Mum brightened up at this. Presumably, Ally was appearing less like some sort of dysfunctional child-woman and more like a normal single, childless thirty-something. Wow, this was a bit out of her comfort zone, but still, she could watch a Disney movie, eat chicken goujons and go to sleep at nine as well as anyone.
‘Perfect.’ Mum smiled optimistically, heading for the kitchen. ‘You can be her special aunt.’ Which was further evidence that the family had officially given up on her.
She was soon alone in the sitting room with Dad, buried in his armchair, who seemed to find himself being left behind more and more these days. Funny that – she’d always felt he’d never had much time for her, always gravitating towards the high achievers, but now he smiled over at her. Maybe this was a chance to finally connect with him.
‘Dad, can I ask you something? Have you ever heard of a builder called Peter Fitzmaurice?’
He looked at her in faint surprise. ‘Where do I know that name from? Young fellow, tall? Bad business that, of course .?.?. I met the other chap too, he was still around at the time.’
Dad appeared to have dropped straight into mid-conversation.
‘Sorry, Dad, do you mean .?.?. you actually met Pete .?.?. andTony?’ This was fascinating.
‘Ah, it was a good few years ago.’ Well, that explained the ‘young’ description. ‘At a Chamber of Commerce do .?.?. bloody boring the rest of it, couldn’t wait to get home. I was sitting beside them, actually. Why do you ask?’
OMG, Dad had had this information all along. Unbelievable.
‘Oh, no reason, I just met him through work,’ she said airily. ‘So, what did you make of them?’
‘Funny, when the scandal hit the papers back this summer, I was reminded of that time. We’d a good conversation all right. We were talking about how the profit margins had collapsed and part of it was down to over-regulation. I agreed with him on some of it, actually. Nice lad, border counties. The other chap, Tony .?.?. what’s his name .?.?. Donnelly, that’s it. I remember thinking he was another shade of character altogether and that they were an unlikely pair.’
‘Why was that, Dad?’
He thought for a minute. ‘Oh, he was very smooth, a great talker. He’s the sort of character that’d disarm you so you’d tell them all sorts of thing you didn’t mean to .?.?. and sure, I’m not even in the same business, what could I give him? But .?.?. I dunno, I felt kind of uneasy afterwards. And that wouldn’t be my style, normally. Not Peter Fitzmaurice, though, he was straight. No frills .?.?. I remember.’
Wow, that was a relief. Dad went on. ‘Let’s just say, I wasn’t totally astonished to hear Tony Donnelly had done the dirty.’
Thankfully, it didn’t occur to Dad to probe any further about how well his daughter knew Peter. The last thing Ally wanted was any curiosity or jokes from the family about him. The whole situation already felt wobbly and vulnerable at best.
Uplifted by this unexpected insight into Pete, Ally spent the rest of dinner helping out Mum, while Maeve sat listlessly beside Luna, who was acting out a drama with two cocktail sausages,one of which kept sighing while the other flew away. Maeve was labouring through a spoonful of plain mashed potato and sparkling water.
‘At least now I only have to cook the same food for both of us,’ she huffed.
‘I really meant that about the babysitting,’ said Ally.
‘Appreciated, Ally, but the only way I could go anywhere in the evening these days is if I were loaded into a cannon and the fuse lit.’
‘Well, maybe I could just drop round to keep you company, if you like?’
‘You know, that’d be really nice. A mug of weak tea, boring conversation and I’ll kick you out after the evening news – how does that sound?’
Ally laughed. ‘Perfect.’ Why hadn’t she done this before? She’d always thought that Maeve couldn’t possibly need her. Her older sister was so together, so successful, so normal. But that was her own projection – in truth, her sister was struggling on her own, in the throes of morning sickness, and needed help and support more than she ever had.
On the way home, in the car, Ally felt a warm glow inside. The news about Francis should have been devastating, but in fact it didn’t feel so bad. It was upsetting in the sense that he was moving forward and leaving her behind – OK, that was pretty bad – but somehow, she felt philosophical about it .?.?. Her turn would come. And that definitely sat better in her gut than regret or resentment. Plus, she’d had a better chat with Dad then she’d had for years. And he’d actually met Pete and liked him, which was amazing. So maybe Francis moving on had its upsides after all.
Just then she noticed a missed call from Rosemarie. Oh God, no, not more ecstatic descriptions of bonking positions you could do while one of you was wearing a massive plaster cast.
Oh well, let’s get it over with, she thought grumpily and called her back. Rosemarie must’ve dived on the phone, as she answered immediately.
‘Hiya, sorry I was short earlier. But you know yourself—’
‘’Course, how’s it going?’ There was no point in holding a grudge, she’d enough to worry about.
‘OK, first of all, I’m not going to be that sort of pathetic soppy eejit I despise .?.?.’
‘It’s OK to like him, Rosie, you deserve it.’
‘I do like him – is that awful?’
