Page 9 of Good Sisters

I yanked him by the arm away from her.

‘Who in the name of God is she?’ I asked.

‘I don’t really know. I’ve met her a few times, but I didn’t remember her name.’

‘She certainly knows you. She was all over you.’

‘Ah, she was only being nice.’

‘Nice? Dad, she practically had her tongue down your throat, the pushy cow.’

‘Jesus, Sophie, steady on.’

‘There’ll be lots more where she came from too. Single men are a target here and you’re not bad-looking or too banjaxed for your age.’

‘Don’t hold back, Sophie, tell me what you really think.’ Dad shook his head. ‘You’re overreacting, pet.’

‘I’m not. Seriously, Dad, you’ll be beating the women off with a stick. You’re completely outnumbered.’

As if on cue, Dolores, Mum’s choir friend, a busty woman a good ten years younger than Dad, came rushing over and threw her arms around him, ‘George, my poor, poor George.’

‘She might smother him with those breasts.’ Gavin had sidled up beside me. ‘They’re huge, even bigger than Shania’s, and hers are like watermelons since she got pregnant.’

We stifled a giggle. It was good to laugh. I felt some of the tension in my stomach recede. It had been such an awful time, watching Mum fade away into nothing, saying goodbye to her as she slowly died before our eyes. We were all completely drained, emotionally and physically.

‘What are you laughing about? Please tell me. I need a laugh.’ Julie nestled in beside us.

‘Guys.’ Louise’s voice made us jump. ‘You can’t all stand together in a huddle. You need to mingle.’

‘It’s not a cocktail party, Louise,’ I snapped. ‘It’s Mum’s funeral lunch. We can talk to whoever we bloody want.’ I’d had enough of her bossing us all around.

‘Mum would want us to chat to her family and friends, Sophie.’

‘She couldn’t stand most of her family and, in case you hadn’t noticed, a lot of her so-called friends are trying to throw the leg over Dad.’

‘What? Are you serious?’ Julie was clearly appalled.

‘Yes, Julie, look over there right now.’ I pointed to where Dad was trying to extricate himself from the vice-like grip of Dolores.

‘How can she? How can they? Poor Mum. Have they no respect?’ She welled up.

Louise drank deeply from her wine glass. ‘A single, heterosexual man in a golf club is like the Hope Diamond.’

‘Women of a certain age are scary.’ Gavin watched in awe as Dolores clung to Dad’s arm.

‘She needs to back the hell away. I will not have my mother disrespected.’ Louise’s jaw was set. Uh-oh … She marched off towards Dad and the unsuspecting Dolores.

‘We need popcorn for this,’ Gavin said, and I thumped his arm.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the triplets picking up a bottle of wine from one of the tables and sneaking to the back of the room to drink it. I spun around, looking for Jess. Thankfully, she was nowhere near them. She was sitting with Clara and Tom playing cards. She was so sweet with her younger cousins, it warmed my heart. As tricky as she was at the moment, pushing all the teenage boundaries, the sweet Jess was still in there. She had been a rock to me today.

I decided not to tell Julie about the wine. I’d go over and get it from them. Julie didn’t need to be worried about her sons getting drunk at her mother’s funeral.

Julie and Gavin were watching wide-eyed as Louise reached Dad and tapped Dolores firmly on the shoulder.

‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘My father needs to be with his family at this terrible time. He does not need to be harassed by women looking to replace my mother before she is even cold in her grave.’

‘I beg your pardon?’ Dolores spluttered.

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