She felt her cheeks heat as she turned back to the front and she couldn’t even look at Aidan, turning her head to gaze out at the scenery.
Half an hour later they were sitting side by side on plastic chairs in a huge hall, the air filled with excited squeals as the children tore around an assault course. They were both staring straight ahead, focused on Jack and Bo. Lou hadn’t thought beyond the drive here, but now it was dawning on her that she was stuck here with Aidan for as long as he decided to stay.
‘Thanks again for the lift,’ she mumbled, breaking the uneasy silence between them. ‘Sorry to be such a nuisance.’
‘No problem,’ Aidan said, still staring straight ahead. It was clear from his body language and the terseness of his tone that he was still annoyed with her and his easy friendliness earlier had just been a front for the sake of the children. She could hardly blame him, though. She’d accused him of being mean to a five-year-old.
Lou picked at a thread on her jeans. This was awkward as hell. But she worked for him and Jack adored Bo, so there was no way they could avoid seeing a lot of each other. She was just going to have to square up to it and clear the air between them.
‘I’m really sorry about what I said,’ she said gruffly, ‘for accusing you of leaving Jack out.’
‘No biggie,’ he said stiffly, turning to her briefly, his eyes flinty, before looking away again.
Lou sighed. He clearly wasn’t going to let her off the hook that easily. ‘Itisa big deal,’ she said. ‘I accused you of being mean to a little kid. I should have known you wouldn’t do that, that there must be some explanation or misunderstanding.’
He finally turned to her. ‘I can’t believe you’d think I would do that.’ She was shamed by the hurt in his eyes.
‘I don’t.’ She shook her head. ‘If I’d thought about it for two seconds, I would have known there must be some other explanation.’
‘I mean, apart from anything else, Jack is Bo’s best friend. She’d be gutted if he wasn’t at her party.’
‘I know. In my defence, I did overhear you saying you didn’t want Bo to hang out with Jack so much.’
When she glanced up, Aidan was looking at her, a confused frown between his brows. Then his face cleared. ‘I did say that,’ he said, his tone conciliatory. He sighed. ‘But that wasn’t because I have anything against Jack. I just got the impression maybe you weren’t going to stick around, and I didn’t want Bo to neglect her other friends and then be left in the lurch when you two buggered off. She’s been abandoned enough for one lifetime.’ His gaze drifted to his daughter as he spoke.
‘Okay. Sorry. I guess I got the wrong end of the stick.’
‘Yeah, you seem to do that a lot. If you weren’t so bloody prickly?—’
‘I’mprickly? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Let’s not forget the fish soup incident.’
Aidan’s lips twitched. ‘I suppose there’s a pair of us in it.’
‘And what made you think we weren’t sticking around?’
‘Bo said Jack told her you were just trying it out here and if you didn’t like it, you were going straight back to Dublin.’
Now it was Lou’s turn to be confused. Then she gasped as she remembered. ‘Oh, shit, I did tell him that. It was our first night here and he was a bit anxious. I just wanted him to know that we didn’t have to stay here if he didn’t like it, so that he could relax about it. I was kind of counting on not having to make good on it.’
‘But you would have?’
She looked down at her hands. ‘Yeah,’ she admitted. ‘I would have.’
She looked up sheepishly at Aidan and was surprised to find him nodding, his features softened. ‘I get that.’
‘You do?’
‘I’d do the same if it was Bo.’
‘And by the way, Jack and I aren’t going anywhere,’ she said, folding her arms defensively.
‘Good. Glad to hear it. Except to Bo’s party on Saturday.’
‘Yeah, he’ll definitely be there. Thanks.’
‘And you? You’ll be staying, I presume.’
‘At the party? I wasn’t sure if it was drop-off or…’
