Cassie and Clare hit it off straight away. Rob can see his mother approves of his friend, and as soon as they're alone together Clare says predictably, "I like her."
"She's just a friend, Mum." He'd expected the matchmaking, after all this was the first time he'd introduced a woman to his family.
Clare's next comment, however, takes him by surprise: "She looks like Jamie." Not only has he not considered the resemblance, Clare hardly ever mentions his old friends, except to express bitterness at Jamie's mother for driving the Reillys out of Dublin.
Now that Clare mentions it, he can see that Cassie has Jamie's dark hair and eyes, and a tomboyish personality like Jamie. Cassie has a unique charm of her own, though. He thinks it's a shame that they didn't know her back then, she wasn't that far from Knocknaree. When he'd said this to Cassie she'd pointed out that she was only 10 in 1985 and wouldn't have been part of their gang. It's strange to him, that Cassie is younger than Jamie and Peter, forever frozen at 13.
He shrugs. "They look nothing alike."