kathy’s motherly heart went out to her god-daughter. She felt very angry.
    Couldn’t either of them see what they were doing to the child? Couldn’t they see how insecure she was? That they were always fighting in front of her? Mike was right, they were bloody selfish. Neither of them was taking any responsibility for what they were doing to their daughter.
    Kathy didn’t like the crowd thatCiara hung out with. Imagine letting a twelve-year-old go to a mixed slumber party!
    Sara, Kathy and Mike’s daughter, had been asked also. She was in a mega-huff with her parents because she wasn’t allowed to go. She could stay in her huff. No way was she going to any mixed slumber parties.
    It was very difficult though. Ciara was allowed to do so much. In Sara’s eyes, Mike and Kathy were much too strict. It was starting to cause terrible hassle.
    Kathy sighed. Bringing up kids was no joke. Where did you draw the line? You had to start letting go sometime. But you had to protect them too. At least she and Mike were trying. Barry and Alison didn’t seem to have any such worries.
    But then Ciara was very “responsible”for her age, according to Alison. That was what she’d said when Kathy had asked her why she’d agreed to let Ciara go to the slumber party. It suited Alison to think that. It let her off the hook when hard decisions had to be made.
    â€œResponsible” was not the way Kathy would describe Barry and Alison right now, she thought crossly. She gave Mike a dig in the ribs to stop him snoring, before drifting off