Jo’s mum, on the other hand, just looked a little confused, which wasn’t surprising, given that she had never met Lorcan before and had no idea who he was. Jo was about to introduce him when he crouched down to Clara’s height and said: ‘Well, I’m guessing you are the wonderful Clara that I’ve heard so much about.’
Clara beamed and nodded, delighted to be the centre of attention.
‘Well, I’m Lorcan. I’m your big sister’s friend.’
‘You talk funny,’ Clara said, screwing her face up in concentration.
‘Well, Miss Clara, that’s because I’m from another country. One you have to get in a plane to go to.’
‘Is it Dubai, like my daddy? He has to go there to work in a plane,’ Clara said, excited that her new friend might come from somewhere warm, sunny and exotic.
‘Not quite as nice as Dubai,’ Lorcan smiled.
‘Oh never mind,’ Clara said with perfect six-year-old logic. ‘It’s not your fault.’
Lorcan grinned and Jo felt her heart swell. When he stood back up, she wasted no time in introducing him to her mother.
‘Why don’t you come and join us for dinner?’ her mother said. ‘It’s roast chicken with all the trimmings?’
Lorcan smiled and Jo realised it would be nice to have him there for tea. To have him seated at the table with them. To have him in her space doing nice normal family things.
‘I’d love to, but I’ve promised Grandad fish and chips tonight and he rarely gets chippy food any more, on account of his heart, so I really wouldn’t want to let him down.’
Jo was surprised at just how disappointed she felt.
‘Maybe another time?’ Lorcan suggested.
‘You’d be more than welcome,’ her mother replied.
‘Come tomorrow!’ Clara squealed.
Lorcan winked. ‘We’ll see,’ he said and then he looked at Jo. ‘I’d better be heading back before Grandad sends out a search party. And you know he would. And, remember, all’s well that ends well.’
‘Thanks,’ Jo replied, then stood awkwardly as Lorcan said his goodbyes and left, busting out a few more questionable moves as he walked away, much to Clara’s delight.
‘Josephine Campbell,’ her mother said. ‘You are going to have to tell me more about that man.’
33
The Notebook
Clara had chatted animatedly over dinner. The majority of her conversation seemed to be about Lorcan. Where was he from? What age was he? Did he get free sweets in Harry’s shop? What did he work as? What kind of computers? Had he ever seen The Princess Bride? Did Jo know what his favourite movie was?
If Jo had wanted to shoo him from her thoughts, Clara was making that impossible. Although she was surprised to find it was actually quite nice to talk about him. When Clara eventually went to bed, her mother picked up where she had left off.
‘Is there a thing between you?’
‘A thing?’
‘You know, a bit of romance? It would be nice to see you meet someone special.’
‘Well, it would, Mum. But no, this isn’t a blossoming romance. He has just had a bad break-up and is here to clear his head,’ Jo said, as she handed her mum a cup of tea before bed.
‘So it could be the perfect time to swoop in?’ her mother asked, as she blew on her tea.
‘God, Mum, no. I’ve no desire to be anyone’s rebound fling. Besides, I have my fledgling writing career to concentrate on.’
‘Your career that Ewan McLachlan tried to steal from under your nose, the big gobshite!’ her mother said. ‘Wait until I tell Mags this. She’ll be on the next plane to Scotland, or wherever he is, to box his lights out!’
‘I think karma is already catching up with him and teaching him a lesson he won’t forget in a hurry,’ Jo said, her anger having made way for extreme disappointment that he wasn’t even half the man she thought he was.
‘Good, he deserves it. And you deserve good karma and maybe that comes in the form of young Lorcan. I mean, sometimes people meet the one while they’re on the rebound…’
‘Mum,’ Jo said. ‘Will you stop it?’
‘I’m just saying, he doesn’t look at you the way someone on the rebound looks at someone,’ her mother remarked.
‘Oh God. You’ve met him once, for five minutes, and you’re able to ascertain that from him?’
‘Sometimes you don’t need more than a minute to see the truth of what is going on in someone’s head. This is the guy you hung out with last week, isn’t it? Harry’s grandson?’
Jo nodded.
‘On those days, when you came home, you had a spring in your step. You seemed happier.’
Jo couldn’t deny that she had had both a spring in her step and had enjoyed her days with Lorcan. But then they had fallen out and he had been an arsehole, and she had done her fair share of being an arsehole too. But that was all a big misunderstanding. Even so, she reminded herself, it didn’t change the fact that Lorcan still had a picture of his ex as his screen saver and had clearly been through a lot during their prolonged break-up.
‘It’s not really about how I looked or felt though,’ she told her mother.
‘Maybe not. Well, not entirely anyway. But that look of contentment? You can’t fake that – and he had it in spades. Let me tell you, Jo Campbell, when you meet a man who isn’t afraid to make a complete eejit of himself in public to make a child feel better about themselves, you should do your best to hang on to him.’
Jo went to bed with her mother’s words ringing in her ears. She thought of Lorcan, and how easily he had slipped into silly mode when Clara was around. How he had encouraged Jo to be silly too – to unleash that side of her that maybe had become increasingly sensible. The part of her she thought she’d left in Spain.
She thought of that first day they spent together pretending to be tourists. How they never ran out of things to talk about. She thought of how he was with Paddy, happy to be dragged by the lead by an exuberant dog, but always tender enough to acknowledge Paddy’s need for a scratch, or his lift of a paw. And she thought of how he watched out for her. He didn’t need to do that. He owed her nothing and yet he had laid his life bare for her – revealing some of his most private and painful moments to her. Offering to help with her Ewan-related crisis when he absolutely didn’t have to.
But maybe that was just him. How he was with everyone. Just like his grandad, he went out of his way to help others. Maybe he just wanted to help Jo, nothing more, nothing less. Although that thought made her feel a little sad.
34
While You Were Sleeping
She should’ve been tired, but Jo found herself energised when morning came around. She didn’t question why her mood was so positive, she just allowed herself to enjoy it.
Maybe it was Graham Westbury’s copious praise. Maybe it was her chat with her mother the night before. Maybe it was the way Lorcan had danced with Clara. Maybe it was just that she was incredibly grateful to have the people in her life that she did. True friends who stood by her and were fiercely loyal, who believed in her in a more genuine way than Ewan McLachlan. Maybe it was that she realised they’d always believed in her, even when she hadn’t believed in herself.