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  I stroked his ears for a minute and then pushed him gently back inside.

  ‘Sorry, Pabs,’ I said. ‘We’ve brought you this far, and we’re not going to let you get away now.’

  ‘Come on,’ said Beth, picking up the box. ‘I can’t wait to see your dad’s face. He’s going to be so surprised.’

  She was right. The only thing was, I still couldn’t make up my mind if it was going to be a good surprise or a bad one.

  * * *

  ‘Happy birthday, Dad!’ I said.

  ‘Thank you, darling,’ said Dad. ‘Have you time to come in for a quick visit?’

  ‘Sure,’ I said. ‘We have to be home for tea, but that’s not for a while.’

  Beth and I followed Dad into the kitchen. I couldn’t help feeling nervous. Dad got so cross when we tried to give him one of Graham’s kittens, and now – was he going to go completely crazy?

  Beth smiled at me, and I could see that she was nervous too.

  ‘Er, it’s a nice day, isn’t it?’ I said.

  ‘I thought it was going to rain, and then it didn’t,’ said Beth.

  It was so lame, but I would happily have talked about the weather for hours. Only thing was, Beth was holding a big cardboard box in her arms and I knew Dad wasn’t going to ignore it forever.

  ‘Er, Dad,’ I said. ‘We’ve brought you a present. I know you might be cross when you see what it is, but, please don’t be— please think about keeping it-please don’t—’

  ‘Sorry, Molly,’ said Beth, putting the box on the kitchen counter. ‘My hands are killing me.’

  ‘What’s in the box, Molly?’ asked Dad quietly.

  ‘Er,’ I said.

  ‘Er,’ said Beth.

  ‘Miaow,’ said Pablo.

  ‘Molly,’ said Dad. ‘I know you’re trying to help, but I told you before—’

  I started to cry. ‘Please, Dad,’ I said.

  ‘How many times do I have to tell you? After I lost Pablo—’

  ‘Please, please, just look at him.’

  Dad put his arm on my shoulder. ‘I’m sorry you’re upset, Mollikins,’ he said. ‘If it makes you feel better, I’ll look at the cat, but then it’ll have to go back to wherever you got it. OK?’

  ‘We’ll bring it back if that’s what you want,’ said Beth. ‘But you have no idea how complicated that’s going to be.’

  I started to open the box and Pablo popped his head out.

  ‘Oh you little, beauty,’ said Dad, stroking Pablo’s face.

  Pablo purred loudly and then he climbed right out of the box. Dad looked at the white patch under his chin. He looked at the tiny stump where one of his front legs should be. Pablo jumped into his arms and snuggled close, licking my dad’s face. He sniffed at Dad’s neck, and I wondered if he recognized him. Dad didn’t look a whole lot like his eight-year-old self anymore, but maybe that didn’t matter to Pablo?

  ‘He likes you,’ I said.

  ‘He probably just smells the fish I had for lunch,’ said Dad.

  Then Pablo slowly raised his paw and patted Dad’s cheek three times.

  I could hardly breathe. Dad went pale, and his hands began to shake.

  ‘Pablo?’ he whispered. ‘Pablo?’

  And then Dad started to cry. He didn’t make any sound, but tears dripped down his face, and onto Pablo’s fur. Pablo licked them and wrinkled up his nose at the salty taste. That was funny, but I guess no one felt like laughing. I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I rubbed Dad’s back and hoped that would do instead of words.

  I looked at Beth and saw that her eyes were full of tears too. If we weren’t careful, we were going to end up flooding the kitchen.

  Then I looked into the box and saw the raggy old mouse that little Eddie had put into the box. Dad might believe the story we’d prepared about Pablo, but if he saw the exact same toy …

  Beth saw the mouse too. She grabbed it and stuffed it into her pocket, and smiled at me. At least we had one less thing to worry about.

  Finally Dad sniffed a bit and used his sleeve to wipe his face.

  ‘I’m sorry, girls,’ he said. ‘I don’t imagine that watching your dad cry is ever much fun.’

  ‘It’s OK, Dad,’ I said, as Beth and I wiped our own eyes.

  ‘It’s just that … and I know this is crazy … for a minute there I really believed … but that’s impossible … it has to be impossible … and yet …’

  Pablo was stretching his head backwards, and Dad was using two fingers to stroke the soft skin under his chin. Pablo was purring loudly. Dad looked like he had seen a ghost – which kind of made sense.

  ‘This isn’t one of the kittens you showed me before,’ he said. ‘Where did you get him?’

  I was ready for that question. ‘From animal welfare,’ I said. ‘You have no idea how many homeless cats there are in this town.’

  ‘It’s uncanny how like …’

  And then I couldn’t wait any more. ‘I know what you said before, but this is different. This is …will you keep him, Dad? Please say you’ll keep him.’

  For a second, Dad didn’t answer, and then Pablo stretched up his paw and tapped Dad’s face again.

  ‘I think Pablo just made the decision for me,’ he said.

  ‘So you’re keeping him?’ I asked.

  ‘And you’re going to call him Pablo?’ said Beth.

  Dad nodded happily, and hugged me. ‘Thank you, sweetheart,’ he whispered. ‘Thank you so very much.’

  * * *

  Dad chopped up some chicken and heated a pot of milk for Pablo, while Beth and I made a bed with a cardboard box and an old blanket. Pablo was happily enjoying his favourite dinner when Beth’s phone beeped.

  ‘It’s my dad,’ she said. ‘He wants to know why we’re not home yet. I’ll say we’re on our way, OK?’

  I nodded. ‘Sorry, Dad. Will you and Pablo be all right?’

  Dad laughed. ‘I think we’ll be perfectly fine. Actually, Stephen is coming over with a takeaway later.’

  ‘That’s brilliant news,’ I said.

  Dad smiled. ‘Indeed it is,’ he said. ‘Family is important – as you well know.’

  ‘Yes, Dad,’ I said. ‘I get the whole important family thing. I’d love to know one thing though.’

  ‘What’s that?’ he asked.

  ‘Well, I’m guessing that losing Pablo had something to do with your parents?’

  ‘Why do you say that?’

  ‘Well, did it?’ I couldn’t answer his question, so I asked another one.

  ‘Yes, you’re right,’ he said. ‘It was my parents’ decision. They meant well, but …’

  ‘So did you end up hating them?’

  Dad put his arm around me. ‘I think I might have hated them that day, but …’

  ‘But what?’

  ‘Well, the older I get, the more I realise something important. You can see someone’s faults, but love them anyway. My parents were far from perfect, but they did the best they could. I loved them and they loved me.’

  ‘That’s sweet,’ said Beth.

  ‘Oh,’ said Dad. ‘With all the excitement, I nearly forgot to tell you my good news. Stephen and I had our first writing class last night.’

  ‘How was it?’ asked Beth.

  ‘It was wonderful,’ said Dad. ‘Really wonderful, and later on, after we eat, Stephen and I are going to do our homework together.’

  ‘Homework!’ said Beth. ‘Sounds like a lot of fun. Not.’

  ‘Actually it is fun,’ said Dad. ‘Stephen and I can’t wait to get started on our Hector story. We’ve got lots of ideas already.’

  ‘Dad, that’s so cool,’ I said. ‘That’s—’

  Now my phone beeped. It was a message from Mum with no words – just an angry face.

  ‘We’re out of here,’ I said. ‘Bye, Dad. Bye, Pablo. See you both tomorrow.’

  And Beth and I ran home, laughing all the way.

  Other Books by Judi Curtin

  The ‘Molly & Be
th’ series

  Time After Time

  Stand By Me

  The ‘alice & Megan’ series

  Alice Next Door

  Alice Again

  Don’t Ask Alice

  Alice in the Middle

  Bonjour Alice

  Alice & Megan Forever

  Alice to the Rescue

  Viva Alice!

  Alice & Megan’s Cookbook

  The ‘Eva’ Series

  Eva’s Journey

  Eva’s Holiday

  Leave it to Eva

  Eva and the Hidden Diary

  Only Eva

  Other Books

  See If I Care

  Copyright

  This eBook edition first published 2018 by

  The O’Brien Press Ltd,

  12 Terenure Road East, Rathgar,

  Dublin 6, D06 HD27 Ireland.

  Tel: +353 1 4923333; Fax: +353 1 4922777

  E-mail: [email protected]. Website: www.obrien.ie

  First published 2018.

  The O’Brien Press is a member of Publishing Ireland.

  eBook ISBN: 978–1–78849–075–7

  Text © copyright Judi Curtin 2018

  Copyright for typesetting, layout, editing, design

  © The O’Brien Press Ltd

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or in any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Cover and internal illustrations by Rachel Corcoran.