‘God, you’re so lucky having the whole summer off,’ Kate said, sitting down opposite them. ‘I wish I’d been a teacher.’
‘But you’re going to Tuscany with Will and the band,’ Grace chipped in. ‘That’s just as exciting.’
‘That sounds like a good gig,’ Lorcan said.
‘Oh, nothing’s decided yet.’
‘I’ve rustled you up some breakfast.’ Helen had come out to join them and plonked a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast in front of Lorcan.
‘You’re an angel.’ He smiled at her gratefully, then tucked in.
‘I made some muffins, too, for anyone who wants them.’ She placed a basket in the middle of the table with a pot of strong, fragrant coffee and a jug of Buck’s fizz.
‘Are you staying for the weekend?’ Kate asked, grabbing a muffin and eating it in two bites.
‘No, we’re flying to New York in the morning. Will’s giving us a lift to Cork Airport later and we’re going to Dublin to get Carmen’s stuff.’
‘Oh, that’s a pity,’ Helen said. ‘We thought we might spend the day on the beach, bring a picnic.’
‘Well, you can count Brian and me out,’ Kate told her. ‘There’s some guru he wants to go and see while we’re here.’
Hearing this, Will looked over at her. ‘You’re not going to go to that dynamic body-shop thing?’ he asked.
‘Well, I think Ihaveto now,’ Kate said, accusingly. ‘I need the Brownie points after this morning.’
‘Well, don’t look at me. It wasn’tmyfault!’
‘But, Kate,’ Grace began, ‘the whole point of this weekend was for us to get to know Brian. We’re all here to spend time with him.’
‘I know, Mum, and I’m sorry, but he really wants to go to this thing. We’ll still have tomorrow.’ Kate secretly thought that she could earn the Brownie points simply by making the offer. She wouldn’t have to go to the workshop because Brian wouldn’t have the gall to take her up on it. However, she kept this thought to herself, just in case.
Lorcan was looking curiously from Will to Kate. ‘What happened this morning?’ he asked.
‘Oh, nothing.’ Kate shrugged. She didn’t want Lorcan, of all people, to find out. It would be on the front page of theNew York Timesin the morning.
‘Brian caught Kate in bed with Will,’ Grace told him matter-of-factly.
‘Mum!’
‘Well, that’s right, isn’t it?’
‘You make it sound like I did it on purpose.’
Lorcan hooted. ‘So you’re saying you went to bed with Willby mistake?’
Good old Will,he thought. He obviously hadn’t wasted any time in laying siege to Kate and hadn’t let the presence of her boyfriend – or the entire family – put him off his stroke.
‘Exactly.’
‘Darling, lower your voice,’ Grace hissed. ‘Will can hear you.’
‘So?’ Kate asked, exasperated.
‘Well, it’s not very nice, is it, when you go to bed with someone and the next day they say it was a mistake? I mean, you don’t like it when it happens toyou, do you?’
Kate rolled her eyes. ‘This is different. It was – literally – amistake. I got into the wrong bed. How did you find out about it anyway?’
‘Jake told me.’
