‘Very good work, Brian,’ Joe said softly, as Brian landed, a dead weight, in Kate’s arms. She thought it was a bit much that he was getting all the praise when she was the one doing the hard work. It had taken all her strength not to drop him. Joe paced around the circle as one after another, everyone swooned into their partners’ arms.
‘Okay. When you’ve all had a go, switch partners.’
‘Just let go,’ Brian told Kate encouragingly, as they changed places. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll catch you.’
‘Ready?’ she asked nervously.
‘Yeah, just let yourself fall.’
‘Okay, here I go. Ready?’ she asked, looking back to check.
‘Kate!’ Brian said chidingly, as all around her people toppled like ninepins.
‘Okay, here goes!’ Kate closed her eyes and tried to relax, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. At the last minute, she stepped back woodenly into Brian’s waiting arms and let herself go limp. ‘Pretend I did it!’ she hissed at Brian, flopping in an impressively jelly-like fashion when Joe turned to them.
‘Very good.’ He beamed at her beatifically, which made her feel even more of a fraud.
‘It doesn’tmeananything,’ Kate told Brian, as they settled onthe carpet in a big sharing circle. ‘It’s just a game. You shouldn’t take it so seriously. It doesn’t mean I don’t trust you.’
Everyone sat in the circle, watching Joe, who smiled serenely at them.
The silence became unbearable. Kate wished someone would say something. She toyed with the idea of asking if anyone had seen the last episode ofDesperate Housewives, to put them all out of their misery, but she didn’t think she’d get much of a response from this lot.
‘Okay, welcome everyone,’ Joe said. The relief in the room was almost palpable. ‘That exercise we just did was about trust,’ he continued.
Kate wished he’d kept his mouth shut.
‘When you really trust someone, you can let yourself go and know that no harm will come to you. You feel completely safe. It’s very liberating. I think you all felt that, didn’t you?’
Kate nodded eagerly with everyone else but she could feel Brian giving her a dirty look.Oh God,she thought. It’s going to be a very long day.
* * *
With Kate and Brian out of the way, and Will dropping Carmen and Lorcan off at the airport, Rachel took the opportunity to put Helen straight. ‘Will and Kate were never childhood sweethearts.’
‘Oh, really? Then why did you?—’
‘It’s part of the plan for getting rid of the Tree-hugger,’ Grace explained. ‘We asked Will to help and I was just trying to give him a nudge.’
‘What’s Will supposed to do?’
‘Just flirt with her, lead her on a bit,’ Rachel said. ‘It’s true that Kate’s always had a crush on him – it just wasn’t mutual.’
‘Are you sure?’ Helen smiled thoughtfully. ‘Actually, I’ve always thought Will had a bit of a soft spot for Kate.’
‘You’re right!’ Grace agreed. ‘I’ve always thought so too.’
‘Mum,’ Rachel protested, ‘you havenot!’
‘Maybe if she takes this job in Italy and he’s thrown together with her, it’ll make him realise he fancies her,’ Helen said.
‘Oh, wouldn’t that be wonderful?’ Grace pounced on the idea. ‘I could have Will for a son-in-law instead of the Tree-hugger.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Rachel snapped. ‘Will is way out of Kate’s league.’
‘Nonsense, darling.’
‘There’s no such thing as leagues,’ Conor added.
