‘Do you want to finish your lunch?’ Aidan asked her, nodding to her plate.
‘Just the chips,’ she said, picking one up.
‘That’s a good idea.’
‘You have to be very careful with sausages,’ Lou told her. ‘You shouldn’t cut them in circles. Slice them down the middle lengthwise first. You know that, don’t you, Jack?’ She looked at his plate, surprised to see he’d cut his sausages into circles too. Karen had taught them that a circle of sausage was the perfect size and shape to plug your airway, especially a child’s.
‘I forgot,’ he said, his eyes welling with tears.
‘Hey, it’s okay.’ She reached across the table and covered his hand with hers. ‘It’s not your fault. Just remember in future, okay?’
He nodded.
‘I’m not sure if either of them will eat sausages ever again,’ she murmured to Aidan as both children began devouring the rest of their chips. ‘But just in case.’
‘I’d forgotten that myself,’ Aidan murmured. ‘Do you still want that beef and Guinness pie?’
Lou had forgotten about lunch. She wasn’t sure what she wanted. She felt wired and lethargic all at the same time. But now that she thought about it, she was hungry. ‘Yeah, do you?’
‘Yeah. Do you want anything else?’ he asked Bo and Jack.
‘I want ice cream,’ Bo said. ‘It’ll make my neck feel better.’
‘Good idea. I think we could all do with some ice cream after that. Jack?’
‘Yes, please.’
‘How about a glass of wine?’ he asked Lou.
‘Oh, I could really do with one of those.’
‘So tell me more about the boat trip,’ Lou said when they’d all been served. ‘Do you have any pictures?’
She was relieved the children were successfully distracted from their shock and recovered quickly as they talked about the boat trip and devoured their ice cream, while Aidan scrolled through the pictures on his phone. She felt herself start to relax. The beef pie was soothing and delicious, and as she sipped her wine, she felt her muscles loosen, her body sinking into a sleepy post-panic comedown.
‘Are you feeling okay now, Bo?’ she asked.
She nodded. ‘That man thought you were my mum,’ she said, giggling. ‘That was funny.’
‘It was, wasn’t it?’ She smiled.
‘You could be my mum if you like. You’d have to marry Daddy.’
‘Hmm, I think that might be too high a price to pay for Lou,’ Aidan joked. ‘Even for the honour of being your mum.’ He chucked Bo under the chin.
‘But you want to get married, don’t you?’ she said to him. ‘Why don’t you marry Lou? You’d have to go on a date first and then we could all live in the same house together. Wouldn’t that be nice?’
‘Yes!’ Jack clapped his hands. ‘Can we, Mum?’
‘It would be very nice,’ Aidan said to Bo. ‘But Lou and Jack have their own house.’
‘Do you not want to marry Lou?’ Bo asked, warming to her theme as she played with Aidan’s hair. ‘She’s very nice and she’s pretty.’
‘She is that.’
‘And she got the sausage out of my neck.’ She put a hand to her throat. ‘I could have been deaded.’
‘All points very much in her favour,’ Aidan said, grinning at Lou. ‘But they’re not reasons to get married.’
‘Why not?’
Aidan was doing his best to deflect and laugh off Bo’s line of questioning, but Lou imagined he was as relieved as she was when they were interrupted by the waitress bringing the bill.
