Baby It's Cold Outside (19 page)

I started to laugh. Frankie had been Chloe's first love; her first real boyfriend. But in fact, it was Frankie and Jamie's bromance, which began the same summer Frankie and Chloe were together, that had stayed the distance. Thanks to Frankie's crazy working life, Chloe hadn't seen him since we all scattered to go to university more than a decade ago so I supposed she might be feeling a bit strange to have him sitting in her lounge with her husband and children.

‘Is it awkward,' I said, sitting down on the floor in the changing room.

‘Worse than that,' Chloe said, beginning to chuckle herself. ‘They're really getting on. They're talking about football and comparing drinking injuries. Matilda is smitten and keeps getting on his knee for cuddles. Olly thinks he's amazing. He's mended his PlayStation and taught him lots of cheats for Minecraft. My whole family is in love with my ex-boyfriend.'

I laughed in delight. I adored Frankie, who was unpredictable and unreliable but who brought just the right amount of fun into Jamie's life. Because sometimes Jamie could be a teeny tiny bit serious.

‘Can he stay with you?' I asked Chloe.

‘NO.'

‘Please, Chlo. We need to keep him in sight. If we let him go, he'll get distracted and we won't see him for months.'

There was a pause.

‘Okay,' said Chloe. ‘I'll put the boys in together and he can have Olly's room.'

‘Thank you, thank you, thank you,' I gushed.

‘But you have to promise me you will work on a way to get us all over this bloody snow,' Chloe said.

‘I will,' I said. ‘Jamie's got an idea about asking Dad if any of his old airforce mates can help.'

‘Could work.'

‘So anyway, can I tell you about the dresses now?'

I chatted to Chloe for a while, describing what Leona had done with the dresses, and promised to snap a couple of photos on my phone to send to her when we were done talking.

‘And I left Tansy and Jamie sorting out custody stuff,' I said. ‘I think that's going to be okay – eventually.'

‘Oh that's brilliant,' Chloe said. ‘I'm so relieved for you. It sounds like everything's working out.'

‘It is,' I said. ‘It really is.'

I reached out and stroked the fabric on my wedding dress.

‘Do you think that should worry me?'

‘What? No!' Chloe said. ‘Why would everything working out worry you?'

‘Because when things are going well,' I pointed out, ‘is exactly when everything goes pear-shaped.'

‘Nah,' said Chloe.

‘Nah?'

‘No,' she said. ‘Absolutely not. What can possibly go wrong now?'

‘Avalanche,' I said.

‘Done.'

‘Ex-fiancée.'

‘Sorted.'

‘No wedding dress.'

‘Pah.'

‘Long-lost son.'

‘Dealt with.'

‘No one to take the wedding ceremony.'

‘Replacement found.'

I giggled, grateful that Chloe could always raise my sprits when she had to.

‘Okay,' I said. ‘You win. Maybe everything is going to be okay.'

Chapter 28

In a film, I reflected as I drove home, that would be when everything went wrong. A vampire would show up, or a meteor would hit the earth, or a dinosaur would rampage through the streets.

But actually, despite my conviction that things were about to fall apart, actually they didn't. In fact, that afternoon – after Jamie and Tansy's big chat – things got even better.

It had started snowing again as I arrived back at the house so we were pretty much stuck inside all afternoon and evening. It wasn't dreadful though. In fact, it was kind of nice.

I wasn't on edge any more, worrying that I knew something Jamie didn't and trying to work out how to tell him. Tansy obviously felt better too. As it got darker, she began to (finally) lose her uptight side and loosened up a bit. I wasn't sure we'd ever be best friends, but I started to realise she was nice. In fact, she was quite similar to me and Harry in her control freakery and insistence on doing things her own way.

Doug came over, and we chatted about his photographer friend who we'd emailed to book, then Eva and Allan dropped by and we all played board games. Parker was amazing at Cluedo. At some point, Tansy put him to bed and then – to my surprise – came back down again instead of going to bed too. Someone opened a bottle of wine and Louise and Harry told everyone about their adoption plans.

Suky – who'd obviously heard it all already – beamed with pride.

‘I can't believe I'm going to be a granny,' she said, hugging Harry and Lou together with tears in her eyes. ‘I'm so glad I'm here to see it.'

I sat on the sofa next to Jamie and watched the family enjoying themselves.

‘I think it's going to be okay,' I said.

Jamie nodded.

‘We're going to have the best wedding ever,' he said. ‘It's going to be unconventional but brilliant.'

‘It was always going to be unconventional.'

‘Oh that reminds me,' Jamie said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. ‘I spoke to Frankie. He reckons he's got a mate who's some record company exec and who's got access to a helicopter.'

I sat up in excitement.

‘What, and he'd let us use it to get Dad and Chloe here?'

Jamie screwed his face up.

‘We'd have to pay,' he said. ‘But I told him to find out about it and see how much we'd have to cough up.'

‘It's worth a try,' I agreed. ‘And what about asking Dad? Shall we try that too? I can ring him now if you like?'

‘Nope,' Jamie said, getting up. ‘I'll do it. You've done all the organising so far and it's my turn to do some.'

I was quite happy to sit there sipping my wine and listening to the conversation buzzing around me, so I let him go.

After a few minutes Allan came to sit next to me.

‘The photography exhibition has finished now,' he said. ‘The gallery's closed to the public and it's all yours.'

I let out a little squeal of joy.

‘So we can start getting everything ready?'

He smiled at me.

‘Whenever you want.'

‘Can I go now?' I joked. He laughed. ‘First thing tomorrow?' he said.

‘Absolutely,' I said. I couldn't wait to get in to the gorgeous room where we were getting married and start making it look the part. ‘I'll get Mum to help.'

‘What's this?' Mum, overhearing, came over to see what I was volunteering her for.

‘We can do the gallery tomorrow.'

Mum beamed.

‘Brilliant,' she said. ‘I've got everything we need in the storeroom.'

‘Are you decorating?' Tansy said.

‘Doing the room where we're getting married,' I told her. ‘It's a gallery most of the time, and sometimes a music venue. We're just making it look more weddingy.'

‘I'd offer to help,' she said, grinning. ‘But I'm hopeless at anything creative. Let me know if you need anything practical doing though – I'm great at writing lists.'

I smiled back at her. She wasn't so bad, I thought. Obviously in an ideal world my fiancé wouldn't have an ex, or a little boy. But Parker was so much fun I couldn't feel any resentment towards him and even Tansy was growing on me. A bit.

‘Did you guys think Parker was kind of quiet this evening,' she was saying. ‘He wasn't as chatty as normal.'

I thought back to our riotous game of Cluedo earlier.

‘He was brilliant at guessing who the murderer was,' I said, remembering how he'd worked it out every single time. He even beat Harry – who did not take kindly to losing ordinarily but who'd simply pretended to be outraged, then swept him up in a hug. But thinking about it, he had been a little bit quiet otherwise.

‘He didn't tell us any facts,' I said. ‘I thought he'd have said something about mustard. Or plums. Or murderers.'

Tansy made a face.

‘Exactly,' she said. ‘He's been like this all day pretty much. In his own head. He didn't even want me to read to him before he went to sleep – he just snuggled up under the blanket and rolled over to face the wall.'

‘Maybe he's coming down with something,' I suggested. ‘It's been so cold, there are probably germs flying around all over the place.'

‘Or perhaps he's just tired,' Mum said. ‘He's been playing outside in the snow most of the day. He's bound to be worn out from all the fresh air.'

Tansy looked relieved.

‘I guess you're right,' she said. ‘It's hard for me not to worry about him.'

Mum put her arm round Tansy and squeezed her. Tansy looked alarmed at first, then pleased.

‘I know exactly what you mean,' she said. ‘It was just me and Esme when she was growing up.'

I frowned.

‘And Dad,' I said. ‘Dad was involved.'

‘Oh he was great but he wasn't there,' Mum said. ‘He wasn't there when you came home from school crying because Bobby McGill had been mean to you, or when you had a rash and I didn't know if it was meningitis or an allergy to your new jumper. Sometimes it's nice to have someone else to talk these things through with.'

Tansy nodded.

‘That's exactly how I feel,' she said. She looked at me. ‘I think that's why I was so eager to let Michael share parenting. It probably clouded my judgement a bit.'

I understood but I still didn't forgive – not completely – and I didn't want to talk about it on this lovely night.

‘Jamie's gone to ring Dad,' I said, changing the subject. ‘He wanted to see if any of his RAF contacts can help with getting everyone over the snow.'

‘Good plan,' Mum said. ‘He's bound to know someone. He's got contacts all over the place that man.'

‘Your dad's in the RAF?' Tansy said. ‘That's great. Michael…'

But I didn't want to hear any more about perfect Michael.

‘Frankie's on the case too,' I said, cutting Tansy off.

‘Oh I get to meet Frankie,' Tansy said in delight. ‘I've heard so much about him. We were supposed to meet up with him once in Nairobi but when we got there, he'd left a message to say he was in Norway.' She giggled. ‘It was so funny.'

I wondered if Frankie had been in Nairobi the whole time and had made up a story about going to Norway just to avoid meeting Tansy. Or was that just mean?

‘Speak of the devil,' Mum said as Jamie came back into the room.

‘Ohhh that's not a happy face,' I said, looking at his glum expression.

He shook his head.

‘Your dad can't help,' he said.

My stomach plummeted into my slippers. I'd been so confident Dad would sort everything out.

‘How come?' I said.

‘The RAF have two helicopters up here,' Jamie said. ‘One's being used by mountain rescue, so that's out, and the other is on some exercise for the next two weeks – it's not available. Your dad called a friend and he said they'd definitely help if they could – but they can't.'

I blinked, trying to stop tears falling.

‘So now we have to hope Frankie pulls it out of the bag,' Jamie said.

Frankie, who was known to be the most unreliable bloke in Scotland? Or Africa… or Norway. Or wherever he felt like going that week. I didn't fancy the chances of him helping us.

Thursday

Chapter 29

Jamie went out again early the next day, helping his dad with his rounds. He took Tansy with him too as there were lots of dressings that needed changing and I volunteered to watch Parker for a couple of hours, before I went down to the gallery to start setting things up for the wedding.

‘So buddy,' I said, as Jamie and Tansy shut the front door behind them. ‘What would you like to do?'

Parker shrugged.

‘Don't mind,' he said.

‘Snowman?'

He screwed his face up.

‘We could read your space book.'

Parker shook his head.

‘Play dominoes?'

He shrugged again. I eyed him carefully.

‘Are you tired?' I said.

‘Not really.'

‘Is something the matter?'

He smiled at me, but it wasn't a very convincing smile.

‘I'm okay,' he said.

‘I've got two brothers you know?' I said, sitting down on the sofa and pulling him up next to me. ‘But they're a lot younger than me. I was twelve when Mitchell – he's the oldest – was born and fourteen when Mason came along.'

Parker looked at me but he didn't speak.

‘When they were growing up I was a bit jealous because they were really good friends. If something was upsetting one of them, then he had the other to talk to about it. I never had that when I was little.'

‘What about Harry?' Parker said.

‘Harry's older than me,' I said. ‘A lot older. Years and years older. So she was practically a grown-up when I was born.'

‘She's ten years older than you,' Parker said. ‘That's not a grown-up.'

‘No,' I admitted. You couldn't get anything past this little boy, that was for sure.

‘Anyway, she wasn't that interested in me when I was small. So I didn't have anyone to talk to about my troubles – the way Mitch and Mason have each other.'

Parker nodded, his brown eyes watching me, obviously wondering where I was going with this potted family history.

‘Do you have anyone to talk to if things are upsetting you?' I said.

Parker chewed his lip.

‘I've got Mrs Anderson,' he said. ‘I guess I can talk to her.'

‘Is she your teacher?'

He shook his head.

‘She takes care of me when Mom is at work,' he said. ‘She lives across the street but when Mom has to work during the night, Mrs Anderson stays at our house.'

‘Great,' I said. ‘She sounds very nice. What about friends? Kids at school?'