“What about Olivia?”
“What about her?”
“Are you going to be rude to her too?”
“No.She’s kind to me.Respectful.And she’s only ten.Now, why don’t you find something to do that doesn’t annoy me, hmm?”
The phone rang a half hour later as Catriona was moving the laundry forward in the small room.Cat glanced at the phone hoping it wasn’t Rhys because she wasn’t in a good mood and she might just blurt something less than flattering about his beastly twelve-year-old-going-in-fifteen.But it wasn’t Rhys; it was Sarah, and Sarah was just what Cat needed.
“Oh, Sarah,” Cat cried, “thank God it’s you.”
“It’s going that well, is it?”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“But you are still alive,” Sarah answered, her voice lilting and amused.“And that counts for something.”
Cat groaned.“Barely.It’s harder than I imagined, and I’ve only been here for what?Three days?”
“Oh, grand altogether,” Sarah said dryly.“That bodes well.”
Cat gave a short, humorless laugh.“Let’s just say goodwill toward men hasn’t reached this far north.The older girl, Jillian, she’s deliberately pushing every button.She wants to be impossible.But the younger one, she’s very sweet, but at the same time she’s nervous that she’ll earn her sister’s displeasure if she’s too friendly with me.”
“Tweens, aren’t they?”Sarah said.“I’d have rather wrestled a badger at that age myself.”
“I don’t think Jillian enjoys being this angry.She just doesn’t know what to do with all of her energy and emotions.Her mum’s off somewhere sunny, and I’m the stranger hired to keep them busy until they return to school.”
“So not the Christmas of their dreams.”
“No.Not at all.And I see why they’re unhappy.If I were in their shoes, I’d be upset as well.”
Sarah made a sympathetic sound.“You’re doing your best, Cat.That’s all anyone can ask.”
“I don’t know.I think I could do better.I’d like to do better.It isn’t very festive around here.No holiday anything.I suggested we get a tree, but Jillian told me it’d be pathetic without her mum.”
“And Olivia?”
“She wants a tree.She wants all the fun things, but her sister keeps squashing her plans, and so it’s all quite dramatic and would be entertaining if I didn’t feel so dang tired.”
“God love them both,” Sarah said softly.“Still, you can’t fill that kind of space.You can only stand beside it.”
Cat was quiet for a moment.“Yeah.That’s what it feels like—standing beside their grief, trying not to get in the way of it.”There was a pause, comfortable and familiar.“Anyway,” Cat said finally, “enough about me.How’s London?”
Sarah hesitated, then said, almost shyly, “Actually… I had a date.”
Cat blinked.“Youwhat?”
“A date,” Sarah repeated, and Cat couldhearthe smile in her voice.“First one in—well, a scandalous amount of time.”
“You?Out on a date?”Cat said, grinning despite herself.“I don’t believe it.Who was the lucky gentleman?”
“Oh, just a fella from work.Asked me out for a drink after the staff do.”
“And?”Cat leaned forward, hungry for something good.
Just talking to Sarah put everything in perspective.She was just the childminder, just here for a few weeks.This wasn’t her family.These weren’t her problems.
“Come on, don’t you dare leave me hanging.”
