“That dog needs training.”
“She’s had training.”
“Well, it didn’t stick.”
I have no idea who’s said what. I’m being hugged and kissed and shepherded into an enormous open-plan living room by the mass of people. I glance back at Ethan, who’s wearing what can only be described as a shit-eating grin. Gone is the reserve and resentment he seemed to feel the last time I was with his family. Replaced with what looks like happy pride.
“You really are punching, brother,” I hear Ben tell him.
“Look who’s talking,” Ethan quips back.
Slowly, the crowd loosens. Ethan’s father opens a bottle of champagne and hands me a glass. Will hands Ethan a beer. Freyja settles one of the twins in a swing chair while Stella escorts the badly behaved but gorgeous Gertie out into the yard.
Just like I was in Bangalay, I’m absorbed into the chaos.
“Sadie, dear, would you mind stirring the sauce?” Stella says, pulling me away from Ethan and into the kitchen.
“Oh, Sadie. Ethan showed me a picture of you with a beaded headdress on in Egypt. It was gorgeous. Next time you’re there, will you get me one?” Greer asks, hip-checking me as she passes by with a bowl of salad.
“Oooh. Me too,” Rosanna says. “And do they have little ones for children? Isla will freak out if she’s the only one without.”
Cooking chores are shared, anecdotes are exchanged, and it’s as if I’ve been part of this family forever. There’sno awkwardness. No getting-to-know-you questions. Just the assumption that piece by piece, day by day, we’ll find out what we need to know about each other.
“Sorry your little hairdresser isn’t here,” Will says, pinching a chunk of tomato off the board where his mother is chopping them. “Nick and Lulu are in Scotland with her father. She was very disappointed you weren’t at the naming ceremony. I guess we’ll have to have another baby or two so you can be there. What do you say, Doctor?”
Freyja groans. “Sure. If you do the pregnancy part this time.” Her smile gives a lie to her words.
Greer, who is getting close to her due date, laughs.
“No way. I love being pregnant. I wouldn’t give it up for quids.”
“Thank God you lot are filling the baby quota,” Ethan says, wrapping his arms around me from behind. “So Sadie and I can trot off to Egypt and dig shit up.”
I glance at Ethan’s mother, worried perhaps she’ll be expecting me to have babies soon like her daughter and daughters-in-law. She just grins and hands Ethan a stack of plates.
“Don’t forget I’m still waiting on an invitation to one of your digs.”
Dinner is a scrumptious free-for-all where Will, Ethan and Ben fight over the food.
“Is it always like this?” I ask Freyja, who is sitting back, nursing Cora and watching the pandemonium.
“No,” she says with a grin. “Usually, it’s worse.”
As knives and forks are being set down on empty plates, Harry stands from the head of the table. Ethan shifts closer to me, drapes an arm across my shoulder and pulls me in for a kiss on the forehead.
Harry lifts his glass.
“I’d like to make a toast. Welcome to the family, Sadie. We’re as mad as a tree full of owls. But you’ll get used to it.”
A chorus of welcomes go up, and I look at Ethan.
“You can’t escape now,” he says.
“But we, I, do they think …?”
“They don’t think anything. Other than you make me happy. And that makes you family.”
I’ve never had a family. Not like this one. Where everyone loves one another, flaws and all. Where there are no questions asked, no offences taken, and no help begrudged. Where they face the world shoulder to shoulder without hesitation.
