Lou gasped, horrified as realisation dawned on her. ‘Is this why you wanted to buy that doll the other day?’
Jack nodded, digging his fists into his eyes to scrub away tears.
‘Oh, Jack. You should have told me what it was for. Of course we can buy Bo a present.’
‘But you said we can’t afford it because you’re not made out of money,’ he wailed. ‘We can’t buy it until next month and that’ll be too late.’
Lou cringed as she realised this was all her fault.
‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. If you’d told me why you wanted it…’ She gave him a squeeze as his tears abated and descended into hiccupping gulps. ‘We’ll always have enough money to get birthday presents for your friends, okay?’
‘Okay.’ Jack scrubbed a hand over his face. ‘So can we go back and get the doll? Do you think it’ll still be there?’ He looked up at her, all trace of tears gone, and Lou marvelled at how quickly a child’s mood could change, how easily they could recover from an upset that had seemed like the end of the world just a few moments ago.
‘I’m sure it will be. But if not, we can get her something else. Does Bo like dolls?’
Jack shrugged.
‘Well, I’m sure she’ll like anything you pick out for her. So you definitely want to go?’
‘Yeah.’ He nodded enthusiastically and Lou was relieved to see him smile.
‘What did you do with the invitation?’ she asked him, the thought only occurring to her now that the crisis had passed. ‘How come I didn’t see it?’
‘I put it under my bed,’ he said sheepishly.
‘Sneaky!’ Lou laughed. ‘Well, I’ll talk to Bo’s dad and tell him you can go to the party after all, okay?’ She wasn’t looking forward to that conversation. Thank goodness she wasn’t getting a lift to Dunquin with him – that would be one very awkward journey. But she’d see him there on Monday anyway and she was going to have to face him sometime.
