Page 67 of A Second Chance Summer in Dublin

‘Folks.’ He gives a warm, reassuring smile to me. ‘I’ll just give you five minutes to compose yourselves then we need to reconvene. We have a christening at two o’clock. Please, be respectful of our surroundings,’ he tells us, his hands clasped together as he walks back in and shuts the church doors gently. We all hear a low rumble of his voice inside as he assures the congregation that the wedding will re-commence shortly.

‘Can someone tell me what the effing you-know-what is going on here?’ Belinda’s voice is a raised whisper spoken through gritted teeth.

Donal steps in.

‘Everyone just calm down, okay. Wouldn’t be a Kearney wedding without a bit of drama, right? Grace –’ Donal nods at me ‘– I’m now realising, is also the designer of your incredibly beautiful wedding outfits?’ He looks at each of his four sisters.

They all nod.

All I can do is nod, too.

‘Right, got it. So, I got a shock inside because, as Belinda rightly guessed, Grace is also the woman I was telling you all about last night when I got back from that divorce party.’ Again, Donal’s face is unreadable. ‘The woman I .?.?. liked.’

‘Oh, fuck a duck!’ Belinda slaps her hand over her mouth, lowers her voice. ‘It’s all comin’ back to me now! You! It is YOU!’ She jabs her long pink fingernail at me. ‘Peter R. was your date! You told us all you were using some poor guy, that there was no way he was of interest to you – not theone,I remember you said – to take to a party to get back with your ex! That was our Peter R.!’ Belinda looks raging.

‘Take it easy, there,’ Logan says to her, stepping in front of her, standing with his legs apart.

‘Get out of my way, you, with yer Gordon Ramsay head on ya!’Belinda turns on him.

‘Yeah, yer hair looks like Gordon Ramsey shouted at it and it froze in fear!’ Denise backs her up.

‘There’s more gel in that hair than on the entire shelf in Superdrug,’ Amanda adds for good measure.

‘All right, enough. Let’s just .?.?.’ Donal tries, but Belinda’s on a roll.

‘You also said you might go there, maybe, if you were desperate! Cheek of ya!’ Belinda and her sisters stand shoulder to shoulder now. ‘Ya can forget that coffee and Rocky Road, hun. Shove it up your arse!’

Oh she did not just say that. I want the ground to swallow me up. ‘No I .?.?. I-I didn’t .?.?. I .?.?.’ I can’t string a thought together never mind a defence.

‘Peter R. really liked you. You told him you really liked him, too. Why were you lying to him? Why were you leading him on? Why would you do that to a guy as nice as him?’ Kathleen shakes her head at me, her arms crossed again, her expression puzzled and sad at the same time.

‘I didn’t know he was your Peter R.’ I’m dazed and confused and, I’m not going to lie, I’m scared.

‘Yeah. That’s me.’ Donal puts his hand up. The white of his shirt cuff peeps out, his index finger bent in the air, his link bracelet slides down his arm.

‘Come on, Gracie, this is mental. Let’s go.’ Logan tries to lead me away by my elbow, but I dig my Scholl’s into the gravel and stay put.

‘Why did you tell me your name wasDonal?’ I say.

Despite this awful situation, Donal remains the personification of calm. ‘Because it is Donal,’ he says matter-of-factly with a shrug.

‘So why .?.?. why do they call youPeter R?’ I try to pull my arm free from Logan, but he holds on tightly.

‘None of yer business,’ Belinda tells me as I finally wriggle myself out of Logan’s elbow grasp.

‘They started it seven years ago,’ Donal says. ‘And the name just stuck.’ A higher rise of his slender shoulders in his sharp suit jacket. ‘They all went to see Peter Rabbit in The Savoy and thought Domhnall Gleeson looked like me, and so they all started called me Peter R. when they got home. It amused them. It didn’t bother me.’ A muscle in his face twitches. ‘I was Ed S. – Ed Sheeran – for a while and .?.?. who was that other one?’ He clicks his fingers, turns to his sisters.

‘Damian L.,’ Denise answers a bit more meekly now.

‘Yeah, I was Damien Lewis for a bit, too.Homelandwas popular with them. So, depends on what they’re watching and if the actor has red hair .?.?.’ Donal trails off.

‘I didn’t know .?.?. I .?.?.’ I stare at the gravel.

‘How would you?’ He shrugs. But there’s empathy there, I can hear it.

‘I can’t believe this.’

‘Bizarre, all right.’ Donal toes the gravel with his shiny dress shoe. ‘But look, sure, listen—’