Stand by Me (67 page)
The Lord Mayor finally finished speaking and invited everyone to join him at the hotel across the road, where they’d be able to have some food and drink. Dominique wondered if Paddy would be at the hotel. He’d once told her that he didn’t like standing around making polite conversation, even though, as part of his job, he often had to do it.
‘Come on, Domino.’ Brendan was suddenly beside her. ‘Let’s go.’
She followed him out of the hall and across the street. Most of the people at the opening came too, and it wasn’t long before the function room was buzzing with noise. Dominique stood beside Brendan as he spoke to one of the councillors about his long-gone hopes of being on the county hurling team, and his efforts in the past to support them with sponsorship. He hoped that in the future, when things were better for him, he’d be able to help them again.
It’s like he was never away, thought Dominique. He’s just brimming with confidence. He’s the most amazing man ever.
‘And of course, it’s lovely to see you again too, Domino,’ the councillor said. ‘We’ve missed you at our functions over the last while.’
‘I guess it’ll be some time before I’m at another,’ she said.
‘Not at all,’ he told her. ‘We’d be delighted to see you again. You added glamour to our occasions.’
‘Not really,’ she said.
‘We’re hoping that you and Brendan eventually come back to the county,’ said the councillor.
‘We will,’ Brendan assured him. ‘It might take a while, because it’s a tough time in the business right now, but Cork is our home.’
‘Excellent,’ said the councillor, and then went off to help himself to canapés.
‘Just like old times,’ said Brendan to Dominique.
‘Yes,’ she said.
‘Everyone’s being supportive,’ he told her. ‘They realise that I was caught up by circumstances. They’re prepared to give me the benefit of the doubt. I wasn’t sure that they would.’
‘You’ve known most of them all your life,’ she said. ‘Maybe you should have given
them
the benefit of the doubt.’
them
the benefit of the doubt.’
He looked at her in surprise. ‘I didn’t think of it like that.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘You went off and did your own thing, and you didn’t give me or Kelly the benefit of the doubt either.’
‘Ah, Domino, don’t start a row now,’ said Brendan. ‘Not when—Micko!’ He broke off as one of the county hurlers came over to him. ‘How’s she cutting, boy?’
Dominique drifted away from the buffet table and out into the main part of the hotel. She headed for the ladies’, where she fixed her hair and glossed her lips. She was replacing the gloss in her handbag when the door opened and Emma walked in.
The two of them looked at each other in surprise.
‘What are you doing here?’ asked Emma. ‘You didn’t tell me you were coming down.’
Emma and Dominique had begun phoning each other more regularly since Emma’s conciliatory comment to the journalist, although they hadn’t actually seen each other since the tense night in Briarwood.
‘We’re just here for the opening of the sports centre,’ said Dominique.
Emma’s brow creased. ‘Why?’
‘To be honest, I’m not sure,’ replied Dominique. ‘We got an invitation and Brendan wanted to come, so . . . we came.’
‘I didn’t get one,’ said Emma.
Dominique shrugged. ‘I don’t know how or why we were on the list. Maybe someone being curious.’
‘How did they get your address?’ asked Emma.
‘I don’t know that either,’ said Dominique. ‘But they did, and Brendan was keen to come. He’s working the crowd just like he always did.’
‘And so,’ said Emma as she stood in front of the mirror and brushed her hair, ‘it’s back to the future for the Dazzling Delahayes.’
‘Don’t call us that,’ said Dominique.
Emma took her cosmetics out of her bag.
‘So why are you here?’ asked Dominique as she watched her sister-in-law freshen her make-up.
‘Dinner.’ Emma explained about winning the supermarket draw. ‘Though I’m sure they were disgusted it was me and not someone far more worthy,’ she added.
Dominique laughed, and Emma smiled at her. Quite suddenly, the tension that had existed between the two women for the last few months melted away.
‘Who came with you?’ asked Dominique. ‘Lily?’
‘No.’ Emma explained that she’d asked Greg, and Dominique’s eyes widened. ‘You and Greg having dinner together? That’s very civilised.’
‘So’s you coming to an event with Brendan.’
‘I guess so.’ Dominique smiled without conviction. ‘What’s the story with the pair of you?’
‘I don’t know.’ Emma capped her lipstick and turned to look at Dominique. ‘He’s got a lot to deal with as far as I’m concerned. But we both love Lugh and we want to be good parents to him, and we want him to feel part of a family.’
‘Which is important when you’ve split up,’ agreed Dominique.
‘Yes ...’ Emma hesitated, and Dominique looked at her curiously.
‘Are you thinking of getting back together?’ she asked.
‘I’m not sure I can persuade him of that.’
‘But you might?’
‘I’ve asked him to think about it,’ said Emma. ‘I don’t know how likely it is, but I had to try.’
‘It would be wonderful,’ said Dominique warmly. ‘I hope it works out.’
‘You mean it?’
‘Totally,’ she said. ‘You’re right for each other.’
‘I’d better get back,’ said Emma. ‘He’s dropping me home.’
‘Well, behave yourself,’ said Dominique.
‘I feel like it’s the first time I ever went out with him.’ Emma smiled faintly. She leaned forward and hugged Dominique. ‘Who knows how things will turn out? But I’m hoping for the best. And I hope things work out for you and Brendan, too.’
She walked out of the ladies’ and back to the foyer, where Greg was standing waiting for her. She told him about Brendan and Dominique and he looked startled for a moment; but then he put his arm firmly around her shoulders and walked with her out of the hotel.
The function room was buzzing with conversation. Dominique hadn’t realised that quite so many people had been invited to the event, but Marie Hannay, yet another of her charity circuit acquaintances, had told her that it had been a massive coup for the city to raise the funding for the centre and that lots of people had been involved. It was right, she said, that they should all be thanked.
Dominique nodded in agreement and glanced over at Brendan, who was deep in conversation with the Lord Mayor and the local politician. Dominique was surprised that the politician didn’t have somewhere else to go to. In her experience they were always rushing to the next event, always giving the impression that their presence was needed somewhere else. The three men were talking animatedly, and every so often the politician patted Brendan on the back. Dominique was glad to see him in the thick of things where he belonged. Somehow the trauma of the last year was beginning to fade away. It was almost as though it had never happened. Almost as though she was still Dazzling Domino.
Although not quite, because she wasn’t in the thick of things herself. There was a hierarchy of women and she wasn’t with the main group. Right now she wasn’t with any group; she was standing by herself in the doorway. Well, she thought, I’m not here trying to raise money or do anything for anybody. I don’t have to work the room. I don’t have to be nice to people and persuade them to be nice to me too. I don’t really have to be here at all.
She turned away from the reception and back into the hotel foyer. She crossed the cream marble floor and went outside. There was a chill in the late-evening air, and she pulled the light jacket that matched her dress a little closer around her shoulders as she stepped past a cluster of people who’d come outside for a cigarette. She strolled towards the wooden board-walk that ran along the river at the side of the hotel. There was nobody else around. She rested her elbows on the handrail as she gazed into the swirling dark water beneath her.
She wondered for how long people would remain talking in the function room. She and Brendan had booked into the hotel for the night, but they had to leave early the next morning because she was due to be at the golf club by ten. When she’d said this to Brendan, explaining that she’d changed her shift with Meganne only for the day, he’d frowned and said that she should have taken both days off. And when she’d told him that she hadn’t taken a day off, just made a switch, and that she couldn’t have done it for two days, he’d looked at her impatiently and told her that it wasn’t such a big deal to take a couple of days off, was it? She’d reminded him of all the times he’d ranted about people not turning up to work at Delahaye Developments, and he’d looked abashed and told her that he understood. But earlier tonight, when they’d been standing side by side with glasses of wine in their hands, he’d murmured that it was a right pain that they had to get up at the crack of dawn, because it was nice to be able to do this again.
He was right, of course. It was nice to dress up in her Chanel and feel glamorous for the first time in ages. It was nice to be invited to things. It was nice to feel that they belonged once more, even if things would never be quite the same as they were before. Although she supposed that if Brendan really did manage to turn everything around, it was entirely possible that he could become a successful businessman again.
And then maybe they’d come back to Cork, although she couldn’t imagine him wanting to come back and live anywhere other than Atlantic View. And even if he did become a successful businessman for the second time, it wouldn’t be easy to reclaim their old house. Particularly as Paddy O’Brien insisted he was very happy living there.
Would it make a difference, she wondered, if she asked Paddy to sell it back to them? Would he shrug his shoulders and say OK because she was a friend? And would Brendan wonder about their relationship if he did?
Not that it was any business of Brendan’s what relationships she’d had while he was away. It was more important for her husband to wonder how she felt about him.
She sighed deeply and massaged the back of her neck. She was getting tired of wondering how she felt about Brendan, tired of constantly analysing her feelings. And she was afraid of what it might mean.
Chapter 36
She went back inside. Even though the number of people in the room had thinned out, it was still quite full. Brendan was now talking to a man Dominique recognised as a coach to one of the county football teams. She went over to them, and Brendan smiled at her and introduced her to the county manager.
‘Back in a mo,’ he then said, leaving her with the coach and turning his attention instead to someone Dominique didn’t recognise. This wasn’t unfamiliar territory to her. In the past, he would often palm off less important people on her, or people he’d tired of talking to, so that he could move on to someone more interesting or more useful while she launched a charm offensive on the person he’d left behind.
‘Not a bad performance by the team this year,’ she said to the coach, hoping that they hadn’t been utterly trashed but feeling that her remark was sufficiently vague not to leave her open to accusations of total ignorance. And she’d got it right, because the coach beamed at her and launched into a story about their training schedule and the match they’d played against Tipperary being the clincher and a whole heap of other stuff that went completely over her head. But she knew that she was keeping her fixed and interested smile upon him as he explained why they had a great chance of the title the following year and that the facilities at the sports centre were fantastic and that the lads would be delighted to do some indoor training there.
‘That’s wonderful,’ said Dominique warmly. Do I sound sincere? she wondered, and then thought she must do, because the coach was off again, this time describing the kind of training regime he had in mind for the team. Meanwhile, she could see that the politician had joined Brendan and the man she didn’t know and their conversation was jovial and friendly.
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