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For Mam and Dad

CONTENTS

Prologue

One

I’m sorry, you must think I’m very rude. We’ve hardly…

Two

Judy picked me up from the hospital a couple of…

Three

And so to the baggage pickup area!

Four

I rushed out into the arrivals lounge. On the other…

Five

And so to bed.

Six

Wet and windy and miserable. For the first two weeks…

Seven

The time that followed is still referred to in our…

Eight

After Dad had given me my pep talk the previous…

Nine

I had to ring the doorbell when we arrived back…

Ten

Dinner was a bit of an odd affair because we…

Eleven

After Adam left, and Helen had sent him out into…

Twelve

The following day dawned bright cold and blustery.

Thirteen

I was meeting Laura for a drink that evening.

Fourteen

I had planned to call Mr. Hasdell, the lawyer whose…

Fifteen

I spent Friday night watching television with Mum. I felt…

Sixteen

The following day brought it home to me good and…

Seventeen

Laura came out on Sunday afternoon and we lounged around…

Eighteen

Time had slowed to a standstill while I had been…

Nineteen

The next morning the house was like Grand Central Station.

Twenty

The next day I wasn’t much better.

Twenty-One

The preparations for Sunday.

Twenty-Two

I parked the car just outside his house and feeling…

Twenty-Three

I parked the car and I put my key in…

Twenty-Four

I went to bed and I was right.

Twenty-Five

“Hello,” I said, for lack of anything better to say.

Twenty-Six

Now, I would be lying to both myself and you…

Twenty-Seven

I barely managed to close the door behind him before…

Twenty-Eight

I have to say that walking into that restaurant was…

Twenty-Nine

I put my key in the door and, with a…

Thirty

Dad woke me the following morning by thrusting a huge…

Thirty-One

“So when are you leaving?” asked Mum.

Thirty-Two

After the conversation with Adam on Tuesday, I worked hard…

Thirty-Three

Just to make sure, I called Judy.

Thirty-Four

When I came out of the station and onto the…

Thirty-Five

I can’t really remember much about the subway journey out…

Thirty-Six

When I awoke the next morning, I felt a tiny…

Thirty-Seven

I couldn’t have said that I was happy. But I…

Thirty-Eight

Men.

Thirty-Nine

Kate was a lot happier inside.

About the Author

Praise

Other books by Marian Keyes

Credits

Cover

Copyright

About the Publisher

prologue

February the fifteenth is a very special day for me. It is the day I gave birth to my first child. It is also the day my husband left me. As he was present at the birth I can only assume the two events weren’t entirely unrelated.

I knew I should have followed my instincts.

I subscribed to the classical or, you might say, the traditional role fathers play in the birth of their children. Which goes as follows.

Lock them in a corridor outside the delivery room. Allow them admittance at no time. Give them forty cigarettes and a lighter. Instruct them to pace to the end of the corridor. When they reach this happy position, instruct them to turn around and return to whence they came.

Repeat as necessary.

Conversation should be curtailed. They are allowed to exchange a few words with any other prospective father pacing alongside them.