Or at least she thought the picture was complete until a rather nervous Libby poked her head around the door and said, ‘Can I come in? Am I forgiven?’
‘Of course you can,’ Jo said, with a broad smile. ‘I know I should be cross, but how can I be all the same? Thank you so much for having courage for me when I didn’t have it for myself.’
Libby brushed away a few tears and smiled. ‘Thank goodness. And you are so very welcome. You deserve this. All of this.’
‘Right, my love,’ her mum said. ‘We want you to tell us all about everything.’
‘Especially about that Ewan McLachlan one,’ Mags chimed in. ‘I looked him up on that Google thing and my oh my. He’d have me thinking impure thoughts and then some.’
Jo laughed as she saw her mother raise her eyebrows at Mags before she gave a warning nod towards a blissfully ignorant Clara. Impure thoughts was not a conversation any of them wanted to have.
Mags raised her hands and mouthed ‘sorry’ before she said, at her normal volume, that she had only been telling the truth.
Jo coloured as she wondered what Mags would think if she told them all how he had kissed her.
‘It was… good,’ she said. ‘The weekend. I learned a lot. And we visited a few places for his research. He gave me some good guidance.’
He had also said he would read her work in the future, but she wasn’t sure at all if that offer still stood or even if she wanted it to.
‘Yes, never mind him. What about Graham Westbury? What did he say? What did Ewan say about it all?’ Libby asked, her face beaming with pride.
Jo plastered on the biggest smile she could and said, ‘I think his exact word was “Wow!” To be honest, I was on such a high, it’s all a bit hazy.’ She laughed, but she had been lying. None of it was hazy. She could remember it all too well. Every last detail.
‘I can’t believe he emailed you on a Sunday,’ Noah said. ‘I bet you weren’t expecting that this morning!’
‘There’s absolutely no way I would expect anyone to contact me on a Sunday morning and tell me they’d been up all night reading something I’d written. I never would have thought it was ready to send out to agents, never mind that an agent would actually love it.’
‘Well, clearly it was, and Graham Westbury isn’t just any agent. He’s the agent! Don’t forget where you got your start once the big deal comes rolling in,’ Libby teased. ‘The launch will have to be at Once Upon A Book.’
‘Is there a princess in your story?’ Clara asked and Jo could see she had her fingers crossed.
‘Well, darling, no. Not this one. But I will write you your very own princess story, starring Princess Clara and her best friend, Buttercup Bear. Maybe you could help me?’
‘My handwriting isn’t very good yet,’ Clara said, looking sad. ‘And I’m only learning my words.’
‘That’s what you’ll have me for,’ Jo said, opening her arms wide to pull Clara into a hug. ‘We can help each other, because I think you probably know a lot more about princesses than I do.’
That was enough to appease Clara and the pride and enthusiasm in the faces of her family and friends were enough to almost take the sting out of Ewan’s bizarre change in behaviour.
29
A Quiet Place
When everyone had finished celebrating and gone home, and Jo had put a load of washing in the machine and helped her mum tidy up, she slumped onto the sofa and suddenly found herself completely overwhelmed with exhaustion. The hangover that she had expected to floor her all day crashed in and she wondered whether it was too early to go to bed at six in the evening.
Ewan should’ve been home by then, if his flight had left on time. She wondered if he would message her to let her know he’d arrived safely. If his demeanour towards her earlier was anything to go by, she would likely never hear from him again.
A strange melancholy overcame her. Twice in the space of a week, men she thought she had made some sort of a connection with had undergone personality transplants right in front of her eyes. She couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed, despite the high of the day.
‘You look sad,’ a small voice broke through her thoughts and Jo opened her eyes to see that Clara was standing incredibly close to her, her face crinkled in concentration.
’Oh, sweetheart, I’m not sad. I’m just very tired right now. It’s been a busy few days.’
Clara screwed her face up tighter, before standing back and crossing her arms. ‘I don’t think you look tired. I think you look like you could really do with a hug.’
‘You know what, Clara, I could always do with a hug from my best girl,’ Jo said, her mood soothed by the sweetness of this little girl.
A broad smile broke out over Clara’s face as she scrambled up onto the sofa and curled herself into the nook made by Jo’s legs. She wrapped her thin pale arms around Jo, and rested her head on Jo’s chest.
‘I missed you,’ Clara said. ‘But Mammy and I had so much fun. The best fun. And she let me sleep in her bed! And we went for an ice cream. And we did art. But I still missed you.’
‘Well, I’m home now,’ Jo smiled. ‘I missed you too. Sure, aren’t you the best wee sister in the whole entire world?’
She looked down to see Clara nod her head vigorously. ‘I am.’
There was a pause and Jo revelled in feeling the weight of Clara’s body against hers, the strength of her squeezy hug. She kissed the top of Clara’s head and counted her blessings.
‘Jojo,’ Clara said, her voice quiet, ‘I was worried you were going away for a long time and I wouldn’t see you again.’
‘Clara, I promise you that you will always see me again. I will never go away for a really long time. Even when I move back to my flat, or move to live somewhere new, I will visit all the time. And you can come and have sleepovers with me. You can even bring Buttercup.’
‘I heard you tell Mammy you had to go on a plane to meet the book man. Will you go away for weeks and weeks like Daddy? Or go away and not come back like my other mammy?’
Jo felt her heart ache for this gorgeous little girl who was still confused and hurt by her past. It made Jo’s own self woes pale into insignificance. She also felt a little impressed by her bat-like hearing. No conversation took place in that house without her hearing it, it seemed.
‘Oh, darling heart,’ she said, pulling Clara even closer. ‘Yes. I do have to go on a plane to see a man about my book. He’s called Graham and he wants to help me get it made into a real book you can buy in a shop. But it’s only a meeting. I’ll be gone for maybe one or two sleeps. That’s all. I promise. And you will always, always have us. Mammy and Daddy and Noah and Libby and Auntie Mags and all our friends. And we have so much to look forward to. Like Daddy coming back, and Noah and Libby getting married. We’ve got to pick your flower-girl dress too!’
‘Libby says Buttercup can have her own fancy dress too,’ Clara said, her eyes wide with excitement, and that was all it took to make everything right in her world again.
If only the promise of a fancy dress was enough to make all right in Jo’s own world. Despite the excitement of the day, Ewan’s behaviour continued to nag at her.