"G.o.d, you both got here quick," she said, trying to inject energy into her voice. She felt completely and utterly drained, and she really wasn't in the mood to have to explain everything to the girls right now. But she would have to.

"Sharon left work as soon as you called and she collected me from town," Denise explained, studying Holly's face and trying to a.s.sess how bad the situation was.

"Oh, you didn't have to do that," Holly said lifelessly as she put the key in the door.

"Hey, have you been working in your garden?" Sharon asked, looking around and trying to lighten the atmosphere.

"No, my neighbor's been doing it, I think." Holly pulled the key from the door and searched through the bunch for the correct one.

"You think?" Denise tried to keep the conversation going while Holly battled with yet another key in the lock.

"Well, it's either my neighbor or a little leprechaun lives down the end of my garden," she snapped, getting frustrated with the keys. Denise and Sharon looked at each other and tried to figure out what to do. They motioned to each other to stay quiet, as Holly was obviously stressed and finding it difficult to remember which key went in the door.

"Oh, f.u.c.k it!" Holly yelled and threw her keys on the ground. Denise jumped back, just managing to keep the heavy bunch from slamming into her ankles.

Sharon picked them up. "Hey, hun, don't worry about it," she said lightheartedly. "This happens to me all the time, I swear the b.l.o.o.d.y things jump around on the key ring deliberately just to p.i.s.s us off."

Holly smiled wearily, thankful that somebody else could take control for a while. Sharon slowly worked her way through the keys, talking calmly to her in a singsong voice as though speaking to a child. The door finally opened and Holly rushed in to turn the alarm off. Thankfully she remembered the number, the year Gerry and she had met, and the year they got married.

"OK, why don't you two make yourselves comfortable in the living room and I'll follow you in a minute." Sharon and Denise did as they were told while Holly headed into the toilet to splash cold water on her face. She needed to snap out of this daze, take control of her body and be as excited about this holiday as Gerry had intended. When she felt a little more alive she joined the girls in the living room.

She pulled the footrest over to the couch and sat opposite the girls.

"OK, I'm not going to drag this one out. I opened the envelope for July today and this is what it said." She rooted in her bag for the small card that had been attached to the brochure and handed it to the girls. It read: Have a good Holly day!

PS, I love you...

"Is that it?" Denise wrinkled up her nose, unimpressed. Sharon nudged her in the ribs. "Ow!"

"Well, Holly, I think it's a lovely note," Sharon lied. "It's so thoughtful and it's...a lovely play on words."

Holly had to giggle. She knew Sharon was lying because she always flared her nostrils when she wasn't telling the truth. "No, you fool!" she said, hitting Sharon over the head with a cushion.

Sharon began to laugh. "Oh good, because I was beginning to worry there for a second."

"Sharon, you are always so supportive you make me sick sometimes!" Holly exclaimed. "Now this is what else was inside." She handed them the crumpled page that was torn from the brochure.

She watched with amus.e.m.e.nt as the girls tried to figure out Gerry's writing and Denise finally held her hand up to her mouth. "Oh my G.o.d!" she gasped, sitting forward on her seat.

"What what what?" Sharon demanded and leaned forward with excitement. "Did Gerry buy you a holiday?"

"No." Holly shook her head seriously.

"Oh." Sharon and Denise both sat back in their seats with disappointment.

She allowed an uncomfortable silence to gather between them before she spoke again.

"Girls," she said with a smile beginning to spread across her face, "he bought us a holiday!"

The girls opened a bottle of wine.

"Oh, this is incredible," Denise said after the news had sunk in. "Gerry's such a sweetie."

Holly nodded, feeling proud of her husband, who had once again managed to surprise them all.

"So you went down to this Barbara person?" Sharon asked.

"Yes, and she was the sweetest girl," Holly smiled. "She sat with me for ages, telling me about the conversation they had that day."

"That was nice." Denise sipped her wine. "When was it by the way?"

"He went in at the end of November."

"November?" Sharon looked thoughtful. "That was after the second operation."

Holly nodded. "The girl said he was pretty weak when he went in."

"Isn't it funny that none of us had any idea at all?" Sharon said, still astonished by the whole thing.

They all nodded silently.

"Well, it looks like we're all off to Lanzarote!" Denise cheered and she held her gla.s.s up. "To Gerry!"

"To Gerry!" Holly and Sharon joined in.

"Are you sure Tom and John won't mind?" Holly asked, suddenly aware that the girls had partners to think of.

"Of course John won't mind!" Sharon laughed. "He'll probably be delighted to be rid of me for a week!"

"Yeah, and me and Tom can go away for a week another time, which actually suits me fine," agreed Denise. "Because that way we're not stuck together for two weeks on our first holiday together!" she laughed.

"Sure you two practically live together anyway!" Sharon said, nudging her.

Denise gave a quick smile but didn't answer and the two of them dropped the subject. That annoyed Holly, because they were always doing that. She wanted to hear how her friends were getting on in their relationships but n.o.body seemed to tell her any of the juicy gossip out of fear of hurting her. People seemed to be afraid to tell her about how happy they were or about the good news in their lives. Then again they also refused to moan about the bad things. So instead of being informed of what was really going on in her friends' lives she was stuck with this mediocre chitchat about...nothing, really, and it was starting to bother her. She couldn't be shielded from other people's happiness forever, what good would that do her?

"I have to say that leprechaun really is doing a great job on your garden, Holly," Denise cut into her thoughts as she looked out the window.

Holly blushed. "Oh I know. I'm sorry for being a b.i.t.c.h earlier, Denise," she apologized. "I suppose I should really go next door and thank him properly."

After Denise and Sharon had headed off home Holly grabbed a bottle of wine from under the stairs and carried it next door to her neighbor. She rang the bell and waited.

"Hi Holly," Derek said, opening the door. "Come in, come in."

Holly looked past him and into the kitchen and saw the family sitting around the table eating dinner. She backed away from the door slightly.

"No, I won't disturb you, I just came by to give you this" - she handed him the bottle of wine - "as a token of my thanks."

"Well Holly, this is really thoughtful of you," he said, reading the label. Then he looked up with a confused expression on his face. "But thanks for what, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh, for tidying up my garden," she said, blushing. "I'm sure the entire estate was cursing me for ruining the appearance of the street," she laughed.

"Holly, your garden certainly isn't a worry to anyone, we all understand, but I haven't been tidying it for you, I'm sorry to say."

"Oh." Holly cleared her throat, feeling very embarra.s.sed. "I thought you had been."

"No, no." He shook his head.

"Well, you wouldn't by any chance know who has been?" she laughed like an idiot.

"No, I have no idea," he said, looking very confused. "I thought it was you, to be honest. How odd."

Holly wasn't quite sure what to say next.

"So perhaps you would like to take this back," he said awkwardly, thrusting the wine bottle toward her.

"Oh no, that's OK," she laughed again, "you can keep that as thanks for...not being neighbors from h.e.l.l. Anyway, I'll let you get back to dinner." She ran off down the driveway with her face burning with embarra.s.sment. What kind of fool wouldn't know who was tidying her own garden?

She knocked on a few more doors around the estate and to her continued embarra.s.sment n.o.body seemed to know what she was talking about. Everyone seemed to have jobs and lives, and remarkably enough they didn't spend their days monitoring her garden. She returned to her house even more confused. As she walked in the door the phone was ringing and she ran to answer it.

"h.e.l.lo?" she panted.

"What were you doing, running a marathon?"

"No, I was chasing leprechauns," Holly explained.

"Oh, cool."

The oddest thing was that Ciara didn't even question her.

"It's my birthday in two weeks."

Holly had completely forgotten. "Yeah, I know," she said matter-of-factly.

"Well, Mum and Dad want us all to go out for a family dinner..."

Holly groaned loudly.

"Exactly," and she screamed away from the phone, "Dad, Holly said the same thing as me."

Holly giggled as she heard her father cursing and grumbling in the background.

Ciara returned to the phone and spoke loudly so her father could hear, "OK, so my idea is to go ahead with the family dinner but to invite friends as well so that it can actually be an enjoyable night. What do you think?"

"Sounds good," Holly agreed.

Ciara screamed away from the phone, "Dad, Holly agrees with my idea."

"That's all very well," Holly heard her dad yelling, "but I'm not paying for all those people to eat."

"He has a point." Holly added, "Tell you what, why don't we have a barbecue? That way Dad can be in his element and it won't be so expensive."

"Hey, that's a cool idea!" Ciara screamed away from the phone once again, "Dad, what about having a barbecue?"

There was a silence.

"He's loving that idea," Ciara giggled. "Mr. Super Chef will once again cook for the ma.s.ses."

Holly also giggled at the thought. Her dad got so excited when they had barbecues; he took the whole thing so seriously and stood by the barbecue constantly while watching over his wonderful creations. Gerry had been like that too. What was it with men and barbecues? Probably it was the only thing that the two of them could actually cook, either that or they were closet pyromaniacs.

"OK, so will you tell Sharon and John, Denise and her DJ bloke, and will you ask that Daniel guy to come too? He's yummy!" she laughed hysterically.

"Ciara, I hardly know the guy. Ask Declan to ask him, he sees him all the time."

"No, because I want you to subtly tell him that I love him and want to have his babies. Somehow I don't think Declan would feel very comfortable doing that."

Holly groaned.

"Stop it!" Ciara gave out, "He's my birthday treat!"

"OK," she gave in, "but why do you want all my friends there, what about your friends?"

"Holly, I've lost contact with all my friends, I've been away for so long. And all my other friends are in Australia and the stupid b.a.s.t.a.r.ds haven't bothered to call me," she huffed.

Holly knew to whom she was referring. "But don't you think this would be a great opportunity to catch up with your old friends? You know, invite them to a barbecue; it's a nice, relaxed atmosphere."

"Yeah right, what would I have to tell them when they start asking questions? Have you a job? Eh...no. Have you a boyfriend? Eh...no. Where do you live? Eh...actually I still live with my parents. How pathetic would I sound?"

Holly gave up. "OK, whatever...anyway, I'll call the others and..."

Ciara had already hung up.

Holly decided to get the most awkward phone call out of the way first and she dialed the number to Hogan's.

"h.e.l.lo, Hogan's."

"Hi, can I speak to Daniel Connelly, please?"

"Yeah, hold on." She was put on hold and 'Greensleeves' belted out into her ear.

"h.e.l.lo?"

"Hi, Daniel?"

"Yeah, who's this?"

"It's Holly Kennedy." She danced nervously around her bedroom, hoping he would recognize the name.

"Who?" he yelled as the noise in the background became louder.