Eden and Ralphie drove Chloe back to her B & B.
‘You can stay with us tonight,’ said Eden.
‘No,’ said Chloe, ‘it would be crazy, I’ve paid for the place.’
‘Well, how about you stay with us tomorrow night?’
‘Why are you welcoming me into your home?’ said Chloe. ‘I came and I disrupted everything.’
Eden and Ralphie laughed uproariously. Eden was stone-cold sober because she hadn’t been drinking. She needed a clear head, she’d told Chloe. But Ralphie had had several pints of beer and a whiskey with Steve.
‘That’s so funny,’ he said. ‘Disrupting things. You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. This family is mad.’
‘Ha, mad,’ retorted Eden. ‘Who’s got the mad family? Do you know, Chloe,’ she said, ‘his father is a very famous politician and—’
‘Oh I know,’ said Chloe, ‘I’ve looked you all up.’
‘Really? What do we sound like? It’s very interesting to know what you sound like from someone who’s looking you up with a real interest. I thought you were studying art not history?’
‘Yes,’ said Chloe. ‘Actually, I studied your father-in-law in history in school.’
‘You’ll have to meet Diarmuid, he’s going to love you. I studied history in college, that’s how I got into politics. Because I met darling Ralphie and he introduced me to his family.’
‘And they fell in love with her,’ said Ralphie. ‘Like I’m so in love with her,’ and he leaned his large frame over to put his head on Eden’s shoulder as she drove.
‘No, sweetie, you don’t want me to crash, go back on your own side.’
Chloe grinned. They were terribly sweet together. Nothing she’d expected at all. Eden was sharp and clever but warm, funny.
‘You didn’t look surprised when you saw me.’
‘No,’ said Eden. ‘Because Rory told me something years ago. She’d seen Dad kissing Lori. And I believed her. She told Indy as well and Indy didn’t believe her, because Indy doesn’t like things that aren’t lovely. Well, she didn’t then. She’s more real world now.’
‘She’s very beautiful,’ said Chloe, ‘so gorgeous and nice.’
‘We call her the perfect sister.’
Chloe giggled.
‘I’m the imperfect sister. Rory is the deeply tricky sister.’
And Savannah, Savannah was the troubled sister, she thought to herself but didn’t say it out loud. ‘And Savannah is the business-lady sister. So what are you going to be? You can be the wildly famous artist sister.’
‘I can be a sister?’ said Chloe, who’d had none. ‘I’ve never had a sister before, or even four. I have two brothers.’
‘Do you want to ring them, text them? You could ring them from the car so they know you’re safe, so they know you’re with us.’
Chloe burst into tears. ‘You’re being so lovely,’ she said.
‘You’re my sister,’ said Eden in a matter-of-fact voice, ‘what else would I be? Families are weird these days, just telling you. And the one you’ve got yourself involved in, we’re weirder than most.’
‘Yeah,’ said Ralphie.
‘Ralphie Tallisker,’ said Eden, sounding tough, but there was a lot of humour in her voice. ‘Stop saying we’re weird; your family are really weird, your father is nuts.’
‘I know, but who’s going to tell him that?’ said Ralphie. ‘Really.’
‘I might,’ said Eden, starkly. ‘One day I might tell him.’
