‘Thanks, Lou. We’d love to.’
‘Aw, I wish I could.’ Erin pouted. ‘But we won’t be here for Halloween.’
‘Oh?’
‘No, we’re going to stay with Joe’s family in Galway for a few days. Cillian has lots of cousins there, so he doesn’t mind missing Halloween here.’
‘Oh, that’ll be nice.’
‘Nice for him. I’ll have my mother-in-law to contend with.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘But we’ll be back early on Saturday, so I’ll see you then.’
Lou frowned. ‘Saturday?’ Had she forgotten something?
‘At Bo’s party,’ Erin said.
‘Oh, yes!’ Lou forced a smile while inside her stomach did a somersault as Aidan’s words came back to her. ‘Is… everyone going?’
‘Yeah, the whole class,’ Vicky said. ‘We always look forward to Bo’s birthday parties. Aidan does the catering, so it’s a treat for the parents as well as the kids.’
Lou clung desperately to the hope that she’d got the wrong end of the stick or there had been some misunderstanding. ‘I didn’t see any invitation. Is there a WhatsApp group or something I should join?’
‘No, there are actual paper invitations. Bo made them herself – so cute.’ Victoria smiled. ‘Jack must have forgotten to give it to you.’
‘Yeah, he must have.’ A week ago, Lou would have thought the same. Now she wasn’t so sure. ‘I’ll ask him later when I pick him up.’
‘Anyway, it’s Saturday, November first at Aidan’s place. Ben’s very excited about it.’ Vicky licked her lips. ‘I’m looking forward to it myself.’ She pulled a card from her bag as she spoke and held it out to Lou.
Lou’s eyes blurred with fury as she looked down at the brightly coloured invitation, decorated with stickers and glitter, hardly able to read the words. There was no way Jack would have forgotten to tell her if he’d been invited. He adored Bo, and he was always excited about parties. Coupled with what she’d overheard Aidan saying, she was sure this was deliberate.
‘Well, have fun,’ she said, handing the card back to Vicky. ‘But I won’t be seeing you there. Jack wasn’t invited.’
Vicky’s face registered shock. ‘Oh, I’m sure that’s not true. Everyone in the class was invited.’
‘He must have lost the invitation,’ Trina said.
‘Maybe.’ She shrugged. But inside her heart was breaking. She was convinced this was no mistake. Aidan didn’t want Bo associating with Jack, so he’d deliberately excluded him.
‘Ask him later,’ Vicky was saying. ‘I’ll bet it’s still in his bag.’
‘Anyway, you have the details now, so we’ll see you there,’ Erin said cheerfully, unaware of Lou’s inner turmoil.
She was seething with rage as she made her way to the restaurant. How could Aidan be so cruel? It was one thing not liking her, but to take it out on a child… that was unforgivable. And how was she going to get through her shift without throwing something in his face?
But maybe Vicky was right, she thought, making an effort to calm herself. Maybe Jack had simply forgotten to give her the invitation. She thought of how good Aidan had been to them, how helpful he’d been giving them lifts and working on her garden, his thoughtful gift of herbs… Surely he couldn’t be so cruel as to exclude one child from the entire class? He was aparent himself. He had to realise what an awful thing that would be to do.
Somehow, she held it together and got through her shift without attacking Aidan with a meat cleaver. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t think that badly of him and she’d decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and hold fire until she’d asked Jack about it.
She waited until he was eating his tea to broach the subject, treading carefully because she didn’t want to upset him if he had been left out. Sometimes being a mother was unbearable. The hurt she experienced on Jack’s behalf was exponentially greater than anything she’d ever felt for herself.
‘So, last day of school tomorrow!’ she said brightly. ‘Are you looking forward to it?’
‘Yep.’ His tone was flat.
‘And then it’ll be mid-term and you’ll have lots of fun with your friends at camp on Monday and at Halloween.’
Jack nodded, and put a forkful of spaghetti into his mouth.
‘And… anything else? Have you anything in your bag from school that you need to give me?’
