‘Well, Joel doesn’t. He can cook – a bit – and he’ll make his bed and put his washing in the machine. You’d be fostering, so you’d get a good allowance. And don’t tell me you couldn’t do with the money. This lunch alone must have cost you an absolute fortune.’ Sorrel tightened her hold on me, defying me to contradict her.
I couldn’t. I didn’t dare go online to look at my bank statement.
Sorrel still had arms round me, speaking into my hair. ‘Anyway, Joel would be the perfect lodger!’
I put up two hands in protest. ‘OK, OK! Enough already! To both.’
‘To both?’ Sorrel’s face lit up. ‘Really? Dean next door and Joel here? With you?’
‘Makes sense for Dean to be there for Lola when I’m not. I’m getting back into hockey, you know.’
‘Good for you.’ Sorrel was obviously not a bit interested in that little snippet. ‘And Joel can stay here?’ Sorrel was already heading for the door, but turned and almost ran back in order to give me another huge hug. ‘I mean, it’ll all have to be passed with his support workers of course. And it won’t be for long. Just until the summer when he leaves school… He’ll be able to take the part of Danny now inGrease… I need to tell Robyn…’
I drained my glass of wine and bent to stroke Arthur, feeling defeated. ‘Does he actuallywantto be Danny? Does he have thetalentto be Danny?’
But Sorrel was heading from the room, shouting over her shoulder, ‘…and Dean and Joel can look after Arthur and take him out when you’re not here. Perfect!’
* * *
‘So, you’re OK then, Jess? With the arrangement?’ Robyn had left the garden and was standing in the kitchen door, a look of anticipation on her face. ‘Because I’ve just had a word with Joel, and he would really, really like it if you’d take him in for the next few weeks. Just until?—’
‘I know, I know,’ I answered tiredly. ‘I said.’
‘Hang on!’ Robyn disappeared back into the garden, reappearing seconds later with a man I’d never seen before. ‘Jess, this is Andy Somerville, Joel’s support worker. He’s just arrived to take Joel back to his aunt in Castleford.’
‘Right, OK.’ I held out a hand to the tall dark-haired man who was probably, I guessed, around my own age. ‘Can I get you something to eat?’ I looked round at the debris of lunch leftovers, hating anyone to go away from my kitchen without being offered hospitality of some kind.
‘No, no, really.’ Andy put up a hand before leaning in to shake my outstretched one. ‘Already eaten.’ He paused, looking behind him to make sure there was no one else around to join in the conversation. ‘Mrs Butterworth, are you sure about this?’
‘Actually, it’s Ms Allen.’ I made an instant decision to leave behind, once and for all, my married name and status. I’d deal with the actualities of it all in the weeks to come. ‘Jessica.’ I was really going for it, Jessica, I reckoned, sounding more upmarket, more professional. My new self. I was leaving the name Jess behind, going back to the name Mum and Jayden had given me, not the one Dean had always insisted on calling me. I’d been Jess – even Jessie – to him from the get-go, and everyone else seemed to have followed suit.
Robyn raised an eyebrow. ‘Jessica…’ Robyn gave me a look. ‘…I’ll leave you two to it.’
Once Robyn had left the kitchen, I turned back to Andy. ‘Coffee?’
‘Tea, if you’ve got it. So, Robyn tells me you’d consider taking Joel as a lodger?’
‘A lodger? I thought I was fostering him?’
‘He’s sixteen – used to be the age we threw looked-after-kids out into the big wide world to fend for themselves.’
‘And now? The only real experience I’ve had is of fostering small children. You know, those temporarily removed from their home for whatever reason.’
‘So, yes, this will be a bit different. We talk about independent living rather than fostering. And remember, Joel isn’t a looked-after kid as such. He’s still on bail to the local authority. I mean, he probably could return to his mum, but with his younger sister there, she’s not that keen to have him back just yet.’
‘But I have an eleven-year-oldhere. Are you saying that’s going to change things?’ I was rapidly going off the whole idea of having this kid in my box room, and this seemed a good get-out of what I’d conceded with Sorrel.
‘No, not at all. I have to tell you, Jessica, that Joel is one of the nicest kids I’ve met in a long time. Mind you, to be fair, the kids I meet and work with on a day-to-day basis are never going to be The Famous Five, their one aim in life solving the mystery of the village vicar’s stolen candlesticks.’
I laughed at that.
‘You know what I mean.’ Andy smiled. ‘The kids I deal with are off their heads on ketamine rather than ginger beer and have been sucked into working for an OCG rather than trailing the gang after Uncle Quentin’s scientific discoveries.’ He paused and laughed. ‘D’you reckon Uncle Quentin was actually a spy working for the Russians?’
I laughed in return. ‘More than likely. No one is who they appear to be these days.’ I passed over the mug of tea and Andy immediately drank deeply of the contents.
‘Jessica, if I thought Joel was a danger to himself or to your family, I most certainly wouldn’t be having this conversation with you now. I’d be taking him right back to his aunt in Castleford.’
‘Even though she’s booked on to some cruise?’ I raised an eyebrow at this earnest social worker.
