Charlie began filling glasses with champagne.
‘So!’ cried Dominique when everyone’s glass was full. ‘Paddy O’Brien!’
‘You do make me laugh.’ Paddy handed her a glass of champagne for herself. ‘Parties, speeches and stuff like that. You’re good at it, though.’
‘I thought it would be nice for you,’ she said.
‘It was.’ He smiled at her. ‘And you’re right. I didn’t think I needed to do anything to mark the divorce, but actually it makes me feel better inside. I think it could be that whole closure thing they talk about.’
She nodded. ‘It’s good to be able to close the book on things sometimes.’
‘Which you haven’t entirely been able to do yourself,’ he remarked.
‘One day,’ Dominique promised him. ‘Soon.’
‘Are you going out with him?’ asked Emma when Paddy disappeared into the house for a while.
‘We’re friends,’ said Dominique. ‘That’s all.’
‘Another male friend.’ Emma shrugged. ‘You do make a lot of them, Domino.’
‘Not really,’ said Dominique.
‘Greg is still your friend, isn’t he?’
‘I talk to him occasionally. I haven’t seen him in weeks.’
‘Must be weird for you.’
‘No,’ said Dominique carefully. ‘Greg was good to me when I really needed it and he’ll always be a friend, but I don’t need to lean on him for support any more. Maybe I did that too much when he was married to you. If that’s the case, I’m sorry. And maybe ...’ she hesitated and then continued, ‘maybe we were closer than you’d expect. But he loved you, Emma. He told me that many times. I’m sure he still does.’
‘Not enough,’ said Emma.
‘That’s what he thought about your feelings for him,’ Dominique told her.
‘Huh.’ Emma snorted.
‘I’m truly sorry you’ve split up,’ said Dominique. ‘I’m sorry about a lot of things.’
‘You’ve changed,’ said Emma.
‘And you’re surprised by that?’ Dominique smiled faintly.
‘I guess not.’
‘Can we get over everything?’ asked Dominique.
‘I can,’ said Emma. ‘Can you stop being so judgemental?’
Dominique had never considered herself to be judgemental before. But she realised that she was. Just like her mother had been. It was a shock to think that she was like Evelyn in any way.
‘Yes,’ she told Emma firmly. ‘I can.’
Kelly changed the playlist and people started dancing.
‘Come on!’ Paddy grabbed Dominique by the waist. “Let’s Twist Again”.’
‘I’m so, so bad at dancing!’ she cried.
‘Not a bother on you,’ he assured her as he twirled her around in the lights of the Chinese lanterns.
‘Way to go, Mum!’
They were all gathered around, watching Paddy and Dominique dance. She was hot and breathless, laughing as she twisted this way and that, lost in the sheer fun of the music and the movement.
She wished that this moment, when everything in her life seemed almost perfect, could go on for ever. But as the music stopped and she collapsed, exhausted, on to one of the wicker chairs in the yard, she knew that nothing was for ever.
After midnight there were only a few people left, and with the exception of Charlie and Kelly, who were still listening to music in the yard, they’d all moved inside the house. Kevin and Maeve were stretched out on the sofa. Paddy was slumped into one of the armchairs. Emma was in the armchair opposite. Dominique was in the kitchen making coffee.
She carried the tray into the living room and handed around the mismatched cups. Then she perched on the high-backed kitchen chair she’d dragged in to the living room.
‘I’ll sit there, you should relax.’ Paddy got up from the armchair.
‘It’s OK,’ said Dominique. ‘If I collapse into that chair, I’ll never get up again. My legs are falling off me from all that dancing.’
‘You need to work on your fitness,’ he said sternly.
‘Yeah, yeah.’ She grinned at him and then looked startled as the doorbell rang.
‘I’ll get it,’ said Paddy. ‘Maybe the neighbours have come back for more.’
Dominique chuckled.
‘You have nice neighbours,’ remarked Emma. ‘Which is important when you’re so close to them.’
Dominique wondered whether the comment was meant to be a jibe at her current impoverished state. But as she was mentally telling herself not to be so hypersensitive, Emma laughed.
‘Remember the Johnsons next door to us?’ she said. ‘With their fake leprechauns in the garden and them blasting out the céili music at all hours? Drove my mother nuts.’
Dominique smiled. ‘And poor Feena, who was so hopeless at Irish dancing but her mother made her go all the time?’
‘Any girl less suited to ringlets I’ve never yet met. They were like demented springs bobbing around her head.’ Maeve, who remembered the Johnsons too, nodded.
‘Still,’ said Dominique, ‘with all that practice she might’ve ended up on
Riverdance
.’
The three girls chortled and Kevin said that they were being very unkind. And then Emma said that girls were unkind sometimes but other times they were good and supportive of each other. Maeve and Dominique smiled at her words.
At that moment, Paddy walked back into the room. Everyone turned to look at him. And at the man who had followed him.
He was tall and broad. His face was tanned, although there was a narrow white scar on his right cheek, and his dark hair was more grey than black. He was wearing a cotton shirt and blue jeans.
They all turned to look at Dominique.
They saw the shock on her face.
They saw her mouth his name.
‘Hello, Domino,’ said Brendan. ‘It’s me. I’m home. I’m sorry I was away so long. I hope you can forgive me.’
Chapter 27
She was trying to identify her strongest emotion.
Shock, she supposed. She’d always been convinced that one day she’d see him again, but she hadn’t expected it to be today. She hadn’t expected him to turn up out of the blue with no warning.
Relief was there too. Relief that he was finally home and that all the parts of her life that had been in suspended animation while he was away could now be tidied up. Although that also made her fearful, because she didn’t know exactly how they would be tidied.
And anger. She knew that she was angry. Angry at him for the past and for the present, and angry for the future too.
Nobody was saying anything at all, and the silence would have been total if it wasn’t for the muted sound of Katie Melua wafting in through the open patio doors. And then Kelly herself stopped it and stepped inside the house. She walked slowly across the room to him, her eyes never leaving his face. At last she stood in front of him. They looked at each other in silence, but it was Kelly who spoke first.
‘I’m so glad to see you, Dad,’ she said and threw her arms around him.
Dominique watched as he hugged her tightly in return. He held her for almost a minute before he loosened his grip on her and turned to face Dominique herself.
‘You utter shit!’
It was Emma who spoke. Dominique turned towards her, startled, as in one fluid movement she got up from the chair and hit Brendan sharply across the face.
‘Emma!’ gasped Dominique.
‘It’s all his fault,’ cried Emma. ‘All of it. And he has the nerve to walk back in here as though nothing has happened.’
‘I’m not trying to pretend nothing has happened.’ Brendan rubbed the side of his face. ‘I’m here to fix it.’
‘Fix it!’ Dominique spoke for the first time. Her voice quavered. ‘You can’t fix it, Brendan.’ She stood up too, although her legs were shaking. ‘It’s too late for that.’
‘I’ve made mistakes,’ he admitted. ‘Big ones. But I want to put things right.’
‘I can’t ...’ Dominique was light-headed. She staggered slightly, and then felt a hand steady her.
‘Sit down,’ said Paddy.
Brendan looked at him and his eyes narrowed.
‘Who the hell are you?’ he asked.
‘This is Paddy.’ Dominique remained on her feet, Paddy’s hold supporting her. ‘You’ve met Maeve before, although it was a long time ago. This is her partner, Kevin. And that ...’ she indicated Charlie, who’d followed Kelly into the house, ‘that’s Kelly’s boyfriend.’ She couldn’t quite believe that she was making introductions as though they were all meeting up at a social event.
‘Paddy?’ Brendan looked at her and then at the other man.
‘Paddy O’Brien,’ said Paddy, not answering the question in Brendan’s eyes.
Kelly was still standing close to her father. Dominique hadn’t yet touched him.
‘We should go, Domino,’ said Maeve.
‘If that’s what you want,’ added Paddy.
Once again Brendan looked at him questioningly, and once again Paddy said nothing.
‘I’m sorry, Domino,’ said Brendan. ‘I know I messed things up. I know I let you down.’
Dominique realised that she wouldn’t be able to speak without crying.
‘You left us,’ said Kelly.
‘I didn’t have a choice.’
‘Of course you did.’ It was Emma’s voice. ‘You had a choice to tell your family exactly what was going on but you didn’t take it. You had a choice to be honest but you decided not to be. You fucked up all our lives, Brendan Delahaye, and you have a damn nerve showing your face here - and making the dramatic middle-of-the-night entrance too! Was that so’s Domino would be home? So she couldn’t ignore you like she should?’
Maeve glanced at Dominique, who was still unable to speak.
‘Emma, right now I think you should come with Kevin and me,’ she said. ‘I think Domino and Kelly need to be on their own with Brendan.’
Emma looked as though she was about to argue with Maeve, but then she shrugged.
‘But we all need to know what’s going on,’ she said as she picked up her bag.
‘You’ll know,’ said Maeve. ‘Right now, though, Dominique and Brendan and Kelly need to be left to themselves.’
‘Will you be OK, Domino?’ asked Paddy.
She nodded wordlessly.
‘Well, look, thanks for organising the party and everything.’ He leaned towards her and kissed her lightly on the cheek. ‘When you’ve got yourself together again, perhaps you’ll give me a call.’
She nodded again.
‘What made you come home?’ Emma turned to Brendan again. ‘Why now?’
‘Emma ...’ Maeve looked at her impatiently.
‘It was time,’ said Brendan. ‘I talked to Gabriel and I knew it was time.’
‘Gabriel?’ This time both Emma and Dominique were looking at him in astonishment.
‘I was in Panama,’ said Brendan tiredly. ‘I met him there. He came back with me yesterday.’
Dominique was the only one who saw the sudden tightening of Emma’s jaw.
‘Come on, Emma,’ said Maeve. ‘Let’s go.’
‘Gabriel is here? In Ireland?’ she said to Brendan, who nodded.
Maeve took her by the arm. ‘Come on,’ she said again.