‘It’s not trash.’
‘Well, she may be a good writer, but there’s no way she’d get that kind of attention if she was writing about anything else.’
‘People are interested in sex, that’s true.’ Claire shrugged. More interested than they are in you banging on about the bloody school run, she thought.
‘And have you seen the way she flirts with Mark Bell on Twitter? I don’t think it’s only her writing that got her that deal.’
Claire frowned, but said nothing. She hoped other people wouldn’t think that.
‘This cauliflower cheese is fantastic,’ Neil said, helping himself to more. ‘Just like Mum used to make.’
‘Claire’s a great cook,’ Espie said, smiling at her daughter.
‘I often wish I had the time to cook more,’ Michelle said. ‘But I’m far too busy for making elaborate dinners. I’m chauffeuring the kids around all week, making lunches, cleaning up after them, getting the homework done and a million other things. By the time the weekend comes around, I’m too knackered for anything other than a pizzadelivery. Honestly, no one has any idea the amount of work us mums do.’
‘I can’t begin to imagine,’ Espie said drily.
Michelle had the grace to blush. ‘I don’t know how you coped with three, Espie – and all on your own!’
‘Well, we didn’t make such a song and dance about parenting in my day. We just got on with it. It probably helped that we didn’t have to alert the media every time our child had a poo or did something cute.’
Claire wrapped her mouth around a forkful of food to hide her smile. But Luca laughed, earning a scowl from Michelle.
‘Well, things were simpler, then, I suppose,’ Michelle said. ‘You didn’t have the same pressures. The world was a lot safer too – you could let your children run wild and not worry about where they were or who they were with.’
‘Yes, that’s what I did,’ Espie said to Luca, with a twinkle in her eye. ‘Let my children run around like wild animals while I lay around drinking gin and smoking joints. Those were the days!’
‘And look how well we all turned out,’ Ronan said, and Claire smiled. He always tried to be the peacemaker.
Her mother was very taken with Luca, as Claire had known she would be. She had some of her old spark about her as she talked, enlivened and invigorated by the novelty of him. She was clearly enchanted by his roguish charm and his laid-back friendly manner, but Claire was shocked to hear her inviting him to their Friday-night card game.
‘You probably have better things to do on a Friday night than play cards with a bunch of old fogeys,’ she said, ‘but Claire will be here. And there’ll be cake.’
She was even more surprised to hear Luca accept.
‘You don’t have to come on Friday,’ she told him later, as she saw him out.
‘I want to,’ he said. ‘I like your mum.’
‘She likes you.’
‘Well, I’ll talk to you during the week, yeah? Phone sex?’
‘Oh, phone sex!’ She’d forgotten about that.
‘If you want to,’ he said, watching her face.
‘I suppose we should. I mean, Mark lives in London, so…’ Not only did Mark live in London but he often went away on business trips. He probablywouldexpect them to have phone sex at some point, particularly when she’d made out she was such a fan.
‘And you’ve made it sound pretty hot in your blog.’
‘How about tomorrow night, say around eight?Holby City’s on, so Mum will be occupied for an hour then.’
‘Eight it is. Don’t forget your vibrator.’
‘My… Oh! I hadn’t thought about that. I figured I’d just use my…’ She raised a hand.
‘Well, it’s up to you. I just assumed, since you used one in your blog?—’
