it and headed back to her car. Climbing in, she took a calming breath, glad that her temper had had time to cool down, warning herself not to dive in and make accusations until she’d established the facts, then selected Laura’s number on her mobile.
‘Hi, Sarah. Is everything all right?’ Laura asked in her usual nervous way when she picked up.
‘I’m not sure,’ Sarah said, wondering how to tackle it and then deciding to take the bull by the horns. ‘Ollie is insistent that you’ve shared something with him and told him specifically not to tell me.’
‘Really?’ Laura sounded puzzled. As she would, meaning she was obviously about to deny it.
‘Before you say anything, yes, I am sure, and no, it doesn’t have anything to do with extra cookies.’
Laura went quiet. ‘I can’t think what else it would be.’
‘Something about a little boy,’ Sarah provided carefully. ‘He was reluctant to tell me at first; I had to prise it out of him. I was annoyed when he said he wasn’t supposed to tell me, as you can imagine.’
‘A little boy?’ Laura repeated, now sounding confused. ‘We never had a conversation about … Oh, wait … his story, of course. I told him a story about a little boy who rescued a lost starfish. I was trying to make him see that superheroes didn’t necessarily need to have superpowers. You know, that they could just be ordinary people? Would that be it?’
Sarah considered. It sounded perfectly feasible, perfectly innocent, but … ‘Possibly,’ she said. Then, ‘Did you show him a photo?’ she asked bluntly.
Laura took a second. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Not that I can remember. Do you think he might have imagined it?’
No, Sarah did not think that, or at least she hadn’t. She’d been on the verge of calling the woman a liar, but now she felt herself backsliding in the face of her plausible explanations. Ollie had said he wasn’t supposed to tell, not that Laura had told him categorically not to. Had Sarah misinterpreted what he’d said, jumped to the wrong conclusion? ‘He’s imagining the little boy is his invisible friend,’ she admitted, somewhat reluctantly, ‘so yes, I suppose he might have.’
‘Do you think that might be why he wants to keep him a secret? Because he might be a bit embarrassed, I mean?’ Laura suggested tentatively.
‘Possibly,’ Sarah agreed, with some effort. Might she be reading too much into this? It was possible her protective gene had gone into overdrive because she felt very much a single parent right now, therefore needing to try twice as hard. Might she be losing her perspective because she felt threatened by Laura’s involvement in Ollie’s life? She had an awful feeling she might be.
‘Actually, now you’ve called …’ Laura paused, causing a fresh prickle of apprehension to run the length of Sarah’s spine. ‘It doesn’t matter if you have other plans,’ she went on, ‘but we were wondering …’
What? Spit it out, for goodness’ sake. Aware of her growing agitation, Sarah now felt guilty about that too.
‘Do you mind if we have Ollie this weekend rather than next?’ Laura finally asked. ‘It’s just that Steve has a job on next Saturday, and … Well, to be honest, I’d rather he was here while everything is still so new to Ollie.’
So would Sarah. She didn’t like the idea of Ollie completely on his own with Laura, and had no idea why she felt that way either, other than the nagging feeling that something just wasn’t right.
‘I suppose,’ she said with a sigh. She would be at work, therefore she could hardly claim she had other arrangements. She could be awkward, she supposed, say that she preferred Ollie to have a regular routine, but that would just be unreasonable. ‘As long as it’s not a regular occurrence,’ she added, feeling the need to at least set a precedent for future visits.
‘Brilliant,’ Laura said, sounding pleased. ‘We thought we might take him to the zoo – if that’s all right with you?’
Sarah’s heart sank. Her little boy’s first trip to the zoo and it would be without her. ‘Yes, fine,’ she agreed reluctantly.
‘You’re sure?’ Laura clearly picked up on her tone.
‘Positive, as long as it’s just this once.’ A deep loneliness was opening up inside her already at the thought of another whole weekend with Ollie not there. Splitting up with Joe, which it looked like she had, would exacerbate that loneliness. Why had she shot that text off in a fit of pique?