sister either, who’d eventually lost her way and taken her own life, which had almost crucified him – Sarah swallowed hard. ‘I know you do,’ she said emotionally. He was too natural with him for it ever to be considered forced.
‘So can we work on it, do you think? Our future?’ he asked hopefully.
‘Yes.’ She smiled, and the gloom she’d felt descending on her at the thought of rattling around the empty house on her own lifted. She felt comfortable with Joe, as if she didn’t have to make massive efforts to be anything but who she was, and a huge part of her identity was being Ollie’s mum. Joe was hands-on with him. She’d seen how much he cared about him. He’d accepted without question that they came as a package, that more often than not when they went out together it would be the three of them. Thinking she might have lost him, she’d realised she didn’t want a future without him.
‘Great,’ he breathed, relieved. ‘I promise I’ll try to be more supportive.’
‘And I’ll try to be less reactive,’ Sarah promised too.
‘Unless you have to be,’ Joe suggested, letting her know that he also got that sometimes she might have to react, for her son’s sake. ‘So, how’s it going this morning?’
‘Okay … ish. I’ve just spoken to Laura, actually.’ Sarah tried to sound matter-of-fact. ‘I, um …’ Pausing, she blew out a sigh, realising she couldn’t tell it any different to how it was. ‘To be honest, I think I might have overreacted a teeny bit,’ she admitted.
‘Ah.’ Joe sounded amused. ‘How so?’
‘I heard Ollie chatting to himself earlier. He has an invisible friend, it seems. A superhero who rescues starfish.’
‘Right,’ he processed. ‘That’s not a problem, is it?’
‘No,’ she assured him. ‘It’s just … he said he was a lost little boy, that Laura had lost him and that he was trying to find him and take him home. He also said he’d seen him in a photograph. He was worried about telling me. Said he wasn’t supposed to, and I thought …’
‘That Laura had told him not to?’ Joe picked up.
‘Yes. Exactly.’ Sarah breathed out another sigh, one of relief that Joe did appear to understand. ‘I was really concerned, to be honest. I mean, it didn’t sound like something Ollie would invent.’
‘So what did Laura say? You asked her about it, I take it?’
‘I did. I felt I had to.’
‘And?’ Joe sounded wary, but hopefully for the same reasons she did this time.
‘She said she’d told him a story about a lost little boy, wanting to impress on him that superheroes didn’t all have to have superpowers, or something like that, but that she hadn’t told him not to tell me.’
‘Sounds feasible,’ he said.
It did. Also a good life lesson for Ollie, teaching him that ordinary people could be heroes, but still something was niggling away at her.
‘And the photo?’ he asked.
‘I suppose it’s possible that he dreamed it up, or else saw a photo at Laura’s house.’ The way he’d described it, though … he’d seemed so specific. Sarah just wasn’t sure.
‘Could be,’ he agreed. ‘Children’s imaginations tend to embellish the facts, don’t they?’
‘I suppose,’ she mused, but still she wasn’t convinced. Ollie had never kept things from her in the past, yet he’d seemed positive he shouldn’t tell her. And would he really invent a photograph?
Sixteen
Laura
Noting Ollie’s startled face as a lorikeet swooped down, landing on Steve’s hand to peck at the nectar in the cup he was holding, Laura quickly crouched to reassure him. ‘It’s okay, Ollie,’ she said, looking into his eyes, which were flecked with worry. ‘It’s just a parrot. See its pretty rainbow colours?’
Ollie nodded uncertainly, glancing up at the bird and then back to Laura. He stepped swiftly into her arms as the lorikeet took off again with a raucous screech.
A man next to them chuckled as Ollie followed the bird’s progress across the top of the foliage. ‘Don’t you worry, young man,’ he said jovially. ‘Your mummy will fight them off for you.’
‘Course I will.’ Laura smiled and gave Ollie a squeeze.
Steve looked at her curiously, she noted, as he bent to pick the little boy up. ‘Hey, it’s all right, mate,’ he assured him. ‘These birds are tame. They won’t hurt you.’ Ollie still looked uncertain, his big blue eyes brimming with tears.
‘Shall we?’ Laura gestured towards the exit.
‘Good idea.’ Hoisting Ollie higher in his arms, Steve headed that way. ‘He thought you were his