My Mother's Secret by Sheila O'Flanagan Page B

that he was ‘on a break’ with someone else. And that the someone else bore no resemblance to his former girlfriend, who outwardly at least was as staid as Summer was startling.
    Summer herself giggled at Roisin’s question and confirmed that she was indeed named after the season, although she’d originally been called Sarah.
    ‘Like Carl’s mum,’ she added, giggling again. ‘So just as well I changed it for career purposes.’
    ‘And that career is?’ Steffie was finding it hard to believe that this girl was Bernice’s replacement. It was as though Carl had deliberately sought out the polar opposite of the woman he’d lived with for nearly a decade.
    ‘I’m a model,’ said Summer, a reply that made Roisin immediately determined to keep her well away from Daisy. ‘Thanks for inviting me,’ she added. ‘I’m really looking forward to the party.’
    Roisin didn’t say that the invitation had gone to Carl and Bernice, and that it hadn’t made any mention of substitute girlfriends. Steffie, seeing that her aunt’s eyes were hard and flinty, guessed that Sarah hadn’t known there’d be a substitute either. When she’d last spoken to her a month or so earlier, Sarah had been mentally planning Carl and Bernice’s wedding.
    ‘What would you like to drink?’ she asked her now.
    ‘Gin and tonic,’ replied Sarah. ‘Make it a double.’
    ‘And you?’ Steffie looked at Summer.
    ‘A mojito would be nice.’
    ‘I don’t actually know how to make mojitos,’ Steffie confessed. ‘I know it’s rum and mint leaves, but …’
    ‘If you have the ingredients, I can do it myself.’ Summer beamed at her. ‘I’m good at mojitos. And daiquiris. Cocktails generally.’
    ‘Um, OK then, as you’re the expert …’ Steffie led the way into the kitchen, the other girl following her.
    Meanwhile Roisin looked quizzically at her aunt and cousin.
    ‘I said he shouldn’t bring her,’ Sarah told her. ‘I said it was very bad manners.’
    ‘Oh, chill out, Mum,’ said Carl. ‘It’s a party.’
    ‘It’s fine, Aunt Sarah,’ said Roisin, although inside she agreed totally with her aunt. In her view Carl shouldn’t have brought anyone other than Bernice. And certainly not this … well … the girl might call herself a model, but given the way that she was bursting out of that dress, the word ‘glamour’ should clearly have been put in front of it. There was no way Summer would be gracing the catwalk, not with those boobs. Page 3 was another story altogether. However, Roisin didn’t want to start off the party by arguing with the first guests, so she simply turned to Carl and asked him what he was going to have to drink.
    ‘I’d love a beer,’ said Carl.
    ‘We have a cooler over here.’
    She led him to the other end of the veranda, where she took a can of beer from the large tub of ice in the shadiest corner and handed it to him.
    ‘Don’t go all judgemental on me, Ro,’ he said as he pulled the tab.
    ‘Judgemental? Me?’
    He laughed. ‘Come on. It’s written all over your face. You’re looking at Summer and you’re thinking that she’s a total ditz and you’re horrified to have her here.’
    ‘I’m thinking that it would’ve been nice to know in advance she was coming,’ Roisin told him.
    ‘Sorry about that. I didn’t know myself until yesterday.’
    ‘Carl!’
    ‘I asked her and she said yes.’
    ‘How long have you known her?’
    ‘Not long. But I’m having a good time with her. She’s fun to be with.’
    ‘And Bernice wasn’t?’
    Carl’s eyes darkened. ‘Fun and Bernice don’t even belong in the same sentence.’
    ‘I know it’s none of my business—’
    ‘You’re right, Roisin, it’s not,’ said Carl.
    ‘It’s just that you and Bernice were together a long time. And we all loved her.’
    ‘I think the more pertinent question there is whether she and I loved each other.’
    Roisin was momentarily abashed, then she looked him straight in the eye. ‘You’re