Dan nodded, looking really serious. ‘She is.’
Forty-five minutes later, they emerged from the chapel, Evie holding their marriage certificate and a glass of sparkling wine, and wearing a gigantic beam.
She clinked her glass against Dan’s and they both took a long drink.
‘Look. We’re back under the mistletoe,’ she said, pointing.
Dan kissed the back of her neck and then moved the neckline of her dress down so that he could kiss along her shoulder.
‘That is so good,’ Evie told him, shivering. ‘And you’re my husband and I would very much like you to have your wicked way with me.’
‘I would very much like that too.’ Dan kissed the curve of her neck some more.
‘Hotel’s this way,’ Susan called.
Evie opened her eyes and tried to focus. It was difficult, because Dan had his hands inside her dress and she had hers under his shirt and his stubble was grazing her face and her chestsodeliciously.
‘And get aroom,’ Susan yelled. ‘This way.’
‘Different hotel,’ Dan said.
‘No, you bought the honeymoon suite package. This way.’
Thirty-Two
Now – September 2022
Dan
Dan clapped Katie as she pulled the extending squeaky giraffe neck on her playmat over and over again.
‘You’re so clever,’ he told her. His daughter was amazing in every way. Her smiles, her chortles, the way she held her arms out to be cuddled, her giraffe-neck pulling.
The doorbell rang and he tensed as the familiar wave of sadness washed over him. He hated saying goodbye to Katie each time. And there was the underlying worry that Hannah might decide to move to New York after her maternity leave. She’d been vacillating about it for months now.
‘Hey, Hannah.’ He used his best cheery tone. You wanted to be on good terms with your daughter’s mother, however much you wished that she would justbloodytell you her plans.
‘Hi, Dan. How’s she been?’
‘She’s getting really good at pulling. Watch her go with that giraffe. I think she’s definitely a lot more advanced physically than your average baby of this age. And mentally. She recognises so many people.’ He might have to fake cheeriness around Hannah, but he didn’t have to fake adoration of his daughter, and if there was one thing they agreed on, it was that she was literally the most perfect human ever born.
They sat at opposite ends of Dan’s sofa and watched her for a minute or two, both clapping for her, while she gurgled and beamed at them.
Hannah suddenly stopped clapping and turned to face him and said, ‘I’m so sorry, Dan, I should have told you immediately. About New York.’
God. Dan felt his face and stomach drop, like the joy had been sucked straight out of the day. Out of his life. He couldn’tbearthe thought of not seeing Katie regularly any more.
‘I’ve decided not to go,’ she said. ‘I’m going to co-head the desk with someone already there, so I’ll only need to visit from time to time. I just can’t bring Katie up away from you, and my family. It wouldn’t be right for her, and I don’t actually think I could cope. I’d have to have at least two full-time nannies to cover my working hours.’
‘Are you certain?’ Dan said.
‘Yes.’
‘I’m going to be honest: I’m incredibly relieved. I’d have been devastated not to be able to see her regularly.’
‘I know.’ Hannah turned back round to Katie, who was still busy with the hanging giraffe. ‘I’m sure she’d have been devastated too, growing up far away from you.’ She turned back to Dan. ‘I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to work things out but I’m sure now that I can manage things remotely from here and just fly out there every month or two for a few days.’
‘Not a problem,’ Dan said. He really wanted to ask about formalising arrangements about how often he would see Katie going forward, but maybe now wasn’t the time.
