‘It was grand.’ I’d unintentionally adopted their terminology in a subconscious effort to fit in.
‘Ah, tell them Lucy!’ John urged, handing me a glass of champagne.
‘There’s nothing to tell yet.’ I shot him a warning look, which he blatantly ignored.
‘She sat next to a dentist on the plane who happens to be opening a dental practice in Ballina,’ he blurted.
‘Jeez, John, God forbid it was a secret,’ I said, rolling my eyes.
‘He can’t hold his own piss. He never could,’ Hannah told me. I was seeing a different side to John in the comfort of his own home house and his immediate family. He dropped the cool as a cucumber persona, seeming completely relaxed, borderline childlike. It was refreshing to see what lay behind the cool, understated mask. In this environment, his childhood home, he was peeled right back to his boyish self.
‘His name wasn’t O’Mara by any chance, was it?’ Mama Bear asked.
‘Actually, it was.’ There was no denying it, literally everybody knew everything about everyone else in this tiny town.
‘His wife, Breege, was in my sister’s class at school, they’ve been in England for years.’ She confirmed what I already knew. I nodded in agreement, devouring my second slice of soda bread.
‘I heard he bought Gilroy’s old surgery,’ Graham said.
‘They could do with knocking the place and rebuilding it if that’s the case, never mind renovating it.’ John seemed to know the exact site.
‘It was a great contact to make, even if nothing comes of it.’ One of us had to keep it real here.
‘Ahh, we’ll make a good country woman of you yet,’ Hannah promised me. Despite my initial doubts, the thought of it wasn’t as ridiculous as it had once seemed.
Dinner was fabulous. John’s mother was an extremely talented chef; the gravy was rich and the meat succulent. We drank two bottles of red wine over the table between us.
‘Who is working in the pub?’ It suddenly occurred to me.
‘My cousin, Charlotte,’ Hannah answered.
‘How lovely.’ Would I ever remember all of these extended relations?
Mary brought in a homemade apple and lemon tart with ice cream for dessert. Even though I was fit to burst, I managed to polish off my portion.
John held my hand under the table, stroking my fingers as they chatted about people I had no knowledge of. I was happy to listen, to enjoy their easy company. I couldn’t have been made more welcome anywhere else in the world.
A loud cry echoed across the walls from down the corridor, and Hannah jumped to her feet to grab baby James before he could wake his two-year-old brother up as well. She brought him to the dining room and placed him straight into my arms.
‘Here’s your aunty-to-be.’ She nudged John as I took the baby in my arms.
James wore a baby blue sleep suit and a growbag with tiny blue whales printed over the cotton. I smiled in delight as he looked up at me curiously and pulled his tiny fingers through my hair.
‘She has the knack for it, John. Look out!’ John’s father warned him.
‘This time next year, I can just see these two here with their twins! One of them to mind each.’ Hannah eyed her baby with a loving look in her eye.
John glanced subtly at me for a reaction, but neither of us commented. The funny thing was, I never wanted children, never considered it as even a remote possibility. Yet here, in this very moment, after consuming a fair few glasses of wine, itseemed to be not an entirely unreasonable prospect. An acute, longing pierced my core, and I wasn’t the broody type. I didn’t even like kids. But I loved the thought of John’s children, imagining their beautiful red hair and Irish accents.
I began to stroke James’s fine tufts of blonde hair. Slowly but surely, his eyelids began to flutter. John’s mother nodded approvingly as the child slowly drifted back to sleep.
‘A natural, I told ye,’ Hannah said, taking the child and bringing him back to his bedroom.
‘I’ve a suggestion to make, say no if you don’t fancy it. I won’t be offended.’ Papa Bear rose from the table.
‘No, Dad, Lucy doesn’t want to leave her keys in the fruit bowl.’ John, the joker as ever, made himself laugh.
‘You’ve your mother’s sense of humour, son.’ Graham dismissed John’s joke with the wave of a hand. ‘I thought we might take some blankets outside and a few hot whiskeys and look out at the stars. It’s such a clear night. Cold but clear.’
