Baby It's Cold Outside (16 page)

My phone rang. It was Chloe.

‘Guess who's here?' she sang when I answered. ‘Your dad, your step-mum and your brothers.'

‘Really?' I shrieked. ‘Where are they? Can I speak to Dad?'

‘He's just in the loo,' Chloe said. ‘He says he'll facetime you in five minutes.'

‘Dad's here,' I told Mum. ‘He's at Chloe's.'

She smiled at me as Chloe talked.

‘Rob's gone to sort out the cottage and get the keys from my parents,' she said. Then she lowered her voice.

‘What's happened to Mitchell?' she asked. ‘He's grown up very well.'

‘Eurgh Chloe,' I wailed. ‘He's my little brother.'

‘I know,' she giggled. ‘I'm just pointing out how handsome he is.'

She was right. Mitch – who was an amazing musician – had a definite Jared Leto style look that girls seemed to adore.

‘Anyway,' I said, giving Tansy a pointed look. ‘I'm going up to my room so I can chat to Dad in peace. Get him to call as soon as he can.'

I took the stairs two at a time and was sitting on my bed when Dad called.

‘Hello angel,' he said, his smile broad and his eyes crinkling at the corners. I was biased, I knew, but Dad was ageing really well. He was older than Mum – in his late sixties – but he could pass for ten years younger. His once thick hair was receding a bit and it was speckled with grey at his temples – more so every time I saw him – but he looked good on it.

‘Oh Dad,' I said, waving like a loon at the tiny screen on my phone. ‘It's so good to see you. It's been a nightmare.'

‘I know sweetheart,' he said. His voice made me want to cry. Or reach through the phone and give him a huge hug. Instead I told him what had been happening. My words falling over each other, I explained the avalanche and how scary it had been.

‘I'm proud of you,' he said. ‘I bet Jamie is too. How's he doing?'

‘He's great,' I said. ‘Considering.'

‘Considering what?' Dad said.

I thought about how to say it and decided just to go for the facts.

‘We had an unexpected visitor on our first night,' I said. ‘Tansy. She's Jamie's ex-fiancée.'

‘Bloody hell,' said Dad. He always sounded extra posh when he swore and it made me giggle despite myself.

‘Oh it gets better,' I said. ‘She brought her little boy with her. His name's Parker and Jamie's his dad.'

Dad narrowed his eyes.

‘Bloody hell,' he said again.

Just talking about it with him was making me feel better about things, I thought.

‘Are you sorting it out, Ez?' Dad said. I was touched by the faith he had in me.

‘I am,' I said. ‘At least, I'm going to. I'm planning on getting everything done officially.'

‘Good girl,' Dad said. He paused. ‘I'm not sure if you know this, but when your mum found out she was expecting you, she wrote me a letter – I was off in the Falklands by then of course.'

‘I didn't know that,' I said. I'd never known my parents as a couple. I'd never even known them living in the same part of the country, so I'd never really thought about the circumstances of Mum's pregnancy, strange as that may sound.

‘I was terrified and thrilled in equal measure,' Dad said. ‘But I didn't have much time to think about what it really meant because of the war. But in my darker moments – and believe me, you have a lot of those when you're at war – in those moments I thought about this baby, you, and you gave me strength.'

I was speechless. Dad didn't talk much about the Falklands, where he'd flown in troops on helicopters, though I knew he'd lost a few friends there.

‘Then we crashed,' he said. ‘My leg was knackered and my back wasn't much better. When I came home Tess came to see me in the hospital. We knew it wasn't going to work between us – not then, not ever. But she told me not to worry, that I'd always be a part of your life. And then she took my hand and put it on her bump – and you kicked me.'

He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes.

‘You soppy old thing,' I said fondly. Dad smiled.

‘Knowing you were on the way helped me get better,' he said. ‘At least it helped me mind about my injury less. Helped me cope with being stuck behind a desk. And eventually I grew to love it. You anchored me.'

He took a deep breath.

‘I had mates in the RAF who'd had kids and lost contact with them,' he went on. ‘I was determined that wasn't going to happen to me.'

‘You did brilliantly,' I said, feeling a bit teary myself. ‘You're an amazing dad.'

‘Your mum was amazing,' Dad pointed out. ‘She didn't even need to tell me she was pregnant – I'd never have found out because we didn't have any mutual friends.'

‘Like Tansy,' I mused. ‘She didn't have to come – although I wish she'd not come this week.'

Dad nodded.

‘Your mum was determined to keep me in your life,' he said.

‘She didn't want me to grow up not knowing you, like Harry and her dad,' I said. ‘She knew you were a good man – not like Suky's ex.'

‘Well, it was all very amicable,' Dad said. ‘But my friends' experiences had made me nervous. So whenever we made arrangements about me having contact with you, I always wrote your mum a letter outlining it all – and I'd keep a copy too. I even kept that first letter she wrote me saying she was pregnant.'

‘Blimey,' I said. ‘I see where I get my brilliant legal mind from.'

Dad chuckled.

‘Just cover your own back,' he said. ‘Put everything in writing and make sure Jamie knows exactly what he wants from this Tansy.'

‘I will,' I said, feeling so close to Dad and so far away, even though he was only a couple of miles down the road. ‘I wish you were here, Dad.'

‘We'll get there, sweetheart,' he said. ‘It'll take more than a pile of snow to stop me walking my girl down the aisle.'

There was a noise behind Dad and he turned away from me.

‘Come and say hello,' he said and suddenly my screen was filled with my brothers' smiling faces.

‘Hey ratbag,' said Mitch. ‘That's a bit of a dramatic way to stop us coming to your wedding, you know.'

Mason waved.

‘Hi Ez,' he said. ‘See you soon.'

I blew them both kisses, and waved at Olivia, my sleek, stylish step-mum who was lurking in the background.

‘Hello,' she called, giving me a measured smile. Olivia was always nice to me in a reserved kind of way.

She said something to Dad that I didn't catch and he turned back to me.

‘We have to go,' he said. ‘Rob's ready to show us to Chloe's parents' cottage apparently. Shall we catch up tomorrow?'

I nodded.

‘I'll call you in the morning,' I said. ‘Thanks Dad.'

Chapter 23

I sat back on the bed, feeling much happier now I knew the rest of my family were close by. Now there was just the teeny problem of how to get them over/through/under the huge pile of snow that sat between them and me. Without magic. Bloody, bloody Tansy, I thought. I wondered again if we could somehow use our magic secretly, then dismissed the thought just as fast. Tansy was annoying, certainly, and in my way, but she wasn't stupid. She was really switched on and Jamie was right, if she got wind of anything odd she'd make it her mission to find out what it was.

She wasn't here now though, was she?

Feeling defiant, I shot pink sparks at Jamie's trainers, which were lying by our bedroom door, and watched them walk themselves to the wardrobe and jump inside.

Then I did the same to the jeans I'd worn to the survivors' party, which were lying draped over the back of a chair. I liked the way they looked, walking across the floor, so I shot more sparks and made them dance, chuckling to myself.

Then I sparkled my dressing gown down from its hook on the back of the door and made that dance too.

I knew I was being childish, but the thought of doing magic just for the sake of doing magic, while Tansy sat downstairs oblivious, gave me smug satisfaction.

A footstep outside the door made me gasp. I waved my arm and the jeans and dressing gown dropped to the floor, just as Jamie came in.

‘Helloooo,' I sang. He gave me an odd look.

‘Tess said your dad's here,' he said. ‘That's great.'

Behind him, the leg of my jeans twitched. In a hurry I knelt up on the bed and hugged Jamie, surreptitiously shooting sparks over his shoulder. My jeans flew into the wardrobe and my dressing gown rearranged itself on the back of the door. Relieved I let go of Jamie, who looked slightly startled, and sat back against the pillows again.

‘Dad's here,' I agreed. ‘And Olivia and the boys. They're in the cottage.'

‘Brilliant,' Jamie said. ‘So now we just need to work out how to get them to Claddach.'

He flopped on to the bed next to me and I stroked his hair.

‘Are you tired?' I said. ‘Did the baby arrive okay?'

‘A boy,' Jamie said. ‘Called Sven.'

‘Sven?' I said. ‘Is the family Scandinavian?'

‘Nope,' Jamie laughed. ‘He's named after the reindeer in that Frozen film Chloe's kids are obsessed with. His two big sisters chose it apparently.'

I giggled.

‘That's cute,' I said. ‘Ooh, guess what? Harry and Lou are going to adopt.'

‘No way!' said Jamie. ‘I knew they were up to something. Louise has been very distracted recently.' Jamie adored Louise – who he'd known for years – and had been delighted when she and Harry got together.

‘Harry says it was Parker who really helped her make up her mind.'

Jamie smiled.

‘He's amazing, isn't he? Dad's completely bowled over – though Mum's still not sure.' A shadow crossed his face. ‘She's resisting all my efforts to get her to meet him.'

‘It's as much a shock for them as it was for you,' I pointed out gently. ‘Your mum will come round. She just needs time to get used to being a granny.'

Jamie kissed me.

‘You're right,' he said. ‘And how can she not love him once she's met him.'

‘Jamie,' I began, thinking now was a good time to mention him not being named on Parker's birth certificate. Then I bottled it.

‘I thought after the wedding I'd draw up a contact agreement,' I said lamely. ‘Make sure you don't lose Parker now you've found him.'

‘Oh we don't need to go that far, do we?' Jamie said. ‘Tansy won't stop me seeing him.'

‘She didn't tell you he existed for five years,' I snapped. ‘So while I'm touched by your trust in her, I can't help thinking it's a little misguided.

‘Woah,' Jamie said. ‘Okay you're right, I'm sorry. Please do a contact agreement.'

I gave him a thin-lipped smile.

‘Thank you,' I said.

‘So anyway, tell me about today,' Jamie said, very sensibly changing the subject. ‘Did you do everything you wanted to do?'

‘Yes,' I said, burrowing under his arm so he could cuddle me more comfortably. ‘We did lots of stuff.'

‘Did you see Kirsty?'

‘I did,' I said. ‘At her work.'

Jamie grinned.

‘And how was that?'

‘It was okay actually,' I said. ‘I didn't see anything horrible.'

‘Glad to hear it,' Jamie said, who'd seen way more than his share of horrible stuff during his time in Africa and who was nice enough not to point that out.

‘I went through everything we've planned,' I told him. ‘She's got the readings, and she gave me a printout of the vows we can choose from.'

‘I wanted to write my own,' Jamie said.

‘Seriously?' I was surprised.

‘Nope!' Jamie laughed. ‘Can't believe you fell for that.'

I whacked him with a pillow.

‘Anyway,' I said. ‘That was all really straightforward. Kirsty's great. And Leona's amazing. She's got the dresses all under control. Harry has sorted out all the food with Millicent. I'm just going to leave that to them – they're far too terrifying when they're together.'

‘They're fairly terrifying when they're apart,' Jamie said, wryly.

I giggled.

‘And Douglas's got a friend who's a photographer,' I said. ‘He's left him a message asking him if he's free on Saturday. I've got his details so we can check out his website later.'

‘Great,' Jamie said. ‘So do you reckon you can take a day off from wedding stuff?'

‘Probably,' I said. ‘Do you need help at the surgery?'

Jamie looked very pleased with himself.

‘No,' he said. ‘I've got a much better plan.'

He dug into his jeans pocket and pulled out a wooden key fob with two keys attached.

‘Look what I've got,' he said, swinging the key by my nose. I made a grab for it.

‘Is it the lodge?' I said, sitting up and examining the key fob. ‘Really?'

Jamie's parents had a little lodge, up in the mountains. It was tiny – just one bedroom, a small bathroom and a lounge/kitchen. But it was perfectly located, right by one of the ski lifts and I absolutely loved it.

‘Are the lifts open, though?'

Jamie nodded.

‘Not all of them, but enough. And Dad's given me his car keys so we can go up the back way in the 4x4. It's up to you, though. How is your wrist? Are you still sore?'

I grimaced.

‘My legs are a bit achy, but my wrist seems fine. It definitely won't stop me holding my poles. And my head's okay too, I reckon. I think a day on the slopes could be just what the doctor ordered.'

Suddenly all I wanted was to be in the lodge, snuggled up with Jamie in front of the fire. No worries about the wedding, no Tansy, no Parker. Just the two of us, together, alone.

‘If you're sure?' Jamie said.