While Bailey warms up the Range Rover in the adjacent garage, the entire family dons coats and hats and comes out to see us off from the front stoop. They say it’s to get some fresh air and for the kids to burn off some energy, so I gather it’s not entirely about me. After saying goodbye, Kirk and his kids (the young girl I saw reading on the windowsill yesterday and a gangly pre-teen boy) stomp off through the snow with a sled and a couple of bin lids to find a slope. Crumpet strains at his lead. He loves playing in the snow. The sky hangs low and grey against the treeline.
‘Brrrr, it’s freezing,’ comments Sarah, rubbing her arms. ‘There’s definitely more snow coming. I hope Bails makes it back OK.’
‘Where’s Aunty Holly going?’ asks Sasha.Yikes, now I’m their aunty.
‘Aunty Holly is spending Christmas in Inverness with her grannie,’ explains Sarah.
‘But what about the tree?’ pipes up Susie.
‘She’ll have her own tree.’
Susie pouts. ‘I bet it’s not like ours. It’s so fun, and there’s hot chocolate and marshmallows.’
Seeing I’m clueless, Sarah explains, ‘We have a tree-trimming ceremony on Christmas Eve. Everyone helps decorate it. Ready forSanta.’ She raises her eyebrows at me.
‘Ah!’ I reply, thinking,I’m glad I won’t be here for all that palaver!
As the Range Rover comes into view, she sniffs and says, ‘Right. I hate goodbyes, so merry Christmas and all that. You and Bails can come and visit us in London now we know you exist.’
I gulp.
Feeling like a stiff-limbed manikin being passed around, I’m hugged and patted on the back with a chorus of ‘Lovely to meet you’ and ‘We’ll see you again’. Then Crumpet jumps into the back seat, and I’m bundled into the front, and everyone’s waving merrily as we drive off. What a performance! So much for slinking away quietly.
Chapter 11
I touch the foil-wrapped package resting on my knees and take a deep breath. Jennifer handed it to me at the last minute.
‘A few Christmas cookies for you and your grannie to have with a cup of tea,’ she said before giving me a tight hug.
That was the worst part. I feel like a right cow for deceiving her, and it’s all Bailey’s fault.
‘You’re a proper gobshite,’ I mutter. I’m royally ticked off at him and more than a little apprehensive about spending the rest of my holiday in a cold Inverness guest house.
‘Huh?’ He shifts his eyes briefly from the road to me.
‘If you’d just said I was a work colleague or something, your mum wouldn’t be treating me like a potential daughter-in-law.’
Bailey tightens his grip on the steering wheel—oooh, I’m getting to him! Good! Then he relaxes them. ‘We’ve been through this. If I had, you’d be sitting here complaining about being woken up at 5 a.m. from screaming kids. I did it for you and my own sanity so I didn’t have to listen to you berate me.’
I huff in consternation. ‘The kids seemed well behaved to me. I didn’t hear any screaming this morning.’
‘That’s because you were sound asleep, and yes, I checked. Trust me, the screaming happened. I got up at 6 a.m. and took Crumpet outside for a walk to give my ears a rest.’
Even weirder than Bailey walking my dog is that he saw me sleeping. ‘Was I drooling?’
He chuckles. ‘No, but you were making this bizarre face.’
‘What face?’
He screws up his nose and mouth until he looks half demented.
I whack his shoulder. ‘I do not do that!’
He relaxes his features back to normal. ‘How do you know if you’re asleep? All I can say is, you looked like you wanted to kill someone, so I got out of there quickly.’
‘What a load of rubbish. And don’t change the subject.’
Bailey sighs. ‘Look, if it means that much to you, I’ll tell them as soon as I get back.’
