Baby It's Cold Outside (22 page)

Tansy threw her arms round me again, then swayed off to join Harry and Louise dancing to Kirsty's music.

‘It's just the beginning,' I said to myself.

Friday

Chapter 33

I woke up way too early the next morning, lying across the bottom of Harry and Lou's bed, under Suky's crocheted blanket, wearing Harry's Harvard T-shirt and my nude heels.

Harry was nowhere to be seen, but Louise was curled up under the duvet at the other end of the bed, her smoky eye make-up now halfway down her face and her slicked-back hair standing on end.

‘Lou,' I whispered. ‘Are you awake?'

Lou buried her face in the pillow so I thought probably not. Carefully I edged myself off the bed, pulling my shoes off, and crept out of the room. Man, oh man, my head hurt. I virtually crawled into the bathroom, where I necked glass after glass of water out of the tooth mug – then I raided the cabinet for some paracetamol, and took three with another glass of water.

Slowly, carefully – feeling a bit wounded that I'd not drunk as much as I usually would and yet I was still suffering – I wandered back along the hall and into my bedroom. Jamie wasn't there so I assumed he'd stayed the night with his parents like he'd planned. It was still dark and the house was silent so I crawled under the duvet, hid my thumping head under the pillow and went back to sleep.

When I finally emerged, hours later, I felt much more human. My head still hurt, though it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been, and I was absolutely starving. From downstairs the sound of laughter and the smell of bacon drifted up, telling me it was definitely time to get up. I jumped in the shower, threw on an old sweatshirt, a pair of jeans and some thick socks, and headed down to the kitchen.

Mum, Suky, Harry and Lou were all there. Mum was frying bacon and the others were sitting at the table. They were all very pale, though Louise had washed off her splodgy make-up and tamed her hair. Harry was wearing her yoga gear and had her glossy hair scraped back in a bun.

‘Morning,' I said, pulling up a chair and sitting down. ‘God is there tea in that pot? Can I have some?'

Harry poured me a mug and handed it over with a slightly shaky hand. I looked at her.

‘Where did you sleep last night?' I asked. ‘And have you done yoga already?'

She gave me a weak smile.

‘I slept on the floor in our bedroom,' she said. ‘Which is apparently where I fell when I tried to take my leggings off. And I thought about doing yoga, but this meant it was a bit painful.'

She stood up and pulled down one side of her stretchy trousers. Her normally smooth brown thigh was mottled with an enormous purple bruise.

‘Ouch,' I said, with a giggle. ‘I must have been in the room when you fell – I woke up at the end of your bed – but I don't remember.'

Harry shrugged.

‘Nor do I,' she said. ‘I only worked out what had happened by the fact that I still had one leg in my trousers.'

Mum put a plate of bacon in the middle of the table, and a basket full of rolls. We all dived in.

‘It was a really good night,' I said, munching on my roll, which was honestly one of the most delicious things I'd ever tasted. ‘Thank you all so much.'

‘It was fun,' Louise agreed. ‘Tansy was hammered.'

‘Where is she?' I asked, realising for the first time she wasn't in the room. ‘Has anyone seen her this morning?'

Mum nodded, then winced and held her head.

‘She was up really early,' she said. ‘She went for a walk – said it would clear her head. She bought the rolls actually. Then she disappeared into her room. She's been on the phone all morning, I think. I could hear her talking.'

‘Maybe work stuff,' Harry suggested.

‘Maybe,' I said, hoping she was sorting out Michael's application to adopt Parker. ‘What time is it over there? Actually what time is it here?'

‘It's just after ten,' Mum said.

‘So it's just after five a.m. in Boston,' Harry said.

‘Probably not work then,' I said. ‘Can I have some more tea?'

We sat eating and chatting for a while then Mum and Suky dragged themselves down the hill to relieve Eva at the café. Harry, Louise and I took another pot of tea into the lounge and lay around watching rubbish daytime television and snoozing. Harry kept checking her emails and reporting back.

‘Photographer's confirmed,' she said.

‘Great,' I said, barely opening my eyes. ‘He's fabulous.'

‘And Leona's friend Lainey says she can do our hair and make-up.'

‘Brilliant,' I said.

‘Oh,' Harry said.

I forced myself upright.

‘What?'

‘Florist,' Harry said. ‘It's not happening.'

‘Oh no,' I said. ‘How come?'

‘No flower deliveries,' she said. ‘You can have dried flowers.'

I shuddered.

‘Nah,' I said. ‘Let's do without them. You've done an amazing job on everything else. I can live without a bouquet.'

Just as we were thinking about getting some lunch, the front door opened and Jamie and Parker blew in like a whirlwind.

‘Esme!' Parker shouted, clambering on top of me where I lay on the sofa with one eye on Loose Women. ‘I met Granny Barb. She showed me bones and told me about how our muscles work.'

‘Brilliant,' I said, trying to summon up enthusiasm for the small bundle of boy that was climbing on my aching limbs. ‘That sounds lovely.'

‘Good night?' Jamie said with a smug smile as he shoved my legs over and sat down.

‘Too good,' I groaned. ‘So much fun. How were your parents?'

‘Also good,' he said. ‘Mum was a big hit with Parker. She showed him the skeleton she uses for teaching.'

‘Ah,' I said. ‘So she's over her reluctance to be a granny then?'

Jamie made a face.

‘She tried to get him to call her Barbara at first,' he said. ‘But Parker wasn't having it. And I think he's won her over now. I found them watching the Discovery Channel together this morning and discussing the life cycle of ladybirds.'

‘Fun,' I said, chuckling.

‘Where's my mommy?' Parker said.

‘In your room,' I told him. ‘Why don't you go up and see?'

We heard him thudding his way upstairs and his excited voice telling Tansy all about his night away. Then more thudding as he bounced downstairs again, with his mum this time.

Tansy came into the lounge looking very pleased with herself.

‘Oh good,' she said. ‘You're all here.'

‘Is everything okay?' I asked.

‘It's better than okay,' she said with a grin. ‘I've sorted everything out.'

‘The adoption?' I asked.

Tansy looked blank for a moment.

‘Oh, that? No.'

‘Then what?' Jamie asked.

‘I've got you a helicopter,' she said.

Chapter 34

We all stared at Tansy in astonishment.

‘I'm sorry, you've got what?'

She waved her phone and a folded piece of paper in front of me.

‘A helicopter,' she said. ‘Well, it wasn't really me who did it, it was Michael.'

Jamie and I exchanged a look.

‘Michael?' he said. ‘Your fiancé, Michael, has got us a helicopter?'

Tansy sighed in frustration – we obviously weren't catching on as quickly as she wanted us to. She plonked herself on the sofa arm and unfolded the piece of paper.

‘I felt really bad about everything,' she said. ‘And I just felt awful for you, Esme, thinking about getting married without your dad there to walk you down the aisle.'

‘Right,' Jamie said, slightly impatiently. I took his hand.

‘And when you mentioned your dad was in the army, I started thinking.'

She smoothed out the paper.

‘So I called Michael yesterday, to see if there was anything he could do,' she said.

‘I don't understand what he's got to do with any of this,' I said.

‘He's in the navy,' Tansy said, as though that was perfectly obvious.

‘I thought he was a doctor.'

She sighed again.

‘He is a doctor,' she said. ‘The navy paid for him to go to medical school – lots of kids pay their way through college by signing up.'

‘I didn't know that,' I said, thinking about the time I'd been talking about Dad and Tansy had offered an opinion – and I'd cut her off. ‘Sorry.'

Tansy waved her hand at me, as though to say that didn't matter now.

‘There's a US Naval base round here, right?'

Jamie nodded.

‘Port Cormack. On the west coast.'

‘So Michael called his lieutenant and asked if he knew anyone. And it turned out he did – a guy he served with in Iraq is over here now. Michael got all the numbers and I made the calls this morning. They've got a…' she looked down at her notes. ‘… Sea Dragon helicopter, and it can carry twelve people and we can use it this evening and then again on Sunday afternoon to take everyone back across.'

‘But they don't even know us,' I said. ‘Michael's never even met us.'

Tansy shrugged.

‘They're nice people,' she said. ‘They have wives. They have dads. They know how important this is.'

She looked slightly sheepish.

‘And, erm, I might have explained about me turning up on the doorstep just at the wrong time, too.'

‘Incredible,' Jamie murmured.

Tansy looked at me and bit her lip.

‘But there's just a couple of conditions,' she said.

‘Is it ten grand?' I asked.

Tansy giggled. I'd never heard her giggle before.

‘No,' she said. ‘I kind of promised that your mum would give the guys some cakes to take back to base with them.'

‘I reckon Mum and Tess will give those guys free cake for as long as they're in Scotland,' Harry said. ‘I'll sort them out with some passes to the spa, too, if that's their sort of thing.'

I was still staring at Tansy.

‘You said a couple of conditions,' I said. ‘What's the other one?'

Tansy blushed.

‘It's Michael,' she said. ‘I wondered if he could come to the wedding?'

I looked round wildly, as though Michael was about to walk through the door.

‘Where is he?' I said. ‘Isn't he in Boston?'

Tansy looked at her watch.

‘I think he's somewhere across the Atlantic by now.'

I blinked. This was all making my already pounding head even worse.

‘I rang him after the party last night,' Tansy said, rolling her eyes.

‘Uh-oh,' said Harry. ‘Drunk dialling is never good.'

‘I know,' Tansy said. ‘But actually this time it was. I had a bit of a cry, and told him how much I was missing him. And then I went to sleep. And this morning I had a message from him saying he'd managed to talk himself into a lift on a transport plane that was leaving first thing this morning, his time, and coming to Glasgow. From there he's getting a train, and he should be at the base in time to hop on to the helicopter that's going to bring your dad and your friend.'

She stopped talking and looked at us.

‘That's okay, isn't it? You're all very quiet. I've not done the wrong thing, have I?'

I squeezed Jamie's hand and he gave me a massive grin.

‘The wrong thing?' I said. ‘Tansy, this might be the absolute rightest thing anyone's ever done for me.'

‘Really?' Tansy said. ‘You're pleased?'

I jumped to my feet.

‘Of course I'm pleased,' I yelled. ‘This is amazing!'

I threw my arms round her and hugged her. She hugged me back, laughing in my ear.

‘Thank you, thank you, thank you,' I gushed. ‘You've made our wedding day.'

‘They're not here yet,' Harry said – the voice of doom in the corner. Louise gave her a shove and she laughed. ‘But it's brilliant. You're brilliant, Tansy. I can't believe you organised all that in such a short time.'

Sensing the lightened mood, Parker was running around like a wild thing. Jamie picked him up and swung him round.

‘Your mummy is very clever,' he said. ‘And so is your daddy Michael.'

Parker whooped with joy and covered Jamie's face with kisses.

‘I know,' he said.

He put his little hands on either side of Jamie's face and looked him directly in the eye.

‘When Daddy Michael comes will you still be my Daddy Jamie?' he asked seriously.

‘Of course,' Jamie said.

Parker frowned.

‘I'm not sure,' he said. He wriggled out of Jamie's arms and went to Tansy instead, wrapping his arms around her legs. She bent down and hugged him tightly.

‘Oh honey,' she said. ‘I know it's kind of confusing. But all you need to know is that everyone loves you very much.'

Parker nodded, but I wondered if he was really convinced or just pretending.

‘Everything's okay,' he said in a small voice.

Tansy squeezed him close.

‘Everything's better than okay,' she said. ‘Daddy Michael's going to be so pleased to see you. He says he's missed you very much.'

Parker gave her a blinding smile.

‘I've missed him too,' he said. ‘I need to tell him about Grandma's bones.'

‘He'll love that,' Tansy said. She looked at Jamie proudly over the top of Parker's head, as if to say “chip off the old block”. I tried not to mind their connection, given that Tansy had basically just saved my wedding.

‘So we need to tell your dad,' Jamie said. ‘And Chloe. And Frankie. So I guess they have to get themselves to the west coast?'

‘If they can,' Tansy said. ‘It's not far, right?'

Jamie shook his head.

‘Not far at all. I'll double check all the roads are open, but it's much lower than we are – the snow hasn't been so bad down there.'