‘Maybe she’s in the kitchen,’ Pat continues worriedly.
‘Leave her, Mum, she’s probably just having some time with her niece,’ Charlie says calmly.
‘Okay.’ Pat smiles at us apologetically. I think she’s a bit frazzled with so many people here.
Valerie is standing nearby, looking lost. ‘Another one, Valerie?’ Barry calls out amiably, bottle in hand.
‘No, thank you,’ she replies curtly, but she comes over to join our ever-growing circle.
‘Do you remember Gavin, Valerie?’ Pat asks kindly. ‘He went to school with Nicki and Charlie.’
‘Oh, hello.’ She eyes him for a long moment as she tries to place him. Gavin looks mildly uncomfortable.
‘It’s been years, I imagine,’ Pat says awkwardly. ‘Do you boys catch up much?’ She turns to Gavin and Charlie.
‘We haven’t in a while,’ Charlie replies from beside me.
Gavin’s discomfort seems to be increasing by the second. At a guess, I’d say he’s one of the friends who didn’t know how to handle Charlie’s bereavement.
‘You could really do with a decent sitter so you could go out more, right, son?’ Barry says jovially. ‘Someone who can work on Saturdays and who won’t forget the monitor,’ he adds, nudging me conspiratorially and giving Pat a significant look.
I almost clap my hand on my forehead. He’s landed his wife right in it.
‘What do you mean, someone who won’t forget the monitor?’ Charlie asks, not missing a beat and giving his parents a quizzical look.
Pat blushes. ‘Me, forgetting to bring the monitor down when you were doing that job for the school. Oh, I did feel terrible, didn’t I, Bridget? Poor April, she was beside herself, little mite.’ She winces theatrically and adds, ‘Neither of us heard her.’
Now I’m the one who’s cringing. I still feel so bad about it.
Charlie touches my lower back and leans closer. ‘Is that why you were turning your music down?’ he asks me quietly. He’s guessed that I’ve been covering for his mother.
I shrug.
‘Aw,’ he says sweetly, squeezing my waist.
I suddenly notice Kate standing in the doorway with April in her arms. Her eyes dart between Charlie and me, her expression grim. I look at Valerie to see she’s also staring at us, mutinously.
‘Birthday-cake time!’ Pat exclaims, clapping her hands together.
I decide it might be best if I go and stand with Jocelyn.
Chapter 34
I drag my heels on the way to Charlie’s on Monday morning, walking rather than taking Nicki’s bike. I’m pretty sure Valerie will still be there and I’m tempted to go in late or not at all, but I think she already dislikes me enough. I don’t want to give her another excuse.
‘She’s so late! Lazy girl! And after she took all that time off to go and do her own thing, too...’
I decide to open the door with my key – they know I’ve got one now, anyway – but, as I’m putting it in the lock, I hear a noise from deep inside the house that makes me pause with alarm. Is that crying? It’s not April.
The door swings open and Charlie comes out, looking pale and stressed.
‘I’ve been trying to get hold of you.’ He hastily ushers me off the front step. In the seconds before he manages to extract my key from the lock and pull the door closed, I hear Kate’s hysterical raised voice.
‘She’s a hussy and a media whore!I won’t have it!’
I stagger backwards, stunned.
Charlie is stricken. ‘I tried to warn you not to come today.’
