Page 68 of The In-Laws

Theo pulled his backpack over his shoulder. ‘I’m not an addict, Katie. I just like a bit every now and then. It’s an absolute nightmare being here. I don’t fit in and I hate it. I just wish I could go back to London.’

‘Well, maybe you should have thought about the consequences when you brought drugs into your school and got expelled and had to leave London. You have to own your mistakes, Theo.’

Theo shook his head. ‘We’re not just back here because of me. We had to move back because of Dad’s a–’

‘MUM!’ Lucy shrieked.

Katie turned to see her two children standing at the bike-shed door. Lucy looked furious and she was holding her brother’s hand tightly. ‘You said you’d be back in a minute and it’s been nine minutes. We could have been snatched by strangers, or had an accident, or been eaten by wolves.’

Katie stuffed the cocaine into her pocket. ‘I’m so sorry, sweetie. I bumped into Theo, and we were chatting.’

‘About what? Theo never speaks.’

For a nine-year-old Lucy could really cut people dead. Katie hoped she hadn’t inherited all of Nancy’s genes.

‘Theo was telling me about school and that he’s finding it a bit hard being the new boy.’

Lucy studied her cousin. ‘Oh, that is hard, especially as you’re so old. Auggie inWondertook a while to fit in, but he did make friends in the end.’

Theo baulked. ‘Are you joking? That kid had a deformed face. Of course he didn’t fit in.’

Katie winced. Theo had no idea what he had just walked into. Auggie was Lucy’s absolute, most favourite character in the world. Katie hadn’t read the book, but she might as well have because Lucy had told her the entire story in excruciating detail.

Lucy’s face turned red. ‘Auggie is not deformed. He’s just different and he has the biggest, kindest heart, which everyone sees and then they all want to be his friend.’

‘Chill out. He’s not real, he’s a made-up character.’

‘He’s real to me!’ Lucy shouted. ‘And maybe if you were kinder, the other boys would like you.’

‘Okay, no need to bite my head off. I get nagged enough at home, thanks.’

‘Play football. Everyone likes good footballers,’ Toby wisely told him.

Katie needed to get her children out of here and home. She nodded to Theo. ‘Okay, we’ll see you soon, Theo. You’re a good kid, make good decisions.’ She gave him a light hug.

‘Any chance I could get that back?’ he asked in her ear.

‘Hell will freeze over first,’ she whispered.

Katie headed off with two cold and grumpy children while her nephew took out his phone, probably to order more drugs. Poor Amanda. Now that Katie knew why they had left London, she felt even sorrier for her. She even felt a little sorry for Ross too.

Later that night, Katie was sitting at a table with Frank listening to an up-and-coming Welsh singer-songwriter, Tiny Poole, whom everyone was comparing to Amy Winehouse. Tiny was in Dublin, doing a gig and meeting the press, so Frank had asked Katie along to see her perform.

‘Well?’ Frank asked.

‘She’s good, I mean really good, but she feels more like a Joss Stone than an Amy Winehouse.’

Frank put his drink down. ‘That’s exactly what I was thinking.’

‘We should have got married, Frank. We have so much in common. I chose the wrong brother.’ Katie winked at him. ‘Mind you, I wouldn’t change my Jamie for anything. Thank God he’s forgiven me for losing it with Nancy.’

Frank grinned. ‘You’ve had quite a week, between the outburst and the very original apology.’

Katie chuckled into her wine glass. ‘Your mum’s face!’

They cracked up.

‘Poor Mum … Underneath her hard shell is a soft person.’

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