"Because he's planned your children's first names. Did you know you were going to have four?"

Just then Jo heard Nick come into Pippa's room, and had to listen to Pippa telling him all about Jo being back. She heard Nick tell Pippa to say hi and invite Jo to join them later that night. She also overheard Nick say, "We can invite Gerry. Make it a foursome."

"Oh no!" cried Jo into the phone. She wasn't going down that road again. "No need to tell Gerry about me being back for a while, is there?"

Pippa's voice was slightly m.u.f.fled.

"Too late for that. Nick's already on the phone."

"Oh G.o.d!" cried Jo. "Give me a moment to get my bearings."

"I don't think Gerry wants you to get your bearings. Much easier to sweep you off your feet if you're already wonky."

"You know," said Jo, "I think we may be overreacting a bit with Gerry. He phoned while I was at home, and he was so friendly it was really nice. And when I couldn't speak to him, he was absolutely fine about it. Better than Josh, who came in person and then blew me off. Did I tell you I slapped him?"

"Oh my G.o.d!" exclaimed Pippa. "How exciting!"

"Not really," said Jo. "It was horrid, I flipped. It's nothing like it looks in the films. It's ugly and embarra.s.sing."

"How do you think you'll be when you see him?"

"I already have."

"How was it?"

"Absolutely horrid. He's back to the nasty version. All hard and cold."

"Oh dear. At least with Gerry you know where you are."

"Yep." Jo sighed. "With someone I don't fancy."

Jo explained that she had to phone her parents and tell them she was safely there and rung off. She lay back and closed her eyes, giving herself a moment before phoning her parents. When the samba started up again, she didn't need to guess who it was.

"h.e.l.lo, Gerry," she said warmly, wondering if Josh could hear her.

"Hey! You knew it was me!" He laughed.

"Yup," she said.

"So!" he said, after a fraction's pause. "I hear you're back then."

"I am." She laughed. "It's a short but effective grapevine."

"And I hear you finished with Shaun."

"Actually it appears he finished with me."

"Great!"

"Thank you."

"I mean-"

"Look, Ger-"

"I wondered if you wanted to go out sometime."

"Thanks, but not now," she said.

"Oh. Okay. Give you some time to settle in."

"Well, I think I'll need a bit of time to adjust to more than that."

"Just in case you change your mind, we'll all be at the Flask from eight."

"Right," said Jo slowly, thinking that it would be nice to see Pippa and Nick, even if she wasn't so sure about Gerry. "Thanks."

"And I hope everything's alright," he said.

"Thanks. I'll be fine."

"Excellent. If you ever need to chat, just give me a call."

"Thanks," said Jo, considering that he might come in handy.

"Bye then," he said cheerfully.

And he rang off. She ma.s.saged her temples for a while and phoned her parents.

"I'm here," she told her father.

"Where?"

She smiled.

"In the bedroom."

"Ah," he said softly. "It's nice, smaller than I'd imagined, but nice."

She closed her eyes and smiled a bit wider, concentrating on her father's voice.

"How's Mum?"

"Fine. She's just watching The Antiques Roadshow."

A warm silence linked them over the line.

"I gave her a permission slip," he added.

Eventually, she rang off, sat up slowly and, after a moment of sitting cross-legged on the bed and humming, started unpacking.

Chapter 26.

Things at the Fitzgeralds' abode were changing fast. Josh and d.i.c.k had exchanged contracts on the shop and the flat above it, and the family was to have a celebratory dinner that night. Ca.s.sie was going to be allowed to stay up for it. Even Jo was invited because Vanessa had said it was good news for her, too, because it meant d.i.c.k could spend more time at home so she could start looking for a course. There was a great feeling of excitement in the house that night.

"Why is it such good news, Jo?" asked Zak, as Jo popped up to check that he was getting himself ready for bed. Vanessa was on her way home, so she was getting the littler ones ready for bed while d.i.c.k finished dinner. He'd be up later.

"Well," she said, "it means you get to spend much more time with your dad, and it means Josh can resign from his job."

"Does it mean you won't be here anymore?"

"No, of course not," she said. "It means we'll both be at school at the same time. That's all." Just the thought of it made her excited.

"Why are you going to school when you're a grown-up?"

"Because I didn't do it when I was younger."

"Weren't you clever enough?"

Jo smiled. "No. I just didn't do it. And now I really want to."

"Oh." He eyed her suspiciously.

When she came downstairs, she found Josh leafing silently through her university prospectuses. At his sudden awareness of her, his head moved fractionally, but he kept his eyes fixed on what he was reading. She tidied like a little tornado around him.

"Going back to school then," he commented.

"Mm."

He looked up. "What course are you going to do?"

She stopped, surprised. "I'm not sure. I'd like to do anthropology, but I don't know if I've got enough qualifications."

Josh snorted. She stopped what she was doing.

"What does that mean?" she asked, her tone ice-cold.

His face was blank. "Qualifications are overrated," he said. "Totally meaningless."

"No they're not."

"Yes they are."

She started to stack the dishwasher. "That's like someone with money saying money isn't everything. Without qualifications you can't get good jobs."

Another snort. "Define 'good jobs.'"

She stopped stacking.

"Alright-accountancy."

He smiled. "You fell right into the trap there," he said. "Accountancy's overrated."

"But the salary's good isn't it?"

"No. Not particularly. Not for the hours you're expected to put in."

"Oh, and nannies don't put in long hours?" She looked up at the kitchen clock. "Which one of us is still working?"

He frowned. "Who's talking about nannies? I thought we were talking about accountants."

"I'm just making the point that with qualifications, I probably wouldn't be working this late in the evening, and I'd probably be earning more."

She waited for Josh's counterargument, and when none came, continued. "And don't tell me it's because nannies don't use their brains in this job, because I've just spent ten minutes playing a game of Question and Answers that will have huge implications for a bright, emotionally vulnerable eight-year-old."

Josh nodded.

"Anyone can add up sums," she concluded.

That sounded quite harsh, she thought, and it occurred to her that now might be an appropriate moment to apologize for slapping him. She looked at him. And remembered him calling her a p.r.i.c.k-tease. And saying she was certainly on tap that night. And whispering with his dad about cheating on Vanessa. And she remembered Vanessa's prescient words of warning about the Joshua Fitzgerald charm. Then she remembered what Josh looked like in just his jeans. She could feel a headache coming on.

"I..." started Josh, "probably shouldn't have called you a p.r.i.c.k-tease."

Jo was so shocked she didn't know what to say. Just then her mobile rang. She went to her bag and answered it without looking to see who was calling. She stared back at Josh as she answered. He was running his fingers through his hair while glancing at her prospectus.

"Hi, Gerry." She sighed weakly.

She missed the first half of Gerry's speech because she was too busy watching Josh. He looked up from her prospectus, stared baldly at her as if she was some sour milk he'd accidentally smelled and walked out toward the living room, saying composedly as he pa.s.sed, "Excuse me."

She wandered mindlessly into her room, shutting the door behind her.

Gerry didn't want to turn into a pest, he said, but it just so happened that Nick, Pippa, and he were meeting up again tonight, and Pippa had wondered if she fancied joining them at the pub. Nothing fancy, just friends getting together. She said she couldn't, she was celebrating with the Fitzgeralds. When there was a knock at her bedroom door, she braced herself and, interrupting Gerry midflow, yelled for Josh to come in. He knocked again.

"Hold on, Gerry," she interrupted, and walked over to the door with the phone at her ear.

When she saw Shaun standing there, in front of Josh, she felt goose b.u.mps up her neck.

"I have to go now," she told Gerry, looking through Shaun to Josh, who had obviously let him in.

Gerry kept talking in her ear. "Gerry, I have to go now," she repeated, and clicked off.