All Because of You (Lakeview #2) by Melissa Hill Page B

it.
     
     
     
     

    Chapter 6
     
     
    “Mum, can you speak up a little? The line is very bad,” Tara urged, pressing her mobile phone more closely to her ear. But no amount of bad lines could obscure her mother’s disapproving sniff on the other end.
    “It isn’t any wonder it’s a bad line, Tara,” she replied tetchily, “and it all the way out there in the desert.”
    Isobel, who had never been abroad in her life couldn’t understand the attraction people had for gadding off on these fancy holidays. And in the desert of all places! “How’s Glenn?” she added, almost yelling, and nearly taking the ear off her daughter in the process. Evidently she felt that her voice needed to be raised in order to carry all those thousands of miles in order for Tara to hear her. “Are the two of you drinking enough water? Or do you have to get it at one of those mirage things?”
    Tara bit back a laugh. “Mum, I told you last week – Egypt isn’t just desert,” she said, her own voice instantly echoing back on the line. “We’re staying on the coast in this amazing holiday resort by the sea. Glenn’s out snorkelling on the reef as we speak.”
    They were finally in Egypt and Glenn was in his element. He was a decent swimmer, but as he and Tara hadn’t taken too many holidays abroad over the years, he hadn’t tried snorkelling until now. 
    And she thought, you could get no better introduction to the joys of snorkelling than in the waters of the Red Sea. Even as a non-swimmer, Tara had been able to enjoy the magnificent marine life around the reef of the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula from the jetty by peeking into the incredibly clear turquoise waters and watching a host of colourful tropical fish swim lazily at the edge of the coral reef. 
    They were staying in a spectacular and sinfully luxurious five-star hotel overlooking the reef, and since their arrival late Wednesday evening , Glenn had with thrown himself with gusto into the huge variety of water sports available, leaving Tara relaxing by the hotel’s magnificent terraced pool. She didn’t mind. It was great to see him enjoying himself and all too soon they would be back home in Ireland to face the wet and cold winter. 
    Now sitting on her hotel balcony, which overlooked the peninsula’s extraordinarily beautiful coastline, Tara once more tried to reassure her mother that she and Glenn weren’t at risk of severe dehydration.
    “We’re having a wonderful time,” she told Isobel. “I’ll take lots of photographs to show you and Dad. How is he by the way? And Emma?”
    “Your dad’s fine and sends his love!” her mother yelled back, but in the next instant her voice lowered and her tone changed as she added mournfully,  “As for Emma, well, I suppose it’s getting to her that you can afford to go off sunning yourself in Egypt and not a bother on you, while she’s going through all this hardship on her own.”
    Tara gritted her teeth. What did they expect her to do – cancel her holiday just because Emma was pregnant? And if her little sister would stop chopping and changing jobs every six months or so, then she’d be well be able to ‘afford’ to do it too. But of course it was futile pointing out this to her mother, or indeed pointing out the fact that Tara had been working non-stop for the last three years and might just have earned the chance to ‘sun herself’. Grrr.
    “Well, I’ll have another chat with her when we get back,” she said, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice. “Tell everyone I said hello, and we’ll see you all again soon.”
    “How long will ye be there again?”
    Not long enough, Tara stopped herself from saying. “Ten days in all, Mum – we’ve another full week to go yet.”
    “OK then, well … enjoy yourselves!” Isobel yelled once more, before ringing off.
    Dressed in the soft squishy towelling robe and satin slippers the hotel provided, Tara stood up from the patio chair, switched off her