Page 42 of A Very Happy Halloween

“Don’t ask me. He did it while I was out.”

“You went out and left Alfie home alone?”

“Luisa was with him.”

“Don’t worry; it’s pen,” Harry said.

Alfie turned to face me, and he’d done a thorough job. The black patch covered his entire eye, and he’d even drawn a thin strap going across his forehead.

“I just wanted to look like Eis. Eis is cool.”

“Who’s Eis?” Steven asked.

“Our plumber,” Harry told him, and I could have hugged my darling son. “He’s fixing the shower.”

“Luisa needs to watch Alfie better. He could have poked his eye out.”

“And you need to stop him from bringing woodlice over. It’s upsetting for her.”

“It is? Gee, that’s a shame.”

“Janie, we need to act like grown-ups about this.”

I stuck my tongue out and walked into the house with the boys following. Steven was such a twat. Was it possible to buy woodlice in bulk? Online or something? I’d have to look into that.

Eis laughed like crazy when he saw Alfie’s face. I didn’t laugh quite so hard when I realised he’d used Sharpie, and it wouldn’t come off, even with make-up remover and an exfoliating pad. The internet suggested using hand sanitiser, but I couldn’t get too close to his eye with that.

And while I tackled the Sharpie problem in the bathroom, I could hear Eis and Harry in the bedroom, talking about furniture. Harry wanted a desk and a bookshelf, and then Eis got his laptop out and they started scrolling through the IKEA website.

It made my heart ache, but in a good way. It was so swollen that I thought it might burst. Should I tell the boys that Eis and I were dating? I wanted to, but what if that changed everything? I worried about Harry. The Halloween planning was going well, Eis assured me, and I didn’t want to jinx it. His assistant had even arranged for a minibus to come from Bristol with Harry’s old friends.

I’d tell the boys in a couple of weeks. Let this relationship settle first.

“We’re having pizza,” Harry announced. “Me and Eis ordered it. I got you the one with the pepperoni ’cos I know you like that.”

“Did you get me the pineapple one?” Alfie asked from his seat on the edge of the bath.

“Extra ham, extra pineapple,” Harry said and rolled his eyes.

Guess that meant Eis would be joining us for dinner, and it felt…right. As if we were taking the first tentative steps towards being a family.

“Mum, what’s a bailiff?” Harry asked before he bit into his first slice.

“Why do you ask?”

“A guy came to pick up Dad’s car, and I heard him say he was a bailiff, but Dad said he was just helping out because the new car’s getting delivered next week and they won’t both fit on the driveway. But why wouldn’t Dad get a new car before he sold the old one? Now he doesn’t have a car at all. Anyhow, that’s why we were late again. Because we had to wait for Luisa to come back with her car and drive us home.”

Home. It made me so freaking happy to hear Harry call it that. For so long, it had been Marigold Lodge, and he’d hated the place. What else made me happy? That Steven was finally facing some consequences for his poor decisions. He’d ruined my credit; now his was suffering too. A visit from the repo man was just what he deserved.

“Maybe Luisa was with her other boyfriend,” Alfie piped up. “I don’t like him.”

Uh, what? “Her other boyfriend?”

“He came over when Dad took Harry to the football, but Luisa told me not to tell Dad, so I didn’t.”

Eis was trying to keep a straight face, but he wasn’t doing a great job of it.

“Why don’t you like him, buddy?”

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