you tried to do for Ginny, but you can’t sacrifice your own family. Patrick was pretty aggressive last night. You must both be under so much strain. He wasn’t in favour of having Victor in the first place, was he? I don’t know many men who would be. No wonder it’s taking a toll on your marriage.’
Just a few months ago, in the turbulence of Ginny fading away in front of me, I’d been very honest about Patrick’s reservations: ‘He’s like a big grizzly bear, terrified that a young male in the family is somehow going to usurp his authority. Keeps saying he doesn’t know anything about bringing up boys. He didn’t know anything about bringing up a girl, but we’ve managed. He does have the advantage of being a bloke himself. And it’s not forever. Victor will be at university in two years. And Ginny is also one of his oldest friends, it’s not like we’re just inviting the son of a random stranger to live with us.’
‘Maybe he’s terrified he’ll have to do all the embarrassing man-to-man talks,’ Faye had said.
‘He’s eighteen! If he hasn’t worked out what to do with it by now, then God help us all. Anyway, they probably know far more about sex than us, judging by what I hear Phoebe and her friends talking about when they don’t think I’m listening.’
It was incredible how relaxed I’d been about sharing the intimate details of my marriage with Faye. She’d been so supportive: taking Phoebe home for dinner, letting her stay the night so I could drive down to Cardiff to see Ginny and not have to fret about racing back. I’d really leaned on her.
Now, I felt that everything I’d said was being scrutinised, held against me, against Patrick. I felt a sting of injustice. ‘Patrick’s been great with Victor, actually. They’ve got a lot in common with the rugby. And, obviously, we’ve all had to adjust, but Patrick and I are pretty much singing from the same hymn sheet now.’
I wondered who I was trying to convince. If anything, I was lagging way behind Patrick, still failing to make much headway with Victor beyond the polite ‘Have you got any washing?/Would you like an omelette?’
Faye’s snort of disbelief that Patrick and I saw eye-to-eye on anything was not entirely unfounded, but this morning, I needed a soft landing, not a brutal reality check. She had obviously been storing up her little speech for some weeks. ‘Jo, I know Victor’s had an awful time, but you can’t let him destroy Phoebe’s future. The way it’s going, she’ll end up getting kicked out of school.’ She sighed. ‘I think you really need to start thinking about other options. He’s got an uncle in Australia, hasn’t he?’
‘I can’t send him there! He barely knows him.’
‘But he’s not your responsibility. He’s not family.’ Faye sounded impatient. ‘If something happened to me and Lee, I wouldn’t expect you to take in Georgia, yet you’re my closest friend here.’
My heart did a pathetic little leap of joy at knowing I hadn’t yet been usurped by the likes of Andrea and all the in-crowd whose mobiles would no doubt be buzzing away with judgement, somehow boomeranging the blame for the latest debacle away from Georgia and Helaina and towards Phoebe and Victor. I wished Ginny was here to stand in front of me squeezing the space between her thumb and forefinger to show how little they mattered. I could hear her rich Welsh lilt: ‘Squeeeeeze them down and, pufffff, blow them away.’ All those years I’d almost pulled it off, nearly become like Ginny in my thinking. Despite my own internal monologue about my daughter often turning into one big fault-finding fest, I wasn’t about to open it up to a free-for-all.
Faye slurped back the rest of her coffee. I waited to see if she was going to tell me to keep Victor away from Georgia, but she simply gazed at her watch and got to her feet. ‘I’ve got to shoot.’ She hesitated. ‘I know you’re doing your best.’
We hugged goodbye and I remained at the table, wondering whether Faye was right and that we’d all go down with the ship if Victor stayed with us.
I scoffed down my brownie and the rest of Faye’s too.
Jasmine was just coming up the road as I walked out and her face lit up. ‘Jo! Didn’t realise this was one of your haunts!’
‘It’s not usually. I just came here because I’m keeping