‘Did he go off to sleep all right?’ Sarah asked, glancing anxiously up the stairs as she came through the front door.
‘Out like a light, despite the absence of Bunny,’ Joe assured her, meeting her in the hall. ‘How did it go with Laura?’
‘Fine.’ Aware that Bunny – whom she’d guiltily taken from the toy box – was stuffed in her shoulder bag, Sarah gave him a small smile. ‘I think.’
Joe moved to help her off with her coat, which she was getting in a tangle with as she tugged at it. ‘You don’t sound very certain.’ Hooking it on a peg, he looked back at her, his brow furrowed in that way it did whenever she voiced her doubts about Laura.
‘I am. Sort of,’ Sarah said, wondering how much to tell him. She knew he thought she was getting things out of perspective because she was jealous of Laura’s relationship with Steve, which was utterly ridiculous.
He arched his eyebrows. ‘Sort of?’
Trying not to notice the wary look in his eyes, Sarah headed for the kitchen. ‘I mean, Laura was fine. We got along quite well. It’s just …’
‘Just?’ Joe followed her.
Sarah hesitated, but then wondered why she was worrying about what other people thought. She wasn’t jealous of Laura. She wished Steve nothing but luck in his relationship. If it impacted badly on Ollie, however, then she had every right to voice her concerns. She should be able to, in fact, especially to the manshewas in a relationship with. ‘Something was a bit … odd,’ she said carefully.
‘Odd how?’ Joe asked over his shoulder as he extracted the wine from the fridge. Grabbing a glass from the cupboard, he poured her a large one and walked across to her. Sarah accepted it gratefully. She’d hardly touched the wine she’d had at Laura’s, and now she could definitely use one.
‘I don’t know. I can’t quite put my finger on it.’ She pondered. She couldn’t escape the nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that something wasn’t right, no matter how hard she tried. ‘She seems to be replicating Ollie’s room.’
‘Well, that’s hardly odd.’ Joe eyed her quizzically. ‘It sounds as if they’re just trying to make sure he doesn’t feel homesick.’
‘Yes, but … how did she know? About the detail, I mean?’ Sarah frowned pensively. ‘She has the same toy box. The bed could be Ollie’s own. It’s almost identical to the one he has upstairs. Even the name plate on the door is the same.’
Joe looked wryly amused at that. ‘Er, because his father might have had some input?’ he suggested.
‘I suppose.’ Sarah wasn’t convinced, though. They would have had to furnish that room pretty damn quickly. ‘But what about the presents?’
The bemused furrow in Joe’s brow deepened.
‘Twice she’s bought the same present I was going to get him. I told her I was getting him a Magicube dinosaur set for his birthday, and coincidentally she gets him the very same thing. Then I find out she’s bought him a Wheelybug, which I’d decided to get him instead. We looked at them in John Lewis, remember? I told Steve I was getting one and then she goes and orders one. She said Steve forgot to tell her, but …’ She knitted her brow. ‘Don’t you think it’s odd that she would choose the exact same toys?’
‘Sounds to me as if it’s definitely a case of miscommunication.’ Joe checked his watch. ‘They’re popular toys, right? Steve probably did forget to tell her.’
‘So you think it was just a coincidence then?Twice?’ Sarah forced the point, because it did all seem bloody odd – and this was without finding Ollie’s maimed bunny.
He emitted a sigh. ‘I don’t know, Sarah. Maybe you should be asking Steve.’
He looked as if he’d rather be gone, making Sarah feel she couldn’t talk to him about her concerns for her son. What kind of future did they have if that was the case?
‘Her mother turned up,’ she said, willing him to realise that she needed him to listen and try to understand. She couldn’t compromise where Ollie was concerned. Joe had to be every bit as caring about him and his welfare as she was, or it simply wouldn’t work between them.
‘And?’ he asked patiently.
‘They don’t get on. It was obvious immediately. Laura had already told me they didn’t. Yet she still let her in.’
He nodded and massaged his forehead. ‘She is her mother, though, Sarah. She could hardly have left her standing on the doorstep, could she?’
‘Yes. No. I …’ Sarah was confusing herself now. Was it such a big deal that Laura didn’t get on with her mother? Lots of people had parent issues, after all. ‘She started stuttering,’ she tried to explain, but how did you explain something that was nothing more than intuition, a feeling that whatever issues there were between themwerea big deal? ‘As soon as her mother arrived, she started stammering.’
‘Because she was nervous?’ Joe suggested.
‘Precisely.’ She latched onto that. ‘It’s a bit odd to be nervous around you own mother, isn’t it?’
‘So now you’ve decided you don’t like her because she doesn’t get on with her mother?’ He shook his head in obvious despair. ‘Don’t you think this might be a bit—’
‘No!’ Sarah snapped, before he accused her of getting things out of perspective again. ‘It’s nothing to do with whether I like her or not.’ She groped for a way to make Joe see that she wasn’t being neurotic. ‘She said she’d left his bunny guarding his toy box, and when I slipped up there—’
